About HUGR EDDA

“Time solves many things — it’s okay to not be okay.”

-Niklen, 2019

What is HUGR EDDA?

HUGR EDDA is a poetry project that was started in 2015 and was created by Niklen, real name Nicholas Allen who is based in the Los Angeles Basin, that highlights the philosophical and emotional mindsets of his everyday life. HUGR means "mind, thought, or soul" in Old Norse. The original meaning is unknown but it has been translated as such and normally appears in Pagan folklore and rituals as a form of animatism. EDDA means "a collection of poems" in Old Norse; This is very similar to the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda, which are collections of Norse poems that explain what was left of the mythologies of the Scandinavian world. 
HUGR EDDA is a representation of different mindsets over many years; The concepts expressed in this collection are not a direct representation of how the author currently is but rather when the poem was written. While this website is meant as a way to publicly access the poems that are written, the main focus and goal of this project are to have 60 total poems and two sagas and to have them be combined into one book. All of the poems will be organized in the book alphabetically; There will also be one poem per letter. 
Many of these poems are heavily inspired by music and other kinds of media. Almost all of these inspirations do not fully follow the HUGR EDDA mindset and are simply part of the author's daily media consumption. Each poem can easily reference what the author was interested or involved with at the time of its publication. Finally, none of these poems that are shown are considered to be traditional poems, however, some of them have similar rhyming structure. 
UPDATE: As of April 2023, the project is halfway done ツ

The Meaning Of The HUGR EDDA Logo

Runes are an old Norse method of divination that were used on good luck amulets and protection talimans. Runes are normally cast onto clothing or inscribed onto pieces of stone or wood for ritualistic, Pagan purposes. The logo contains Elder Fuþark (Futhark) runes, which is the oldest Norse alphabet and consists of 24 letters. A bind rune is a series of runes put together on a singular vertical line (stave) or in a radial pattern (radial stave) to create a symbol that has a conceptual meaning. This bind rune is supposed to represent the communication and understanding of creativity and emotions through an awakening of nature by overcoming life's obstacles. 
  • ᚨ or A [Ansuz] - Represents an estuary - Symbolizes mouth, communication, understanding, and inspiration
  • ᚲ or C/K [Kennaz] - Represents a torch - Symbolizes vision, creativity, inspiration, improvement, and vitality
  • ᚺ or H [Hagalaz] - Represents hail - Symbolizes nature, wrath, being tested, and overcoming obstacles
  • ᛚ or L [Laguz] - Represents water - Symbolizes intuition, emotions, flow, renewal, dreams, and hopes and fears
  • ᛞ or D [Dagaz] - Represents dawn - Symbolizes awakening, certainty, illumination, completion, and hope
There is no proper way to write a bind rune. The sigil created for this project was completely created by hand and transferred over into a photo-editting software to give off the "ink-blot" look it portrays.
Please keep in mind that this sigil is a contemporary expression of a bind rune and is not fully anthropologically correct. Elder Fuþark is an alphabetic language as a result of its anglicization as it was originally iconographic; Due to it's anglicization, runes are often misused and misconstrued and the one portrayed here is artistically derivative.

About The Author ^•ω•^

Nicholas “Nick” Patrick Dunn-Allen, or Niklen, is an Irish-Welsh-American born in Santa Monica, CA in 2001. He graduated from Palisades Charter High School in 2019. He started writing poems around 2016 as a creative outlet. After receiving praise from one of his teachers in early high school for his poems, he took up poetry as an emotional outlet. Five years of poetic therapy later, he realized it could be turned into something more.

In 2021, www.hugredda.com/ was formally created as a poetry anthology blog. Within the first year of creation, he started to post poetry within days of completion. His poetry conveys the varying emotions and experiences of his childhood and early 20s through the influence of philosophy, pop culture (entertainment and slang), folklore, music, and mythology. He writes in myriad forms of poetry with varying iambic pentameters; He most commonly writes in free verse. He has since graduated from Santa Monica College in 2023 with two AATs in Anthropology and History and an Associate’s Degree in Liberal Arts: Social and Behavioral Science. He is currently attending the University of California, Berkeley pursuing a Bachelor’s in Anthropology with a Minor in Celtic Studies.

CONTACT ME: nicholas.patrick.dunn.allen@gmail.com or through the social media links above