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runskra.bsky.social
Rúnskrá
@runskra.bsky.social
65 followers 34 following 600 posts
Reading between the lines of Old Norse texts to perceive the giantesses who came first. | ᚠᛖᛚᚨᚷᚨᚱ᛫ᚷᚢᚷᚢᚱ | No war but the class war.
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runskra.bsky.social
Beautiful full moon, and Minnesotan clouds often do something interesting.
Stippled clouds line the sky, making the full Beaver Moon glow wide.
November 5, 2025 at 3:33 AM
runskra.bsky.social
Maybe trick-or-treaters don't come to my block.

Maybe the day's been overcast and rainy.

And maybe a legion of uneducated, fearful bigots elevated a clown to kinghood in my nation to assault people on the bases of skin color and income.

But I don't skip out on jack o' lanterns. #Halloween2025
Two carved pumpkins sit on a ledge outside an apartment building. One has cat's eyes and a jagged grin, the other has huge leering eyes and a largely toothless smile. Candles burn brightly within, and glowing necklaces ring their bases.
October 31, 2025 at 11:36 PM
runskra.bsky.social
Obviously, for someone living in Minnesota, Vikings branding abounds (Amer. football team). "Skol" is in almost every bar, hats come with their own blonde braids, and architectural firm NELSON created the striking MN Vikings Legacy Ship for the new sports stadium.
nelsonworldwide.com/project/minn...
From the Minnesota Vikings online shop, a selection of baseball caps in camo or purple-and-gold with the MN Vikings logo, and two knit caps with braided yarn "hair" coming down from the ear flaps. A huge metallic structure of a stylized Viking ship, accented in purple LED lights, with symbolic oars and shields down its length.
October 7, 2025 at 10:20 PM
runskra.bsky.social
It just occurred to me to dig out my copy of the original Deities & Demigods (AD&D 1st Ed) and review what liberties they took with #OldNorse #ScandiMyth.

Oh boy. For gaming purposes, they rewrote some standard characters and filled in a lot of the blanks, almost arbitrarily. But it's fun to read.
Black-and-white illustration by Jim Roslof, featuring valkyries riding winged horses over a battlefield. One blows a war-horn, another collects the spirit of a fallen warrior.
October 1, 2025 at 4:52 PM
runskra.bsky.social
This is my beautiful girl-kitty, Bella. We loved each other so hard.

I had her put down June 2024 due to cancer in her jaw. She wasn't ready to go, I know.

Today I heard her enter my room with her characteristic "brrt," an inquiry into whether my lap was occupied. She's still here.
A sweet gray-striped girl-kitty curled up ecstatically in my office chair, legs stretched indulgently, smiling, no intention of relinquishing this real estate.
September 22, 2025 at 2:43 AM
runskra.bsky.social
Experienced @wardruna.music-social.com tonight. So much better than I could've imagined, feeling that power in person.
Wardruna's bindrune logo is projected on a huge knit sheet, on stage. The members of Wardruna assemble before the imagery of birds. Wardruna performs before the image of a solar eclipse. Wardruna's performance with traditional instruments is augmented with light and mist.
September 20, 2025 at 4:14 AM
runskra.bsky.social
Fire, my fingers feed with devotion
Smoke is the signal | that soars to the skies
Meat for the mighty, marked in your name
Take now this tribute | taste what is offered
Lady, take your taste
#galdralag #grilling #giantess #OldNorse #ScandiMyth
An 18" Weber cooking grid covered with zucchini seasoned in Chesapeake Bay, two burgers coated in Watkins hamburger seasoning, and a rope of 1890 farmer's sausage.
September 13, 2025 at 2:26 AM
runskra.bsky.social
Spared a moment to consecrate the leather runes and write a new #galdralag for them, during this lovely camping trip.
Twenty-five Elder Futhark runes, including the New Age blank rune. Some of them are later versions of the familiar runes.
August 24, 2025 at 4:01 AM
runskra.bsky.social
Each weekend is consumed, in part, by my studies. I have a small shelf of library books coming due, so it's a dire race against time to scrutinize these chapters and make note of what's important to me.

