Norse Myth

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Norse Myth
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Sources
Norse myths existed only in oral form while they
were central to religious belief. They were only
written down after Northern Europe had become
Christian.

• Plus
• a wide time span
• wide geographical range
• many different sub-cultures
• And influences

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Sources

• New problems with our primary sources
• no coherent body of literature showing the myths
  and legends
• possible alteration due to the influence of
  Christianity
• fictionalization of stories which originally
  had religious importance.

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• Snorri Sturlesson The Prose Edda.
• many different adventures of the Norse gods
• presented as fictional, sometimes humorous.
• The closest we have to an overview/ collection of
  Norse myth
• but often untraditional, engaged with
  intellectual Christian traditions (e.g., he
  connects Thor with Troy).

Sources
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Sources
Poetic Eddas Traditional songs, which often
refer to mythic incidents, usually just
individual adventures. Skaaldic songs poems in
honor of human accomplishments, with occasional
references to myth, sometimes very cryptic.
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Creation

• Beginning of Prose Edda
• Involved in question of god, good evil
• Parallelism between Norse tradition/
• Christian belief

Elemental creation rather than conscious plan
Opposites and a fertile space in the middle
significance .
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Creation

• What are the central metaphysical aspects of the
  Norse world?
• Benevolent, scary, neutral, mixed?
• Stable, chaotic, linear, cyclical?
• Geography what are the main places and the
  relationships between them? Special places?
• Places in the real world vs. unreachable mythic
  places?
• Local significance of myths?
• Categories of beings and relationships between
  them?

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Creation

• Niffleheim cold and ice
• Muspell fire
• Ginungagap the place in between
• Processes of melting, thawing, emerging
  landscape relates to myth

• Central conflicts
• Ymir central to creation, yet defined as evil
• Genealogy leading to gods to oppose him
  creation of Bur

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Iceland Not discovered till 900s CE . Mostly
glaciers and volcanoes
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http//www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id6339052n ht
tp//www.youtube.com/watch?vf1ztg0wUqKY
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Creation

• Burs grandsons, Odin, Vili, and Ve, killed Ymir
  and made the world from his parts
• his skull became the sky
• his eyebrows formed a barrier between the world
  of men and the world of giants
• his blood became sea and lakes
• his bones became the mountains

Frost-Giants from Ymirs feet Humans from
Ymirs torso OR from logs washed up on shore
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The Gods
The Vanir Njord, a god of the sea and
seafaring Freyr, a god of crop fertility, who may
have features in common with dying gods like
Dumuzi and Adonis Freyja, the most renowned of
the goddesses, who alone of the gods still lives
(Sturlesson). Goddess of love and sexuality, also
associated with crop fertility goddess of a
realm of death associated with shamanic
experience.
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Creation

• Realms
• Utgard, the home of the giants
• Midgard, the land of humans
• Asgard, the home of the gods, accessible only by
  Bifrost, the rainbow bridge
• Hel, home of the dead
• Alfheim, home of the Light Elves
• Other less defined realms
• The world tree, Yggdrasill, extended between all
  of these lands.

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Creation

• Yggdrasill, the world tree, spans the different
  realms of Norse myth.
• These realms (Utgard, Midgard, Asgard) are joined
  by the three roots of the great tree Yggdrasill.
  (Each seems to have the whole tree )
• At its roots in Asgard is the well of Urd, where
  the Norns live at its roots in Utgard is the
  well of Mimir.

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World in the Balance

• It represents a world equilibrium that is more
  like entropy
• Around its roots is a serpent
• At its top is an eagle
• A squirrel runs up and down between them
• Deer are constantly eating at its branches
• and the Norns continually try to shore up the
  damage.

