Did You Guess?

The Red Deer is one of the largest deer species in the world in terms of its size, and inhabits almost all of Western Europe, much of eastern Europe, parts of the middle east, the Baltic region, and a sliver of Northern Africa. These majestic creatures were depicted in European cave art that dates to more than 40,000 years ago and continued to fascinate artists and storytellers through the middle ages. 

As one of the largest land-dwelling mammal species in Scandinavia, the Red Deer is an important part of this region’s history and culture.

In Norse mythology, much of which is passed down to us through collected works like the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, it is recorded in both the poem Grímnismál and the story Gylfaginning that four stags grazed upon the branches of Yggdrasil, the World Tree, and the dew collected from the branches by their antlers created the rivers of the world. 

Hirtir (pronounced like HEER-tir), which is translated from the Old Norse in both sources as “harts,” is the name of this year’s BreyerFest non-equine animal Special Run model. Hirtir has been done on the Elk (mold #77) sculpted by Chris Hess, as a handsome Red Deer. This model will be available to our in-person VIP and All-Access ticket holders only.