Images

Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie in a modern interpretation of Norse mythology as portrayed in the movie Thor Ragnarok (2017). Valkyries were maidens whose role was to participate in battles and to decide which warriors should die in battle. They...

Tessa Thompson as a Valkyrie in a modern interpretation of Norse mythology as portrayed in the movie Thor Ragnarok (2017). Valkyries were key figures in various Norse sagas such as Prose Edda, the Heimskringla and the Njáls Saga. They were...

A painting titled Valkyrie's Vigil created by the painter Edward Robert Hughes before 1915. Valkyries were key figures in various Norse sagas that were present in Prose Edda, the Heimskringla and the Njáls Saga. They were maidens whose role...

Artist imagination of Valhalla, Odin's hall of fallen warriors (Einherjar). Unlike Hel that was a rather gloomy and dark place, Valhalla was a blissful after-life location. Here souls were looked after by Valkyries who served them mead...

A 1729 oil painting by William Hogarth showing Woodes Rogers (seated), 1679-1732, and his family. Rogers was a former privateer, navigator and writer who was appointed Governor of the Bahamas in 1718. He was instrumental in stamping out piracy...

Patrick Lyster as the English pirate Captain Benjamin Hornigold (d. 1719) in the TV series Black Sails. © 2014 Starz

An illustration portraying Sif, a golden-haired goddess in the Norse pantheon. She was associated with earth but was married to Thor, the god of the sky and thunder. Sif is a relatively little-known figure who appears mainly in the Poetic...

An illustration portraying Sif, a goddess in the Norse pantheon. She was associated with earth but was married to Thor, the god of the sky and thunder. Sif is a relatively little known figure who appears mainly in the Poetic Edda from the...

Simon Forman (1552-1611), Elizabethan doctor and astrologist. Engraving by Richard Godfrey was published in 1776 and was based on a portrait of Forman by John Bulfinch (active 1680-1728). Wellcome Collection, London.

Simon Forman (1552 -1611), Elizabethan astrologer and doctor, oil on wood painting by an unknown artist, c. 1900, likely based on the earlier portrait by John Bulfinch, later engraved by Richard Godfrey in 1776. Wellcome Collection...