The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/category/news/europe)
This is the first time I cross path with what Finns call a hiidenkivi (“cult stone”) and the Swedes a jättekast (“giant’s throw”), and for a little while longer my mind meanders, thinking about the ancient stories that were more than likely told about this place in ages past.
For years, the Pagan organization Romuva has has sought recognition by the Lithuanian state, but the legislature repeatedly rejected its bids – even after the European Court of Human Rights declared the state was violating religious liberty. But following October elections, a new legislature has finally recognized the religion.
The woods around my home in Arctic Norway were few and far between, mostly small birches barely taller than your average adult. Here in Åland, I met with real woods: tall bone-white birches, spruce, thick pines, bushy walnut groves. This vibrant life was everywhere, and all the while I was searching for graves.
“Visitors will see the magnificence of that gate in ancient times and will go to the ceremonial area” – New discoveries at the Temple of Hecate in Lagina begin to reveal the sacred path entering the site.
A new exhibition of medieval Icelandic manuscripts showcases the earliest versions of many core texts of Norse mythology and Icelandic literature, including the Poetic Edda and the Saga of the Greenlanders, which details the Norse discovery of the New World.
After multiple restorations and delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the newly restored Apollo Belvedere has been unveiled at the Vatican Museums to much fanfare and praise.
