At least she is the way they depict her in Neil Gaman’s Sandman universe. Just a spunky Goth girl who seems like she’d be a lot of fun to hang out with – not that I’m anxious to meet her. I imagine she and Hela would have gotten along fine as kids. Maybe I should do a kawaii Hela and Death having a little tea party together.
Besides the issue of dealing with all that black clothing, I had another challenge with this sketch – the hair. You may have noticed that I cheat a little bit and choose a lot of subjects that don’t have much of their hair showing. There was bald Mr. Freeze; Galactus, Nova and Big Barda all wear helmets; even Hawkwoman has a mask that covers most of her head. But I decided I need to do more work at the areas where I am weak. So you’ll be seeing more characters with more hair. I’m not saying I’m ready to feature Medusa of the Inhumans just yet, but I want to push myself a bit.
Are there any characters that you all would like to see me kawaii-ify? I’d love to hear your suggestions. See you next time!
Yes, it is Thursday and time to post some Norse-inspired art, and no, the piece I gave you a sneak peek of last week is still not done. There are times when producing art is a battle with self-doubt and right now I am not winning this particular battle. There are also times when you have to realize that a particular piece of art just isn’t coming together and set it aside. That is where I am at with the Viking axe artwork I was creating. I still think it is a cool concept, but my artistic skills aren’t yet at the level I need to pull this off.
However, I did not want to leave you all empty-handed. (Or would it be empty-screened?) I was playing around with some ideas of a holiday gift for a friend of mine and the inspiration struck me to throw together this little piece. The Hope poster meme is a bit old but I felt doing something with Odin is particularly appropriate at this time of year since many scholars argue for him as the original model for Santa Claus. I’ve never seen a one-eyed Santa but considering how artists have messed up by giving Vikings horned helmets for all of these years it is not that hard to imagine them messing up on the number of eyes as well.
Viking society was not a literary society – they did not write things down to remember them. Instead the skalds, or poets, committed all of the stories and sagas to memory, passing them along orally from generation to generation. Lack of book-learning does NOT mean that the Vikings were not intelligent people. Yes, they were fierce warriors, but they also valued wisdom. Today I’ll be discussing some of the ways the sagas show that to be true.
The Big O
Let’s start out by talking about Odin. He is chief of the Aesir, ruler of the Norse gods. The gods are assigned areas that they oversee or control. For example, Thor is god of thunder and lightning. He rules the storms. So what area does Odin rule? Which attributes did the Vikings assign to their chief god? War, yes, but also wisdom. He doesn’t just oversee it in some aloof way, either. Odin actively travels the Nine Worlds seeking wisdom and knowledge. The sagas have many stories about his journeys. He often travels in different disguises, but all of the disguises share one common attribute – they only have one eye. Which leads us to…
Knowledge is Valued
We know that the Norse valued knowledge because their chief god was willing to sacrifice one of his own eyes for more knowledge. The Well of Mimir granted great knowledge to those who drank from it, but before he was allowed to drink Odin had to pay the price. He willingly sacrificed one of his eyes in exchange for a drink.
Odin also put the rest of his body through the wringer for the sake of learning. He once pierced himself with his own spear, hanging his body from a tree for nine days so that he could gain knowledge of the runes.
Flyting & Kennings Flyting is basically a sort of insult contest conducted in verse. Kennings are poetic expressions that stand in for another word. (You would refer to the ocean as the whale-road, for example.) Some of you might disagree with me, but I’d like to argue that both of these are signs of a society that obviously values knowledge.
It takes brains to come up with a rhyming insult. We’re not just talking about two dolts standing up and saying things like “No, you’re ugly.” The saga Lokasenna tells us about a flyting which involved Loki, the Trickster. There he just didn’t take on another god. No, one by one he took on almost every single god in the hall. The fact that this story was passed down through the generations tells us how such displays of intellect had to have been valued.
As for kennings, there are simple ones such as calling Odin Frigg’s-mate, but there are many filled with an inspired creativity that, to me at least, are signs of a society that revels in knowledge. Kennings even became multi-layered. The mouth could be called the Ship of Words which would lead to the tongue being referred to as the Tiller of the Ship. The second kenning doesn’t have an obvious reference back to the first if it stands alone. Yet audiences were expected to pick up on these references as a matter of course. You don’t hold expectations like that of an uneducated people.
