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Norse mythology, Viking mythology or Scandinavian mythology refer to the pre-Christian religion, beliefs and legends of the Scandinavian people. It is the best-known version of the ancient Germanic mythology, which also includes the closely related to Anglo-Saxon mythology. Germanic mythology, in its turn, had evolved from an earlier Indo-European mythology.
In Scandinavia and Iceland these beliefs held on the longest, and in rural areas some traditions have been maintained until today, recently experiencing a wider acceptance and revival as Ásatrú or Odinism.
While not being a revealed religion, that is one based on a book written by a prophet, but a collection of similar beliefs shared by Germanic tribes, the Eddas and other writings have long held a central role in our understanding of Norse mythology. The information about the gods, their roles and their relationships was transmitted orally, as well as written in runes. Today, the mythology is a potent source of inspiration in literature (see Norse mythological influences on later literature) as well as stage and film.
In norse mythology, the earth was believed to be a flat disc. Asgard is located at the centre of this disc, and this is where the gods lived, and could only be reached by walking across the rainbow (the Bifrost bridge). The Giants lived in an equivalent abode called Jotunheim (giant-home). A cold, dark underground abode, called Niflheim, was ruled by a goddess called Hel. This was the eventual dwelling-place of most of the dead. Located somewhere in the south was the fiery realm of Muspell, home of the fire giants. Other overworldy realms includes Alfheim, home of the light-elves (ljósalfar), Svartalfheim, home of the dark-elves, and Nidavellr, the mines of the dwarves. In between these was Midgard, (OE "Middangeard", NE "Middle-earth"; the source of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth), the world as we know it. Other names for this land was Middle Garden, and Middle-home.
There were two "clans" of deities, the Aesir and the Vanir. The distinction is relative, for the two were said to have made peace, exchanged hostages, intermarried and reigned together after a prolonged war, which the Aesir had finally won. Some gods belonged in both camps. Some scholars have speculated that this tale symbolized the way the gods of the invading patriarchal Indo-European tribes supplanted the older nature-deities of the aboriginal peoples, although it should be firmly noted that this is conjecture.
Against the gods were arrayed the iotnar, (singular iotunn or Jotun; OE "eotenas"/"entas", source of Tolkien's "ents"), the Titans and Gigantes of Norse mythology, generally translated as "giants", although "trolls" and "demons" have been suggested as suitable alternatives. Some of these are mentioned by name in the eddas, and they seem to be representations of natural forces. There were two general types of giant: the frost-giants and the fire-giants.
The stories that comprise what is left of Norse mythology depict the gods and giants as colourful characters, much like archetypes for human behaviour and abilities. For example Odin embodies wisdom and magic, Bragi is the "super-poet", Freya is every man's desire and so on. The gods are also given very human fallacies and interests.
The ancient Germanic tribes also believed in the existence of elves and dwarfs, whose role is shadowy but who were generally thought to side with the gods.
In addition there were all sorts of other supernatural beings: Fenris (or Fenrir) the gigantic wolf, and Jormungand the sea-serpent (or "worm") that was coiled around the world. These two monsters were described as the progeny of Loki, the trickster-god, and a giant. (While he is sometimes portrayed as the opposite number to the gods, Loki is described as a trickster rather than a figure of evil as Norse mythology lacks a sharp good-evil dualism.)
More benevolent creatures were Hugin and Munin (thought and memory), the two ravens who kept Odin, the chief god, appraised of what was happening on earth, and Ratatosk, the squirrel which scampered in the branches of the world ash, Yggdrasil, which is central to the conception of this world.
An interesting aspect of this mythology is that it (along with many other polytheistic religions) is utterly lacking in dualism. Though often portrayed as the nemesis to the protagonist Thor, Loki is not primarily an adversary of the gods. Even though the giants are generally opposed to the gods, it is possible to parley and sometimes party or relax with them. The negative aspect of the giants is that they are rude, boisterous, and uncivilized, not that they are fundamentally evil per se.