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World in the Balance
Sun (girl) and Moon (boy) chased by
wolves Discovery of new varieties of threat
Intimations of cataclysm in descriptions of
various places and cosmic situations
Bronze age sun chariot Malene Thyssen,
http//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/UserMalene
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Gundestrom cauldron, c. 150-0 BCE
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The Gods
The Norse gods do not have simple family
relationships. Odin is the chief of the gods
more later. His wife is Frigg, whose name means
fate. Thor is a god of thunder, with the muscle,
violence, and brute strength laced with
intelligence, that we see in Heracles. Loki is a
trickster figure, often on the side of mischief
or even evil his father was a giant. Tyr is a
war god, who bound the wolf Fenrir Balder (the
beautiful) is the beloved god who dies . . .)
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The Gods
The Norse gods are divided into two races Aesir
and Vanir. Aesir are dominant they are the gods
most associated with heroic tales, conflict with
giants, warfare, and the beginning and end of the
world. Vanir tend to be fertility deities there
are fewer of them.
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Freyja

• goddess of love/sexual relations
• associated with crop fertility
• searches for Od, her dead husband
• liaison with Freyr (possibly a dying god?)
• seidr ritual idea of flying, platform
• owner of one realm of the dead

Names of Freyja Giver, sea-woman, sow,
flaxen... Attribute necklace Feather/bird
associations carriage drawn by cats
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Odin
Odin is a multifaceted, mysterious, often
deceptive god. A list of some of his names hints
at his complex nature
The Hooded one, the Warrior, Helmet-god, the High
one, the Blind one, Capricious, Inflamer,
Weak-eyes, Fiery-eyed, Evil-doer, Father of
Victory, The One with the Magic Staff, the
Gelding, Feeder, Destroyer, Terror, Wind, God of
Men.
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Odin
God of Wisdom Odin has only one eye. He gave up
the other to drink from the fountain of Mimir
(memory/knowledge) in Utgard. So he has one eye
on this world, one eye in another realm of
knowledge. Odin has two ravens, Hugin and Munin.
Thought and Memory, who bring him news from
all over the world. His wisdom can be trickiness
or betrayal.
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Odin as trickster
Odins Germanic predecessor, Wotan, was
associated with Mercury (Hermes) by the
Romans. Odin often deceives and tricks, sometimes
in the interest of justice, sometimes for his own
arcane purposes.
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Odin in disguise
Odin and Geirrod Quarrel over human kingship
between Odin and Frigg. Due to Friggs plot,
Geirrod mistreats Odin in disguise. When Geirrod
realizes his mistake, he rushes to help but falls
on his sword. No mercy
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Odin as deceiver
Mead of Poetic Inspiration Thievery he stole it
from the giants (who are fair game). Ruthless he
tricks the giants servants into killing each
other so he can take their place.
Seducer Then he seduces the giants
daughter Shape-changer He uses his
shape-changing powers to get to her, then
successful, he flies away as a raven.
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Odin
Odin won the wisdom of runes
I remember I hung on the windswept tree nine
whole nights, Stabbed by the spear, given to
Odin, myself to myself. Of that tree no man
knows what roots it springs from. No bread they
gave me, no drink from the horn, down I peered.
I took up runes, howling I took them up, And back
again I fell.
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Odin
Odin and Shamanism Hanging on a tree suffering
is a way to access other worlds, other
experiences. Odin is the only male figure to use
the shamanic trance known as seidr usually
associated with Freyja. All of these are shamanic
skills, ecstatic ways of gaining wisdom and
experience.
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Odin
Odin as a war god He is god of the kings in
battle. He can inspire battle-terror (magical
binding of the will,) as well as the battle
frenzy of the berserker. He can bestow and
withdraw favor easily.
You (Odin) have never been able to order the
course of war often you have given victory to
cowards . . . Odin has broken faith it is not
safe to trust him.
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Odin
As a god of death
He presides over Valhalla, where the heroic dead
killed in battle go to spend eternity fighting
and partying. The Valkyries, goddesses who come
down to the battlefield to bring up the souls of
the dead, are Odins assistants. Odins
wandering, one-eyed double vision, and shamanic
connections, also associate him with the
permeable border between living and dead.
Odin rides and 8-legged horse, Sleipnir, which
represents the bier of the dead man, and the
passage between worlds.
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Thor
Thor is the foremost of the gods. He is called
Aesir-Thor or Charioteer-Thor. He is the
strongest of all gods and men. He has three
valuable properties The first is the hammer
Mjollnir, which the frost-giants recognize the
moment it is raised on high! The second is his
belt of strength, the third is his iron
gloves. Sturlesson, Prose Edda
Thors hammer was a popular good luck talisman in
Northern Europe, even in Christian times.
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Thor
Battler of monsters To turn from the sinister,
deceitful and complex Odin to the simple-minded
and straightforward Thor is something of a
relief. Thor is a battler his enemies are the
gods enemies giants, monsters and primeval
forces. R. I Page
Human integration Images of Thor were used as
flint and steel to kindle fires. Pillars
representing Thor were flung out of sailing ships
to mark the currents toward land.
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Thor
Thor is a storm god, a thunder god. Thunder was
caused either by his hammer, or by the wheels of
his chariot, which was pulled by goats. (The
goats had a magical property they could be
roasted and eaten, and would reconstitute
themselves overnight.)
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Thor
God of the People Thor had a lasting popularity
among ordinary people. He was a straightforward
savior, and his hammer was a protective
talisman. His temples proliferated in
pre-Christian times, and he was the
most-frequently worshipped Norse god. His ring
(an arm ring?) represented fidelity to oaths.
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Thor

