The Paganesque and The Tale of Vǫlsi

Challenges the concept that the notorious horse penis is key to understanding the Tale of Vǫlsi , via the concept of the "paganesque". A family of Norwegian pagans, stubbornly resisting the new Christian religion, worship a diabolically animated preserved horse penis, intoning verses as they pass it from hand to hand until King Olaf the Saint intervenes. This is the matter of the medieval Tale of Vǫlsi . Traditionally, it has been read as evidence of a pre-Christian fertility cult - or simply di