Final thoughts
There is a bit of a popular misconception that the Vikings were all battle-crazed warriors. A little reading and study shows that to be decidedly untrue. The evidence of what they valued, as shown by the things they thought important enough to preserve through poem and song, show they placed a great value on wisdom and intelligence. We could do worse than to remember what we are told in the Lay of Hamdir – “That man lacks much who wisdom lacks.”
It’s been a crazy week, folks. I wasn’t able to get my Norse artwork to a point where I was happy with it and things haven’t gotten any less busy for me. But I am happy to say that I was able to put together this kawaii version of Hawkwoman from the DC Comics universe. I don’t know that I can draw any deep revelations from the fact that I could finish this, but not the other one. The kawaii stuff just flows a lot easier for me.
My favorite Hawkwoman story is not from the comics but from the excellent Justice League story arc “Starcrossed” which features a Thanagarian invasion of the Earth and the exposure of Hawkwoman as an advance scout for their army. Great stuff- as most of the animated series was, to be frank. See you next time!
Between making holiday presents, a couple of freelance projects, and tons of work at my second job I just wasn’t able to get this week’s Norse-inspired art to a point where I am totally happy with it. I have a sneak peek of the work in progress to hopefully whet your appetites. I hope to have the whole thing ready for posting next week!
Bifrost as shown in an issue of Thor from Marvel Comics
Bifrost is the most famous bridge in Norse mythology, it was built to connect heaven and earth, but as Har tells Gangler in the Eddas: “You may know it as the rainbow.” What else do we know about this magical bridge? Read on.
The Colors of the Rainbow– All Three
How many colors are in a rainbow? In real life, it depends on many different factors, such as the angle of the sun, exit angle of the refracted light, etc… (Check out this article from Wikipedia for the technical lowdown.) Har makes it simpler for us by saying “It is of three hues…” I wish he would have told us all three colors, but he didn’t. A later passage does reveal one of the colors which we’ll get to in a moment.
It Will Be Broken
Although Bifrost is “constructed with more art(skill) than any other work” it is going to break one day. The day that the sons of Muspell ride across the bridge to attack Asgard Bifrost will crumble to pieces beneath them. This isn’t any fault of the gods who built it since we are told nothing in Nature can resist the sons of Muspell when they ride forth.
It’s On Fire
The red that we see in Bifrost comes from a fire that burns over it. The fire burns to keep the Frost Giants and Mountain Giants from invading Asgard. We are told the ginats would be eager to raid the many fine halls in Asgard if they could just walk right up the bridge.
Thor Isn’t Allowed
The gods ride across Bifrost (also called the Aesir Bridge) every day to their council at the foot of Yggdrasil. The Eddas say that Thor can not ride over the bridge but has to walk and wade through four separate rivers instead. Supposedly his thunder chariot would damage the bridge, setting it all in flames and turning the boiling water beneath Bifrost boiling hot.
It’s Guardian Can Hear the Grass Grow
Heimdall is in charge of guarding Bifrost and he has a number of skills to help him out with his task. His senses are so acute that he can hear the grass grow on the earth and the wool grow on a sheep’s back. He can see, day or night, for a hundred miles around him. To top it all off, he needs less sleep than a bird.
This week’s super Saturday kawaii artwork features ol’ jade-jaws himself – the Hulk. I have a soft spot for the original Stan Lee version – some of those classic fights between the Hulk and The Thing just got burned into my young mind (in a good way.) Having said that, I think Peter David has written some of the best stories for the character. David can get a little too meta at times for my tastes but he has written some great characterizations for the green goliath. Issue #368, where he fought Mr Hyde was simply phenomenal and one of my all-time favorites. See you next time!
