Norse Mythology

by Oliver Laine

So who were the real gods and goddesses of Norse mythology?

  The answer to this question can immediately lead to confusion because there were two distinct groups of god-like beings to deal with: the Aesir and the Vanir, with the former group being the more well-known one. What are the differences between the two? What are the similarities?

  The Aesir is the more familiar group in terms of the gods and goddesses of Norse mythology; this group includes Odin, his sons Thor and Baldr, and others. The attributes of these gods were mainly connected to elemental forces and to strength in war.

  On the other hand, the members of the Vanir have attributes that are mainly connected to agriculture, fertility (both of the land and of human beings), and magic. This group includes Njord and his children Freyr and Freyja, among others.

  Both the Poetic and the Prose Eddas tell of the various interactions between the two groups of deities: they negotiated with each other for various treaties, and fought various battles – and those battles eventually led to an all-out war. The end result was that the two groups merged into one, leaving the single pantheon known as the Aesir.

  Some scholars have speculated on the idea of this war between two groups of gods with very different functions: they think of it as something like a war between social classes, the warrior (the Aesir) vs. the farmer (the Vanir).

  One thing these two groups did have in common, however, was the knowledge that the universe in which they lived was doomed to come to an end. Let’s meet the gods.

  Odin

  Odin, Known by hundreds of names such as “Allfather”, the “Hanged One”, and “War-merry”, is the principal god of the Norse pantheon. While he is famous as a healer and as a wanderer, he is equally renowned for being a warrior and a ruler. Many sources depict him as an old man with a thick white beard who wanders down many roads while wrapped in a cloak and hat and leaning upon a walking stick.

  The majority of the tales of Norse mythology reference Odin in one way or another, and many of them refer to the sacrifices that he made in order to bring great gifts to mortal men and women.

  Why is Odin missing one of his eyes? One of the most common stories about him tells about his journey to a well that was guarded by Mímir, a being who was renowned for his knowledge of all things. Odin asked Mímir if he could drink from the well and was told that he would have to give up one of his eyes as the price for that drink. Odin did not hesitate: he plucked out his eye and threw it into the well, then drank from its waters.

  He stole the mead of poetry, a magical beverage that could make any person who drank it into a great skald, through trickery and shapeshifting, and distributed it among the gods and among human beings who were worthy of it.

  But perhaps the greatest sacrifice that he made in pursuit of knowledge was the one that he made in order to obtain eighteen charms of power: he hanged himself upon the tree that supported all of the worlds, wounded by a spear and sacrificed to Odin – that is, he sacrificed himself to himself. He hung there for nine whole nights, without any food or drink or company, and finally fell from the tree after he had learned the eighteen charms.

  Many creatures and important objects are associated with Odin, from his two ravens Huginn and Muninn (Thought and Memory), and his two wolves Geri and Freki. The food that is laid before Odin at the banqueting table is for these creatures, while Odin sustains himself on nothing but wine. He is also the owner of the great spear Gungnir and the eight-legged horse Sleipnir.

  Odin is associated with a group of beautiful young women who wear armor and carry shining weapons: these women are the Valkyries who go to the places where battles have taken place and choose a portion of the slain warriors to go with them to the place called Valhalla. These warriors are then known as einherjar.

  Thanks to his hard-earned wisdom and the prophecies that he receives at various points in his life, Odin already knows how he is going to die: he knows that he will lead the einherjar into battle at the end of the world. He knows that he will die while fighting the monster-wolf named Fenris. He knows that he will be avenged by one of his own sons. He knows that he will have no place in the new universe that will be created in the aftermath of Ragnarök.

  So, it makes sense that the stories and the art depict a god who almost never smiles and spends a lot of time thinking deep thoughts.

  Vili and Vé

  Vili and Vé are the brothers of Odin. Together with their more celebrated brother, they took a personal hand in the creation of the universe. They killed the giant Ymir and filled up the void in which that creature had been living, using the parts of Ymir’s body to create the land, the waters, the sky, and so on.

