For those who do not know my work yet, or want more information, and for my readers and patrons; an update and summary of what has been produced and about what is going to be produced. Titles are also linked to where you can see or buy them.

CONTENT ALREADY (2021)
For an overview of what has been in 2021 (with links to videos), all available to patrons for as long as my Patreon exists: What´s Up for Patrons - Links and Overviews (December 2021 Update) | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon

COMING PATREON CONTENT and other projects 2022
Last year, in 2020, I made an intro video for Patreon on YouTube for the winter solstice, where I presented my new project, namely the one where I wrote and produced lecture videos on Norse mythology and pre-Christian religion for paying patrons at my Patreon. Since one whole year has passed, I have decided to offer an update of what has happened, and where this is going.

MORE AUDIO
What is going to be new is a podcast with audio versions of my lectures as well as readings from my books, starting with The Hammer of Greatness and The Seed of Yggdrasill.

Two new books and one new edition of an old book are coming out in 2022!
An improved, edited and corrected version of The Maiden with the Mead

The Goddess Idunn in Poetry and Myth

Great Knowledge - Stories of Seidr and Fjölkyngi

My name is Maria Kvilhaug, and I am an author of both fiction and non-fiction, and a lecturer with an academic background, but working on my own. You could say I am also open for a mystical and spiritual approach to the myths of the past. They are deeply spiritual works of wisdom as far as I am concerned.

I was born in 1975, what makes me 46 years old at the moment. I am Norwegian, and I do live in Norway, but because I had a decade of living in other countries and for various other reasons, I tend to write and present my lectures in English.

Most recent interview with yours truly here (Sacred You Podcast)

BOOKS PUBLISHED

THE SEED OF YGGDRASILL My readers know me mostly for my grand work on Old Norse poetical metaphors and how to use these to understand the deeper meanings of mythology, namely The Seed of Yggdrasill.

THE MAIDEN WITH THE MEAD Many of my readers are also aware of my earlier work, titled The Maiden with the Mead, which is about initiation rituals in the Poetic Edda and was, originally, a university thesis from 2004 (can be read for free online through Oslo University Library).

NB! The Maiden with the Mead will be re-published by the Three Little Sisters in the start of 2022!

THE POETIC EDDA - SIX COSMOLOGY POEMS I have also written one book with translations of six Edda poems crammed with commentaries and explanations: The Poetic Edda: Six Cosmology Poems

THE TRICKSTER AND THE THUNDERGOD Then there is The Trickster and the Thundergod: Loki and Thor in Old Norse myths. This one presents all the myths in which Thor and Loki appear. Why the both of them? Because the two gods usually appear in the same myths, and often appear to be working together.

BLADE HONER Fortunately, some of my readers also know about my four novels which sort of make up a series that was intended to continue on, but which for economic and time- reasons has been postponed. The four books work very well on their own, however. Here are titles and links:

1. The Hammer of Greatness
2. My Enemy´s Head
3. The Hel Rune´s Claim
4. A Twisted Mirror They portray life in the in the Norse-speaking settlement of Aldeigjuborg in Russia during the 790s, the very start of the Viking Age, when the Væringja Rus were pirates and landless men who had their cultural origin in Sweden, but who were naturally also influenced by their exile and their pirate lifestyles. It is seen through the eyes of a little girl, Thordís, who is fated to become a Thunder Priestess (Thorsgydja) and one of the women mound-laid at Oseberg in 834.

THE THREE LITTLE SISTERS PUBLISHER

All these books are now re-published with my wonderful publisher The Three Little Sisters. They are also going to release a new edition of The Maiden with the Mead – A Goddess of Initiation Rituals in Old Norse Myths, in 2022. I have asked for some time to go through it, since it was written back in 2004 and I may want to do a few editions now after 17 years.

FREE STUFF

LADYOFTHELABYRINTH YOUTUBE Adding to that, I run a YouTube channel – called The Lady of the Labyrinth, which was inspired by a Minoan title of a priestess from Crete; Labyrinthos Potnia. Before finishing The Seed of Yggdrasill, I published more than thirty YouTube lectures based on the research behind this book between, mostly, 2009 and 2013.

WEBSITE Then I went less active on YouTube for many personal reasons and because I was concentrating on my research and writings and articles – there is a website where many of these articles are published; named after my novel series; Blade Honer. Bladehoner.wordpress.com.

