Norse Mythology/Shout-Out

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.

The Valkyries have their own page. There's a huge list in That Other Wiki.

Multimedia

"Lævateinn" (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 spears or lances.

Ah! My Goddess features the Norns. Whether they're the actual Norns or Norns In Name Only depends on how one reads both the eddas and the manga. (The various anime tend to Flanderize Verthandi/Belldandy.)
Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok: Loki In Name Only.
Slayers has "Ragna Blade" spell. Appropriately enough, it invokes the power of the creator deity living in primal Chaos and as such can harm or kill anything in the world, including Gods and Dark Lords providing "lesser" spells of White Magic and Black Magic. The incantation itself fits well too.
.hack in Liminality mentions the The Ring of the Nibelung from Wagner's opera as the source of the power of the World.

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.

Asgard and the Norse pantheon are the sole real heaven and deities in Undocumented Features. One of the children of the original self-insert characters is actually the Norse god of Mecha.
Valhalla and the Norse pantheon have been confirmed (to readers, at least) to exist in The Teraverse.

Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman - a remarkably faithful retelling of the eddas.
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.

A Thor who was about as divorced from his mythological roots as he could possibly be and still be a vaguely Marvel property appeared in the 1988 TV Movie The Incredible Hulk Returns.

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.

Girl Genius has some elements named after terms from mythology, including a character named Sleipnir.
Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki is based largely on Norse Mythology, so naturally has plenty of references, some more obscure than others.

Back to Norse Mythology