Thorskegga has started a series of paintings depicting the gods worshipped by the Anglo-Saxon and Norse settlers in England. The mucky brown colour is gold on the original but our scanner can't cope with it. Black and white versions of these pictures have been used for the covers of Thunder and the Wain.
Heimdall gaurds the rainbow bridge that links Earth and Asgard in Norse Mythology. He is said to have the sight of an eagle hence the eagles on his shield. A poetic kenning describes a sword as 'Heimdall's head'. The bear and seal in the top corners refer to Heimdall's battle against Loki over Freya's necklace Brisingamen.
The three young men are Heimdall's children, the fathers of the three classes of men. The runes remind us that Heimdal is also the teacher of mankind and entrusted the knowledge of runes to the ancestor of the highest class.
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