Musings on Loki, Baldr, and Modern Perceptions of Norse Mythology

Hey guys, did you know that what I actually studied in school was basically Vikings?

My major was in archaeology, yes, and my minor in early medieval history, but all of the research I did, all my papers and projects (with a few exceptions that I very begrudgingly trudged through for the sake of my professors' respects), were focused on Old Norse culture and mythology. ('Viking' is technically a misnomer for the culture but I'm using it here for the sake of recognisability.) Even outside of school, I lived for this stuff. I read up on Norse mythology. I taught myself how to read three separate runic alphabets. I re-enacted as a Viking. For over five years I lived and breathed Vikings. And while I don't get the chance to show off this knowledge much when at the Grange, I do still love it all.

Hey guys, did you know that there's currently a series of very popular movies with a rather interesting take on Norse mythology?

In case you didn't realise what I was talking about.

Now, unlike certain friends of mine, I actually have no problem with how the "Thor" movies loosely interpret Norse mythology. It's a superhero franchise, it's as deep as a wading pool. No one is realistically gonna come away from these movies thinking that the Vikings believed in the Incredible Hulk.

But the trailer for "Thor: Ragnarok" has me thinking lately about how we now portray a very particular god from Norse mythology in our modern pop culture. No, not Thor. This guy:

No, wait. That's not right. This guy:

NO GODS DAMN IT THAT'S NOT RIGHT EITHER.

This guy:

This post is about the mythological Loki. Not Tom Hiddleston, not Alan Cumming in "Son of the Mask", but the Loki of Norse mythology, the Loki the Vikings would recognise. More specifically, this post is my own personal meditation upon the myth of Loki and Baldr.

A New England Small Town Escape - Without Leaving NYC!

Sometimes you need to just escape, even if it's for only one day.

Sometimes you have under $100 in your bank account and really cannot possibly afford an escape.

Sometimes these two things are not mutually exclusive.

Enter New York City's best-kept secret. And yes, I know NYC calls a lot of things its 'best-kept-secret' and the term is overused as hell, but this? This really might be it. It really does feel like an escape from New York without ever leaving New York, and I've been unable to stop thinking about it since Sarah and I visited.

I'm talking, of course, about City Island.

Technically part of the Bronx, this small island community is connected to the mainland by only a bridge, and feels like it hasn't changed since perhaps the 50s or 60s. Rather than Starbucks and skyscrapers, City Island has seafood restaurants, bait-and-tackle shops, and a charming diner; as well as a lone five-story-high building as the tallest in town. It feels like a small town where everyone knows each other's names. It feels like a fishing village, perhaps one transplanted from the Massachusetts coast. It does not feel like anything I know about the Bronx, or like anything else in New York City.

And Sarah and I fucking loved it.

An Aura Reading in Chinatown

For those of you not in the know, my birthday was a couple of weeks ago - on Sunday, 2 July, I turned 27. And I did quite a lot for it, including many things I hadn't yet done or seen in New York City, from finally visiting Historic Richmond Town in Staten Island and the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, to seeing "Indecent" with my roommate. (Which was excellent, and I highly recommend it for anyone who happens to be in New York before it closes in August!) But as of a few days ago, I still had a bit of birthday money left over.

I'm not used to having extra money. I do tend to try to live frugally. But since it was from my birthday, I wanted to do something with it. Something unique, something I'd never done before, something completely self-indulgent and slightly bizarre.

So I made my way to Magic Jewelry in Chinatown to get my aura photographed and read. Because why not?

Behold, my aura

I went in with an open mind and no expectations other than expecting to pay the $20 they charge. I don't know a lot about auras or chakras or the like - these things are not part of my own spiritual practises, personally. Even now I still don't know what I believe. But I wanted the experience, and it did not disappoint.

It's Been 213 Years

It's... difficult for me to come up with the right words for today. How do you mourn a man who died centuries before you were even born? Do you have any right to that sorrow?

213 years ago - 11 July 1804 - Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton dueled in the early morning, in Weehawken, New Jersey - a short walk from where I live now. Hamilton had written a friend ahead of time to state his intention of firing off to the side or into the air. And when it came down to it, Hamilton's shot did go into the trees. And Burr's shot went into Hamilton.

Alexander Hamilton died the next day - 12 July 1804 - after an agonising thirty hours of bleeding out.

Weehawken holds reenactments of the duel each year, but as 11 July fell on a Tuesday this year, I am unable to attend, as I am stuck at work.

But it didn't seem right to do nothing to commemorate it at all. Not when the man is so important to me. Not when, even after 213 years, he's had such a profound effect on my life.

