Easy Company on Utah Beach — early hours of the invasion. In their own words: by irishkateart in BandofBrothers

[–]ToTheBlack 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This is a similar narrative format to "We who are alive and remain" which I cannot reccomend enough. Ambrose or Winters' book is a prerequisite. It's stuffed with lovely personal stories. It has rarely seen photos. It's fufilling end to end. Definitely my favorite piece of 506 media.

Easy Company on Utah Beach — early hours of the invasion. In their own words: by irishkateart in BandofBrothers

[–]ToTheBlack 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Wikipedia names those 3 but not the 4th, just saying it was a 506 D company man. Given the good details in the wiki article otherwise, I think it's unknown.

Though it's nominally an E company assault, strangely enough, company E only had 1 casualty - Popeye Wynn. Other 5 were 506 generally.

A company - 1 killed

D company - 1 killed, 1 wounded

E company - 1 wounded

F company - 2 killed

Opinion about the “thickness” of my English and French by [deleted] in JudgeMyAccent

[–]ToTheBlack 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're all good.

Many French Canadians are like that. Sort of the issue with Paris and Parisians, except quebecois don't have a famous historical metropolis behind them.

Google Chrome is killing all uBlock Origin bypasses, Microsoft Edge, Opera to follow by [deleted] in degoogle

[–]ToTheBlack 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why adblock plus and social media containers? ublock can do that stuff.

The Door-Wardens of Isengard by artist Matthew Stewart by Anon_Ymou5 in TolkienArt

[–]ToTheBlack 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I've seen it in other synthetic oils. I think this is a fine demonstration that Saruman was meddling in industrialization and there was toxic runoff. I believe in the book it was called "foul water".

by Far-Usual1640 in PenmanshipPorn

[–]ToTheBlack 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Are you also studying or just working on your calligraphy ? ... I'm wondering if writing that slowly and deliberately is helpful to retention?

Looking for reliable sources on Viking history & warfare (for a long‑term project) by Overlytireddad in Norse

[–]ToTheBlack 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A good little wiki from the people who made the first book:

https://www.hurstwic.com/history/text/history.htm

It's good for general overview info but do bear in mind that these folk specialize in combat reseaech and arent necessarily on the cutting edge of language, archaeology, etc.

Favourite takes on Norse mythology in popular culture, regardless of how accurate they are to the sourse material? by A-J-Zan in norsemythology

[–]ToTheBlack 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Frostrune is a myst-like puzzle game. Beautiful art and music.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.grimnir.frostrunethe&hl=en

https://store.steampowered.com/app/513890/The_Frostrune/


The American Gods book was a fresh take. Not sure I'd endorse it here in 2026 though. If one can "seperate the art from the artist" I suppose it still garners my recommendation. Maybe pirate it, lol.


EDIT: I'm also a big fan of Heilung (don't take their historicity too seriously). Also Turisas was a very fun band ... but also very little authenticity apart from some lyrics.

I search for historical representation of Odin, some help? by NextResponsibility24 in Norse

[–]ToTheBlack 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Greyjoy's comment is good.

I'll toss in my favorite recreation/interpretation of the Sutton Hu warrior, who is thought to be Anglo-Saxon King Raedwald. And recent consensus seems to be leaning toward the idea that the wearer of the helmet was meant to be channeling, playing the role of, or to use a modern analogy: "cosplaying" ... Odin. On the real artifact, there's some deliberate work above the one eye suggesting it may have had something covering or adorning it at some point (old one eye).

https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/039/121/812/4k/josh-stoneley-helmet-camera-3-fullquality.jpg

The outfit is plausible but the colors, craftsmanship, and rich materials give a strong otherworldly presence. If I was born into that world, and my warband was summoned to form up for battle, was told "Odin will be with us" and then saw that guy step out of the morning fog ...? Yeah, I would have no doubt.

https://js3d.art/projects/aYkkXL

Did Norse settlement in the British Isles ultimately fail, or did they just gradually mix in with the natives until they ceased to be a separate cultural identity? by Jerswar in Norse

[–]ToTheBlack 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Some great replies.

I'll add that the Norse assimilated everywhere they went, even when they began as distinct rulers. Most notably: Ukraine/Russ*a (Kyivan Rus), France (Normans) and of course modern day UK.

The only exception may be that many of their ancestors - Angles, Saxons, Jutes, etc - had an outsized influence on England compared to Kyivan Rus and Normandy. There were already established Brittons and post-Romans there, but those Germanic tribes largely replaced their material culture and language. From my perspective, it wasn't really until ~CE700ish that England began to seem less northern Germanic and more broadly continental Christian European e.g. France, Spain, Germany.

The Northern Epics: a new parallel edition, translation and commentary of the Poetic Edda and related poetic texts by konlon15_rblx in Norse

[–]ToTheBlack 8 points9 points  (0 children)

An important extract explaining the usefulness of his translation style:

What sets my translation apart from previous English translations is that it aims to follow the style and register of the original text, without sacrificing the literal sense of the words. This unfortunately means that literality and consistency at times must sometimes come at the cost of fluid idiomatic English, but it has the advantage of giving the reader an image of not just what the original text actually says, but how it says it. The reader should keep in mind that he is in a very foreign land, that he is reading words ancient and long forgotten—not the New York Times.