Now I can kill any conversation with the best of them.
#ScandiMyth #OldNorse
Nearly a dozen library books from the public system and the university system. In Prayer and Laughter by Anatoly Liberman; Poems of the Elder Edda translated by Patricia Terry; Essays on Eddic Poetry by John McKinnell; The Poetic Edda edited by Paul Acker and Carolyne Larrington; Runes, Magic and Religion, a Sourcebook by John McKinnell and Rudolf Simek; Old Norse Myths, Literature and Society edited by Margaret Clunies Ross; Northern Mythology, Tales from Norse, Finnish and Sami Traditions by Tim Rayborn; Old Norse for Modern Times by Ian Stuart Sharpe; Old Norse Folklore, Magic, Witchcraft, and Charms in Medieval Scandinavia by Stephen A. Mitchell; Meeting the Other in Norse Myth and Legend by John McKinnell.
August 10, 2025 at 7:18 PM
runskra.bsky.social
Perfect album that came out when you were 16
Depeche Mode's Black Celebration
July 28, 2025 at 2:39 PM
runskra.bsky.social
The leaves kind of look like a bur oak, but much longer and with wider gaps. I'm awful at a wide range of plant identification.
A long green leaf, gapped with inlets.
July 3, 2025 at 4:09 AM
runskra.bsky.social
Found this great old tree in the park. It's either one tree that got split and healed well, or four trees uniting as one. In the natural basin it forms I found what I thought was trash, but wasn't.

I bailed the water out and fed the roots. So now I've got Yggdrasil to worship at, too. #OldNorse
A large tree with four trunks and a hollow area in the middle. Looking down into the natural basin: green murky water and sproutlings. A plastic soup container from a store, repurposed for scooping water out. Someone has written in Sharpie: Keep here to bail water so tree does not rot.
July 2, 2025 at 3:14 AM
runskra.bsky.social
My wife and I wanted to live abroad for a year, so we got our TESOL certification on #Bali, then S.Korea changed its entrance requirements. So we went backpacking for five months around SE Asia!

I dwell on this every November through April. #TísdagsTǫltit
A guardian demon statue, bearing pleasant gifts (chana) to invoke its favor. It looks like a rather human monkey, with a large, pink, real flower behind its ear, a cigarette in its mouth, and it's holding a bowl of fruit and flowers. The sun sets with huge, dreamy Maxfield Parrish clouds over the surfers at Dreamland Beach. A dramatic sunset over a mountain lake, seen through the silhouette of trees, in Munduk, Bali. In the Monkey Forest, two capuchins carefully take a chana bowl apart in case there are more treats. One looks away, disappointed.
July 1, 2025 at 11:11 PM
runskra.bsky.social
Here's a good #MánudagsMæða: it's not precisely a #cortado, but good enough for me. A small glass of nitro brew coffee with a couple spoonfuls of #VanLeeuwen french cream honeycomb ice cream. It's like a reward in advance for the hard work it's going to motor me through.
A small ridged glass filled with rich dark brown liquid, with two lumps of creamy ice cream floating on top and slowly filtering through the body of liquid. Behind, blurred, are a small pile of rocks, a multi-tool, and a computer speaker and some notebooks. All this, resting on a black writing desk surface.
June 30, 2025 at 5:19 PM
runskra.bsky.social
Hoo, phone sounded off with tornado warnings. Grabbed Toki and hunkered in the basement for half an hour. Warnings are off now, but we're getting the worst part of the thunderstorm currently.

