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Norse Mythology: Difference between revisions
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Major characters of the Norse Mythology include:
* '''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.
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* [[Boisterous Bruiser]]: Thor, usually.
* [[Bride and Switch]]: The below-mentioned wedding caper with Thor in drag as the false bride.
* [[Brother
* [[Cain and Abel]]: Not quite straight, but Hod does unwittingly kill his brother Baldur. He's killed for it. In older versions of the myth, Baldur and Hod have an actual rivalry, and so this trope is played a bit straighter.
** Thor and Loki become this in Christian retellings of Norse myths (while Loki was ''Odin's'' brother in the original myths) as well as in Marvel Comics.
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** In some adaptations or retellings, Hel is quite attractive. In others, [[Squick|she's a rotted corpse]].
** Heimdallr's parents (all nine of them) are giantesses, which means that Heimdallr is a giant, and there's no indication that he's ugly. Considering that so many giants turn out ''not'' to be ugly, it almost comes off as their alleged ugliness being more trash-talking than truth.
* [[Dark Is Not Evil]]: The dark elves/dwarves originally weren't necessarily all evil, and Hel herself was neutral if not outright good. [[Hijacked By Jesus|Hijacking]] took place however. then again, if [[Protagonist
* [[Defrosting Ice Queen]]: Freyr fell in love with Gerd, a giantess. He eventually managed to melt her heart, albeit with he help of a lackey threatening her with a magic sword.
** In another instance, the frosty giantess Skadi demanded reparations of the Aesir for the murder of her father, asking for his eyes made stars in the heavens, a godly husband for herself, and asked that the gods make her laugh. Only Loki had the [[Naked People Are Funny|keen sense of humor]] to achieve that last one, resulting in a [[Defrosting Ice Queen|temporarily melted]] literally-minded giantess.
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* [[Dumb Muscle]]: Actually averted with Thor. He's [[Boisterous Bruiser|boisterous, quick-tempered, and strong]], but he's [[Hidden Depths|been shown to be very clever]] when his wits are challenged.
* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: To a certain extent the Midgard Serpent, being a mindless monster so massive it's often depicted as an Ouroboros wrapped around the world. Also Nidhoggr, another snake that chews on roots of Yggdrasil and human corpses.
** Also [[Nightmare Fuel
* [[Elemental Embodiment]]: The jotnar. Just for a few examples, Loki is associated with fire, Laufey with trees, Farbauti with lightning, Jord and Gerd with earth, and Skadi with cold mountain streams.
* [[Elemental Plane]]: Muspellheim and Niflheim, they are the homes of Fire Giants and Ice Giants respectively with terrain to match.
* [[The End of the World As We Know It]]: Oh, yeah. Big time. Ragnarök (literally meaning "The Final Fate of the Gods," but famously mistranslated as "The Twilight of the Gods" by [[Richard Wagner]]). When it happens, [[Trauma Conga Line|war and chaos engulf the entire world, a winter three years long will be so cold that life will cease to exist, the sun and the moon will be devoured by wolves, Fenrir the Wolf and Jormugandr the World Serpent will be unleashed, the army of the Underworld will stream forth, all chaotic beings will engage in an epic battle with the gods and the warriors of Valhalla, everyone dies while the fire giant Surt engulfs the world in flames, the burning world will be buried by water and everything will collapse into Yggdrasil.]]
** Originally, Ragnarok was to be the end of all things but a few surviving monsters and the Sons of Muspell (fire Giants). However, in later versions of the myth, Balder (as a Christ-figure), Hod, and several other gods return to a new world along with a repopulation of humans. However, in that version, Nidhogg also still exists as a much more satanic and active being, so while things are nicer, conflict certainly isn't over.
* [[
* [[Everythings Nuttier With Squirrels]]: Ratatösk ("Drill-Tooth"), [[Did Mom Just Have Tea With Cthulhu?|the gossipy squirrel that flits up and down the world tree Yggdrassil.]]
* [[Evil Is Deathly Cold]]
* [[Exact Words]]: In one story, Loki makes a bet with some dwarves and offers them his head as a wager -- an expression for "my head's weight in gold" -- as his part of the bargain. When they win and claim his actual head, he argues that since they can't take that without also cutting his neck, the deal is void. The dwarves content themselves with sewing his lips together -- a consequence not mentioned in most of his other stories.
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* [[The Great Flood]]
* [[Groin Attack]]: Loki does this to ''himself'' when he's faced seemingly-impossible task of making Skadi laugh. He ties a rope to his own testicles, then ties the other end to the beard of a goat. [[Hilarity Ensues]].
* [[Half
* [[Hammerspace]]: Thor could make his hammer shrink to an incredibly tiny size, and be pulled out of seemingly nowhere, and is both the first user and [[Trope Namer|namer]] of this trope.
* [[Hand in The Hole]]: Tyr and Fenrisulfr.
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** This one happened to Loki ''a lot'', even at the hands of other gods, and caused - among other things, the cursing of Andvarinaut, the creation of Thor's hammer, and later on its theft. Thor even did it to Loki over a [[Traumatic Haircut|cute little prank]] Loki pulled on Thor's wife.
