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Norse Mythology: Difference between revisions
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{{Useful Notes}}
[[File:Thor2.jpg|frame|A typical day of awesome smiting for resident god Thor.]]
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* '''Odin''' (Old Norse Óðinn), All-Father, Oath-Breaker, and Lord of the Slain, wisest and chieftain of the Aesir (battle gods). His obsession with Ragnarök causes many of his actions, and is one of his most defining characteristics. Was identified as Mercury by the Romans, which may or may not be the case. Inventor of the runes (and rune magic and writing), he sacrificed one of his eyes at the well of the Norns and hung himself from the world tree Yggdrasil for many days to gain the secret of knowledge. Is the god of prophecy, poetry, and magic, but also of war and murder. In fact, he taught war to mankind, so that they would kill one another and swell the ranks of the gods with [[Cannon Fodder]] for the battle at Vigrid. He sometimes wields a spear named Gungnir, the [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|spear of the never-ceasing thrust]]. He is accompanied by two ravens, called Huginn ("thought") and Muninn ("mind"), whom he sends out across the worlds as messengers and as eyes and ears to spy for him.
* '''Frigg''' (Frigga), the mother goddess, protector of women and wife of Odin. She can see the future, but all of her attempts to change it are subverted.
* '''Loki''', a mischievous giant/jotun (tolerated since he's Odin's sworn brother) [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|Shapeshifting]] [[Gender Bender]] [[Trickster Archetype]] who likes to stir up trouble for the gods and then get away with it, though he'll occasionally help out if he feels inclined to. Father of two daughters named Eisa and Einmyria by a jotun wife named Glut, two sons named Narfi and Vali by his Aesir wife Sigyn, and of Fenrir the wolf, Jörmungandr the giant serpent, and Hel the goddess of the Underworld by his jotun lover Angrboda. Also, he's the mother of Odin's eight-legged horse Sleipnir. Loki is credited with being the god of the hearthfire, and also inventing useful tools such as the fishing net. Was eventually tortured and bound by the other gods for his actions, in a fate reminiscent of that of the hero Prometheus from Greek mythology.
* '''Thor''' (Þórr), a sometimes naive, sometimes shrewd, god with a magical hammer which required special gloves to handle. Usually associated with Thunder, which is not too far-fetched considering that this is exactly [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|what his name means]]. Lightning is said to arise when he throws his hammer (called Mjölnir) after trolls and giants. More generally, he was a weather god and therefore, also a fertility god (because good crops depend on the right weather) and especially worshipped by farmers and seafarers. Though notoriously irascible, he is also one of the gods who are most benign towards the human race, and constantly strives to protect Midgard from monsters and giants. It probably goes well with this profile that Thor is NOT is a war god <ref>He seems to get falsely associated with that domain sometimes in modern descriptions, and in fairness, his Hindu cousin Indra ''is'' a war god</ref> -- that office goes primarily to Odin (whose attitude towards humans is much more ambiguous). He does ride in a chariot, though, drawn by his two goats Tooth-grinder and Tooth-gnasher. Interestingly, his other cousin is [[Anything That Moves|Zeus]].
* '''Sif''', Thor's wife, associated with wealth, family, and the harvest. Most notable in the surviving texts for having her famous golden hair cut off by Loki as a joke after he'd slept with her -- drama ensued.<ref>It has been suggested by scholar Alice Karlsdottir in her 1991 essay ''Loki, Father of Strife'', that the story of Loki sleeping with the harvest goddess and then cropping her golden hair down to stubble is highly allegorical. He ploughed the field and sowed the seeds, pardon the pun, then cut the golden (ripe) grain, thus ensuring a good harvest. Thor on the other hand was away killing giants, neglecting his marital duties. The story continues with Thor threatening to beat Loki up until Loki offers to persuade the dwarves to spin new golden hair for Sif from living gold.</ref> Her connection with the Earth suggests a link to Gaia or Demeter/Ceres, but she's married to the Zeus-equivalent Thor. Her name (which just means "married,") doesn't help matters.
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* '''Freya''' (Freyja), the goddess of love and beauty who [[Really Gets Around]]. She is also a goddess of war, and may have started the mega-war between the Aesir and the Vanir. Patron of female fighters. Her most famous cousin is Aphrodite/Venus. Freya owns a magical feathered cloak that can transform the wearer into a falcon; she occasionally lends this cloak to other gods such as Loki.
* '''Heimdall''', watchman and herald of the gods who guards Bifrost, the rainbow bridge, entrance to their kingdom. He possesses incredible sight and hearing, as well as a magic horn, and is of noble character. Son of nine Jötunn sisters.
* '''Idunn''' (Iðunn), wife of the scaldic god Bragi. Goddess of eternal youth, keeper of the golden apples of immortality, she is generally seen as innocence personified.