He's a good and patient boy.
A black cat stares alertly, sitting uncomfortably on industrial carpeting.
June 29, 2025 at 6:13 AM
runskra.bsky.social
Getting ready to do some creative writing tonight, needed to evoke a couple giantesses for guidance and support. Let no one say this #LaugardagsLetin has no style.
A middle-aged man with a bushy goatee, wearing a sheep's wool mantle, kneeling before a modest altar on a book shelf.
June 29, 2025 at 1:22 AM
runskra.bsky.social
Ah, that's the one I couldn't get!
Covers of the Thunder Girls series: no. 2, Skade and the Enchanted Snow; no. 3, Idun and the Apples of Youth; no. 4, Sif and the Dwarfs' Treasure.
June 25, 2025 at 6:36 PM
runskra.bsky.social
Going back to 2009, a brief excursion from our Royal Princess itinerary to ride out with ship staff for a quick visit to Glengoyne Distillery in Scotland. We could take pictures because the vats were offline and disassembled for cleaning that day. #TísdagsTǫltit
Proprietor of distillery presents a stack of commemorative barrels bearing little brass plaques for donors or dedicated persons. Enormous copper tuns, part of the distilling process, are disassembled in parts while being cleaned and polished.
June 25, 2025 at 3:36 AM
runskra.bsky.social
I searched #MondayMotivation to look for inspiration for this post. Instead, I found a bunch of accounts to block.

So, thank-you to other people for reminding me who I am and who I don't want to be. That's a form of #MánudagsMæða.
Watercolor of a medieval Scandinavian man and a giantess wearing pelts crouched around a campfire amid snowy mountains.
June 23, 2025 at 3:49 PM
runskra.bsky.social
Argh, not one week in and I blew it. #LaugardagsLetin was supposed to be #SaturdayStyle. Today, #SjálfuSunnudagr, is #SelfieSunday.

Well, fine. Mopey is my style, yesterday's post stands. Now, what's #OldNorse for "I woke up like this"?
An old man with salt-and-pepper goatee, slicked back hair, glasses, and a sandy-colored shirt, sitting in a messy office.
June 22, 2025 at 5:59 PM
runskra.bsky.social
Well, let's see this all the way through. This is me down at the glade, where I go for grounding and reflection. I see so much of my father in this shot; OTOH, all he wanted to see in me was himself and found me lacking.
#LaugardagsLetin
An old man with a bushy goatee and dark blond hair shaved on the sides sits on a bank of large rocks by a creek, surrounded by trees.
June 21, 2025 at 7:26 PM
runskra.bsky.social
Didn't know what to do for #ÞórsdagsÞrautin, so my wife suggested I post a picture from camping, last year, when we cooked bacon over a campfire. The first thing to pop into her mind. I had no better ideas.
A cast iron skillet resting on a heavy state park grill, beneath which is a pile of chopped wood, glowing redly. In the skillet are four thick slices of bacon and a welling pool of rendered fat.
June 20, 2025 at 3:40 AM
runskra.bsky.social
Can it be so long? Seventeen years ago, my wife and I took our honeymoon in #Reykjavik #Iceland. (Whenever we mentioned this, we were met with a baffled "Why?") We had a lovely time, I adored walking around and exploring everything. Even the graffiti was superior.
#TísdagsTǫltit
The towering Hallgrímskirkja, golden in the sunset, and the Leif Eriksson Monument, a bold statue of a bold explorer. Looking north along Frakkastígur at Drekinn Grill. In the distance, the bay Rauðarárvik may be seen before the island Viðey. Profile of King Christian IX of Denmark's statue before misty mountains on an overcast day. Vivid, bold graffiti on the side of a building by a parking lot. It features a monkey holding a pitchfork loaded with graffiti supplies, a crowd of bald men walking back and forth, and some stylized runic work.
June 17, 2025 at 11:46 PM
runskra.bsky.social
New ICE patch in Saint Paul, MN.

Fuck ICE, fuck fascists, fuck Scandi misappropriation.
Black patch with white stitching featuring skull wearing horned Viking helmet and beard over vegvisir. Words around it read St. Paul Field Office Special Response Team.
June 8, 2025 at 12:07 AM
runskra.bsky.social
Brak! Brestr! Ljóst!
#OldNorse
A charcoal chimney fully loaded with hardwood charcoal.
June 7, 2025 at 12:14 AM