  Frigg

  Frigg in stark contrast to Odin who had to go to great lengths in order to find wisdom, the goddess Frigg already possesses knowledge of many things that will come to pass. Even in dreams, she can see the future; and in some poems, she is said to remain tight-lipped about what she knows, which is the future fate of every single living creature.

  She plays a prominent part in the story of her son, Baldr; after he begins to share her prophetic dreams, mother and son come to the conclusion that his life is in danger. Frigg leaves her great hall and the company of the gods and wanders throughout all of creation; she asks everything that she comes across to promise not to hurt her son – but somehow she overlooks the plant called mistletoe because it was too small in size or too young in age.

  The gods play a game of throwing things at Baldr, and every object is deflected away from him – except for a dart made out of mistletoe. That dart killed the beloved god and sets all the Aesir to weeping.

  Still, Frigg would not give up on her son; she calls for a messenger who would bargain for his life with the dread queen of the underworld. The queen says that if all living things weep for Baldr, she would return him to the land of the living. But a female giant refuses to weep, dashing Frigg’s last hopes and giving rise to her first great sorrow.

  Thor

  Thor, the popular depiction of the god of thunder is as a handsome, beardless, blond young man; the actual image is a little bit different, according to the source texts as he is described as having red hair and a similarly red beard. He is noted for his great strength and is associated with storms, thunder and lightning, as well as with the protection of mortal men and women.

  His major task is to fight the gods’ great enemies, from the giants to the monstrous serpent Jörmungandr, and to that end he carries the famed hammer Mjölnir. The magic belt named Megingjörð increases his strength and the iron gloves named Járngreipr make it easier for him to carry his hammer.

  Thor is the son of Odin and the earth itself, which was personified into the goddess Jord, and is commonly held to be the husband of the goddess Sif.

  While many tales speak of Thor’s martial prowess, he does seem to also be the source of comedy in at least one poem. Upon finding out that his hammer has been stolen by a giant, he asks Loki for help in looking for it – and Loki brings back the news that the giant will only return Mjölnir in exchange for the hand of the goddess Freyja in marriage.

  Freyja refuses to be wed to the giant, and the gods then come up with the plan to disguise Thor as Freyja and send “her” to the hall of the giant to retrieve Mjölnir. Thor nearly gives himself away because of his voracious appetite and his flashing eyes, but Loki buys him just enough time for the hammer to be given to him – and once he gets his weapon back, he lays waste to the hall and administers a severe beatdown to the giants gathered there.

  It is Thor’s task to kill Jörmungandr at the end of the world – and he wins his last bit of fame by surviving that serpent’s deadly poison just long enough to take nine steps away from its massive carcass. But in the end, he, too, must succumb to the wounds and to the poison, and he is one of the gods who will not survive into the new universe.

  Baldr

  The son of Odin and Frigg, twin brother of the blind god Hoder, and the most beloved of all the members of the Aesir, Baldr is
said to carry within him an unparalleled grace, as well as his own special wisdom. While he ostensibly died by his own brother’s hand, the ultimate mastermind of that death was none other than Loki.

  Before Baldr’s death, it might have been possible to prevent the end of all worlds from happening; with his death, the entire future – and doom – of the Aesir was set in stone.

  Baldr’s wife was the goddess Nanna, and his son was the god Forseti. Nanna dies of heartbreak and grief when she sees Baldr laid out on the ship that will become his funeral pyre, and her body is placed beside his. Odin also offers up the magical ring Draupnir to be burned on that pyre, as well as the horse that Baldr had ridden.

  He is one of the four sons of Odin who will live on in the wake of Ragnarök, and who will rule over that paradise that is to come. Baldr and his blind twin Hoder will be brought back to life, while Váli who was sired expressly for the purpose of avenging Baldr’s death, and Vidarr whose task is to kill the wolf Fenris after it has murdered Odin, will survive the great battle.