The origin and eventual fate of the world are described in Voluspa ("The sybil's prophecy"), one of the most vivid poems in the Poetic Edda. These haunting verses contain one of the most vivid creation accounts in all of religious history and an account of the eventual destruction of the world that is unique in its attention to detail.
In the Voluspa, Odin, the chief god of the Norse pantheon, has conjured up the spirit of a dead Völva (Shaman or sybil) and commanded this spirit to reveal the past and the future. She is reluctant: "What do you ask of me? Why tempt me?"; but since she is already dead, she shows no fear of Odin, and continually taunts him: "Well, would you know more?" But Odin insists: if he is to fulfil his function as king of the gods, he must possess all knowledge. Once the sybil has revealed the secrets of past and future, she falls back into oblivion: "I sink now".
The world was created by obscure deities called "Bur's sons" who lifted it out of Ginnungagap, a "grinning (or yawning) gap" in which nothing lived but a giant cow and a primordial giant.
The gods regulated the passage of the days and nights, as well as the seasons. The first human beings were Ask (ash) and Embla (elm), who were carved from wood and brought to life by the gods Odin, Honir (Vili) and Lodur (Ve), and this world-view bears close comparison with the Norse take on creation.
Sol was the goddess of the sun, a daughter of Mundilfari, and wife of Glen. Every day, she rode through the sky on her chariot and this passage was known as Alfrodull, meaning "glory of elves", and this in turn was a common kenning for the sun, pulled by two horses named Alsvid and Arvak. She was chased during the day by Skoll, a wolf that wanted to devour her. Solar eclipses signified Skoll had almost caught up to her. It is fated that Skoll will eventually catch Sol and eat her; though she would be replaced by her daughter. This parallels her brother, the moon, Mani, who was chased by Hati, another wolf.
The earth was protected from the full heat of the sun by Svalin, who stood between the earth and Sol. In Norse belief, the sun did not give light; this was caused by the manes of Alsvid and Arvak.
The sybil describes the great ash tree Yggdrasil and the three norns (female symbols of inexorable fate; their names, Urður (Urd), Verðandi (Verdandi) and Skuld, indicate the past, present and future) who weave the cloth of fate beneath it. She describes the primeval war between Aesir and Vanir and the murder of Baldur. Then she turns her attention to the future.
Few other mythic systems can have as bleak a vision of the future as the ancient Scandinavian. Finally, it was believed, the forces of evil and chaos would outnumber and overcome the divine and human guardians of good and order. Loki and his monstrous children would burst their bonds; the dead would sail from Niflheim to attack the living. Heimdall, the watchman of the gods, would summon the heavenly host with a blast on his horn. Then would ensue a final battle between good and evil, which the gods would lose, as was their fate (Ragnarok). (Alternately, Ragnarok is seen as a battle in which the "good" beings and the "evil" mutally destroy each other and the world has come to an end. Some people survive Ragnarok and shall re-populate earth, living in The Hall of Gimle, the most beautiful place on earth.)
The gods, aware of this, were gathering the finest warriors to fight on their side when the day came, but in the end they would be powerless to prevent the world from descending into the chaos out of which it had once emerged; the gods and their world would be destroyed. Odin himself would be swallowed by Fenrir the wolf, the very embodiment of evil. Still, there would be a few survivors, both human and divine, who would populate a new world, to start the cycle anew. Or so the sybil tells us: scholars are divided on the question whether this is a later addition to the myth that betrays Christian influence.
The mythology does not only deal with gods and supernatural creatures, but also with heroes and kings. Many heroes have probably existed in real life, and in the sagas, generations of Scandinavian scholars have tried to find the lines between history and myth.
