Norse Mythology: Difference between revisions

*** Well, pull heavy stones for the wall. The actual wall of Asgard was built by its architect, a nameless ice-giant (who in some stories had his head smashed in by Thor's hammer so that the gods wouldn't have to pay him; in others, Loki takes the form of a mare and ... distracts ... Svadilfari so that the wall is not completed before the deadline and thus the gods do not need to pay, and Thor kills the giant when he objects).

** In some adaptations or retellings, Hel is quite attractive. In others, [[Squick|she's a rotted corpse]]. In others still (includiing [[Neil Gaiman]]'s retelling) she is a halfway between those totwo, as in, half of her body is a rotting corpse, and the other half looks prettyquite normalattractive.

* [[Fate Worse Than Death]]: The gods can't kill Loki for what he did to Baldur on account of having sworn oaths not to, Loki being Odin's havingblood-brother (or, in some stories, Loki being Odin't adopted himson). Thus, they instead bind him in chains made from the entrails of his son, whom they murdered, and allow a snake to drip venom on his face for eternity. Loki's loyal wife Sigyn collects the venom in a bowl most of the time but she eventually has to empty it, allowing the venom to drip and causing him excruciating pain. His thrashing around caused earthquakes.

** One added legend states that if you cut your nails they go to Naglfar, so to keep Ragnarök from happening you should only file your nails because Ragnarök cantcan't happen before Naglfar is completed.

* [[Full Boar Action]] : Hildesvini, the ''Battle Swine''. Freya's personal mount whenever she was not using her cat-drawn chariot.

* [[The Great Flood]]{{context}}

* [[He Who Must Not Be Named]]: OnceAccording to some tales, once Ragnarok is over, the world will be renewed and taken over by a new deity known as "The One". No one knows his/her name because he/she will only reveal himself at the end of days.

* [[Heroic Albino]]: Baldur, in some stories.

** Baldur may or may not be treated as a Christ figure. A better world emerges following the chaos immediately after his death. But that may also represent the old Norse people's wish of having their genes survive into the following generations, just as Baldur's rebirth ensured that OdenOdin's, and the Aesir's, genes lived into the new world.

** Hel herself changes, too. In post-christianityChristianity versions, she becomes a cruel, corpse-like monster, but in older sources, she is described as being pretty good-looking, and is implied to be a lover to the honorable souls in her realm.

** 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|Handwavedhandwaved]] 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.

** Without Nidhoggur, YggdrasilsYggdrasil's roots would outgrow the world's boundaries. His presence is, in the grand scheme of things, beneficial.

* [[Nightmare Fuel]]: When Loki was finally bound, it was with {{spoiler|the entrails of his own son, who had {{spoiler|just been killed by a wolf that was his brother up until the gods needed something to bind Loki with.}}

* [[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."

** [[C. S. Lewis]] and [[J. R. R. Tolkien]], both of whom were very fond of Norse mythology and no fans of the Nazi regime, complained extensively in letters to each other that the Nazis had no idea what the were talking about whenever they talked about Norse myth.

** Also ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'', for whatever reason turns Sif into [[Weak but Skilled]] [[Action Girl]] in ''Deities and Demigods'' sourcebook. The concept went futherfurther, in that she appearappears in [[TV Tropes]] as a [[BFS]] wielder at some points.

* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: Arguably, the Norse gods. Prior to the Ragnarök they pretty much went around making enemies, mainly by imprisoning monsters and torturing them. Seen in this light, [[Big Badass Wolf|Fenrir]] had all the right in the world to eat Odin.

** [[Protagonist-Centered Morality|Protagonist centered morality]] excused him.

** This is more of a modern perspective. In the Norse times monsters like Fenrir were chaotic beasts that were threats to the order of the universe. They were fated to be evil and HAD''had'' to be locked up for the good of the universe.

** Someone—possibly [[Fred Saberhagen]]{{verify}}—subverted this with a short story in which Odin's ravens take another look at the murder of Baldur ... and conclude that Loki was framed: the killing was actually by a giant, to cover up that ''the prophecy of Ragnarok is false'', faked by the gods' enemies to demoralize them. The giants are still building up their strength to invade, but it is ''NOTnot'' truly certain that the gods will be wiped out in the "prophesied" manner. As the story's last line states, they're very, very heartened to learn that "now they need not die!"

[[Category:Norse Mythology{{PAGENAME}}]]