A coin dedicated to Cunobeline

Elen, Elen is a british goddess whose name likely derives from a word for fawn or deer. She is often considered a very old and very important British goddess. Despite very little remaining in the modern day about her at least clearly. She appears in an Aisling (Vision dream) in the Mabinogion. Mascen Wledig (Who is often thought to be based on the Roman emperor Maximus) has a dream that involved a red gold castle. Inside two children are playing chess, a king is carving chess pieces, and the Beautiful Elen is there. Upon waking Mascen becomes obsessed with finding Elen and has his men go look for her and after finding her proposes to her, she accepts and asks for the territory of three chiefs as her bridal payment. Receiving the Isle of Britain, she then builds many roads which “Oddly” are said to predate the supposedly Roman time period the story is meant to reference. She then leads an army to protect Britain from invading Celts, as in this story she is Celto-Roman, and said to be Gaulish in descent. However a female antlered figuring, place names, and other finds mark her as a likely British deity that has remnants of a once wider spread through Europe. The combination of her name and the belief she is an antlered goddess of great age, combined with her association with paths and roads resulted in her becoming classified not only as an antlered goddess but a Reindeer goddess. Considered so old she is said to have originated when Doggerland connected mainland Europe to Britain and the reindeer still roamed onto what became the British Isles. This combined with what could be an egregious symbiosis of various Siberian and far north Shamanic tribes association with Reindeer have resulted in her being classified as a shamanic goddess. However, she is still likely to be a horned/antlered goddess and the common headdress featuring antlers as well as cave art depicting the animal does bring such a possible association to light, especially when the Mabinogion Elen and her sovereignty and Aisling come into focus. All this together causes her to be known as Elen of the Hosts, Elen of the ways, as well as her Christianized Counterpart St. Helen. She is also at times thought to essentially be a sort of Land Dis of Britain not dissimilar to Skadi, in that she represents the land that must be made fertile by joining a king/sovereign/leader(male) to the land. It is unclear if this is truly the case though an unfit king causing the land to become infertile does appear in the story of the Fisher King due to his “leg” injury. Possibly both originate from an older concept or perhaps both are christianized to a point. From there unfortunately is UPG, with her becoming known as both a physical deity and the Green Woman. A feminine counterpart to the Green Man. While I can neither confirm nor deny her status as such, I see no clear evidence of such. However she clearly was an important if somewhat forgotten deity. She is said to be continued in traditions such as Abbots Bromley Horn Dance in Staffordshire which typically uses Reindeer antlers, other sections include Roads such as the High Deer Road. The possibility of a sort of Deer Mother becoming more obscure as the animal she was associated with being extricated from the land she was associated with is not far fetched, and like many goddesses who never make it into the books the folk culture keeps alive some of the oldest and most treasured stories. For who bothers writing down what everyone knows? What is your favorite thing about Elen?

Call of the Wolf God : 2021

In many European tribes and cultures Bears are considered the ancestors or closest relative of man. With notable bear cults existing as far back as into pre-history. Many tales tell of the Bear as divine ancestor, while others will have them be the parent of heroes such as John of the Bear who has the ability to fight spirits, travel between realms, and looks like a half bear hybrid. Others exist but the Wildman is also seen as a sort of Bear god. Existing in place of the Bear at times, as an ancient wild god. Some stories even into the modern day have bears taking children and raising them as bears, to the point they grow up as bear like hairy wildmen.-TLK

When dealing with people in your life you must understand.

People are desperate, desperate people are scared, scared people do stupid things.

These are the actions of children. Be brave - CG

An Illustration for Punch Magazine featuring Neptune collecting the debris of German Fighter Planes. Illustration by E. H. Shepard

If you haven't already check out our last episodes.
Family Friendly: https://youtu.be/avO-3fm31NQ
Explicit: https://anchor.fm/hyperborean-radio/episodes/GeeDunk-Nautica-wThe-Dread-Pirate-McThunder-e1343uo

These are two separate talks on the same subject.

I bought some new brushes to test. I was meant to paint a simple "rock study", which will aid me with 2 illustrations on which I am working, but I got carried away and painted a faerie home/garden instead. Approx: 15 hours

Holle is the caretaker of infant souls. She tends them when they die in infancy and also sends them out via her Storks when they are ready to be born. She will sometimes appear to an older sibling and offer to take the newborn sibling back. Portals to her realm are present in sacred wells and often contain the souls of infants yet to be born. In the Netherlands Holle is said to grow infant souls like apples upon a tree, and harvest them for life when ripe. This ties into other lore where babies would be found in the branches of trees.-TLK

The burry man custom that takes place annually in South Queensferry, Edinburgh, Scotland, is believed to be an ancient tradition as it is thought to be thousands of years old.
It is a custom which is said to symbolize rebirth, regeneration, and fertility, upon which the burry man holds similarities to the widely known green man.

For the event, a volunteer is suited up in a suit made up of burrs that give good luck to the town, which belief is held that bad luck sticks to his burrs. Giving money or whisky, is essentially paying him to take the bad luck onto his own head. When he is chased out, or ceremonially de-burred, the collective misery is removed from the town.

Our friends over at Bastard of Loran are having a release of their latest piece on Bandcamp on the 30th. Check them out.-TLK

While The 12th century Icelandic deity Odin is often called the god of Poetry this role actually belongs to Bragi, a Scandinavian Bardic God. While many will point to the Havamal and the story of the Mead of Kvasir as signs Odin is the Poet God, this is simply not the case and is a result of stretching and scholastic silliness. The Havamal like any bit of Skaldic poetry is well... poetry, and this is not some unique aspect of the Havamal. While in the story of the Mead, Odin is actually directly credited with giving Midgard "Bad" poetry when he shat out of his bird form, this fell to Midgard and gave the world bad Poetry.-TLK