Norse Mythology: Difference between revisions

* '''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.

* '''Tyr''' (Týr), Son of Odin, or the giant Hymir in some stories, whose right hand was bitten off by Fenrir while tricking the wolf into being chained with a magic rope. He also presides over the Thing, a Germanic governing assembly, which makes him a god of law and justice. He was the main [[War God]] and was prayed to by warriors before battle. Unlike Thor he didn't go off fighting giants, he instead preferred large battles (even after he lost his hand). He and Thor once had a competition to see who was the strongest of the Aesir, with Tyr falling out at the final test. Confusingly, he (like Thor), is ''also'' a cousin of Zeus and Indra.

* '''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.

* [[Blood Knight]]: A typical Norse warrior supposedly

* [[Bloodier and Gorier]]: And that was how they liked it.

* [[Boisterous Bruiser]]: Thor, usually.

* [[Bride and Switch]]: The below-mentioned wedding caper with Thor in drag as the false bride.

** 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...

* [[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]].

* [[Friendly War]]: This is one of the appeals of Valhalla: Party all night, fight all day. Casualties don't matter, they're only temporary. Well, until Ragnarök, anyway.

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

* [[Gender Bender]]: Loki turned into a mare (and got pregnant!)

* [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|Giant Fiery Giant From Nowhere]]: Surt, the being who will eventually destroy the universe, is never mentioned outside the universe-destroying context.

* [[Hostage for McGuffin]], inverted: The giants stole the hammer Mjolnir to try to get Freya. It didn't work out too well. (See [[Disguised in Drag]].)

** 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.

* [[Human Popsicle]]: Ymir, Audumla the primeval cow ([[Everything's Better With Cows|Yes, there was a cow]]), and Odin's grandfather Buri.

* [[Intangible Man]]: Elves could walk through any barrier

* [[It Got Worse]]: Ragnarök takes the misfortune up to eleven.

* [[It Was a Gift]]

* [[Proud Warrior Race]]: Norse. You have gotten this already?

* [[Ravens and Crows]]: Ravens served as Odin's messengers, and in some depictions, the Valkyries rode them to collect the dead.

* [[Really Gets Around]]: Freya gets around with anyone, while Loki gets around with anything. However, there are no claims that they got around with each other.

** You mean besides in the Lokasenna when Loki accuses her of sleeping with every single god and elf in the hall?.

* [[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.

* [[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"]].

* [[The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter]]: The hideous Jotnar (giants) occasionally have beautiful daughters. Naturally in stories involving them they get seduced by Norse gods. Odin (or Thor) was the usual culprit. The guy really got around, though not to the same extent as [[Anything That Moves|Zeus]].

** That was more Thor's area.

** 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.

* [[Wizard Classic]]: Stories of Odin wandering the lands disguised as a simple traveller serve as an [[Ur Example]].

* [[World of Badass]]: Because being such will get you to [[Warrior Heaven]].

* [[Would Not Hit a Girl]]: The gods decided against killing Skadi while she was invading Asgard, since it was considered an act of ''nīþ'' (dishonour) to hurt a woman. However, that did not stop Thor from killing Thrym's daughters after he got his hammer back. Nor did it stop him from breaking the spines of two other giantesses.

** [[Noodle Incident|Anyone wanna talk about what likely happened]] to Sigyn after she stopped showing up to help Loki out?