  Freyr

  Freyr, in contrast to the primarily warlike aspects of gods such as Odin and Thor, was born a member of the Vanir and then joined the Aesir. He is more commonly revered as a god of agriculture and prosperity, and in some ancient temples, his likeness or statue would be adorned with an immense phallus in order to denote that he could bestow fertility on the land as well as upon beasts and men.

  However, he was not lacking in martial prowess, and this is made clear by his possession of a sword that could fight off enemies even when no one was holding it. He loses this sword, however, in his quest to woo the beautiful female giant Gerd – and while she does consent to become his wife, he is left without a weapon, and that is a sign that he will perish at the end of the universe, during the final battle between the gods and their monstrous opponents. Some translators have even suggested that Freyr will be killed with his own sword.

  Other items associated with Freyr are Gullinbursti, a boar with a golden mane who serves as the god’s steed; and a ship called Skíðblaðnir, which could sail anywhere because it always had favorable winds filling its sails – and which could then be folded up like a handkerchief and tucked away into a pocket when not needed.

  Under the name Yngvi-Freyr, this god is held to be the ancestor of the legendary kings of Sweden who as his descendants called themselves Ynglings.

  Freyja

  Freyja, the twin sister of Freyr is revered as a goddess in her own right, first among the Vanir and then the Aesir. She seems to be a contradictory figure in terms of her spheres of influence, but, she is also associated with love, beauty, and fertility – and with war and death as well. However, her strongest association is with magic, especially in the form known as seid – she is held to have taught seid to the rest of the Aesir, who then became proficient in it to various degrees. One of her best students was Odin himself.

  Freyja is as equally famed for her possessions as for her own qualities: the jeweled item Brísingamen, which has been variously interpreted as a necklace or as a collar; and the falcon-feathered cloak that would often be lent out to other gods who had need of it.

  Odin and his Valkyries take only a portion of the dead men who fall on the field of battle – and Freyja is said to take the rest. She rides to the scene in a cart or chariot drawn by great cats.

  Like Odin, she is said to accumulate many names because she spends a lot of time looking for her absent husband, the god Odr. He wanders in far lands and among strange people and gives a different name to every tribe and every settlement that she comes across – and all the while, it is said that she weeps tears of red gold. She has two daughters by her wandering spouse, Hnoss and Gersemi.

  Heimdallr

  Heimdallr, with his keen hearing and eyesight, and his position by the rainbow-colored bridge Bifröst, plus his foretold role of calling the gods to Ragnarök by blowing the great horn called Gjallarhorn, it is easy to see why Heimdallr can be understood to fulfill the role of the guardian or gatekeeper of the gods.

  Some scholars have pointed out his seeming keenness of hearing – the poems say that he can hear the rustling of grass as it grows, and all the other sounds – and that he might have sacrificed one of his ears to gain that keenness as if to parallel Odin who gave up one of his eyes in order to gain wisdom.

  Heimdallr is described as having gold teeth and the son of nine mothers, all sisters. He is also said to have been the god who divided humanity into different social classes; he did this by assuming a different appearance and the false name Rígr who wandered to different farms and dined with the couples who lived on those farms. He would spend three nights on each farm, lying between the couple on their bed, and then move on. When the wives that he visited became pregnant, their children became the originators of the three major social classes among the Vikings: the thralls, who were slaves; the karls, who were free peasants, and the jarls, who were nobles and aristocrats.

  Aside from blowing his horn to signal the beginning of Ragnarök, Heimdallr will also fight in the battle; his enemy is Loki, and the two of them are fated to kill each other.

  Týr

  A god of war and of the law, Týr completes the apparent group of members of the Aesir who are missing a part of their bodies: one-eyed Odin, possibly one-eared Heimdallr, and one-handed Týr. Many scholars see him as the equivalent of the Roman god of war, Mars.

