Eye Of Reverence

See a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

Eddic Poem: Grímnismál

Ór Ymis holdi
Var jǫrð of skǫpuð,
En ór sveita sær,
Bjǫrg ór beinum,
Baðmr ór hári,
En ór hausi himinn.
En ór hans brám
Gerðu blíð regin
Miðgarð manna sonum,
En ór hans heila
Váru þau in harðmóðgu
Ský ǫll of skǫpuð.

[From Ymir's hide
Was earth created,
Seas from sweat,
Peaks from bones,
Trees from hair,
And from his skull the sky.
And from his brows
Made these blithe powers
Shelters for the sons of men,
And from his brains
The dark and baleful
Clouds were all then strung.]

Darraðarljóð (Song of Darraðar) from the Icelandic Njal´s Saga.

A man called Darraðar has a vision: Twelve Valkyries are weaving the fate of an on-going battle on a grisly loom...

Blood rains from the cloudy web
On the broad loom of slaughter.
The web of man grey as armor
Is now being woven; the Valkyries
Will cross it with a crimson weft.

The warp is made of human entrails;
Human heads are used as heddle-weights;
The heddle rods are blood-wet spears;
The shafts are iron-bound and arrows are the shuttles.
With swords we will weave this web of battle.

The Valkyries go weaving with drawn swords,
Hildr and Hjörþrimul, Sangríðr and Svipul.
Spears will shatter shields will splinter,
Swords will gnaw like wolves through armor.

Let us now wind the web of war
Which the young king once waged.
Let us advance and wade through the ranks,
Where friends of ours are exchanging blows.

Let us now wind the web of war
And then follow the king to battle
Gunnr and Göndul can see there
The blood-spattered shields that guarded the king.

Let us now wind the web of war
Where the sacred banner is forging forward
Let his life not be taken;
Only the Valkyries can choose the slain.

Lands will be ruled by new peoples
Who once inhabited outlying headlands.
We pronounce a great king destined to die;
Now an earl is felled by spears.

The men of Ireland will suffer a grief
That will never grow old in the minds of men.
The web is now woven and the battlefield reddened;
The news of disaster will spread through lands.

It is horrible now to look around
As a blood-red cloud darkens the sky.
The heavens are stained with the blood of men,
As the Valkyries sing their song.

We sang well victory songs
For the young king; hail to our singing!
Let him who listens to our Valkyrie song
Learn it well and tell it to others.

Let us ride our horses hard on bare backs,
With swords unsheathed away from here!

..."And then they tore the woven cloth from the loom and ripped it to pieces, each keeping the shred she held in her hands... The women mounted their horses and rode away, six to the south and six to the north."

Old Norse poetry

Most of the Old Norse poetry that survives was preserved in Iceland, but there are also 122 preserved poems in Swedish rune inscriptions, 54 in Norwegian and 12 in Danish

Old Norse poetry is characterised by alliteration, a poetic vocabulary expanded by heiti, and use of kennings. An important source of information about poetic forms in Old Norse is the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson.

Old Norse poetry is conventionally, and somewhat arbitrarily, split into two types—Eddaic poetry (also sometimes known as Eddic poetry) and skaldic poetry. Eddaic poetry includes the poems of the Codex Regius and a few other similar ones. Skaldic poetry is usually defined as everything else not already mentioned.

Wiki Information, Useful knowing about the important sources but also about the main two types. 

The Land Of Eternal Winter

Inspirational music which could be interesting to draw thoughts and ideas from, or ask to use it in with the work that im doing. Really nice, mythic, uplifting, joyful and mysterious.

The Poetic Edda

The Poetic Edda comprises a treasure trove of mythic and spiritual verse holding an important place in Nordic culture, literature, and heritage. Its tales of strife and death form a repository, in poetic form, of Norse mythology and heroic lore, embodying both the ethical views and the cultural life of the North during the late heathen and early Christian times.

Collected by an unidentified Icelander, probably during the twelfth or thirteenth century, The Poetic Edda was rediscovered in Iceland in the seventeenth century by Danish scholars. Even then its value as poetry, as a source of historical information, and as a collection of entertaining stories was recognized. This meticulous translation succeeds in reproducing the verse patterns, the rhythm, the mood, and the dignity of the original in a revision that Scandinavian Studies says "may well grace anyone's bookshelf."