* '''The Norns''', who somewhat resemble the [[Classical Mythology|Greek Fates/Moirai]], though all three of them see the future. Their names are different tenses of the verb "to be," and [[Meaningful Name|some of their traits can be seen through these tenses]]. Modern scholars believe there was originally an indeterminate number of Norns, but medieval Icelandic scholars were inspired by Roman mythology and modeled a trinity after the Fates' example, as follows:
** '''Verthandi''', the most powerful and the Norn of the Present ("is becoming")
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** '''Skuld''', the youngest and the Norn of the Future ("will be")
* '''The [[Valkyries]]''', warrior-women who choose those who died an honorable death and take them to Valhalla.
* '''Hel''', the goddess of death, who presides over the Underworld and those who die of anything other than combat or drowning. Daughter of Loki and his mistress Angrboda. She is commonly described as being half black and half white, or half young and half rotting.
* '''Aegir''', god of the sea and famous for his parties. Possibly a giant, though some sources claim he is older than even the giants. Owns a giant cauldron for brewing mead, which Thor and Týr stole from the giant Hymir.
Incidentally, we still honor some of these gods on a regular basis (though using the Anglo-Saxon versions of the god), on Sunna's Day, Mani/Moni's Day, Tyr's day, Odin's day, Thor's day and Freya's day. Each occurs once a week in Western cultures that use the Germanic root names (in case you don't get it, these days are also known as Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, followed by [[Classical Mythology|Saturn's day]], and then on again to Sun's Day and Moon's Day, at which point the cycle repeats).
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* [[Adam and Eve Plot]]: After Ragnarök, two people (Lif and Lifrasir) survive and begin the world anew.
** And we have Ask and Embla the two first humans crated from ash and elm wood that one of the gods found on a shore.
** While they aren't human, Bergelmir and his wife repopulated the world with Jötunn after Ymir's blood flooded the world and drowned the rest.
* [[Adaptation Dye Job]]: A disproportionate amount of modern works depict Thor as having blond flowing hair, probably due largely to Marvel Comics' ''[[The Mighty Thor]]''. The original myths clearly specify him as being red-headed and -bearded, reflected in the pic for this page.
** He has been depicted with black hair in the ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' Franchise.
** [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Thor.jpg Thor's Battle Against the Ettins] circa 1872.
** The 2011 movie ''[[Thor (film)|Thor]]'' splits the difference and makes him a strawberry blond.
* [[The Ageless]]: The Aesir and Vanir are immortal in this way, so long as they continue to eat the Golden Apples of Idunn. (When the goddess and her apples were abducted by the Jotunn giant Thjazi, all the gods aged rapidly... except apparently for Loki, who was forced to go and steal goddess and apples back.)
* [[All Trolls Are Different]]
* [[Alternate Continuity]]: Was Loki imprisoned for killing Baldur, or was he imprisoned for calling the gods out on crap they were actually guilty of? Depends on which story you read.
** In the ''Gesta Danorum,'' Baldur and Hodur weren't brothers, but romantic rivals. Baldur was a god and Hodur human. After Hodur beat Baldur in fair combat for the hand of Nanna, Baldur declared that it wasn't fair because he was a ''god.'' So in order to keep his bride, Hodur had to travel to the underworld to fetch the sword Mistilteinn (Mistletoe), which he used to kill Baldur off for good.
* [[Always Chaotic Evil]]: Averted ''hard''. While many of the giants are a source of trouble for the Aesir, many of the Aesir are married to giants or have giants as lovers, and all nine of Heimdallr's mothers (he has no father) are giants, which means that Heimdallr is a giant. Thor himself is half-giant on his mother's side (Jord). Then there's Loki, who is more [[Chaotic Neutral]].
* [[Always Need What You Gave Up]]: Loki hands Idunn and her golden apples over to a giant to save his own life, forgetting that these apples not only keep him immortal, but are very important to the violent, short-tempered battle gods he lives with. Woopsie-doodle.
* [[Ancestral Weapon]]
* [[Angel Unaware]]: Odin was fond of this.
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* [[Comedic Sociopathy]]: In addition to their love of [[Volleying Insults]], torturing Baldur was apparently a favorite pastime of the Asgardians. What's the point of having someone [[Nigh Invulnerability|Nigh Invulnerable]] around if you don't throw heavy objects at him? In fairness, he was completely immune to everything they threw... except for holly/mistle, which was eventually used to kill him.
** The Aesir also enjoy screwing over dwarves. One such instance created cursed treasure; another, a pile of headless little bodies. It's even said that Thor kicked a dwarf into Baldur's funeral pire. No wonder Alberich was such a prick to the gods.
** And whenever the gods need to put the blame on someone, they grab Loki and threaten him with torture and death if he doesn't put the situation right. Granted, often Loki was responsible for or at least involved in the thing that went awry in the first place, but still...
* [[Contract on the Hitman]]: The dwarf Fáfnir [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons|turns himself into a dragon]] to protect his cursed gold from his brother, Regin. So, Regin hires Sigurd to kill Fáfnir, but then Sigurd learns from the birds that Regin plans to kill him, too.
* [[Cool Boat]]: The god Freyr's ship Skidbladnir could fly and fold up to fit in his pocket.
