Catching a live HD cinema broadcast of Wagner's Die Walkure at the weekend helped to revive my interest in Old Norse matters and related projects - mainly my Anglo-Saxon inspired epic fantasy poem. Nearly 40 pages of blank verse in, and the story is really starting to shape up - as are the growing body of illustrations (so far just sketches) which will accompany the finished thing - here's a couple of this week's samples to date:

Sveyn, a leader of heroes Sigfritha, a harvester of (dead) heroes...The inspiration...