Roar Ydse was a Norwegian artist, illustrator , and storyteller whose work forms the creative foundation of Wingtor of Norway.

Deeply fascinated by history and Norse mythology, he dedicated much of his life to bring ancient stories and culture heritage to life through art. Although largely self-taught , huh continuously developed his skills, including studies in Paris.

In 1942, he won Aftenposten's national newspaper the cartoon strip competition with the character Vingtor, which later inspired the Wingtor of Norway brand and its connection to Norse mythology .

Among his most notable achievements were the three monumental mosaics created for Ringnes Brewery in Oslo.

A true multidisciplinary artist, Roar Ydse worked with drawings, paintings, mosaics, stained glass and illustration . His passion for storytelling, history and craftsmanship continues to inspire the products, symbols and values of Wingtor of Norway today .

Roar Ydse was more than an artist. He was a storyteller, a cultural communicator and a creative force whose work continues to inspire new generations .

Roar Ydse was someone who spent a life looking closely at Norwegian history and nature and found, in both, a visual language worth preserving.

His drawings have the quality of things made without urgency — unhurried lines, symbols that feel earned rather than invented, ornamental forms rooted in a tradition that stretches back further than any single artist's hand. He understood Norse mythology not as costume or spectacle, but as a living inheritance: stories that had shaped how Norwegians understood land, weather, time, and one another.

One of our signature designs, the Vingtor Blanket, is based on Norse symbols and ornamental motifs originally created by Ydse for an illustrated publication on Nordic heritage in the 1960s. We returned to that source material not to reproduce it exactly, but to understand it — to ask what it meant and whether we could carry that meaning forward into something you could hold in your hands. We believe we can. We believe the blanket answers the question.

The vision for Vingtor of Norway has always been to create designs drawn from Norwegian landscape and Viking history — patterns that work as well on a hillside in Bergen as in a living room in Berlin. Not Nordic nostalgia packaged for export. Something with real roots that can also travel. Ydse's work made that possible. His eye for the mythic geometry of the natural world gave us a visual foundation that does not need explaining, only experiencing.

Our logo is perhaps the clearest expression of what that inheritance means to us. Originally drawn by Ydse, it depicts Odin's two ravens — Hugin and Munin. Their names, in Norse, mean Thought and Memory.

Each day, the ravens flew across the entire world — over every sea, through every forest, past every settlement — gathering knowledge and returning to Odin to share what they had seen and heard. They were his understanding. His reach beyond what any single perspective could hold. In a mythology full of force and thunder, the ravens are something quieter: a reminder that wisdom comes from looking, and that what is worth knowing must first be sought.

We chose them for a reason. Thought and Memory are not incidental values for a brand built on Norwegian heritage and Norwegian craft. They are the whole point. Memory is why we work with Ydse's designs rather than starting from nothing. Thought is why we do not simply repeat the past, but ask what it means now, made from Norwegian wool, arriving at your door in the twenty-first century.

The ravens fly. They always return. And they bring something back worth keeping.