A Skaldic Eagle in the World

Posted by Eirik Westcoat

Welcome, Seekers, to a new phase of activity for this blog, and here is my first poem for you all. This is the Skaldic Eagle’s poem about his mission in the world, and so I felt it the most appropriate one for this relaunch, since it is a sequel to my earlier poem, “A Skaldic Eagle Takes Flight,” which launched a previous phase of this blog back in early 2017. If you haven’t already done so, you may wish to read that precursor poem, either before or after this one. Enjoy!

A Skaldic Eagle must offer his Mead,
must give his gifts, for gain to the World;
the Work is imperative, a wode-filled impulse.
But defending the Center ‘gainst foes and shadows
—that its sacred light illumines unimpeded
a world of darkness—is a woesome task.
And even an eagle must often land,
and life on the ground can get one down,
Continue reading →

Update for April 2023!

Posted by Eirik Westcoat

Wow, I see that it has been just over a year since I updated this blog! Exciting things have been happening, they just haven’t been in this blog. It’s time for a change. But first, the news:

On April 4, I appeared live on the Nordic Mythology Podcast, where I talked about the subject of my PhD dissertation: kraftaskalds. These are poets in Icelandic folktales who do magic through improvised poetry for cursing, blessing, putting down walking corpses, and much more. Only the NMP’s patrons get to see the shows live, but the recordings become freely available to all several weeks later, on a variety of platforms, both audio and video. When mine pops on various podcast networks and Youtube, I’ll have a post about it here.
All of my new poetry, audio, and other writings are debuting on my Patreon site, which is here under my name, The Skaldic Eagle. It’s been running now for over a year with updates on the first four Wednesdays of each month. The pattern is now well established: the first Wednesday is a poem, the second Wednesday is an essay, the third Wednesday is an audio recording, and the fourth Wednesday is a poetic teaching. The occasional fifth Wednesday is usually a vacation day or general status update.
My Patreon site is really where you should join to get my best and latest stuff. Currently, I have started an “Eagle’s Mead Audio” series there for third Wednesdays, as I aim to record an audio collection for Eagle’s Mead that’s comparable to the one I have for Viking Poetry for Heathen Rites. In February, I started a poetic teaching sequence on writing traditional Germanic alliterative poetry, from the ground up, beginning with the alliterating sounds. This sequence will continue for a while into the technicalities of line and meter, and probably stanza forms.
But I will now start posting here on my WordPress blog more frequently. The plan is regular updates here every third Sunday of the month. Generally, these will be things that have appeared on my Patreon already. If it goes well, I may increase the frequency of content posts here to twice a month. News updates like this post will appear irregularly on an as-needed basis.
That means that the first of those new posts is next Sunday, and it will be a poem. Audio recordings will appear as well. As for essays and poetic teachings, those may just be excerpts, but we’ll see.

Enjoy!

Poem Preview and Patreon Update

Posted by Eirik Westcoat

I continue to prepare for my upcoming Patreon launch. There’s a lot of things to put into it, such as patron tiers, various rewards, planning a regular update schedule, and so forth. And, of course, picking the exact launch date. Got a suggestion for my upcoming Patreon? Whatever it is, whether it’s for content, patron tiers, promotional opportunities, or whatever, feel free to let me know, either by commenting here, or sending me a message through the various linked social media accounts or email on this page.

Some of the content will be poetry that will be available to patrons before it appears on this blog—if it ever appears on this blog. (Don’t worry, virtually all of my poems are likely to find their way into a book sooner or later.) Here’s a preview the first nine lines of the first poem that I’ll launch my Patreon with, titled “A Skaldic Eagle in the World”:

A Skaldic Eagle must offer his Mead,
must give his gifts, for gain to the World;
the Work is imperative, a wode-filled impulse.
But defending the Center ‘gainst foes and shadows
— that its sacred light illumines unimpeded
a world of darkness — is a woesome task.
And even an eagle must often land,
and life on the ground can get one down,
with its oft-assaulting slings and arrows.
………

The full poem is fifty-five lines, and in many ways, it is a companion piece to “A Skaldic Eagle Takes Flight” that I posted on this blog back in February 2017.

Finally, here’s a screen-cap preview of the site’s splash page, with art (from my Hail the Gods bookling) by the extremely talented Ermenegilda Muller—you can find a link to her in the side bar:

The time to the launch draws ever closer. Will you join the adventure when this Eagle spreads his wings and soars for the sun?