LECTURES, VIDEOS AND BOOK PROJECTS SINCE WINTER SOLSTICE 2021AND COMING:

PATREON

All this work is free and there for the taking. But in order to continue writing books and making lectures, I had to start financing the time and work it took, because we all have to make a living, pay our bills, all that - and doing this on my spare simply became too taxing.

So, I opened a Patreon.

I have never regretted that! It has been a lot of work, producing one or two lectures every month - but it is the work that I love the most, and it has enabled me to get very close to finishing two new book manuscripts! I want to extend a great roaring THANKYOU THANKYOU THANKYOU to the people who have helped me out by paying me a little for the work I put into it. THANKYOU.

It almost feels like you saved my life. Really. And let me tell you about what you have done for me.

The two new books that will be published - as a result of people being willing to pay for my lectures, are the following:

IDUNN BOOK Apart from a re-publishing of the Maiden with the Mead, there will be a book based on my Patreon lecture series The Goddess Iðunn in Poetry and Myth. This book will be published very shortly, in 2022!

SEIÐR BOOK The other book which may hopefully also get through within 2022 is based on my 2021 Patreon lecture series Fjǫlkyngi – Stories of Seiðr and Initiation. The manuscript for the first part will be ready in 2022, but I don’t know how fast the publisher will be able to get it out!

I will get back to what this project is all about shortly.

SUMMARIES

Last year, in 2020, I made an intro video for the winter solstice, where I presented my new project, namely the one where I wrote and produced lecture videos on Norse mythology and pre-Christian religion for paying patrons at my Patreon. Since one whole year has passed, I have decided to offer an update of what has happened, and where this is going.

THE NEW COMING BOOKS:

Let us return to the projects based on lectures available on Patreon:

1. THE IDUNN BOOK AND LECTURE TRILOGY:

The Iðunn-book is based very closely on three lectures, each one about two hours long, that I published on Patreon in January and February 2021. If you are a patron, you may already be familiar with the content. If you are not, well, the videos are published on my Patreon, and you get the drift.

Each lecture goes through one of the three sources in which Iðunn is described;

1. The Skáldskaparmál
2. The Skaldic poem Haustlǫng, which represents one of our oldest sources to Norse mythology, having been composed in its present form before the year 900,
3. And then the much debated Edda poem Hrafnagaldr Óðins. Each source provides some new insights into the Iðunn-lore.

THE SEIÐR BOOK AND LECTURE SERIES:

Over to Fjǫlkyngi. I am going to tell you what it is about very soon, but first the practical information:

This book is based on the Patreon lecture series Fjǫlkyngi – Stories of Seiðr and Initiation, which I began in March 2021, and which is still ongoing, although I am getting close to finish the first part, and will be moving onto the part where we talk more in detail about the initiation rituals and initiation mysteries of the pagan lore.

I just have to get through the episodes on berserksgangr, spirits and the summoning of spirits, and the theme of fylgjur and vættir and other máttugar – powers. First.

These will begin to appear in January 2022. Then we will move onto the initiation stories.

I have published about one or two lengthy lectures every month for the last ten months, so we are getting closer to twenty videos by now. All these videos are out on my Patreon. So far, they either are, or else they form smaller parts of - greater episodes with the themes of basic information about

1. What Fjǫlkyngi was,
2. Oracular divination seiðr,
3. The priestesses – the vǫlur who named children,
4. Practical seiðr for the purposes of summoning the game, for healing, influencing the weather, finding lost or hidden things and so on - and people, including many stories of summoning powers, shape-shifting, out-of-body travel, things that are also well presented in episode 5
5. Harmful seiðr and saga-zombies; so called black magic: The Nídstöng, Burial Customs, Necromancy, and Waking the Dead
6. The sixth episode, which I just recently finished, dealt with priestesses of war and human sacrifice, seiðr-men as mentors to kings, princes and warlords, and the story of the conversion process in northern Europe, when many men who practiced seiðr were among the fiercest opponents to the new religion in the religious battles that followed.

So; over to the book project:

First of all, the lecture manuscript, as it is, is like a first or second draft. You, my dear patrons, are the reason I have gotten this far this fast. THANKYOU.

If I am a bit slow on the next episode, please bear with me. I am going to have to spend some time going through this manuscript to make it into a book manuscript and not a lecture manuscript, and the book will also be even more extensive than the lecture series, as I discovered things on the way.

There may also be a change in the order of things, and I have thought to change the title into “Great Knowledge – Stories of Seiðr and Fjǫlkyngi. Or, I am not sure, actually. You may suggest better titles if you are familiar with the content by now.

