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Norse Mythology for Smart People provides an accessible, entertaining, and reliable introduction to the Vikings’ mythology and religion, with scholarly sources cited for everything. Come on in to learn all you’ve ever wanted to know about the Norse gods, stories, beliefs, way of life, and more!
The body of stories that we today call “Norse mythology” formed one of the centerpieces of the pagan Norse religion. These are the tales that Viking poets recited in dimly lit halls to the captivated attendees of grand feasts, and which fathers and mothers told to their children around roaring hearth-fires on long winter nights.
Odin (pronounced “OH-din”; Old Norse Óðinn, Old English and Old Saxon Woden, Old High German Wuotan, Wotan, or Wodan, Proto-Germanic *Woðanaz, “Master of Ecstasy”) is one of the most complex and enigmatic characters in Norse mythology, and perhaps in all of world literature.
The first systems of writing developed and used by the Norse and other Germanic peoples were runic alphabets. The runes functioned as letters, but they were much more than just letters in the sense in which we today understand the term.
Of all of the symbols in Norse mythology, Thor’s Hammer (Old Norse Mjöllnir, pronounced roughly “MIOL-neer”) is one of the most historically important, and is probably the best known today. Thor was the indefatigable god who guarded Asgard , the celestial stronghold of the Aesir , the main tribe of gods and goddesses in Norse mythology.
Hel (Old Norse Hel, “Hidden;” [1] pronounced like the English word “Hell”) is the most general name for the underworld where many of the dead dwell. It’s presided over by a fearsome goddess whose name is also Hel .
Thor (Old Norse Þórr, Old English Đunor, Old High German Donar, Proto-Germanic *Þunraz, “Thunder” [1]) is one of the most prominent figures in Norse mythology.
When Norse mythology is considered as a chronological set of tales, the story of Ragnarok naturally comes at the very end. For the Vikings , the myth of Ragnarok was a prophecy of what was to come at some unspecified and unknown time in the future, but it had profound ramifications for how the Vikings understood the world in their own time.
Loki (pronounced “LOAK-ee;” Old Norse Loki, the meaning of which will be discussed below) is the wily trickster god of Norse mythology. While treated as a nominal member of the gods, Loki occupies a highly ambivalent and ultimately unique position among the gods, giants , and the other kinds of spiritual beings that populate the pre ...
Our current knowledge of the pre-Christian mythology and religion of the Norse and other Germanic peoples has been painstakingly pieced together from a large assortment of sources over the past few centuries.