April 14th M Day

I don't have a lot of time to write today either, I played a Dawn Patrol game today and got home kind of late, then spent a little time with my family before I sat down to write, so this list is a bit short too.

M is for Mjöðr , or Mead, a wine made of honey and water and yeast. I can attest that it is very good, and the Norsemen loved it too.

M is for Miðgarð, "Middle Earth", the land of men.

M is for Mímir, a God of the Aesir, who was traded as a hostage to the Vanir after their war. The Vanir killed him and sent his head back to Odin. Odin preserved it and kept it alive, because he was so wise, he learned from it many things. Mímir also had a well that imparted great knowledge, it was there that Odin sacrificed his eye, perhaps so he could continue seeing through the well of knowledge?

M is for Madjus, this is an Arabic word used to describe the Norsemen, it means roughly "Heathen Wizards", which I guess says something about the way the Arabs saw the Vikings.

M is for Magic, there are three main forms of Norse magic Seið (magic through trance, contact with spirits), Galðr (magic through words, written, spoken or chanted/sung) and Hamr (magic through shape changing or sending forth the spirit).

M is for Maðr, which is just the Norse word for man, but since I gave the Norse word for woman, I figured I'd do the same here. It is also used in compound words a lot, so a Wizard (Vitki) might be a Galðramaðr.

M is for Mikligarð, the "Great City", Constantinople. Many Norsemen traveled there to serve in the Byzantine Emperor's Varangian Guard, which was essentially a latter day Praetorian guard made up primarily of Norsemen; after 1066 many Saxons fleeing the Norman yoke in England joined it's ranks.

M is for Mjölnir, the hammer of Thor. Made by Dwarves, it has a handle too short to make it useful as a a melee weapon because Loki, in the form of a fly, bit the Dwarf working the bellows, which is why it is used by Thor as a throwing hammer. Sometime after the introduction of Christianity to the Norse world the Mjölnir became a symbol of their Heathen faith, just as the Cross is worn by Christians.

M is for Muninn, one of Odin's Ravens, "Memory".

M is for Múspellheim, the "Land of Fire", a type of Giants live there, Fire Giants in English, thier leader is Surt, and he'll burn the nine worlds at Ragnarök.

I also got this cool Star Trek stuff in the mail today from EBay, the pictures are, of course, from the auction.

Since this is hard to read- it's the Star Trek III Struggle for the Throne Klingon game from FASA, I'd never heard of it before, it's complete though, but the box is kind of beat up.

This bunch of stuff is FASA trek's Star Trek The Next Generation First Year Sourcebook, AKA the book that killed FASA Trek, the adventure module "Where Has All The Glory Gone?", The Star Trek RPG Adventure book, the adventure module "An Imbalance of Power" (which I already had), the supplement "The Federation" and, oddly enough, the LUG, GM's screen, which is pretty much useless to me. I got all of this for $4.99+ shipping though, so I don't really mind.