Norse Mythology/Characters

= The Gods =

Odin
A sky-god who is the head of the pantheon. Modern interpretation of him varies. Some see him as a noble god who respect him for the theme of self-sacrifice and view his ruthless actions as necessary for preventing Ragnarok. Others see this as something of a Misaimed Fandom. They see him as being quite like Zeus- a philanderer and major-league jerk. -
 * A Father to His Men: He isn't called the All-Father for nothing.
 * The Alcoholic: Apparently, he subsists upon naught but mead and wine. However, he's never really described as suffering from the negative effects of it.
 * Big Good
 * Badass
 * Badass Beard
 * Badass Grandpa
 * One-Eyed Badass
 * Big Badass Wolf: He had two pet wolves called Freki and Geri, to whom he would give all the meat served to him.
 * Blade on a Stick: He's well-known for his magical spear Gungnir, which never misses and always kills when thrown.
 * Blind Seer: Halfway there; he sacrificed an eye at Mimir's Well for knowledge.
 * Casanova
 * Crossdresser: Oh yes. He even Disguised in Drag so he could impregnate Rindr.
 * Eaten Alive: By Fenrir.
 * Eye Scream: Self-inflicted to be used as toll for a drink from the Well of Knowledge.
 * Eyepatch of Power: One of the earliest examples.
 * Flight, Strength, Heart: Is the God of war, magic and poetry.
 * Glamour Failure/ Red Right Hand: No matter what form he took, it would always be missing an eye
 * I Did What I Had to Do: And, in his mind, anything justifies delaying or preventing Ragnarok.
 * I Have Many Names: As American Gods put it; 'I have as many names as there are winds and as many titles are there are ways for men to die.'
 * Names to Run Away From Very Fast: One of those names is literally; 'killer'.
 * Jerkass
 * Nice Hat: When wandering around in human guise, he wore a dang cool one.
 * Ravens and Crows: Had a pair of them that would circle the world every day and whisper in his ear the secrets they found at the end of the day. Evidentely they weren't perfect since Odin is portrayed as far from omnipotent and still gets tricked a few times.
 * Robe and Wizard Hat: Very commonly depicted wearing them and possibly Ur Example.
 * Secret Identity: Odin has a habit of visiting Earth in human guise. Depending on his behavior, he may be an Angel Unaware or a Devil in Disguise.
 * Top God: King of the Gods.
 * Trickster: He's really not too different than Loki in many stories - probably explains why the two are blood brothers
 * Voluntary Shapeshifter: One of Odin's specialties, also a trait he shares with Loki.
 * Weapon of Choice: The magic spear Gungnir.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist
 * War God: He's the god of war and patron of berserkers.
 * Warrior Poet: He's the god of war and poetry (among other things).
 * Wizard Beard: Sometimes, probably counts as a Badass Beard as well it gives him the the appearance of a Grandpa God.

Frigg
Odin's wife, who is sometimes confusingly conflated with Freyja. She ruled over motherhood, women and the home. -


 * Animal Motifs: Cats
 * Blessed with Suck: She could see into the future but do nothing to change it.
 * Closer to Earth
 * The High Queen: Regal and majestic but also very benevolent.
 * Living Lie Detector: Her magic necklace glows when a lie is told.
 * Proper Lady
 * Reasonable Authority Figure

Baldr
Odin's son, who developed over time into the Purity Sue of the pantheon. He was immune to damage from anything except mistletoe, and Loki killed him by tricking his blind brother Hod into throwing it at him. -
 * Achilles' Heel / Weaksauce Weakness: To mistletoe
 * Beauty Equals Goodness
 * Bishie Sparkle
 * Bishonen: He's usually described as this.
 * Heroic Albino: Some descriptions of his features sound exactly like those used by Michael Moorcock in the Elric stories.
 * Hijacked by Jesus: A possible explanation for some of his stories.
 * Killed Off for Real: Thanks to Loki, who both tricked his brother into killing him and made sure he couldn't be resurrected.
 * Light Is Good: Though its exclusive to myths hijacked by Jesus; in some stories he wasn't so pleasant. In Gesta Danorum, he is outright villainous.
 * Royal Brat: In the Gesta Danorum.

