of the crescent

This piece was inspired by Scandanavian myth. I wanted to create a fictional world based on many myth's which I have taken great care in learning about. The title is a referance to Urdu (the maiden) and the character (though never named) in the picture is a priestess of this goddess. I imagine two nations, one reflecting the judao-christian traditions of rome around 100 b.c.e. and the other, the beliefs and traditions of Scandanavia around the same time... the funny thing here is that I wanted to delve pretty deeply into those belief structures while simultaniously making a comic book out of them. Abstract? yes of course, but it would have been neat!

This girl was to be a war priestess of sorts. I imagined that in some of the lands I never named or created, the Norse peoples would yield (as they did many times) to the romans and convert to christianity. I also imagined that some people would only pretend to convert, thereby avoiding conflict and having time to think of ways to counteract the crusade. She was to be a member of a very secret group of priestesses, paying tribute to Thor and Urdu. The key symbol of Urdu is the waxing moon. Thus the weapons that she and her fellow priestesses used were made to look like crescent's.