well before odin’s first birthday kris decided that she’d like to give him a special box as a gift. she didn’t have any grand plans and initially thought that she might make him a simple box that he could use to store whatever special things he might chose to store as he got older. but when his grandma and grandpa salmi heard of the plan, they thought a local wood carver in the upper peninsula of michigan with an interest in traditional norwegian wood carving might be amenable to taking on the challenge of creating a one of a kind gift.

as it happens their friend had studied under phillip odden a renound professional wood carver who has taken it upon himself to revive the dragon or stave church style of carving; he was so enamored with our own odin’s story that he decided to create a fantastically detailed mythological scene of the norse god odin slaying a dragon in the traditional dragon style!

of course, the metaphorical significance of all the dragons that odin has slain and has yet to slay does not escape us 🙂

the detail and craftmanship is astounding and it completely and totally surpasses anything we could have imagined.

many many thanks to grandma and grandpa salmi for commissioning the work of art and to steve lindahl for spending what must have been countless hours carving the box.

it’s absolutely perfect and we’ll keep it the family for generations to come.

>odin’s birthday box even has shelves!

and it’s a big box!

pictures really don’t do justice to how well the box is made. it’s built to last.

odin’s “real” name and birthdate are carved on the inside of his birthday box cover.

a closeup of the cover of odin’s birthday box that shows more of the incredible detail.

and closer still for more of the detail on the cover.

i don’t really know that much about wood carving, but all the curves and bevels (?) seem like they’d take a great deal of time and energy.

of course the odin’s birthday box comes with the most impossibly perfect key!

it’s the archetypal key for a young odin to lock away whatever treasures might require safe keeping.

o.k. maybe this should have just been deleted, but something about the way he’s trying to figure out why grandpa salmi is attempting to get him to look at the camera makes me laugh.

so i kept it 🙂