New Bookling: Galdored Runes

Posted by Eirik Westcoat

The Skaldic Eagle is please to announce another new book! Now available through various online retailers, it is…

Galdored Runes (June 2020)
• A paperback collection of 31 poems from Eagle’s Mead.
• Cover art by The Skaldic Eagle.
• Now officially released on June 20.
• See more details and retailer links on the Galdored Runes page.
Or just jump to the Amazon listing to buy it.

You can also read a poem from it, “Carve the Fuþark,” which has recently been featured on the Rûna Eormensyl blog.

A Trinity of New Books!

Posted by Eirik Westcoat

The Skaldic Eagle is please to announce more new books! All of these books are available in-person now from Eirik at East Coast Thing, Three Rivers Thing, and elsewhere. They are…

Odin’s Brew: Voices from the Heathen Northeast (August 2019)
• The first anthology published by Eirik’s Skaldic Eagle Press!
• Edited by Eirik Westcoat and Ned Bates.
• Foreword by Ristandi.
• Featuring nine heathen writers and artists: Ned Bates, Jill Evans, Stephanie Janicedottir, Laurel Mendes, Ristandi, Mike Smith, Jesseca Trainham, Perris Zoe Weiland, and Eirik Westcoat.
• Front cover photo by Angela Devin.
• The first-ever anthology of creative works centered around the East Coast Thing community.
• Just released mere days ago!
• See more details on the Odin’s Brew page.
• Or just jump to the Amazon listing to buy it.

Hail the Gods (October 2019)
• A smaller collection of poems from VPfHR, the first such collection from Skaldic Eagle Press.
• Cover art by Ermenegilda Muller.
• Now officially released on October 22.
• See more details on the Hail the Gods page.
Or just jump to the Amazon listing to buy it.

We’ve Seen the Same Horizon: Poems of Awakening (June 2019)
• The first anthology anywhere to include Eirik’s poetry!
• Edited by Christina Finlayson Taylor and published by The Red Salon (not by Eirik or Skaldic Eagle Press).
• There are many other great poets in here as well, with lots of Norse/Asatru-themed material.
• The book has even garnered praise from Stephen Flowers (aka Edred Thorsson).
• Also available from Amazon, where you can read more about it.

A Skaldic Eagle Takes Flight

Posted by Eirik Westcoat

Hatched from the Egg, he was hungry always;
that cosmic hailstone crafted such wyrd.
In size he surged, consuming carrion:
strong and stately, he stood at last.
He was sleek and fierce, but unsatisfied.
That fleshy fodder had fulfilled its end,
but such food no longer could feed his soul.
His keen cold eyes, they craved new vistas,
and his heart sought out the holy mysteries.
To the Cave he went, that court of darkness
and Lunar land of limitless night,
seeking its treasures for his soul’s triumph.
He came at last to cauldrons three
filled with the ferment of fathomless Spirit.
Continue reading →

Audio for The Rúnatal

Posted by Eirik Westcoat

Four weeks after its posting as text, I now present an audio recording of my poetic translation of the Rúnatal, which is Hávamál stanzas 138-145. For those who seek after the runes, there is much essential lore in these eight stanzas.

Here is the downloadable file of me reciting the poem:
Eirik Westcoat – The Rúnatal

And here is the inline player:

Enjoy! Feel free to share the file. For details, see the Creative Commons link below.

Audio for The Mead Quest

Posted by Eirik Westcoat

I now present an audio recording of my poem The Mead Quest, which is a short poetic rendering of Óðin’s winning of Óðrerir, the poetic mead. For aspiring skalds in modern Asatru, this tale is perhaps the most important part of the mythology.

Here is the file of me reciting the poem: Eirik Westcoat – The Mead Quest

Enjoy! Feel free to share the file. For details, see the Creative Commons link below.

The Mead Quest

Posted by Eirik Westcoat

Here is one of my favorite early poems, based on the tale of Odin’s winning of the poetic mead from Snorri’s Edda. A version of the tale exists in the Havamal, but it clearly has some differences. I have written it as a lore poem in eight stanzas of ljóðaháttr. In this one, the spelling has been completely anglicized. Since mead is strongly identified with poetry in the Old Norse tradition, this tale allowed for a tight interweaving of the two concepts, especially in the first and last stanzas. (As a change, I have now put the first stanza prior to the break.)

The poem is called “The Mead Quest.”

Honor I Odin
by eagerly pouring
that precious and potent mead.
How he won
that wynnful draught:
that spell I speak in verse.

Continue reading →