Thor
A thunder god and the favorite god of the average Norse person (Odin was only really liked by royalty). Carries the title "Friend of the humans" (or, possibly, "Man's Best Friend"). Also has the 4th day of the week named after him (literally "Thor's Day"). -
 * Awesome McCoolname: Well, to start with Thor means thunder. But also the literal translation of Mjolnir is crusher. Yes, apparantly Thor follows the same naming conventions as macho men with their dogs.
 * Boisterous Bruiser
 * Badass
 * Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: When Ragnarök comes, he will kill Jörmungandr, but be fatally poisoned in the process.
 * Big Eater: At his wedding he ate: an entire ox, eight salmon, and all of the available finger food. And he drank three tons of mead.
 * Disguised in Drag: Close to being the trope originator given a humorous tale (Thrymskvida) where he had to impersonate Freyja (Loki's idea of course).
 * Drop the Hammer: Mjolnir is one of the most well known examples.
 * Dumb Muscle: To an extent, although in some stories this seems to be Obfuscating Stupidity.
 * Happily Married: To Sif, his equally revered consort who was concerned with the fertility of the Earth.
 * Battle Couple: Both would often fight side by side.
 * Hot-Blooded: It doesn't take much to set Thor off on a smashing rampage.
 * Let's Get Dangerous: In a couple of stories, he is surprisingly clever; he even outwits Odin once.
 * Mutual Kill: Against Jormungandr.
 * Protectorate: He is the Friend of Humans and Protector Of Midgard, titles he received for his role in defending Midgard, human world, from giants. He's also the god of order, in direct contrast to Odin.
 * Redheaded Hero
 * Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Manly Man to Loki's Sensitive Guy.
 * Shock and Awe
 * Weapon of Choice: His magic hammer Mjolnir.
 * Wolverine Publicity: If there's a heroic Norse god in modern media, it's Thor. Appropriately, Marvel Comics is the most obvious example.

Týr
A noble war god, and the only god who did not fear Fenrir. -
 * An Arm and a Leg: Willingly lost his hand as the price for binding Fenrir the wolf
 * Demoted to Extra: He was the original king of the gods but Odin's popularity supplanted him.
 * Handicapped Badass
 * War God

Víðarr
Vidarr is the son of Odin by Gríðr, a Jötunn who aided the gods against Loki. During the events of the Ragnarök, while Thor fights Jörmungandr, Týr fights Garm, and Freyr fights Surtr, it falls to Víðarr to fight Fenrir. Rising to the challenge, he not only avenges his father, but survives both the battle and the Ragnarök. This earns him a reputation as a god of vengence. - -
 * Badass
 * Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: And the only god to manage it without breaking their arm in the proccess
 * Improbable Weapon User: Uses his good leather boots to kick off Fenrir's top jaw.
 * One-Man Army: Some versions have it that he comes out the Ragnarök completely unscathed
 * Revenge
 * You Killed My Father

Freyja
Mostly a love/lust related goddess, but also is connected to bloodthirst, as Odin made her the commander of Valkyries. Also the patron of warrioresses. -

-
 * Action Girl
 * Amazon Brigade: Her Valkyries.
 * Good Bad Girl: Despite her wantonness, she was of benevolent nature.
 * Hair of Gold
 * Hot Amazon
 * Love Goddess
 * Ms. Fanservice
 * Psychopomp: Lead the Valkyries to the battlefields to choose and lead the souls who would enter the Valhalla and reclaim that of women who go down fighting.
 * Really Gets Around: In a Never Live It Down moment, slept with several dwarf siblings in the course of a night in exchange for a necklace she wanted.
 * Tears To Jewel: Her tears would eventually turn to gold.

Freyr
Freya's brother; they were both part of the Vanir, the other group of gods opposing the Aesir, until they ended up being part of Odin's group alongside their father Njord. A god of fertility and sex, generally more benevolent than his sister, and ultimately dies in Ragnarok as he gave up his magic sword for the love of a giantess.


