Kilk Yggdrasil and Kilk Dusk

I bought these pens with my own money, and I am not affiliated with any of the vendors and creators involved.

I’ve wanted a Kilk pen for a few years now, and came close to buying one numerous times. I wanted the Endless special edition, Selene, and missed it - and when the Kilk Luna came around last year, I missed that one too. I saw it and thought at first that I preferred the Selene, so I did not want to buy a consolation moon pen. But after a while, I realized that I actually preferred the Luna - it had so many incredible details - but by that time, the pen was sold out. That’s the danger with limited editions.

The Kilk Yggdrasil pen comes in incredible packaging. There’s also an interior box, which is grey, and reminded me of Scribo.

This year, I bought two Kilk pens in a single season: Kilk Dusk (in October), and Kilk Yggdrasil (in November). Both of these pens were Hatch special editions from Endless Pens, and both of them were made in collaboration with artists (Pens and Turquoise Brown and From Pens with Love). I bought the Kilk Dusk before the Kilk Yggdrasil was announced. If I knew about both in advance, I would still get both pens.

Kilk Dusk, Kilk Yggdrasil, and a raven friend. You cannot have Norse mythology without ravens.

These are incredibly well made, well thought out, beautiful pens - and after stacked discounts, they offer very good value. The resins are mixed especially for the projects, and the craftsmanship is superb. I know that previously Kilk pens shipped with Bock nibs, but there’d been a recent switch to Jowo. It’s not an issue for me, as I swapped a Franklin Christoph SIG nib into each of those pens. Currently, the Dusk has a FC BB SIG, and the Yggdrasil has an EF Flex SIG with an ebonite feed. SIG nibs are just really, really good; I’m a lover of italic situations, and in the fall and winter seasons, I enjoy using my SIG nibs with shimmer inks.

I’m keeping both pens — at least for now. The Dusk is a gorgeous star and sun and moon sterling band; it is the Epigram model, which has a cigar shape. I love the resin, which has deep blues and some flashes of peach with a lot of shimmer; the blank was made by Jonathon Brooks. It’s a very refined offering, and the blank and the band are absolutely mesmerizing, and work well together. My only issue with the Epigram is the lack of a roll-stop. Clipless pens are rare in the Gathering. I like not to worry about my pens rolling off the desk. A star-shaped roll-stop would be perfect, and I might yet mod one down the road, or I might not. The pen is currently inked with the last of my Diamine Storm sample; I am looking forward to inking it with Diamine Early Dusk in January.

Kilk Yggdrasil with a Franklin Christoph EF SIG Flex nib, being observed here by the beadbird.

Yggdrasil. Let me explain this: I am an Old Norse nerd. I began teaching myself Old Norse in high school, before it was cool, before any of these films and books existed. I studied Old Norse in college. I decided against Old Norse as the focus of my career, but I continued to study it in graduate school, and I was a member of the Berkeley Saga Club. I’ve not done anything academically with Old Norse in a long time, but I still think about it - here’s a poem about burnout which I published last year and which has quite a bit of Old Norse in it.

Kilk Yggdrasil on a page of the Poetic Edda describing the ash tree Yggdrasil. In the light of a November morning, the pen is harder to photograph, but this resin has incredible richness.

When this pen was announced, the teaser reel showed the band and some runes and a tree. I started telling my friends, “I hope it’s called Yggdrasil.” I did not stop at that. I figured out what the URL might be for a Kilk pen called Yggdrasil on the Endless website and I refreshed that for a few days. The link did not go to a live page, but refreshing it provided me with some respite during an awful time. When the pen — which was indeed called Yggdrasil —was finally revealed the day before release, my first thought was, “I hoped it would be more green.” My second thought was, “I am getting this anyway.” I was really sick during that time. I was literally running a fever when I bought the pen, which was within minutes of release. I guessed the name. I even guessed the URL. I am not very neurotypical.

After I bought the pen, I took some time scrutinizing the photos, and I watched the video Christine uploaded about her inspiration the pen. I loved everything Christine shared, but I was still thinking that I wanted this to be greener, and doubt began to creep in. Did I make the right decision? Did I really need this pen? Would it be too similar to my Momento Magico in Bohemian Twilight, one of my all-time favorite pens?

There is definitely an aesthetic similarity between the Leonardo Momento Magico Bohemian Twilight and the Kilk Yggdrasil, but they are also different enough that I am not worried (for now).

I slept on it and I decided that yes, I still wanted this pen, and I was excited to receive it.

Kilk Yggdrasil with some FC SIG nibs (long may they reign) and two Menagerie friends, beadbird and raven. The raven is new to the Menagerie and has many things to say :)

The Yggdrasil is glorious.

The sterling silver work is wonderful. Turkey has a rich heritage of the Ottoman silversmithing arts, and it’s evident in the sterling accents of Kilk pens.The finial and the clip are sterling, as is the band. There is a little “925” mark on the underside of the clip. The band on the Yggdrasil is wider than the band of the Dusk; the Yggdrasil is based on their Celestial model. The pen is not too heavy, but it does not feel light at all. This is a pen with substance. It’s also a very Gatheringy pen.

Kilk Yggdrasil in hand

The finial

This is a winter tree. A moment of hibernation and stillness, an unfolding of a very old song. It’s cold in Norway this time of year - at least it was when I visited many years ago, the world is changing now — but this song is made of winter, made of stories going deep into shadow, into that time when the tree is leaf-stripped and windblown, when the promise of rebirth is only glimpsed, only dreamt of, between the cold branches, the twigs; here in the winterdark.

It’s seasonal. It’s timely.

It’s mine.

Raven and beadbird are assisting with ink selection for my Kilk Yggdrasil.

I have inked the Yggdrasil with Vert Atlantide, a shimmer ink from Jacques Herbin. It is green, but subtle and restrained, elegant, reminding me of buried histories that never quite leave us. I am going to see if I can get a special nib for this pen. I am going to keep writing.