Pause For The Solar Eclipse
Norse mythology
In honour of today's solar eclipse, which if you're in the west of the UK and Ireland, you may just be able to see, here's the first page of the December chapter of 'Stories Of The Sun', which features my lino print of Sköll, the wolf who, in Norse mythology, chases Sol in her chariot as she pulls the sun across the sky each day.
On this day Sköll will catch her up and swallow the sun. We must hope she can break free and reappear, for the only time she does not, is Ragnarok - the day to end all days.
A solar eclipse is not as rare as you might think. In fact they happen at least two times a year, somewhere in the world, but we can’t often see them here in the UK. I take a brief look at Solar Eclipse’ in Episode 3 of ‘Stories Of The Sun’, the podcast that accompanies my book by the same name. You can listen here:
Episode 3 - Chasing The Sun
Merry Met virtual traveller and welcome to Stories Of The Sun, a limited series podcast created as a companion to the book ‘Stories Of The Sun’, published by The History Press and written by me Dawn Nelson an author and professional storyteller and for the next eight Fridays we’ll be exploring the ‘Stories Of The Sun’.
There are many, many stories associated with the sun and you will find some of them in the book, however the most pertinent for today’s events is the Norse creation story, which tells, among other things, of the two wolves that chase the sun and moon.
You can listen to that story in Season 1 Episode 4 of ‘Stories From Lore’:
Season 1 Episode 4: Sacred Trees - Tree Folklore
In this episode I talk about the nine worlds of Norse Mythology and how many of the elements within this mythology still presents themselves in our folklore today, in particular the ash tree. The story from lore for this episode is, 'The Norse Creation Story'. Join the Stories From Lore group to share folklore facts, music and books.
As you enjoy this little offering of lore and stories for the Solar Eclipse, perhaps you are living in a part of the world that will give you a glimpse of this phenomena. If you are, don’t forget to bang your pots and pans to make sure the sun reappears! We’re counting on you.