The reason for this title, Great Knowledge, is because it is a direct translation of the term by which Norse-speaking pagans back in the Viking Age knew things that we might refer to as anything from shamanism to witchcraft and sorcery to oracular divination to poetry to spiritual mysteries and any form of sublime wisdom and knowledge: Fjǫlkyngi.

Fjǫlkyngi – I am sure this word is not something that most people internationally are familiar with. In translations of saga literature, we usually only see words like sorcery or witchcraft where the word Fjǫlkyngi was applied in the original source. But the word actually directly translates as “Great Knowledge”. This Great Knowledge, Fjǫlkyngi, is an umbrella term which covers all sorts of pagan, esoteric arts; skaldskáp, as in poetry, seiðr, as in witchcraft and divination, galdrar, as in spell-songs, berserksgangr, as in battle ecstasy, out-of-body travel, summoning the spirits, changing shape, runes, healing and so on. Often reduced to a simple word; magic, in some way or other.

OTHER CREATIONS AND COMING PROJECTS ON PATREON:

1. I will continue the Fjǫlkyngi series, ending the first part hopefully before february 2022.
2. This work will form the draft of a new BOOK manuscript: GREAT KNOWLEDGE (working title) to be published in 2022-2023
3. The second part will begin in february/march 2022 and will be about INITIATIONS.
4. AUDIO mp3 files of my video lectures
5. Audio books (if I have time)

Adding to this, I have also produced some other lectures and stuff that is out on Patreon:

About various seasonal celebrations,
About burial mounds in Vestfold and other archaeological sites and cultural walks.
AUDIO BOOK READINGS: I have been trying to record chapter by chapter from my first novel, The Hammer of Greatness, what has been a bit much amidst all the other things, and which was also surprisingly hard to put voice to.

The voice of the book itself sounds, inside my head, like the voices of the people who tell the story, but when read out loud, it becomes different.

It also contains some painful moments that were harder to say out loud than it was to write them.

But I am, slowly, little by little, getting through the book – each episode already recorded is also out on my Patreon.

Wish you a happy Yule and Winter Solstice

PREVIOUS INTRODUCTION (2020-21)

Biography
Maria Kvilhaug (Oslo, Norway 1975-) is the author of The Seed of Yggdrasill, The Maiden With The Mead and the Blade Honer series, as well as other books, articles and lecture videos. Most of her works stem from her academic background in the historical, cultural, linguistic and religious aspects of pre-Christian Scandinavia.
From ca 2008-2016, she produced several videos on LadyoftheLabyrinth YouTube channel, but eventually slowed down because it became too much time-consuming and hard, unpaid work. She continued writing books and articles, though,
As of December, 2020, Maria began to post lecture videos for patrons. The economic support has and will encourage and finance more productions; videos, lectures, articles, books. The more support, the more time is freed to work on all of these things. So far, the support has helped birth a series of storytelling lectures about mythology and cultural history, with special focus on Seiðr. On the following link, you may see a detailed list (with links) of what you may see (or listen to) and learn more about if you want to support the author´s work: What´s Up for Patrons - Links and Overviews | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon

Website/Blog: https://bladehoner.wordpress.com

BOOKS (Maria Kvilhaug´s Publisher):

Coming up in the Summer of 2021:

The Mounds of Vestfold (Archaeological Sites / Walks and Talks) - My dad and I will take you through the burial sites of Viking and Bronze Age Vestfold
The Maiden with the Mead - a Heathen Women United Conference Talk - Here, I am going back to my first written work and explore the theme of initiation rituals in the Poetic Edda (July 2021)
Mountain Cottage (August 2021)
Midsummer (if I can manage) (Seasonal Celebrations)
More on Fjölkyngi (some episodes may be postponed a little due to all the above projects! :)

What is out for Patrons (as of June 2021):

Walkabouts - Cultural Walks and Archaeological Sites
A walk on a Bronze Age main road, now a forest path to visit Huldra´s Gates, the ancient Burial Cairns of Robber´s Hill, and Urd´s River - and the Ash Yggdrasill and a Curious Stoat (May 2021)
A Visit to Borg in Lofoten | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon (Public) (July 2018)
Planned for June/July 2021: The Mounds of Vestfold

"The Goddess Idunn in Poetry and Myth" - a Lecture in Three Parts.

