Here's another piece from the chess set I never finished. A pawn, I guess.Another minotaur of sorts. Actually, I think of the piece as a Viking faun, if I may mix my traditions. No horned helmet--an inaccuracy, that, anyway--but a horned head. The fierceness and the shagginess call out "Viking" to my mind.
Bullish and goatish both, though not Mediterranean at all: no Cretan sleekness, no Classical spareness here. The severity is rough and textured. Rough weather; rough water. Cold, kelpy seas; the swift shifting of the seasons; dark forests of oak and pine; harsh frost and snow; wolves and bears and boars (oh my). Bear-shirted berserkers, man-beasts, beast-men. What's his lineage, truly?
If Viking goats seem too far-fetched, recall that Thor the Thunder-god's chariot is pulled by two goats. (At least, until trickster Loki lames one of them.) And the sound of those chariot wheels rumbling across Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge of Asgard, makes the thunder we hear down here on Midgard (or Middle-Earth). I like Thor, defender of gods and men against the frost-giants and all things unhallowed. Thor, whose very name echoes the Norse word for "giant" (thurs), always strikes me as the street-cop of that northern pagan pantheon.
My piece: Beowulf's henchman, perhaps, or Hrothgar's pawn. I haven't named him yet. Perhaps the name of one of Thor's goats would suit?
Hrothgar's Pawn: sculpture mix; deep green glaze.
