Month: January 2026

Let’s try a bit of alternate history, but keep it respectful. Not the Marvel version, and not the “Vikings rule the world forever” fantasy either. I mean the kind of thought experiment you can actually sink your teeth into. If Scandinavia hadn’t converted when it did, and Christianity hadn’t swept in to take the reins, […]

If you’ve been exploring the Norse month of Þorri, you’ve probably felt it already: this isn’t “winter” as a background season. Þorri is winter with personality. Winter with a temper. Winter that can be bargained with, flattered, toasted, and—if you’re sensible—respected from a safe distance while you’re wrapped in wool and pretending fermented shark is […]

If winter had a personality, Þorri would be the bit where it stops being “festive” and starts being serious. In the old Icelandic calendar, Þorri is the fourth winter month, landing roughly mid-January to mid-February — the deep stretch of winter where the ground stays hard, the nights feel endless, and you really find out […]

Follow Hermóðr towards Hel and the road takes him through dark valleys, across a guarded bridge and onwards, downwards and northwards. Follow Þórr into jötunn territory and you may arrive at a stronghold so strange that it disappears once its host reveals the deception. Follow the gods to their judgement-place and their journey carries them […]

Helheimr: Beyond the Bridge, Among the Dead For nine nights, Hermóðr rides through valleys so dark and deep that he can’t see his way. He travels on Sleipnir with a task given to him by grieving gods: find Baldr and discover whether there’s any way to bring him home. Eventually he reaches the river Gjöll, […]

Before there is a winter landscape, there is cold. Not snow-covered fields, frozen forests or households waiting for spring, but something much older, more primordial. In Snorri’s account, Niflheimr exists before the earth has been shaped. At its centre lies Hvergelmir, a great spring from which rivers flow outward into the darkness. Those waters don’t […]

Múspellsheimr: The Fire Before the World Before there are fields, forests, homes or even an earth beneath anyone’s feet, warmth reaches into the gap. In Snorri’s creation account, Ginnungagap lies between the cold spreading from Niflheimr and the heat of the southern region called Muspell. Frost gathers from one direction, while sparks and glowing embers […]

The trouble begins with Sif’s hair. Loki cuts it off, and Þórr’s reaction makes it very clear that this particular joke needs fixing quickly. Loki promises to replace what he has taken, but ordinary hair won’t do. He must find craftsmen capable of making hair from gold that will grow upon Sif’s head as naturally […]

Álfheimr: A Gift to Freyr, a Glimpse of the Elves A child’s first tooth might seem an unlikely place to begin a story about one of the Norse realms, yet that small milestone gives us one of our clearest glimpses of Álfheimr. In Grímnismál, we are told that the gods gave Álfheimr to Freyr as […]

Vanaheimr: The Homeland of the Vanir We first catch sight of Vanaheimr through a question about a god who has made his home somewhere else. In Vafþrúðnismál, Óðinn asks the wise jötunn Vafþrúðnir where Njörðr came from. Njörðr holds an honoured place among the gods, yet he wasn’t originally one of the Æsir. Vafþrúðnir answers […]