• Thors chief enemies
• Frost-giants. He is frequently in conflict with
  them.
• Iormungand, the World serpent, which Thor fights
  several times
• Thor fishes it up one time and almost capsizes
  the boat his companion cuts the line.
• In Utgard, Thor tries to lift it, deceived into
  thinking its a kitten
• Thor fights it at Ragnarok.

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Thor

• Typical Thor
• Delight in eating and drinking humorous stories
  about these capacities
• Not always very bright often tricked and finding
  himself in humiliating circumstances (e.g. when
  he visits Utgard when he impersonates Freya to
  get his stolen hammer back.)
• Can always be counted on to exert his strength
  and take care of knotty, difficult problems by
  brute force.

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Thor ancient modern ideas . . .
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• Thor and Loki in Utgard
• What are Thors strategies for dealing with
  enemies and adversity?
• How does Loki participate in, instigate, or
  derail the adventure?
• What does this story show about the relationship
  of gods and giants?

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Loki
To a reader of Snorri, Loki is perhaps the most
outstanding character among the Northern gods,
the chief actor in the most amusing stories, and
the motivating force in a large number of plots.
(Davidson)
Intelligent, astute to the highest degree, but
amoral, loving to make mischief great or small,
as much to amuse himself as to do harm, he
represents among the Aesir a truly demonic
element. Some of the assailants of the future
Ragnarok, the wolf Fenrir and the great Serpent,
are his sons, and his daughter is Hel. (Georges
Dumezil)
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Loki

• Loki is a chief instigator in many tales
• Bad decisions, helpful tricks Loki found a way
  to keep the giant from building the wall of
  Asgard on time.
• Gender-bending He impersonated a mare to
  distract the giants work horse. (He became
  pregnant and gave birth to Sleipnir.) Shape
  changing and trans-gender problems are typical of
  tricksters.
• Creates and solves problems He gave up the
  golden apples of immortality (and got them back)
• Father of monsters Sleipnir (Odins horse) but
  also Fenrir, Iormungand, and Hel

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Loki

• Fixes problems He helped Thor get back his
  hammer, and went with him to Utgard
• Cowardly and treacherous Loki was caught by a
  giant and betrayed Thor to him
• Makes wanton trouble Loki aroused the dragons to
  hatred of the gods because of a wanton act of
  cruelty (Otters revenge) and used trickery to
  get out of it
• Destruction leading to creation Loki cut off
  Sifs golden hair, causing the creation of the
  greatest treasures of the gods.

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Loki Balder
There is nothing but good to be said about
Balder. He is the best of the gods and everyone
sings his praises. He is so fair of face and
bright that a splendor radiates from him . . . He
is the wisest of the gods, and the
sweetest-spoken, and the most merciful, but none
of his judgments come true.
The most important tale of Loki is how he
arranged the destruction of Balder.
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Loki Balder
Balder dreamed he would be killed, so Frigg (his
mother) made all living creatures swear not to
harm him. (Evading a prophecy??) The gods then
enjoyed throwing things at him, since all fell
away harmlessly. Jealousy deception In
disguise, Loki found out from Frigg that the
mistletoe had not sworn. Trickery Then he
tricked the blind god Hod into throwing it at
Balder, and Balder was killed.
Loki bound? Kirby Stephen stone (England), 10th
century
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Loki Balder
Hel agreed to return Balder to the world of the
living if every living creature mourned him. All
complied except for one old giant woman who
was Loki in disguise. When the other gods found
out Lokis treachery, they condemned him to be
bound to a rock, with serpents poison dripping
onto him (a fate similar to that of the
benevolent trickster Prometheus . . .)
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• Trickery and wisdom Odin and Loki
• What do Odin and Loki have in common?
• In what ways is Odins trickery different from
  Lokis?
• Both exhibit treachery from time to time what
  (if any) is the difference in the varieties of
  treachery they show?

