The Holmekollen troll, Oslo, Norway by Shyamal, 2008. Wikimedia Commons.

This marks the third installment of JH Roberts's regular column Popular Resonances. Popular Resonances examines references to ancient Germanic culture and Germanic mythology in modern popular culture as it happens. For more information on the feature, please see Roberts's introductory post here.

Video Games:

The Great Whale Road is a new seafaring RPG by Sunburned Games. It is available on Steam Early Access. They also give you the option of writing an heroic poem to win a Steam key. I believe you would submit the poem through their Twitter. The name comes from the most famous kenning in Beowulf, hron-rād for whale-road, describing the sea.

Jotun: Valhalla edition will be released for WiiU, Playstation 4 and XBox One in early September. The Valhalla edition contains one extra mode not included in the PC version, released last year. For more information, see this review on Pushsquare. Norse myth abounds in this game, including Mímisbrunnr.

Movies:

With Thor: Ragnarok filming underway, there is almost too much news to report. The essentials include this short film of Thor explaining why he wasn’t in Captain America: Civil War, teasers of Loki’s costume on Tom Hiddleston’s instagram, plus different costumes in these new set photos, and even more set photos. I suggest keeping on eye on Taika Waititi and Chris Hemsworth’s Twitter accounts, and Mark Ruffalo’s instagram account for more updates, as well as Nerdist.

Comics:

Drew Weing’s The Creepy Case Files of Margo Maloo chapters 1-3, now out in print as well as online, contains trolls in the first chapter.

Professional Wrestling:

ThunderFrog, a character based on when Marvel’s Thor changed into a frog, joined with Princess KimberLee and Oleg the Usurper to become the Warriors Three at Chikara’s King of Trios. The Warriors Three is another reference to Marvel’s Thor, whose Warriors Three consist of Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg, but do not have analogs in Norse myth.

Books:

According to this press release, Operation Ragnarok by Kevin J. Coolidge, a novella about middle-aged gamers who steal a Viking longship during their mid-life crises. There is a giveaway on the Goodreads page.

Memes:

Brad Takei posted a viral meme originally from 2013, featuring a girl dressed as a combination of Thor and Cinderella. Her version of Thor comes through Marvel, and her CInderella comes through Disney, but both have Germanic roots. The folklorists Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collected a German version of Cinderella titled Aschenputtel in their Kinder- und Hausmärchen collection of fairy tales, published 1812.

Music:

Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys has named his son Odin Reign Carter.