The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/poetic-edda/page/4)
Which eye did Odin lose, exactly? Karl Seigfried takes this and other overly-literal questions as a jumping-off point for an exploration of Pagan theology, including a comparison with the Bhagavad Gita that demonstrates why gods take on familiar shapes to become comprehensible to human eyes.
I’ve known about Darkseid at least since he appeared on the cover of the first issue of DC Comics’ Super Powers in 1985. Since then, I’ve read dozens of comic books featuring the dark master of Apokolips and all the associated New Gods created by Jack Kirby. When the latest reboot of Superman comics introduced Lex Luthor’s Apokoliptian armor and use of a Mother Box, I realized that I’ve never really had a particularly clear grasp of Kirby’s whole DC mythology. I know who the characters are, I know about the strange melding of mysticism and technology, but I’ve never really felt like I fully understood what all the fuss and bother with these strange figures was all about. I decided to pick up a used copy of the first volume of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus to start at the beginning and see if I could get a better understanding of the weirdness.
Is Odin’s role in Ragnarök purely fatalistic, as it has often been claimed? Karl E.H. Seigfried argues for a more hopeful interpretation of Norse myth that focuses on building a better world for our descendants.
Pagan Perspectives
A Note from the Editors Regarding Loki in the White House
December 2nd, 2018
Dear Readers of The Wild Hunt:
Since the publication of Loki in the White House, the column has been discussed at length across the Pagan internet. To say that its portrayal of Loki, and its comparison of Loki to Donald Trump, has been regarded as controversial would be an understatement. The Lokean community in particular has strongly criticized the column, with many feeling that it was tantamount to a call for Heathens to cut ties with Lokeans altogether. (A group of Lokeans sent a letter to The Wild Hunt calling for amendments or a retraction to the column; that letter can be read here.)
At The Wild Hunt, we are proud to have writers from many different backgrounds represented in our roster of regular columnists, including multiple writers of color, writers from outside the Anglosphere, and writers of queer identities – not to mention writers from many different approaches to Paganism. We see our commentary section as a place for these voices to have the freedom to analyze, critique, and debate issues of interest to Pagans in deep and challenging ways.
CUMBRIA, England — For Didrik of Bern, battling a queen who shape-shifts into a dragon, dueling with giants who wield iron bars, fighting alongside the son of Weland the smith, and hanging out with Attila the Hun were all in a day’s work. The exploits of King Didrik, a legendary, heroic, but not always victorious warrior, were told in the Middle Ages in Germanic regions and Scandinavia. The saga of Didrik (also called Dietrich in German or Thidrek in Old Norse) was written down in Norway in the 13th century, and a Swedish version was written around 1500. For years the only English version was a 1988 translation of the Old Norse text by E. R. Haymes, titled The Saga of Thidrek of Bern. That book is out of print, and copies on Amazon run from $369 to $2,034.