Would be good to look a poems to give a more visual feel on the storys.

Myth And Religion Of The North

An overview of the pre-Christian religions of Scandinavia.

An older book created back in 1975 so could be nice to see older thoughts and look into religion due to these myths. 

Gods And Myths Of Northern Europe

This title surveys the pre-Christian beliefs of the Scandinavian and Germanic people. It provides an introduction to this subject, giving basic outlines to the sagas and stories, and helps identify the character traits of not only the well known but also the lesser gods of the age.


Book could be interesting at other opinions on gods and myths from others.

The Norse Myths

Here are thirty-two classic myths that bring the Viking world vividly to life. The mythic legacy of the Scandinavians includes a cycle of stories filled with magnificent images from pre-Christian Europe. Gods, humans, and monstrous beasts engage in prodigious drinking bouts, contests of strength, greedy schemes for gold, and lusty encounters. The Norse pantheon includes Odin, the wisest and most fearsome of the gods; Thor, the thundering powerhouse; and the exquisite, magic-wielding Freyja. Their loves, wars, and adventures take us through worlds both mortal and divine, culminating in a blazing doomsday for gods and humans alike. These stories bear witness to the courage, passion, and boundless spirit that were hallmarks of the Norse world.



May be a good idea to get this book. 

The Love Of Destiny (This is the section “Spirit and Flesh” from Chapter Three, “The Sacred and the Profane)

Here is a little passage from the book i thought was interesting and very visual.




There is a particular resonance with Germanic mythology in his choice of words. Before the world as we today know it had emerged, there was only the primordial chaos of Ginnungagap (“Great Abyss”). Ymir (“Scream”), the animating spirit of this void of undisturbed silence and darkness, was slain by Óðinn and his brothers Vili (“Will”) and Vé (“Consecration”), who then crafted the visible world from his flesh. As it is recounted in the Eddic poem Grímnismál:

Ór Ymis holdi
Var jǫrð of skǫpuð,
En ór sveita sær,
Bjǫrg ór beinum,
Baðmr ór hári,
En ór hausi himinn.
En ór hans brám
Gerðu blíð regin
Miðgarð manna sonum,
En ór hans heila
Váru þau in harðmóðgu
Ský ǫll of skǫpuð.

[From Ymir's hide
Was earth created,
Seas from sweat,
Peaks from bones,
Trees from hair,
And from his skull the sky.
And from his brows
Made these blithe powers
Shelters for the sons of men,
And from his brains
The dark and baleful
Clouds were all then strung.]

Ymir’s tribe, the Jǫtnar or “devourers,” are adept at shapeshifting, as are the gods and goddesses themselves. One never knows when a falcon might be an incarnation of Frigg, a wolf an incarnation of Óðinn, or an eagle an incarnation of Þjazi. Þórr’s name means “Thunder,” and Týr’s comes from an Indo-European root that meant both “god” and “the blue sky.” The elements are permeated with divinity to the point that they are truly the flesh of the gods. And when the various profane and partial manifestations of the gods in the fleshly world are perceived with the “eye of reverence,” the profane reveals itself to be a vessel of the sacred, and, to quote Blake once more, you

See a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

Norse/Germanic mythology as the ancient northern Europeans understood it…

We’re all familiar with the pop culture depictions of Norse mythology that are shallow and trite at best, and often downright misleading. They owe far more to puerile fantasies of being a macho superhero than they do to the ways in which the pre-Christian peoples of northern Europe actually thought of themselves and their spirituality.

Even many of the attempts to revive the practice of heathen spirituality in the modern world suffer from similar shortcomings; many of these attempted reconstructions have unfortunately only reconstructed the most superficial elements of this ancient tradition, grafted them onto an essentially Christian way of perceiving and experiencing the world, and missed the bigger picture.

http://norse-mythology.org/tales/

This link is very interesting as it gives in-depth detailed descriptions of some of the story's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_mythology

Just some information which gives brief detailed description on some of the people known in norse mythology.