** There's also the Naglfar, which is made of [[Nightmare Fuel|finger and toe nails of the dead]].
* [[Cool Horse]]: Sleipnir, whose eight legs made him ''really'' fast.
** Sleipnir's father Svadilfari, who is so talented he can build walls.
*** Well, pull heavy stones for the wall. The actual wall of Asgard was built by its architect, a nameless ice-giant (who had his head smashed in by Thor's hammer so that the gods wouldn't have to pay him).
**** In some versions, the horse actually puts the stones in himself.
* [[Cool Sword]]: Tyrfing ("finger of Tyr"), which never missed a strike and could cut through metal and stone as if through cloth. Extremely useful for cutting down entire armies of Huns. Unfortunately, also a death sentence for anyone standing nearby whenever it was drawn. Not always healthy for its wielders either.
* [[Cute Monster Girl]]: The giantesses are hot enough that gods married them on a regular basis. Frey's wife Gerd was even said to be the most beautiful woman in the world, which makes her more beautiful than Freya, who's already extremely beautiful. But the male giants are described as pretty fugly. Half-giant Loki is an exception, being extremely good-looking; on the other hand, his children with a giantess are horrible monsters.
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** Like Hel, Loki gets associated with Satan. In some myths, he's a contriver of trouble, a trickster, and [[Jerkass|a total jerkass]], but still not all that bad of a guy as he saves the day a few times and once in a great while goes out of his way to be nice. In later, post-Christian stories, he's [[Hand Wave|Handwaved]] as the cause of anything wicked, with no explanation as to why or how he'd managed it, and then he's the cause of the end of the world.
** Some of the myths also speak of Odin sometimes appearing as three beings, which may be an idea influenced or inspired by the Christian Trinity.
* [[Homosexual Reproduction]]: May or may not count, but Sleipnir is the biological child of Loki and a stallion called Svadilfari. Loki was shapeshifted into the form of a mare (a female horse) at the time. A mare who happened to be in heat, to lure away the stallion. However, getting pregnant had not been part of Loki's plans, and it owned him the nickname of "horse-mother".
** And the unspecified number of children Odin and Njorth accuse Loki of bearing in the ''Lokasenna''.
* [[Honor Before Reason]]: When Loki saves Asgard (and the entire world) from the schemes of a giant trying to get his hands on Freya, the sun, and the moon, everyone except Thor rejoices - Thor's too busy being angry over the fact that they broke a vow.
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* [[No Man of Woman Born]]: Although Baldur's death was foretold, he was given temporary [[Nigh Invulnerability]] by having his mother asking all objects of the earth to swear not to harm her son, thereby allowing the gods to engage in some [[Comedic Sociopathy]] by throwing axes and other weapons at Baldur. Unfortunately, the plant mistle was ignored (it wasn't old or important enough), allowing a disguised Loki to have Baldur killed via a mistletoe dart given to Baldur's blind brother.
* [[Noodle Incident]]: In the ''Lokasenna'', Odin says Loki went around disguised as a milkmaid for awhile, and according to both Odin and Njorth, he's given birth to multiple children. It doesn't get any more elaborate than that.
* [[North Is Cold South Is Hot]]: Probably the [[Ur Example|Ur-example]]. From [[Wikipedia|the other Wiki]]: "In the beginning, there were two regions: Muspellsheimr in the south, full of fire, light and heat; and Niflheimr in the north, full of arctic waters, mists, and cold."
* [[Our Dragons Are Different]]: The giant serpent Jormungand encircles the world, and is the son of Loki and the giantess Angrboda. The dragon Fafnir was once human, but was transformed by his ruthless [[greed]].
** [[Sea Monster]]: Jormangundr. Of the sea serpent type.
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*** More of a chicken and the egg sort of thing. Fenrir was imprisoned because the gods ''foresaw'' that he would cause them trouble rather than because he actually was being a problem.
* [[Too Good for This Sinful Earth]]: Baldur. The only Norse ''god'' (the goddesses were all more or less decent people) that never did anything morally ambiguous. So of course he's the first one to actually die, and his death acts as a sign that the end times are approaching for the Norse gods.
* [[Tragic Bromance]]: Two minor figures from the legendary [[The Icelandic Sagas|Norse sagas]], Örvar-Oddr and Hjalmar.
** [[Hey, It's That Guy!]]
* [[Trickster Mentor]], Odin, occasionally.
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* [[The War to End All Wars]]: Ragnarök.
* [[Weaksauce Weakness]]: Balder was invulnerable to everything except mistle. [[Rule of Cool|In the version recorded by Saxo, however, it was a sword named Mysteltainn (Mistletoe) that could only be found in the Underworld.]]
** Given that mistle is ''poisonous'', a sharp dart may well have been sufficient to kill him.
* [[What Happened to the Mouse?]]: Odin's brothers Vili and Ve helped in creating the world (ie, killing Ymir) and mankind then they just disappear.
* [[With Friends Like These...]]: You would think that, after a while, the Aesir would actually figure out that perhaps Loki could use some help. No ''wonder'' he turned against them eventually.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Dark Age Europe]]
[[Category:Oral Tradition]]
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