Category: Norse Mythology

Simple versions of Norse mythology describe the Asgardian gods as a force for good, and their nemeses, the giants, as a force of chaos and evil. But nothing in the world is so black and white. The giants and Asgardian gods in the original Norse myths certainly aren’t so clear cut. Just as the Asgardian…

While we are most familiar with the stories of the gods of Asgard when it comes to Norse mythology, the Vikings had many stories about other beasts and heroes that they used to understand the world and teach important lessons. One of the most interesting characters from Norse mythology, and probably the inspiration for Tolkien’s…

As a seafaring people, we would expect the Vikings to venerate gods of the sea and the wind. Indeed, Thor himself was, among other things, a god of storms and weather. But the primary god of the sea and winds in Norse mythology was the lesser known deity Njord. A complex and multifaceted god like…

Thanks to the success of the Marvel franchise [and the famous song by Kiss] most of us are now familiar with Thor, the Viking god of thunder [and rock’ n’ roll according to the Kiss song]. But how true is the modern pop culture portrayal to the Thor of Norse mythology? While Marvel certainly have…

It seems like every mythology has a goddess of love and beauty, but the Norse goddess Freya was so much more than that.  Associated with love, sex, lust, beauty, sorcery, fertility, gold, war and death, Freya was clearly among one of the most potent Norse deities. This accounts for why there is evidence that the…

The world of Norse mythology is full of terrifying monsters, but perhaps none more so than Jormungandr, also known as the Midgard Serpent. Maybe it is his proximity to the world of men, dwelling in the ocean that surrounds Midgard (home of human), or maybe it is our innate fear of serpents, but no other…

Loki is often called the trickster god of Norse mythology. But in actual fact Loki was not one of the Aesir gods, and while his tricks often put the Norse gods in difficult situations, there are no surviving Norse stories of him playing havoc in the lives of men. So where do modern, Marvel inspired…

Norse accounts of death and the Viking afterlife are quite difficult to unravel. As death is the ultimate unknown, inconsistency is expected, and all written accounts come from the post-Christian era, and seem to have been influenced by Christian ideas of death. Vikings did believe in an afterlife, as Norse burial practices were clearly designed…

The word giant brings to mind human-like creatures of great stature, that may or may not live at the top of beanstalks. This term has been applied to the Jotun of Norse Mythology, but while the Jotun were ‘supermen’ with powers that rivalled those of the Aesir gods, they bear little resemblance to the giants…

If you imagine the dwarves of Norse Mythology as something out of a Tolkien novel, you would not be far off the mark. Tolkien was inspired by the Norse mythology, which describes dwarves as master blacksmiths that dwelled underground in great cavernous mines that fuelled their work. Read on to find out more about Norse…