  The story goes that Týr lost his hand because the gods wished to bind the great wolf Fenris, as if to forestall the end of the universe. They tried to use ordinary materials such as rope and leather to do so, but the wolf broke through those bindings quite easily. Eventually, the gods called upon the dwarfs for help and they responded by creating the ribbon Gleipnir from, as the poems say: “the sound of a cat’s footfall, the beard of a woman, the roots of a mountain, the sinews of a bear, the breath of a fish, and the spittle of a bird”.

  On the last attempt to bind Fenris, the wolf felt that the gods might be planning to play a trick on him, so he consented to be bound only if one of the gods placed his hand in the wolf’s mouth. Only Týr was brave enough to volunteer, so the gods tied the wolf up in the magical ribbon. This time, Fenris could not break out of his bindings and in his rage, he bit off the hand that had been in his mouth.

  At Ragnarök, Týr will kill the vicious great dog Garm, and will be killed by that dog in return.

  Chapter 4

  Inhabitants of the Universe

  While the various exploits and adventures of the Aesir and their extended kin provide a lot of material with which to create the stories that make up Norse mythology, those stories would not be complete without the various other races that directly participate in the action, or are affected by it.

  Aside from the gods, the world in which the stories of Norse mythology take place is populated by giants, dwarfs, elves, and humans.

  Jötnar

  Variously translated as “ettin” or, more commonly, “giant”, the term Jötnar (Jötunn in the singular) refers to those beings who live beneath or among rocks. Although they often appear as the adversaries of the Aesir, in some stories, they are actually the victims of unprovoked attacks by the gods, while in others, they are able to win victories over those same gods.

  Different types of giant appear in the stories: there are clay-giants, fire-giants, mountain-giants, sea-giants, wind-giants, and frost-giants. Sometimes, these giants display the characteristics of their homes and lairs, such as Surtr who seems to be capable of generating or controlling fire. Others, such as Aegir and his wife Rán, live on an island in a hall next to the waves, and are thus described as sea-giants.

  In general, giants appear in all shapes and sizes. Some, like the gold-hoarding Fáfnir, are described as hideous, brutish, and ugly; some could assume other shapes, such as Hraesvelgr, who could transform into an eagle; and some are just plain monstrous in appearance. Fenris the wolf and Jörmungandr the serpent certainly fall into that latter group.

  For th
e most part, male giants could take on many shapes. What of the females? Surprisingly, some of them were extremely beautiful: both Gerd and Skadi became the brides of members of the Aesir and were described as captivating.

  As was mentioned in the previous chapter, it was the giant Ymir who was the first living being to emerge from the void. Massive and monstrous, he was able to give rise to the frost giants – and then he was killed by Odin and his brothers. They then dismembered him to provide the components of creation.

  But the most well known member of the Jötnar is Loki – by turns an ally and an enemy to the Aesir as a whole. He features in many of the sagas, tales, and verses as either one of the main characters on the side of the gods, or as the primary antagonist.

  Loki

  Loki’s popularity, or notoriety, within the stories that make up the corpus of Norse mythology has extended to members of his family and kin group as well.

  According to the stories, Loki was the son of the Jötunn Fárbauti and a female named Laufey. Some scholars think that Laufey might have been a member of the Aesir; this may help explain the fact that Loki is frequently given the additional epithet “Laufeyjarson”. His mother’s blood may also have been his entree into the halls where the other gods and goddesses lived. On the other hand, Loki’s association with fire may have been inherited from his father Fárbauti. Loki’s brothers are named Helblindi and Býleistr.

  In contrast to the uncertainty surrounding his parents, there is more definite information to be found on Loki’s spouse and offspring. His wife, Sigyn, is a member of the Aesir and seems to be determined to stay by her husband’s side no matter how he might aid or attack the rest of the pantheon. She bears Loki two sons, whose names are variously given as Váli (the same as one of the sons of Odin), Narfi, and Nari.