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Tyr and Fenrir
Tyr is a minor god in Norse myth, featuring in
few stories, but was possibly more important in
earlier times. His Germanic predecessor, Tiwaz,
was a sky-god similar to Zeus. The one story in
which Tyr features is the binding of the wolf
Fenrir. Tyr put his hand in Fenrirs mouth as a
pledge of faith, and when the gods bound the
wolf, he bit off the hand.
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Lands of Death

• Hel, the shadowy underworld overseen by Lokis
  daughter of the same name. It is dark, gated,
  and much like Hades/Sheol/Kurnugi
• Valhalla (a.k.a. Valholl), where the souls of
  dead warriors are taken after death by the
  Valkyries. There they dink and fight until
  Ragnarok, when they will fight on the side of the
  gods.
• Freyjas realm there are references to Freyjas
  taking half of the dead, while Odin takes the
  other half.
• Other places e.g. Gimli (heaven-like)
• Mixed traditions or complex eschatology?

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Lands of Death

• afterlife in the barrows High-status people were
  sometimes buried under a mound, called a barrow
  burials of an entire ship have been found.

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Ragnarok
Norse myth, unlike Greek and Near Eastern, does
not portray a world in which the gods have
conquered discord and established order, but a
world in which the gods are constantly battling
their adversaries. This battle comes to a head at
Ragnarok. The death of Balder is one element in
the final episode of Norse myth, Ragnarok, The
Twilight of the Gods.
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Ragnarok
An age of axes, an age of swords, shattered
shields, an Age of tempests, an age of wolves,
before the age of men crashes down.
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Ragnarok
Loki remains suffering under the poison of the
serpent, and Balder remains in Hel (rather than
in Valholl!) until the conflicts of Ragnarok. The
end of the world is preceded by an increase of
wars and conflicts among men then there is a
three-year winter. Monsters break loose,
Iormungand emerges from the sea and floods the
earth. A wolf swallows the sun and her brother
the moon stars fall from the sky.
Led by the giant Surt, with Loki as the helmsman,
the giants arrive in their ship, Naglfar, made
from the uncut fingernails of the dead. A huge
battle between gods and giants takes place at the
gates of Asgard.
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Ragnarok
Five hundred doors and forty more in Valholl I
think there are. Eight hundred warriors at a
time will pass each door to fight the wolf. . .
Fenrir rushes forward, his jaws agape, so that
the upper one touches the heavens, the lower one
touches the earth. (Sturlesson/Page)
Thor once again fights Iormungand he kills it,
but dies from the venom. Tyr fights the hound
Garm, and they kill each other.
Odin is swallowed by Fenrir Odins son Vidar
kills the wolf in revenge.
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Ragnarok
Loki and Heimdall, the watchman of the gods, kill
each other. Freyr is killed by the giant Surt,
who scatters fire over the earth. But from this
destruction comes a new world
A second earth the shaman-woman sees arise from
out of the sea, green once more the cataracts
tumble, the eagle flies over them, hunting fish
in the mountain stream. The Aesir meet again . .
. (Voluspa)
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Ragnarok
Balder returns from Hel to rule over this new
world, in peace and plenty. A golden age arises
fields flourish without work. Two humans survived
to begin the race again . . .
Does this renewal of the world show influence
from Christianity? Some say yes given other
Christian ideas others say that the idea of a
final conflict and new age is also present in
Indo-European mythology. In any case, the brutal
conclusion leads to new life.
The Aesir meet again and speak of the mighty
Iormungand, and call to mind the mighty judgments
and the ancient mysteries of the Great God
himself. (Voluspa)
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finis
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Snaptun stone, c. 1000 CE, Denmark
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battle for the mead of poetry http//worldimages.s
jsu.edu/VieO32169?sid31108x9260084
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died while collecting debts in Gottland
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