 * Alternate Mythology Equivalent: To Apollo; both are sun related gods associated with sexuality, and are not the only light realted deities in their pantheon (the situation of replacement in the written myths is actually inverse: Apollo pretty much replaced Helios as the sun god, while Baldr replaced Freyr as a light god).
 * Bishounen
 * Bi the Way: A common interpretation of his character. Not really surprising considering he was a god of sexuality.
 * Chekhov's Missing Sword: He give his sword to Skirnir so his shield man could help him to win Gerd's heart. It isn't until Ragnarok that this event has a huge impact - Freyr fails to stop Surt since he is without weapon, allowing Surt to burn the world.
 * Estrogen Brigade Bait
 * Fertile Feet
 * Full Boar Action: Had a boar made of gold by the dwarves, so detailed it even was covered in fur!
 * Light'Em Up: Often associated with the sun and light, though Balder seems to have replaced him as that in myths Hijacked by Jesus.
 * Our Elves Are Better: Lord of the realm of the elves, Alfleim, and overall they were supposed to be like him.
 * With This Herring: Fought and killed Gerd's brother with an antler after giving up his sword.

Heimdall
The Watchman of the Aesir, permanently guarding the Bifrost Bridge against any threat - a task made easier by the fact that he can see and hear everything that happens in the world, and never needs to sleep. Left his post once to outdo Loki in retrieving Freyja's necklace from some giants, and then again for their final (and mutually fatal) battle.


 * Covert Pervert: Guess whose idea it was to dress Thor in drag?
 * Has NINE Mommies: Has an unusual Origin Story, in some versions just appearing fully formed from the sea but in others being given birth to by each of the sea god's daughters, of which there were nine (one for each wave in a cycle).
 * Hypercompetent Sidekick
 * Light Is Good: He represents the benefits of fire.
 * Mutual Kill: With Loki.
 * The Quiet One
 * The Rival: To Loki.
 * Super Senses
 * Triple Shifter

= Loki and his children =

Loki
""Because," said Thor, "when something goes wrong, the first thing I always think is, it is Loki's fault. It saves a lot of time.""