So here's to you, Hamilton. Rest in peace and all that jazz.

-Nym

A Modern Victorian Retreat Day

My teatime spread

 God bless the Wayback Machine, honestly.

One of my favourite websites that I discovered back in my early twenties was a website called "Eras of Elegance", one that appealed immensely to my history-loving sensibilities. It was divided into sections such as "movies" and "fashion" and "lifestyle", and gave not only brief overviews of historical eras and trends (i.e. the Ancient era, the Medieval era, the Regency, the Rococo, the Victorian period, etc.) but also gave lists of fiction that took place in these eras, historically inspired recipes, and ways one could translate historical fashions and hairstyles into a modern street look.

I loved that website so much. I was heartbroken when it disappeared from the internet. Thankfully, on the internet nothing is gone forever!

The Eras of Elegance homepage

One piece of the website that I had completely forgotten about, that I rediscovered again thanks to the Wayback Machine, was the ideas the site's author(s?) had for a "Victorian Retreat Weekend". That is, a weekend where one turns off all modern technology and does activities predetermined by the website (I assume the schedule is to be printed before the technology all goes off) to live in the spirit of the Victorians, if not quite historically accurately.

This idea intrigued me and would not let me go. I knew, now that I discovered it again, that I had no choice. This idea was gripping my mind. I couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks. I just had to do it. But there was no way for me to get an entire weekend off - so I consolidated it to just a day, combining the suggested schedules for two days into one:

7:00 am: Rise and shine, get ready for the day
8:00 am: Make breakfast from scratch.
9:00 am: After cleaning up from breakfast, morning devotional activity or reading.
10:00 am: Housework, crafting, or family time.
11:30 am: Prepare a picnic lunch.
12:00 noon: Picnic lunch at a local park.
1:30 pm: Afternoon excursion - possibly a local historical museum or antiquing.
4:00 pm: Afternoon tea. Once tea is cleaned up, reading, crafting, or writing in a journal.
6:30 pm: Prepare dinner.
7:30 pm: Dinner and clean-up.
8:00 pm: Family time.
9:00 pm: Back to the future.

I set rules for myself. I would make historically inspired recipes, I would dress historically-inspired (in a vintage Gunne Saxe dress - Victorian by way of the 1970s), and I wouldn't use any appliances that they did not have in the Victorian/Edwardian eras. My phone was only used as a camera (they did have cameras) and a phone for 8pm family time (my family lives in California and it's my sister's birthday, I couldn't not call just because I wanna escape modern life for awhile).

So then how did it go?

My Weekend Back in Time

According to modern science, time travel (as fiction portrays it) is technically impossible. That doesn't stop history buffs like me from secretly wishing and dreaming that it were possible, from planning where I would go and who I would meet.

This last weekend (the 17th and the 19th) I got the chance to do some of the things I always secretly wished and dreamed for. I got to visit the late 18th century and brush elbows with both Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. And I got to go to the late 19th/early 20th century Lower East Side and take in some of the immigrant cultures of the area. And it was really fun!

And I brought my Polaroid!

Okay, okay, I didn't literally go back in time. Hamilton Grange had an event on Saturday called "the Feuding Founding Fathers" and invited reenactors from the American Historical Theatre to come debate the issue of a national banking system as Jefferson and Hamilton. And on Sunday, the Museum at Eldridge Street, one of my particular favourites, held their yearly "Egg Creams, Egg Rolls, and Empanadas" Festival - a celebration of immigrant cultures in that area of the Lower East Side, particularly Jewish, Chinese, and Puerto Rican culture.

15 Places in the Bay Area I Never Got to Visit

I love where I live. I love it a lot. But lately, I've been getting pangs of severe homesickness. I miss San Jose. I miss the Winchester Mystery House, and Kelley Park. I miss eating at La Villa and Chaat Cafe. I wonder constantly - Did Sarah Winchester ever get homesick for New Haven? Did Alexander Hamilton ever get homesick for Nevis or St. Croix?

I have an advantage that they didn't have, of course. I have the internet. It allows me to at least look at photos of these places I've loved and left behind. But this, too, is both a blessing and a curse. Because the internet, you see, also allows me to discover places that I never got to see in person. Not just in San Jose, but all over the Bay Area, which will always be my home, even as I make a new home for myself in New Jersey.

This list is meant to serve not only as a place for my wistful longing, but as a plea to my friends back home who are reading this. I never got to see these places, but I encourage you to go look at them! Take lots of photos and send me photos, tell me everything, let me live vicariously through you!!!