By: Bryan Ricardo Marini Quintana
The Saga of Wordeatgandr (English)
Have you ever struggled with writer’s block while composing your next story?
Then you’ve been visited by a dreaded snake, feared by all seafaring skalds, who slithers into their minds to rob them of their verses.
This is none other than Orðetagandr (Wordeatgandr), the Midgard Serpent’s Brother!
By: Bryan Ricardo Marini Quintana
By: Bryan Ricardo Marini Quintana
By: Bryan Ricardo Marini Quintana
Today, I’m delighted to share another collaboration with the Philology Magazine (@eldesvandelosociosos) by Students from the University of Santiago de Compostela.
This is a mirror poem that has a palindrome structure, meaning it can be read from top to bottom and vice versa the same way, with a line that acts as an axis from which everything revolves around it.
The Seventh Canto del Purgatorio: Facilis Est Descensus Averno (Dual-Language Version in English and Spanish)
Have you ever ascended or descended a similar flight of stairs? Are you lost traversing a familiar path where you aren’t renewed but unchanged?
Have you crossed an identical route twice? Are you transformed into a new person or remained the old self?
Welcome to the Seventh Circle of this Infernal Wheel that spirals ever on with no end in sight…
(Vincent van Gogh, Prisoners’ Round, 1890)
By: Bryan Ricardo Marini Quintana
Today, I can finally share my small collaboration with the International Medieval Congress: “O Camiño do Medievalista” @congresocaminomedievalista at the University of Santiago de Compostela in the Faculty of Geography and History.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to present my academic paper titled: “From Yggdrasil’s Rebirth in the Eddas to Saint Boniface’s Felling of Thor’s Oak: The Christianization of Pagan Trees from the Norse-Germanic World.”
I’ve attached pictures of the Congress and slides from the Paper, it will be available at a later date on Academia.edu and TheWesternVoyager.com!
By: Bryan Ricardo Marini Quintana
By: Bryan Ricardo Marini Quintana
Let’s travel across the creeks of the Milky Way
As you’re stashed between my arms
Filling the dull tones of our frames
With droplets of paint that gleam our spirits away
…
We depart a shadow cast by the mantle of space
Arriving upon a seashore teeming with grainy rye
Where we lay barefoot amidst mounds of fruits
Sinking our toes in the warmth of white shores
…
The silver drapes of the cosmos roll back
Thrusting us into luminescent mists
Where we sail a sapphire breeze aboard our vessel
Traversing the depths of a void brushed by blazing pearls
…
Until we arrive at the brink of realms
Docking after our voyage on rich riverbanks
Where we find respite in evergreen pastures
Brimming with waves of never-ending wheatgrass fields
…
These are flourishing with peach and lime tint palettes
As the golden dandelion wanes and the snowy rose waxes
With the flowering of our cherry blossom and marigold sky
That upon twilight, mature into our delphinium and lilac melody
…
We arrive at an unageing woodland that sprouts with mellow plums
Where you bite a berry as the syrup drips over your lips
Upon tasting the fruit, your cheeks blister with a rose fluorescence
Then you offer me a taste as I lunge for your lips to savor the juice
…
In our kiss, we transcend old woes to jubilate with youthful bliss
As we mix our nectar while resting on a bronze bark of golden leaves
Gazing at the glaring haze that gallops above us in the firmaments
Where you invite me to sway in a dance that weaves our spirits’ strings away
The Western Voyager 