- Neil Gaiman, "The Treasures of the Gods", Norse Mythology

Not actually a god in most telling, but the child of giants (the rivals of the Norse pantheon). A Trickster Archetype who has been often turned into a Satan equivalent, he is something of an Ensemble Darkhorse to modern audiences. (Well, he's probably the only being in all mythology who tricked his way into being a God.) - -
 * Adaptation Dye Job: Be honest, who actually knew he was originally a redhead? Some drawings even literally have him with his head on fire!
 * Badass Mustache: Certain old depictions of Loki show with a mustache that resembles that of another character.
 * Big Eater: In one story he just loses an eating contest to the embodiment of fiery destruction.
 * Despite still playing the Lean and Mean to Thor's Dumb Muscle. Hyperactive Metabolism much?
 * But You Get Screwed By One Horse!
 * Canon Foreigner: While most Norse gods have obvious Indo-European roots and equivalents in other Indo-European-derived religions (for example, Tyr is a distant cousin of Zeus) Loki doesn't even appear in other Germanic myths. He seems to be unique to Scandinavian traditions and nobody's entirely sure how he got there.
 * Cute Monster Guy: While admittedly, giantesses sometimes got the Cute Monster Girl treatment, Loki is a good-looking male giant, and notably, most of his kids (male and female) are hideous monsters.
 * Defector From Decadence: In the Lokasenna, the gods imprison and torture him not for Baldur's death, but for the brutally-honest "The Reason You Suck" Speech he delivers. Is it any wonder he fights against them at Ragnarok?
 * Determinator: When Loki gives his word he keeps it, whether for good or ill. He'll keep on going even when the likes of Odin have given up.
 * Evil Redhead
 * Extreme Omnisexual: He's done it with men, women, and even a horse.
 * Face Heel Turn: When his pranks go too far and result in Baldur being Killed Off for Real, the gods imprison Loki in a cave with a serpent dripping venom into his face for eternity. When Loki breaks free, he will not be happy.
 * Flaming Hair: Is sometimes depicted with this. Also, one of his kennings is actually "Flame-Hair."
 * Fiery Redhead: Not as much as Thor, but he has his moments.
 * Gender Bender: Frequently.
 * Glasgow Grin: The result of having his lips sewn together by some vengeful dwarves.
 * Hijacked by Jesus: ...And turned into Satan. Though even in the more generous tales Loki is usually a trouble maker who causes the trouble he is forced by the gods to fix.
 * Kaleidoscope Eyes: The one thing he can't disguise. The source of his Glamor Failure several times over.
 * The Lancer: Take this role while he joins Thor to visit Utgard and when they retrieve stolen Mjollnir.
 * Large Ham: See the Lokasenna. When Loki gets on a roll, there's no shutting him up.
 * Light Is Not Good: Over time, he acquired an association with fire (due to a Rouge Angles of Satin- Logi is the Norse for fire), and tends to be portrayed as a Bishounen much like Lucifer.
 * One of his origins was that he came out of a tree struck by lightning. He represents fire that harms.
 * Lovable Traitor
 * Manipulative Bastard
 * Mister Seahorse: Odin's steed Sleipnir was born when Loki assumed the form of a mare and let the stallion of a giant who was building Asgard's walls couple with "her" to sap his strength.
 * In some retellings, Loki gave birth to Hel himself by swallowing the heart of the monstrous lover upon whom he fathered Fenrir and Jormungandr.
 * Mutual Kill: With Heimdall.
 * Not So Different: Despite all his many MANY faults (including promiscuity), he was also quite a family man just like Odin and Thor. Notably he was said to have been raising his kids alone in secret after his first wife died. (Of course that was a BAD thing since they were monsters and Odin subsequently locked them away, but still.)
 * One Steve Limit: Played With rather hilariously in one story, where he and Thor meet two men called Utgard-Loki and Logi. Unsurprisingly, they're actually lying.
 * Playing with Fire: Is sometimes associated with Fire.
 * Really Gets Around
 * Scars Are Forever: The ones he acquired when the dwarves sewed his mouth shut.
 * Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Sensitive Guy to Thor's Manly Man.
 * Shapeshifting Seducer: Aside from turning into a mare and seducing the stallion Svadilfari, Loki has a reputation for getting knocked up by mortal men and trolls.
 * Shapeshifting Squick
 * Sissy Villain
 * Tall, Dark and Snarky: Loki's a Redhead but, he still qualifies.
 * Most modern depictions play this straight by giving him an Adaptation Dye Job though..
 * Trickster
 * And a Troll both literally and figuratively.
 * The Vamp: Loki shapeshifts into a mare and uses all his marely charms to seduce the stallion Svadilfari in order to save Asgard.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: To Odin and Thor
 * Voluntary Shapeshifter: At last count, he's taken the form of a fly, a flea, a hawk, a salmon, a horse, and a woman - the latter multiple times.

Fenrir
Loki's first son, sometimes also called Vanargandr. When the gods learn that he is fated to kill Odin, they bind and seal him when he's still young, with Tyr losing his arm in the process. When Ragnarok comes, he indeed kills Odin, but is killed by Odin's son in return. - -
 * Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: His final size is such that when he opens his mouth, the lower jaw rests on the ground and the upper jaw hits the sky.
 * It is also stated (in the Prose Edda) that, "he would gape yet more if there were room for it."
 * Badass
 * Big Badass Wolf: Emphasis on BIG
 * Canis Major: Ridiculously huge.
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy: The gods try 'playing' with him by binding him using incrementally thicker chains to no avail, with Fenrir boasting about it. When the gods decide to use thin, fabric-like magical rope, Fenrir quickly deduces the rope is unusual and refuses to play being bound, at least until Tyr "gambles" his hand so that Fenrir finally agrees to be bound. (In Neil Gaiman's retelling, it wasn't much of a gamble; Tyr knew before he volunteered that he would lose his hand because the gods weren't going to play fair.)
 * The Dreaded
 * Hero-Killer: Destined to kill Odin, responsible for the maiming of Tyr, harbinger of the Apocalypse...yeah he counts.
 * Horror Hunger: One of the reasons he has to be chained up.
 * Just Eat Him: He eats Odin.
 * Kill the God: Kills Odin.
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: Bound for as long as the Sun and the Moon remain in the sky. Depending on the versions of the myth, his sons, Skoll and Hati, may be trying to do something about that.
 * Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: In Neil Gaiman's retelling of Norse Mythology, Fenrir states that he would have been an ally of the gods if they hadn't gone against their word to unbind him when he couldn't break his bonds.
 * You Killed My Father: Inflicted on him by the actual God of Vengeance no less.