Sometimes the same hero resurfaces in several forms depending on which part of the Germanic world the epics survived such as Völund/Weyland and Siegfried/Sigurd, and probably Beowulf/Bödvar Bjarki. Other notable heroes are Starkad, Ragnar Lodbrok, Sigurd Ring, Ivar Vidfamne and Harald Hildetand. Notable are also the shieldmaidens who were "ordinary" women who had chosen the path of the warrior.
Icelandic scholar Magnus Magnusson, author of "Viking: Hammer of the North," suggests that there was a stoic, pragmatic, rationalistic side to the Nordic character that tended to treat the mythological figures as allegorical rather than as literal entities, aware that questions of ultimate meaning required a more poetic, intuitive approach. They were capable, much like ancient Roman and Greek historians, of dissociating the secular from the religious.
The form of worship practiced by the ancient Germanic and Scandinavian people closely resembled that of the Celts and Balts : it occurred mostly in groves and forests.
The Germanic tribes never had temples in a modern sense. When they sacrificed they did so at home at a simple altar of piled stones known as a "horgr". However, there seems to have been a few more important centres, such as Irminsul, Lejre and Uppsala. Adam of Bremen claims that there was a temple in Uppsala (see Temple at Uppsala) with three wooden statues of Thor, Odin and Freyr.
While a kind of priesthood seems to have existed, it never took on the professional and semi-hereditary character of the Celtic druidical class. This was because the shamanistic tradition was maintained by women, the Völvas. It is often said that the Germanic kingship evolved out of a priestly office. This priestly role of the king was in line with the general role of godi, who was like the head of a kindred group of families, and who administered the sacrifices. There was not the feeling that one had to go through a priest or prostrate oneself to have a valid religious experience, but that each individual could experience the gods on his or her own terms.
Some recorded accounts mention occasional instances of human sacrifice such as Ibn Fadlan's account of a girl in Russia who chose to die so that she could accompany her Viking lover to the afterlife, or Swedish King Aun in the Heimskringla who sacrificed nine of his sons in an effort to prolong his life until his subjects stopped him from killing his last son Egil. According to Adam of Bremen the Swedish kings sacrificed male slaves every ninth year during the Yule sacrifices at the Temple at Uppsala. Since the Swedes had the right not only to elect king but also to depose a king, both king Domalde and king Olof Trätälja are said to have been sacrificed after years of famine. A possible example of Odinic sacrifice is Tollund Man. Archaeological evidence for this practice might consist of bodies perfectly preserved by the acid of the Jutland (later taken over by Danish people) peatbogs into which they were cast after having been strangled.
Another problem is the lack of quantitative data on the degree of certain behaviors relative to other societies. The Norsemen had slaves, but so did everyone else; what is significant is that they had a large free farmer or "bonder" class which participated in parliamentary "things", later reflected in the large English yeoman class of the Middle Ages, and never had a large peasantry, slave class, or pyramidal social structure as did societies further to the south. This was a very "middle class" society. Most men in Germanic and Norse society were free men and were expected to carry a weapon such as a sword or spear as a mark of their manliness (recorded by the Roman writer Tacitus in his work "The Agricola and the Germania.") Their indulgences in human sacrifice were generally more sporadic and less characterized by institutionalized "superstition" relative to other societies of their day. The thought patterns of their leaders were very secular. Getting back to the Tollund man, we have no written accounts that explicitly interpret the cause of the hanging. It could have been no more "Odinic" (or more accurately, related to "Tyr," as explained later) than the hanging of outlaw horse thieves and bank robbers in the old American West. Truth be told, we just do not know what the real motivation was, and the scholars who associate Tollund man with "Odinic sacrifice" simply because Odin was associated with death by hanging (among dozens of other associations) may be telling us more about their biases than about the real Tollund man.
An important problem in interpreting indigenous religious mythologies is that often the closest accounts that we have to "pre-contact" times were written by Christian missionaries or Christian converts who were obviously biased against the former faith, and even taught to refer to it as the work of the Devil. As a case in point, the prose Edda and Heimskringla were written by Snorri Sturluson over two hundred years after Iceland became Christianized around 1000 AD. The anti-pagan political climate in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark was quite intense.
