Embroidering the end of the world

Today officially marks one year of my fiance and I being engaged! So, as a spur of the moment present to mark the occasion, I decided to quickly run up a little embroidered dustjacket to go round one of Robin’s much-thumbed books:

The book wearing the jacket is The Poetic Edda, a collection of Old Norse poems considered to be one of the most important extant sources on Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends.

What to embroider on a book about Norse myth but a carving from Urnes Stave Church, an 11th/12th century church and UNESCO heritage site in Norway:

More specifically, the carving on the North Portal, which has been interpreted as symbolising Ragnarok or the Norse myth about the end of the world:

photo: Nina Aldin Thune

The book jacket is basically a heavy cotton drill, folded and stitched into a simple dustjacket, with the design worked in stem stitch in cotton embroidery thread:

All this reminds me that the wedding is coming up in June, which means there’s a dress to design and make. Eek, better get a move on!