Jormungandr
Loki's second son. When he is but a small snake, the gods toss him to the ocean. And then he grows big enough to circle the world. He has beefs with Thor, up to the Ragnarok, where the two face off and kill each other. - -
 * Arch Enemy: To Thor.
 * Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: As big or bigger than Fenrir. He wraps all the way around Midgard, with his tail in his mouth.
 * Badass
 * Breath Weapon: Breathes poison.
 * The Dreaded
 * Hero-Killer: Much like his older brother, he absolutely terrifies the gods and will eventually slay Thor.
 * Kill the God: Thor
 * Kraken and Leviathan: The largest being in the ocean, dwarfing even the Kraken. As is the case with many of these beings, he more or less stays where he is until the end of days.
 * Mutual Kill: He and Thor. The Thunderer manages to kill Jormungandr, but the latter's breath poisons him and he only makes it nine steps before keeling over dead.
 * Ouroboros: Some texts describe him as biting his own tail after growing so big.
 * Poisonous Person: His Breath Weapon.
 * Sea Monster: The sea monster to end all sea monsters. There isn't an ocean in Midgard that doesn't have a part of him in it.
 * Snakes Are Evil

Hel
Daughter to Loki and the giantess Angrborda. Goddess of Death and ruler of Helheim who welcomes the souls of those who died of old age, disease or by accident.


 * All of the Other Reindeer: She was mostly an outcast and generally not very well perceived among all the other Gods and mortals alike.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: Isn't a malevolent goddess per se, despite what people may think, and keeps her word when she gives it.
 * Egopolis: Hel is the ruler of Helheim, and -heim is basically norse for "home."
 * Face Revealing Turn: With her vertical asymmetry thing I'd expect she gets this a lot..
 * Hijacked by Jesus: Her realm was originally played as dreary, but not exactly a place of torture. (To the norse, not going to the warrior's afterlife was the big torture in itself.) Christianity turned into.. well, Helheim. And like it says above, she was orignally just patchwork coloured, which progressed to either half a skeleton/rotting corpse or half old woman.
 * The original myths actually state that there are three afterlives. Those who die in battle go to Valhalla to prepare for Ragnarok. Those who die of sickness or old age go to Helheim, which is dull and dreary, but not a bad place. Those who die after committing what the Norse regarded as sins (such as oathbreaking) are punished by being sent to Niflheim, which is described as a monstrous fortress, located somewhere in Helheim, woven from the poison-dripping skeletons of serpents, situated behind several deadly rivers, and where the damned wade through sucking blood and have nothing to drink but the urine supplied by a herd of foul-tempered black goats that roam the fortress.
 * I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Resented her father for having made her look the way she did.
 * Ice Queen: Stoic, dour and cold.
 * Overshadowed by Awesome: Seldom seen in the myths, apart from Baldr's death, since she would interfere with the other Asgardians' plans only when it concerned her directly.
 * Too Awesome to Use?
 * Plague Mistress: Her concerns included spreading diseases, misfortune and accidents, which she could cause with a wave of her hand.
 * Two-Faced

Slepnir
Loki's son and odin's horse. It may be worth noting that Loki played the role of the mother when it came the reproductive origins of this offspring.
 * Cool Horse

= Other characters =

Valkyries
The Death Maidens, sweep down on battlefields to carry the most valiant warriors to Odins hall.