Virtually all of the saga literature came out of relatively tiny Iceland, and even there Sturluson had some Christian "political correctness" inhibitions. The Heimskringla, which is owned today by as many families in Norway as the Bible, provides some interesting insights into this issue. Snorri Sturluson introduces Odin as a mortal war lord in north central asia who acquires magical powers, and becomes a demi-god following his death. Having undercut Odin's divinity, Sturluson then provides the story of a pact of a Swedish King with Odin to prolong his life by sacrificing his sons. Later in the Heimskringla, Sturluson records in detail how Viking converts to Christianity such as "Saint" Olaf Haroldsson ruthlessly campaigns to forcefully convert Scandinavians to Christianity, using such means as burning down homes, gouging out eyeballs, and resorting to mass drownings. Odin is treated more sympathetically at this time in the story, and appears as an old grey bearded travelor (somewhat similar to the human form that Zeus takes in Greek mythology) with a broad-rimmed hat who reminds Nordic folk of the "good old days."
Another problem with interpreting Norse mythology is that the religion may have been distorted during the era in which it was recorded by the fact that during the Viking Age, Norse society was under considerable stress while at war with Christians for hundreds of years, on an ideological as well as physical level. Romance languages, on the other hand, used different deities to partition their week (Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Sabbath, Lord).
Norse mythology also influenced Richard Wagner's use of literary themes from it to compose the four operas that comprise Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung).
J. R. R. Tolkien borrowed extensively from Norse mythology in the fantasy fiction work The Lord of the Rings. In the Marvel Universe, the Norse Pantheon and related elements play a prominent part, especially Thor who has been one of the longest running superheroes for the company.
The Norse Pantheon heroes are also the main actors of Japanese anime Matentai Loki Ragnarok.
More recent have been attempts in both Europe and the United States to revive the old pagan religion under the name Asatru or Heathenry. In Iceland Asatru was recognized by the state as an official religion in 1973, which legalized its marriage, child-naming and other ceremonies.
Most of this mythology was passed down orally, and much of it has been lost. However, some of it was captured and recorded by Christian scholars such as (and particularly) Snorri Sturluson in the Eddas and Heimskringla, who rejected the idea that pre-Christian deities were devils. There is also the Danish Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus.
The Prose or Younger Edda was written in the early 13th century. It may be thought of primarily as a handbook for aspiring poets, which lists and describes traditional tales which formed the basis of standardised poetic expressions, such as "kennings". We know the author of the Prose Edda to be Snorri Sturluson, the renowned Icelandic poet and diplomat whose other work is the Heimskringla, a history of the Norwegian kingdom.
The Elder Edda (also known as the Poetic Edda) was written about 50 years later. It contains 29 long poems, of which 11 deal with the Germanic deities, the rest with legendary heroes like Sigurd the Volsung (the Siegfried of the German version Nibelungenlied). Although scholars think it was written down later than the other Edda, we know it as the Elder Edda because of the antiquity of the contents.
Although the Eddas remain our main source of information, closely related mythologies were shared by other Germanic nations, but most have been lost. The Frankish emperor Charlemagne is said to have made a substantial collection of Germanic pre-Christian writings, which was deliberately destroyed after his death. Exceptions to this loss can be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in the Nibelungenlied, and in Beowulf. Limited information also exists in the Germania of Tacitus.
Spelling of names in Norse mythology often varies depending on the nationality of the source material. In the articles presented here, several common forms of the names will be presented. For more information see Old Norse orthography.
| Norse mythology |
| The Nine Worlds of Norse Mythology |
| People, places and things: Deities | Giants | Dwarves | Valkyries |
| Orthography | Numbers | Runes | Kenning |
| Elder Edda | Younger Edda | Skald | Sagas | Later influence |
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