An ancient game known as "hnefatafl" held immense symbolic and religious significance. The Icelandic saga Hervör and Heidrek abounds with tropes instantly familiar to modern fantasy fans. Regarded as a key influence on classic early-20th century.
It is funny, when you interact with people on the internet, you develop a mental image of them - or at least I do. And sometimes people look pretty much like you expect, but sometimes not. I've found this situation to be particularly acute at science blogs, where I rapidly developed strong mental images of my colleagues, only to find that most of them are totally different in real life (thanks Google for clueing me in) than the sense you get from their blogs (even their photos can be misleading).
22 Gold Foil Embracing Figures Uncovered At Aska: Lovers, Gods or Giants?
A collection of rare ancient gold foil figures have been discovered at the archaeological site of Aska, approximately 36 kilometers (23 miles) from Sweden’s capital city, Stockholm. In 2014 archaeologists announced that they had unearthed a huge feasting and drinking hall at the Aska burial mound which they believed was “probably ruled by a royal family” during the Viking Age (793 AD to 1066 AD). Now, nearly two dozen delicate gold foil figures have been discovered in the hall with engravings of couples embracing. The experts are trying to decipher if they are human, divine or “giant” in nature.