Thursday is Thor’s day and it is about time I offered up a kawaii version of the god of thunder. I’m sure my wife will be sad to see this sketch owes more to the Norse traditions than to the Marvel Comics edition. (She has a crush on Chris Hemsworth.) I’ve also gone with the traditional short-handled hammer. Loki kept messing with the Dwarves when they were creating some magical items for him. While the other items came out fine, the Trickster managed to distract the Dwarf working the bellows so that Mjolnir came out with a shorter than normal handle.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates it. Happy Thorsgiving to the rest of you.
The other day I was wondering “How big is a giant?” It is a simple question and I can give you a simple answer – it varies. The giant who built the walls of Asgard was able to change his size so that the gods did not suspect his true nature. This ability prevents us from getting a satisfying answer to our question. Unfortunately, the Eddas don’t have a section that comes right out and lists the heights of the giants, or jotnar. We have to settle for bits and pieces. A description of Jotunheim mentions that the place is filled with men of “prodigious stature.” That doesn’t tell us much. Utgard-Loki, the king of the giants, says “Thor is little in comparison to our men.” I assume Thor had to be at least six feet tall so we’re starting to make some progress here. There are other sections where we can pick up clues from comparisons but ultimately we learn that there are jotnar of all different sizes. Here are some of them:
Big
Whether naturally, or by altering themselves with some sort of shape-changing ability, the Jotnar could not have been that much taller than the gods because several of the gods married giantesses and had children with them. There was Loki and Angrboda. Now we could discount this since Loki was half-giant and a shapeshifter himself, but Thor fathered a child with Jarnsaxa, Odin seduced Gunnlod, Frey married the giantess Gerda, and Skadi married Njord. So due to simple biology we have to assume at least some of the jotnar were close in size to the gods.
Bigger During the funeral of Balder the Good he was laid to rest in his ship Hringhorn. The ship was “the largest in the world” and was filled with all manner of goods and treasures. But when it came time to launch the ship it was so heavy that no one was able to budge it. They summoned a giantess named Hyrrokin. She arrived riding a wolf. Her mount was so big that it took four beserkers just to hold it down. Hyrrokin was able to get the boat unstuck with a single push. Considering that Odin and Thor were already there and they still had to send out for help, we begin to get the idea this had to be a seriously massive woman.
But can we find a clearer example of size? Sure. Thor and Loki and two human companions were on one of their adventures when they were forced to take shelter for the night. They found a strange hall which was all open on one side. During the night they were awakened by strange noises and retreated into one of the side rooms so Thor could more easily stand guard at the entrance. When morning came and they ventured outside they discovered the giant Skrymir. The strange noises were caused by the giant’s snoring. The giant talked with them a bit and then picked up his glove at which point Thor realized that the “hall” they had spent the night in was the in fact the giant’s glove. The side “room” had been the thumb of the glove. Four people had fit into that “room.” If his thumb was that big, imagine how big the rest of him was.
Biggest
How big could the giants get? Consider this – the world was formed from the body of the giant Ymir. The sons of Bor (Odin, Villi and Ve) slew the first giant and used his flesh to make the earth, his bones to make the mountains, his blood to make the sea, and they used his skull to make the sky. Now that is big!
It’s Saturday, which means it’s time for some kawaii superhero art. I was thinking the other day that my doing this every week must be some sort of throwback to the old Saturday morning cartoons I watched as a kid. Yes, young ‘uns, we used to only be able to watch cartoons one day a week when I was little. Oh, the horror!
This week I have another super-heroine for you – Big Barda. She is part of Jack Kirby’s New Gods pantheon so we have a little mix of comics and mythology going on today, which is especially appropriate for this blog. He used a lot of strong female characters in his stories and Big Barda certainly ranks among the top tier of DC characters for power. On top of that, I love Kirby’s designs. He always included so much cool detail into the costumes. It’s really fun to work them up into the kawaii style.
If you want to see more Kirby-influenced art, head on over to to the Kirby-vision blog. Lots of neat work by different artists all offering up their own versions of characters created by the king. See you next time!
At least she is the way they depict her in Neil Gaman’s Sandman universe. Just a spunky Goth girl who seems like she’d be a lot of fun to hang out with – not that I’m anxious to meet her. I imagine she and Hela would have gotten along fine as kids. Maybe I should do a kawaii Hela and Death having a little tea party together.
Mark Neumayer 