* [[How Do You Like Them Apples]]: The Golden Apples of Immortality, tended by Idunn; the gods literally need them to stay young.
* [[Human Popsicle]]: Ymir, Audumla the primeval cow ([[
* [[Intangible Man]]: Elves could walk through any barrier
* [[Insubstantial Ingredients]]: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleipnir The sound of a cat's footfall].
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* [[Kill the Cutie]]: Balder.
* [[Light Is Not Good]]: The light elves were originally quite unpleasant. Loki himself, besides being portrayed as an attractive young man, also became associated with fire as he was mixed with Logi, an actual god of fire. Also, Freya was a beautiful goddess not only associated with love and jewelry but also bloodlust and indeed was quite a bitch in most myths she appeared, while the idea that Balder was good seems to be exclusive to myths [[Hijacked By Jesus]].
** Aherm. Logi was never a god of fire, he was literally a fire construct created by Utgard-Loki in a one-off story just for the purposes of [[What Do You Mean
*** Loki's hair color is not mentioned in the Edda. But in the tale of Thor's and Loki's visit to the court of Utgard-Loki, Loki is refered to as the god of the hearthfire, making him a parallel to Prometheus, the Greek bringer of fire to humans, and also Lucifer (literally "light-bringer").
* [[Lost Woods]]: Norse heroic legend has "Myrkviðr inn ókunna", "the unknown Mirkwood", a vast and little explored forest located in Eastern or Central Europe. The Eddas also makes mention of a certain Járnviðr or "Iron-wood", a forest inhabited by giantesses and giant wolves, somewhere "in the East".
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* [[Slasher Smile]]: Some tellings comment that after having his lips un-sewn, Loki was left with a "Glasgow smile" which in "Loki is evil" stories serves as his [[Red Right Hand]].
** ''[[American Gods (Literature)|"Mister World? What happened to your lips?"]]''
* [[Spell My Name With an "S"]]: Norse, when written in Latin (rather than runic), uses two letters not present in English: Þ thorn (the "th" sound in "thing," usually transliterated as "th" or "t"), and ð eth (the "th" sound in "that," translated variously as "t," "th," "d," "dh," or "w"). It also uses the Æ and "oe" ligatures which are sometimes transliterated as "a" or "ae" and "o." Thus, "Odin" could be "Othin," "Odhin," or even "Wotan;" the gods could be collectively known as the "Aesir" or the "Asir." Further complicating things, the myths entered the English language at least twice: entering Old English during the Viking invasions of 800-1066, and entering early Modern English with the Prose and Poetic Eddas. And they were ''already'' in the English language, at least partly. The Anglo-Saxon mythology was very similar to Norse mythology. This is because they both have their roots in Germanic mythology. "Woden" was very similar to Odin, and that god is where we get "Wednesday" from.
* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: Loki delivers one of these to the Aesir in the ''Lokasenna''. It does [[Fate Worse Than Death|not end well for him.]]
* [[The Stinger]]: Last part of Völuspá descript new world after resurrection of Balder, which sound peaceful enough. Then it end with description of Nidhoggr with corpse in his jaws, flying through the air...
* [[Summon to Hand]]: The Mjollnir does this sometimes.
* [[Tempting Fate]]: Baldur. Seriously, you've got a prophesy of death in a world where [[You Can't Fight Fate]]. Something would kill him, ''no matter what anybody did.''
* [[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
** 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 to be locked up for the good of the universe.
*** 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 (Literature)|Norse sagas]], Örvar-Oddr and Hjalmar.
** [[Hey
* [[Trickster Mentor]], Odin, occasionally.
* [[Trope Makers]]: Most of the standard "dragons and dragonslayers" tropes originally derive from either the ''[[Volsunga Saga (Literature)|Volsunga Saga]]'' or ''[[Beowulf (Literature)|Beowulf]]''.
** And long after the first occurrences of dragons and their slayers: [[The Hobbit|Smaug]] is a Norse in-joke. It's also worth noting that the name the Norse gave to the world in which they lived, Midgard, literally means [[Lord of the Rings (Literature)|"Middle Earth"]].
* [[Two Faced]]: Hel. In many stories, the left half of her body is beautiful, the right half is [[Depending On the Writer|either aged and decrepit or skeletal]]. Could count as [[Fridge Brilliance]] as well: the decrepit side is the "this is the reality of death", while the beautiful is "it is nothing to be afraid of".
* [[The Ugly
** That was more Thor's area.
* [[Ugly Guy, Hot Wife]]: Frey is generally not depicted as pretty, while Gerd is the most beautiful woman in the world.
* [[Vertebrate With Extra Limbs]] - Odin's horse had eight legs.
* [[Volleying Insults]]: Two of the Poetic Eddas (''Harbardsljoth'' and ''Lokasenna'') consist of pretty much nothing ''but'' this.
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* [[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.
* [[Wizard Classic]]: Stories of Odin wandering the lands disguised as a simple traveller serve as an [[Ur Example]].
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[[Category:Oral Tradition]]
[[Category:Norse Mythology]]
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