 * Amazon Brigade
 * Grim Reapers
 * Ladies of War
 * Old Soldier: The type of people they are looking for
 * Psychopomp
 * "Ride of the Valkyries"
 * The Wild Hunt
 * War Is Glorious
 * Warrior Heaven
 * Wolverine Publicity: Mostly thanks to Wagner.

Surtr
The Lord of the Fire Giants and King of Muspelheim, Surtr is destined to kill Freyr, and burn the world with the black sword Laveteinn at the peak of Ragnarok while his legions destroy the Bifrost.

-
 * Badass
 * Canon Immigrant: Some believe he first got his start from Iceland, being based off the volcanic activity around there.
 * Cool Sword: Laveteinn
 * Flaming Sword
 * Depending on the Writer: His Flaming Sword. Sometimes, it was always his, but has no name, others it's Laveteinn and again always his, or Laevteinn used to belong to Loki and he somehow got it, or it's the sword Freyr gave away (though neither the last two explain how the sword grew for a Fire Giant to wield it).
 * Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: Sometimes in retellings, he and his kin literally just arrive with no hype when Ragnarok begins.
 * Hero-Killer: "At the end of the world he will go and wage war and defeat all the gods and burn the whole world with fire."
 * Hijacked by Jesus: Is often depicted as a Satan-like figure elsewhere.
 * Karma Houdini: Though it's ambiguous if Surtr survives Ragnarok, no one is reported to have killed him during it. On the other hand, he isn't reported as having survived Ragnarok, either.
 * Kill the God: Frey and anybody else who gets in his way.
 * Large and In Charge
 * Omnicidal Maniac: One of the major players at Ragnarok, and the one most directly responsible for the end of the world.
 * Our Giants Are Bigger
 * Playing with Fire

Garm
Hel's dog, the greatest and most terrible of hounds, Garm guards the gates to her realm. At Ragnarok he will lead her legions against the rest of the world, and he and Tyr will slay one another. -

-
 * Angry Guard Dog
 * Hell Hound
 * Mutual Kill: With Tyr.

Níðhöggr
One of the oldest beings in Norse myth, Níðhöggr is a dragon who has existed since creation. He sits beneath the entire World Tree Yggdrasill itself, gnawing at its roots. Basically he stays there until Ragnarok, and when he joins in - well, that's when things get really bad for the rest of creation. -


 * Arch Enemy: To an unnamed Eagle at the top of the World Tree that it will fight during the Ragnarok
 * Eldritch Abomination: Is typically described in these sorts of terms. The simple fact that he encompasses Yggdrasil's entire root system, and has the power to unmake creation is a bit of a tip off that we aren't dealing with anything normal here.
 * Gotterdammerung: Possibly the original Ragnarok's strongest player, which is generally not good for anyone else.
 * Karma Houdini: Völuspá ends with a description of Níðhöggr, with a corpse in his jaws, flying through the air. And this comes after the description of the new world after the resurrection of Baldr.
 * Misanthrope Supreme: Motivated solely by the desire to kill everything.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Its name means "Malice-striker"
 * Omnicidal Maniac: He's trying to tear down Yggdrasill. He's this by definition. Unlike Jormungandr and Fenrir, who just seem to like killing things, or Surtr, who views the apocalypse in terms of the giant/god war, Nidhoggr honestly just seems to want the end of the world.
 * Our Dragons Are Different: Our dragons are ancient, Pure Evil beings who seek the end of creation.
 * The End of the World as We Know It: He plays a major role in and is a portent of Ragnarok
 * World Tree: Gnaws at the roots.

Glut
Loki's first wife and a jotun, who has all but been forgotten. Her name literally means "Glow," and she's the mother of two daughters by Loki named Eisa (Embers) and Einmyria (Ashes). -


 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome
 * Playing with Fire: Given the meaning of her name and the names of her daughters with Loki, this is pretty much a given.