Odd Gods

A few years ago I had an idea for an illustrated book about some of the more curious gods and mythological beings from world religions. The idea was to present the history of the universe by way of characters from religions that are no longer adhered to. 

Sadly, I couldn't get a publisher interested but I did write a lot of the book and completed quite a few illustrations. So today I thought I'd share a few with you. All were created digitally using an old piece of software called Paintshop Pro. I rather like its lack of smoothness and finesse. It makes the drawings look less 'digital'. 

First up, here are Andhrimnir - the cook of the Norse Gods - and his magic cauldron, Eldhrímnir. In order to feed his fellow Aesir, he would slaughter and cook a beast called Sæhrímnir. It is not recorded what kind of beast this was, but it must have been a seriously pissed-off beast because every evening it came back to life in time to be slaughtered and eaten again the following day.

I also present to you a selection of Native North American gods who apparently 'kicked the Earth around until it got into a ball shape' in the creation myth of the Apache people.

Now we have Bumba, an African god who vomited up the universe, and the Fachan, a strange Scottish demon described as 'half a man with one leg, one arm and one eye'.

Now here's an Inuit polar bear god and the Aztec drunken rabbit god Ometochtli.

Another Inuit goddess now, the cyclopean Sedna, and the four-headed Slavic god Svarog and his/their pet duck.

And, to round things off, we have the Egyptian goddess Tefnut, the Australian Yara, and Zahhak - the Iranian serpent king who bled worms.

There are many more and I really enjoyed drawing and writing about them. It would be great to get the book off the ground one day, so if any publishers are reading this and fancy the idea ... give me a shout! 

Meanwhile, enjoy the pictures. 

All images (c) 2023 Stevyn Colgan