These are drawings from my project titled 

“Kennings and Serpents”.

It focuses on serpents and dragons in Norse mythology and kennings, a type of metaphor often used in skaldic poetry.

The images are made using a version of a process called deconstruct-reconstruct.

Compressed charcoal

151 x 185 cm

Yggdrasils ask

ilt det heve

meir enn menn det veit:

hjort bit i topp,

treleggen morknar,

Nidhogg riv i rot.

(Frå Gylvaginning, av Snorre Sturlason, oversetning av Erik Eggen, ca.1220)

Compressed charcoal

90 x 100 cm

In all I say

dost thou hatred see,

yet truth alone do I tell;

The sounding gold,

the glow-red wealth,

and the rings thy bane shall be.

(From Fáfnismál, The Poetic Edda, stanzas 9, 13th century)

Compressed charcoal

150 X 165 cm

That cat was not as it appeared to thee:

It was the Midgard Serpent,

which lies about all the land.

(From Prose Edda, by Snorre Sturlason, c.1220)