For Father’s Day, and also our anniversary, my wife bought me this cup “so you can drink from the skulls of your enemies.” I don’t actually have any living enemies, but I was charmed all the same.
The idea that Vikings drank from skulls is based on a misunderstanding by antiquarians of a line from Krákumál. The kenning was trying to allude poetically to drinking from horns, which of course are attached to skulls. Vikings would have understood the joke. It’s a fine sentiment all the same.
The knife was another gift of hers, some years ago: the blade is forged out of shards of an IED that was deployed against American forces in Iraq. Turning your enemy's weapon into your own is power. It was forged by the Stek family in the Pacific Northwest. Stag and buffalo horn hilt. One might argue that it is a literal magic blade.
4 comments:
What a wonderful gift.
I don’t actually have any living enemies
Veiled. How recent were their demises?
I said everything I wanted to say.
Nice knife. Are just the guard and pommel Damascus steel, or is the whole blade? I can't tell from the pic as it's obscured by the skull of your most recently deceased enemy. >O;^}
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