The first part; "Skaldskaparmál" (January 2021)
Part 2; "Haustlöng - A Skaldic Poem of the Viking Age (January 2021)
Part 3: Hrafnagaldr Odins (February 2021)

Fjǫlkyngi - Stories of Seiðr and Initiation - A Lecture Series in Many Parts

Episode 1: The Basics of Seiðr (February 2021)
Episode 2: Seiðr as a Tradition of Oracular Divination (March 2021)
Episode 3: In League with the Norns - Völur as "Fairy Godmothers" and the Tale of the Sleeping Beauty (March 2021)
Episode 4.1: Practical Seiðr: Summoning the Game (April 2021)
Episode 4.2: Healing Spells (April 2021)
4.3: Practical Seidr: Controlling the Weather (April 2021) MADE PUBLIC
4.4: Practical Seidr: Finding What is Lost or Hidden (May 2021)
Episode 5: Harmful Seiðr ("Black Magic") )(May/June 2021)
5.1 Harmful Seiðr: The Níðstöng - the Shaming Pole/ The Cursing Pole (May 2021)
5.2: Necromancy 5.2.1: Burial Customs of the Ages (June
-5.2.1: Burial Customs of the Ages (June 2021) 5.2: Necromancy and the Walking Dead: 5.2.1: Burial Customs of the Ages | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon (made public)
-5.2.2: Waking the Dead5.2.2: Necromancy - Waking the Dead | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon

Seasonal Talks (Made Public)

Hökunott - Midwinter Night Blót (January 2021)
Dísablót (February-March 2021) (Also on YouTube)
Eostre (March 2021)

Single Lectures:

The Mysteries of Oseberg -recorded livestream lecture that I held last summer for Heathen Women United
Norwegian Yule Traditions - Family Traditions, Folklore and Heathen Roots - video version of my most recent lecture for Needfire

Audio Book Project:

Audio Readings by yours truly from my first Novel "The Hammer of Greatness" (Blade Honer Book One) chapter by chapter

CHAPTERS (LINKS) CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER:

Part One: The Village in the River Lands (The Baltic, A.D. 775-790)

1. The Hammer of Greatness - Ch. 1: Thunder Bear | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon

2. The Hammer of Greatness Ch.2: The Wounded Rus | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon

3. The Hammer of Greatness Audio Chapter 3: A Norseman in the River Lands | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon

4 & 5. Audio The Hammer of Greatness ch.4 & 5 | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon

6. The Hammer of Greatness Audio Reading Ch 6: Thunder Goddess | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon

7. The Hammer of Greatness Audio Reading Ch.7: The Legend of the Thunder Warriors | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon

8. The Hammer of Greatness Audio Reading Ch.8: Fatherless | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon

9. The Hammer of Greatness Audio Ch.9: Thunder Wolf´s Death | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon

10. Audio chapter 10: The Yearning River Woman (The Hammer of Greatness) | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon

11. Ch 11: The Market - Audio The Hammer of Greatness | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon

12. Audio ch.12: Thunder Bear´s Shame - The Hammer of Greatness (Blade Honer Book One) | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon

13. Ch.13: Our Enemies´ Heads https://www.patreon.com/posts/49737966

14. Ch.14: Zivah´s Suitor Audio Chapter14: Zivah´s Suitor - The Hammer of Greatness | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon

15. Ch. 15: HomelandsAudio ch. 15: Homelands - The Hammer of Greatness | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon

Part Two: Vikings (790 A.D.)

16. Ch.16: River Dragons16 Audio The Hammer of Greatness ch.16: River Dragons | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon

17. Ch.17: Preparations for Battle 17 Audio The Hammer of Greatness ch.17: Preparations for Battle | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon

18. Ch. 18: The Last Battle of the River People https://www.patreon.com/posts/50289988
19. Ch. 19: Arnulf the Sea King´s Son19 Audio The Hammer of Greatness Chapter 19: Arnulf the Sea King´s Son | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon

20. Ch 20: Terror and Beauty 20 Audio The Hammer of Greatness ch.20: Terror and Beauty - Blade Honer Book One | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon
21. Ch.21: A Warrior´s Heart 21 Audio The Hammer of Greatness chapter 21: A Warrior´s Heart | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon
22.Ch.22: Lowering the Eyes 22 Audio The Hammer of Greatness chapter 22: Lowering the Eyes | Maria Kvilhaug - Ladyofthelabyrinth on Patreon

MORE TO COME:

This is where I will be putting out smaller talks (audio/video) and longer lectures about subjects such as folk-songs, folklore, mythology, history and saga stories, other anecdotes, seasonal talks (about ritual seasons, for example) - and readings of chapters from my books.

