Wane Wyrds

The image of the snake, serpent, or dragon has always troubled me. I think this is in part because of my Christian upbringing, and in part because of the natural primitive repulsion we all still carry on some level. For many the snake is a symbol of mortal danger, and to some it inspires irrational fear. I am not afraid of snakes, but I do carry a natural wariness of them. But anyway, back to the point. The serpent in Nordic mythology. Thanks to my new enrollment at the University of Oklahoma, I now have access to a wealth of information on just about any subject in the world thanks to the online resources of the University resources. Today I was reading an article called Fragments of Ancient Beliefs: The Snake as a Multivocal Symbol in Nordic Mythology by Gro Mandt. Though I did not find anything in it that blew me out of the water, I did find some interesting ideas there that I thought were worth a bit of blogging. One point was the discussion of the snake as rather ambiguou...