Questions of destiny and pre-determined fate loom large in Viking culture. They believed that the moment of every person’s death was preordained from the moment of their birth and that even the gods are subject to the laws of fate. The Ragnarok prophecy tells the story of the death of all the gods, which is…
If you scan the surviving Scandinavian texts, you will find the names of many Norse gods and goddesses. But many are only mentioned in passing, and little is known about them beyond their name and the fact that they were considered among the Aesir. Forseti is one such god. His name only appears twice in…
Freyr was a popular Norse god in the Viking age associated with fertility and virility. Snorri Sturluson says that he was the most renowned Norse divinities in 12th-century Iceland. Freyr lives in Asgard among the Aesir but is one of the Vanir gods who went to live there following the end of the Aesir-Vanir war,…
The event that rings loudest in Norse mythology is Ragnarok, which means “twilight of the gods”. This event has not yet happened, but there is a widely known prophecy that records what will happen. Loki will lead an army of jotun (giants), the dishonest dead, and other enemies of the Aesir gods against Asgard. Loki…
It is well established that one of the ways that Christianity was able to convert Pagans and bring them into the Christian fold was to incorporate important Pagan practices into Christian rituals. As a result, many of the holidays that exist in the Christian calendar have clear Pagan roots both in terms of the date…
Poor Sigurd gets treated poorly in the History Channel’s Vikings series. The least memorable of Ragnar’s many sons, he is killed off pretty early in the storyline of Ragnar’s sons. Ivar throws a knife at him, which hits him in the chest and kills him. This is a plot point to exacerbate the conflict between…
Did the Vikings celebrate Halloween? The Norse warriors (and their children) certainly did not go trick or treating on the 31st of October, but this was still an important day in the Norse calendar. The end of October marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, which means long, dark days,…
We are very excited about the release of the new The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series. The first episode dropped on Amazon Prime on September 1 (2022). It is set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in the Second Age described in…
Valkyrie has quickly emerged as one of the most popular characters in the Marvel universe with her feisty attitude and cool fighting style. Yet another character based on Norse mythology, how does Valkyrie measure up against the Valkyries that inspired her? Who is Valkyrie in the Marvel Universe? In the Marvel universe, Valkyrie is not…
The idea of Mimir catches the imagination as he is described as the disembodied head of an extremely intelligent being. He exists in a place at the base of the world where the wise, including Odin himself, travel to consult him and gain his wisdom. It is little surprise that Mimir has become a pop-culture…