Norse Mythology/Shout-Out

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Next to the Shout-Outs to Shakespeare, (if not surpassing it) are the Shout-Outs to the Norse Mythology as a whole. Maybe because everything sounds Badass, cool or just awesome by naming someone/something after a Norse deity such as Thor, Odin or Loki. Whatever the case, we've Seen It a Million Times.

If several people or things in the same work are all named in reference to Norse Mythology, it's Theme Naming, not a set of shout-outs.

See also Religious and Mythological Theme Naming.

The Valkyries have their own page.

There's a huge list in That Other Wiki.


Multimedia

  • "Mistilteinn" (or variations thereof) is a popular name for a weapon in various anime and video games. It's usually used In Name Only, since the original was a small dart – the dart that killed Balder – while the references tend to be swords, spears or lances.

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

  • The Marvel Comics characters Thor and Loki. Thor is In Name Only - they didn't even get his hair colour right - while Loki has his evil side turned Up to Eleven and his good side minimized.
  • Bill Willingham's Elementals also had a Thor, who was portrayed as being closer to the Eddas than Marvel's Thor was. It was also mentioned that this Thor survived Ragnarok, which humans called World War II... and he was quick to explain to the team's Jewish member that what his worshippers did had nothing to do with him.
  • The Danish series Valhalla, which uses the Eddas as starting points for the story arcs.

Fan Works

Literature

  • Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman - a remarkably faithful retelling of the eddas.
  • American Gods, also by Neil Gaiman. Its protagonist undergoes a quest remarkably similar to one of Odin's, and In Name Only versions (justified in-story; Gaiman knew exactly what he was doing) of two of the Norse gods appear as major characters.
  • In John Myers Myers' Silverlock, the tramp freighter Shandon is traveling on at the very beginning is mentioned in passing to have been named the "Naglfar". When it sinks, his adventure begins, and it's the first of dozens, if not hundreds of references to literature and mythology scattered through the book.

Live-Action TV

Music

Tabletop Games

  • In Nomine has various non-Abrahamic gods in The Marches (an ethereal area that is not Heaven, Hell, or the mortal realm). The Norse pantheon is described as surviving heaven's attempt to destroy the "pagan" goods relatively intact - of the major deities, only Thor is listed as having been vanquished. The Ethereal Player's Guide states that the game's version of Odin is more powerful than any celestial being short of an Archangel or a Demon Prince.

Theatre and Opera

Video Games

  • Two of the heroes in Gauntlet (1985 video game) are Thor the Warrior and Thyra the Valkyrie.
  • BlazBlue has Ragna the Bloodedge. There's a very good reason why his name derives from Ragnarok, the death and rebirth of the world.
    • Noel Vermillion from the same game has a Minigun named Fenrir and a rocket launcher named Thor.
  • In Touhou, the two vampire sisters each have a spellcard named after the weapon of a Norse god. Remilia has Odin's Gungnir while Flandre wields Lævateinn. It's unclear whether or not they're actually wielding them as weapons though, or just fanciful names given to magical energy attacks.
  • Two of the attacks in Phantom Dust are called Thor's Hammer and Gungnir. Bonus points for Gungnir being one of the most accurate attacks in the game, as never missing was an attribute of its namesake.
  • Max Payne and Alan Wake both have elements, the first having a psychotic boss being obsessed with mitology, and the second features a heavy metal band composed by two wacky old men also revolving around Norse mythology. Sam Lake sure loves vikings.
  • Valhalla was set in Asgard and Midgard.

Web Comics

Western Animation


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