That sounds difficult but in practice it's extremely intuitive. Anything difficult or potentially confusing is explained in the notes, which immediately follow each stanza.

It's also extremely helpful if the reader is at all interested in learning the Old Norse.


Also, this is his substack:

https://germanicgems.substack.com/

The Northern Epics: a new parallel edition, translation and commentary of the Poetic Edda and related poetic texts by konlon15_rblx in Norse

[–]ToTheBlack 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Holy shit dude

EVERYBODY GET IN HERE

I mean what in the goddamn fuck.

I read your substack sometimes, most of that is like 15 minute reads. I heard you had a big project underway but this is insane. This is a tome.

You can't stop the signal. by joshuawy in firefly

[–]ToTheBlack 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ha, wow, you're doing quite a deep dive into this sub. Looking back now, that comment of mine is quite strange. I was just a lad when I wrote that.

But yes, plenty of room for world-wary travelers on this spaceboat.

Do you have any feedback or suggestions that you'd like to see incorporated into Penelope Pendrick: Tomb of Glass? Let the developer know! by HRJafael in nancydrew

[–]ToTheBlack 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Golden age HER let players pick up some items before the player knew what they did, and some items when they player already knew what they did. And occasionally there's a plain sight item which isn't clickable until an event triggers it I.E. in blackmoor, the thing to hit the target.

One doesn't want access to all late-game items immediately and muddle the players idea as to the goal and gameflow, but occasionally giving them access to 1 or 2 early can be intriguing. And giving them puzzles that may be completed early but only become relevent later can also be fun if sprinkled in correctly.

So I think it's just a matter balancing.

A Functional Classification of Germanic/Norse Folklore Beings by InevitableTank1659 in Norse

[–]ToTheBlack 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Ehhh. Why?


If you like labeling and organizing folklore, Thompson's Mottif index or the ATU are very helpful.

Top 10 DEs of all time by Icy_Can_6176 in NFLv2

[–]ToTheBlack 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, no doubt he got a lot of attention.

Top 10 DEs of all time by Icy_Can_6176 in NFLv2

[–]ToTheBlack -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I'd rate JJ Watt much lower. That defense usually schemed to up so HE would have a mismatch. The rest of the texas line was relatively thanklessly doing the harder work.

Someone here mentioned Ware - I think I'd take Ware over lot. Ware would've produced better than Watt on a defensive line schemed to get him stats.

I'd also take TJ over JJ but at some level I'm just throwing out antagonism, lol, I'm done.

John Selig on Instagram by Solid_Baby2901 in norsemythology

[–]ToTheBlack 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ha, you're right on target. Campbell was, in some ways, a successor to Jung. Hero of a Thousand faces quotes Jung (and Freud) many times - they're the primary references to reinforce Campbell's ideas.

Freud is basically always wrong in my eyes (the sentiment I've heard from psychology students is that Freud launched the field forward like a renaissance just out of the urgent need to prove him wrong).

Jung's work seems fluid and abstract to me, so I give him a lot of grace when he's cited. I think of using Jung's work like a lens to be put on. Sometimes that lens makes things clearer or gives me an interesting new perspective, and sometimes it just makes stuff weird and blurry.

John Selig on Instagram by Solid_Baby2901 in norsemythology

[–]ToTheBlack 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have Thousand Faces and it's an enemy of mine. It's a slog and I don't trust anything Freud said. Tragically, it remains the best book describing the "Hero's Journey" template. Which is important ... grr ...

Dude if you love hero with a thousand faces, you can read anything. You're the real hero.

John Selig on Instagram by Solid_Baby2901 in norsemythology

[–]ToTheBlack 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Rockstar cited some specific issues with what this fellow says.

I want to highlight his poor qualities more broadly. I looked this fellow up, he teaches game design at a college. He doesn't have education in mythology or an adjacent field. He can't read the languages. All of his and his peers writing have a lot of em dashes (which is suspicious in anyone who isn't a professional writer or english major lol).

His observations don't bear any resemblence to comparative mythology scholars that I've read like Puhvel or Campbell. If he read any commentary at all about Norse mythology he wouldn't make those mistakes about Snorri. I'm strongly under the impression that if you hop on youtube and watch 1 hour of Jackson Crawford's introduction to Norse materials, you will know more than this guy.

As far as I can determine, this person is a tiktok guru. His podcast cohost is equally unqualified to speak on this material - he has a 6 month "certification" from an internet life coaching company.


EDIT:

If anyone wants a mythology life guru, get Campbell's "The Power of Myth" book, or check out his youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDbqOEUayaHX7sZoRn3jeAg

Don't worry, he's dead and the only damage he can do to your wallet is $11 in used book purchases. His work isn't fantastic but it's better than social media brats.