So, I was sitting in the library today, thinking... "Wow, I really haven't gotten any further in the book than last week when I posted...what on earth am I going to talk about?" And then it hit me.
Valhalla, only the coolest place in all of Asgard. And the most awesome part about Valhalla? You have to die in battle in order to go there, as an honorable warrior. Also totally worth chatting about (although I don't think they've mentioned them in the book thus far), the Valkyries. Odin's female angels of death who select the best battle-dead warriors to go to Valhalla where they'll spend their days drinking, feasting, and fighting (and really, if you're a warrior: what else would you want to spend your days doing?).
So, Valhalla. My first forage to Valhalla actually occured when I was playing Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. Asgard is one of the cool places you can go in the game, and and you play as Thor, meet Loki, Odin, Valkyrie, among others in the Norse mythological universe. If you really like Norse myths, Marvel Comics have done a really awesome job of bringing some of their characters forward, not only with the Thor comics, but also in relation to some of the other Marvel characters.
Did you know that Mjolnir (MOYL-n(ee)r), Thor's hammer according to Marvel, is enscribed with the phrase: "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor." Which basically means (and if you saw the Thor movie, you're familiar) that almost NO ONE can lift Thor's hammer unless they are deemed worthy by the standards of Odin. However (and this bit is cool), there are some mortals that have been able to lift it! Included here at Beta Ray Bill, Captain America, Eric Materson, and (my favorite) Rogue from the X-Men --after she absorbed Thor's life-force, but still. And outside of Marvel, it was also lifted by Superman (with some stipulations, according to the Wiki article), and Wonder Woman.
But, I'm getting sidetracked by Thor.
We're talking about Valhalla.
I found a kind of cool series of videos from Hot Facts Girls. I haven't watched ALL of their videos, so tred further with caution, but Erin seems to know her stuff. And I like her (albiet historically inaccurate) viking helmet in the second video. There is a series of six, and if I did everything correctly, the playlist should continue below.
If you don't have the patience to sit through six videos, there's some trivia here as well:
Norse Cosmology Part 1
As usual, be sure to share any links or information you have, and you're thoughts so far on the book.
Happy Reading,
Samma
No comments:
Post a Comment