Dea Sandraudiga

 

Sandraudiga is Germanic Goddess only known from a single Latin inscription on an altar found in Zundert (The Netherlands). Her name means She who colours the sand red.

Several interpretations to this name have been proposed.
Some claim she must be a battle Goddess, colouring the sand in blood. Others say it has to do with fertility. The fertile grounds in the Zundert Aerea are quite reddish. In order to support their theory they refer to the horn of plenty carved out on her altar. And a last interpretation connects her to the production of iron, the red sands are quite rich in iron and proof of early iron reduction has been found in the neighbourhood of her altar.
So I though, why choose, she might just as well have been Goddess of all these elements. Fertility godesses are often battle godesses as well. And moving from swords to iron isn't hard either.

pageborder

 

A pageborder, I designed on request

Freja weeps

The text is in dutch, writen in Dalrunes " toen hij haar verliet huilde ze tranen van amber en goud" or "When he left her, she wept tears of amber and gold".
The intreaging thing is that after having read the saga's and the comments on the saga's I am stil uncertain whe HE is.
Is is Odd or Odin? At least Peter Madsen seems to believe Odd and Odin are one, and as such he is representatif of an important group of saga connaisseurs. On the other hand, in many 19th centuray commentaries we find the opposite view. Odd is regarded as a deity on its own... .
I have no preference for either of these visions, thus I choose the neutral HE.

Why Dalrunes? first of all I find them quite attractive, having survived as a genuine writing system well into the 20th century.
I once read that during the 30 year war, one of the generals used Dalrunes to pass on orders to his officers.
furthermore I find them quite elegant. Although in daily life I prefer to use the original germanic runes (as they are the easiest to use in my mother tongue Dutch), I often integrate the specific dallrunes for scandinavian letters when writing in Danish. Dalrunes fill in the empty spaces older runes cannot fill in since they were no more in use when the soundsystem of Scandinavian langues changed.

tjaffi

Tjaffi broke the bones of Thors hegoats.
I always suspected Loki had something to do. Actually that is what most people seem to think.
Loki as trickster undoubtably played on the young lads feelings sayning things like the ones I put in the text. In short: eat what you like, just take only those who take what they want can become great heroes.

Sjöfn

In Norse mythology, Sjöfn is a goddess associated with love. Sjöfn is attested in the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson; and in three kennings employed in skaldic poetry.

In chapter 35 of the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, High provides brief descriptions of 16 ásynjur. High lists Sjöfn seventh, and says that Sjöfn is "concerned to direct people's minds to love, both women and men." In the Prose Edda book Skáldskaparmál, Sjöfn is included among a list of 27 ásynjur names. Otherwise, the name Sjöfn is thrice employed as a base word in skaldic kennings for "woman".

Regarding the information given about Sjöfn in Gylfaginning, John Lindow says that the word sjafni does indeed appear listed in the þulur as a word for "love", yet that outside of this description no information about the goddess is known. Lindow states that some scholars theorize that Sjöfn may be the goddess Frigg under another name.Rudolf Simek says that Snorri may have derived his etymology of Sjöfn from the Old Norse words sefi ("sense") or from sefi (possibly "relation"), but that the scant references to Sjöfn do not allow for much more of an elaborate explanation for the goddess. Simek says that, accordingly, Sjöfn is viewed as a goddess of "marriage and love, or else one of relationships" and that Sjöfn is among several goddesses mentioned in the Prose Edda "who are matron-like guardian-goddesses."
Modern culture

'Sjofn' is also the name of an album by the Finnish band Gjallarhorn, released in 2000.

Sjöfn appears as a regular character in the New Zealand television series The Almighty Johnsons.

Hodr

Hodr is a bit of a "fuzzy" character. His relationship with Baldr puzzles me. In the Work of Peter Madsen (on of my great inspirations" this duality is also made clear. Baldr 'overhelps' his brother, thus causing Hodr to hate him.
This duality is clearly put forward by Saxo. He makes the brothers into 2 bitter enemies who fight a war with each other over a woman, Nana. In Saxo's story, Baldr loses the game, whilst in the more clasic sources, Nanna is Baldrs wife.
Perhaps Saxo distorted the original story in order to fit his christian beliefs, or there is more to the story then has been related to us...

egil skalagrison

runen orakel

runenmysterie

enkele motieven (Anglosaxische inspiratie)

versiering van een klein bijltje

Ik gebruik mijn schetsen niet alleen om tekeningen uit te werken, maar ook om objecten te versieren, hier het blad van een bijltje, viking stijl....

Blood of the vikings

 

Ever wonder how a parchment might have looked after a raiding viking had killed the monk that was writing it?

runic beast

Nog een runenbeesteke ....