Planned Mythology Lecture Themes for 2021 (feel free to suggest themes also)

The Theme of Reincarnation in Old Norse Sources
Myths of Initiation (a series)
Stories about Seidr from Sagas and other Sources (a series)
Valkyriur in Edda Poetry
Readings from the Ynglinga Saga

If there are livestream lectures, there will also be recordings of said livestream videos.

For Those Who Know Me Already:

Have you been missing more videos from the Lady of the Labyrinth YouTube page?
Are you among those who have asked me to make more lecture videos, as I did so much back in 2009-2014? Or more art-based mythology videos?
Are you among those eagerly waiting for the next Blade Honer book?
Are you among those who wish me to publish my books in audio or video?
Are you among those who want to see those promised publications about Seidr, about Idunn, and about Initiation Stories, and so on?
Would you have liked me to have more livestream lectures?
Would you like to see recordings of live lectures/livestream lectures?
Do you just like my work in general, such as my website/blog, my Facebook page, and want to see more articles published there?

If so, you might want to help me out by sponsoring my Patreon page so that I might get the time and energy I need to offer up all that - in great abundance!

Why Patreon?
For more than twelve years, I have been publishing articles, videos, and livestream lectures, and tried my best to reply to questions, and all of this is really hard work requiring a lot of time and energy - making an hour long lecture/video can take weeks of preparation!
I have happily done all this work without asking anything in return from my readers and listeners, hoping that booksales would support my living. Well.

For the last few years, booksales have supported about 5% to 20% of my minimum necessity monthly income - and this in a world where you simply need money to pay your bills and live a normal life - in my case in such an expensive country as Norway is. This means that, after a blissfull era of extreme creative energy, I burned out from the fact that I still had to aquire 95% - 80 % of my income by working hard labor as a healthcare worker. Anyone who works in healthcare knows how much that can dry up your extra resources.

So this is the simple math: The more patrons I can get to sponsor me by monthly payment, the more can I free up time and energy to create more videos, write more articles, make audio recordings of my books, and finish my book projects!

And if you do sponsor me, you are the ones who will be seeing my latest videos!
Sadly, the time of just giving away all that hard work for free is over. I would have loved to make more videos and lectures free of charge, but I cannot afford it, and then they will not be made at all. It will also take a lot longer for more books to be finished, and fewer articles and research papers.

If you do sponsor me, you will get access to new videos of various themes and lengths, podcasts, lectures and heads up about new stuff! The more people sponsor me (and the more each are willing to pay), the more videos I pledge to make, including livestream lectures and audio recordings of my books - they will all be made available for those who are willing to help me out here, and you will be the first to be informed about new stuff that may come out.

I have not made special treatment for those who pay me more - I am sorry, but I really want to be accessible to anyone and I know what it is like to have few resources. However, if you can afford it, be aware that the more income I can get from this, the more will you get back also. I will simply get more time for this work.

What will I offer my patrons? ‘
I will use Patreon to offer up special treats to those among my readers and listeners who are willing to sponsor me.

My offering in return will be talks and presentations in the form of videos, perhaps podcasting and even livestream lectures - to donating patrons only. Recordings of livestream lectures will be made available to patrons. The more patrons I get, and the higher their donations, the more time will I be able to spend time making great stuff for my readers and listeners – and to write more books too (even the free stuff). I will not offer extra stuff to higher payers - but those who can and wish to sponsor me more than the minimum may dwell in the bliss of knowing that you are helping me make a living out of this and be able to produce more books and talks.

Themes I currently plan to cover in series of talks:

Traditional Norwegian Folksongs – Themes, Origins and Performances
Norwegian Folklore Stories
Stories of Seid & Magic in the Sagas
Norse Mythology Stuff
Readings from the Ynglinga saga
Skaldskap – Our Oldest Literary Sources to Norse Mythology
Readings from my books (fiction and non-fiction) – like Audio Book chapters

BOUNDARIES
I cannot promise a lot of (or any) live chatting.

PRIMARY PUBLISHER: The Three Little Sisters
LIST OF BOOKS

The Seed of Yggdrasill
The Maiden with the Mead – A Goddess of Initiation in Old Norse Myths?
The Trickster and the Thundergod – Thor and Loki in Old Norse Myths
The Hammer of Greatness (Blade Honer I)
My Enemy´s Head (Blade Honer II)
The Hel Rune´s Claim (Blade Honer III)
A Twisted Mirror (Blade Honer IV)
The Poetic Edda – Six Cosmology Poems
Alle netter ni