Sky gods are often the most important in the pantheon, such as Zeus in the Greek pantheon and Jupiter in the Roman. The Norse were no different, with Thor, their god of lightning and thunder, among their most important gods. But what about the sun, moon, and other celestial bodies?
While these gods exist in most pantheons, they tend to be treated more as personifications, with a less complex and developed mythology than gods of things such as war and justice. This is another feature that Norse mythology shares with other religions. So, what did the Vikings think when they looked up at the night sky, and who were the other sky gods of Norse myth?
Inside the Skull of Ymir
The Norse creation myth says that when Odin and his brothers Vili and Ve killed the primordial giant Ymir and used his body to create Midgard, they hung his skull as the sky, placing sparks from Muspelheim within it as the sun, moon, and stars.
Sol the Sun
In an inversion of what we see in Greco-Roman religion, Sol was the Norse goddess of the sun, and Mani the god of the moon. Usually, the sun is considered masculine and the moon feminine. They are brother and sister. They are also the children of Mundilfari, about whom nothing else is known, but etymology suggests he may have been envisioned as Father Time.
Sol, called Sunna in Old High German, travels across the sky in a horse-drawn wagon, sometimes called Alfrodull. The horses that pull the chariot are called Arvakr and Alsvidr.
The Gylfaginning says that Sol’s father married her to Glenr, which angered the gods. This is why they placed Sol and Mani in the sky. This suggests that they may have been lesser beings who underwent some apotheosis.
The Grímnismál says that she carries a shield named Svalinn, and that if it were to fall from its frontal position on her chariot, the mountain and sea would burn up. Another source says that her chariot was made from the burning embers of Muspelheim, the primordial world of fire.
In a surviving Old German medieval charm known as the Merseburg Incantations, written in the 9th or 10th century, Sol is described as the otherwise unattested sister of Sinthgunt. The pair are described as reciting incantations to heal the horse of Phol, which is probably an alternative name for Balder. Frigg, Fulla, and Odin are also described as singing songs of healing for the horse. Odin healing the horse of Balder is a common motif in Old German art.
Sol’s status as a nature deity and her association with magic suggests that she might be a Vanir goddess, except that Snorri Sturluson specifically calls her an Aesir in the Poetic Edda. But he was a Christian writing in the 13th century.
Mani the Moon
Sol’s brother Mani is described as guiding the path of the moon and controlling its waxing and waning. It also says that he is followed through the heavens by the brother and sister children Hjuki and Bil, whom he seems to have seen on the earth and took as his companions. They are perhaps meant to be stars or comets. They also seem to have undergone some type of apotheosis, as Bil is also described as a goddess.
Sol and Mani are constantly pursued by the two wolves Skoll and Hati, who are intent on devouring the pair. At Ragnarok, the wolves will finally catch their prey, plunging the world into darkness. But some versions of the myth say that Sol has a daughter who will take up her mother’s work when the world is renewed.
The Day, Dawn, and the Night
Dagr, whose name means day in Old Norse, was the Norse god of the day. He is said to be the son of Dellinger, who seems to be the personification of the dawn and is one of the Aesir. Dagr is said to shine as bright and beautiful as his father’s people.
Dellinger was the partner of Nott, the night sky, who seems to have been a giant, as the daughter of Norvi. According to the Gylfaginning, it was Odin who placed them all in the sky.
All three gods are described as riding chariots across the sky, but Dagr is also associated with a horse called Skinfaxi, which means “shining mane”.
The horse is described as adorned with precious jewels that make it shine as it passes over Midgard.
Nott also had a horse, Hrimfaxi, which means “frosted mane.” It is said that she draws the moon across the sky each night, and foam from her horse’s bit falls every morning, creating dew in the valleys.
Nott is elsewhere described as black and swarthy and having been married twice before Dellinger.
She was first married to Naglfari and had a son called Audr.
Little else is known about these characters. Nott’s second husband was Annar, with whom she gave birth to the giantess Jord, a personification of the earth and mother of Thor.
In the Sigrdrifumal, the Valkyrie Sigrdrifa says a heathen prayer that hails Dagr and his sons and Nott and her daughter and implores them for victory.
Observers of the Stars
Like so many cultures, it seems that the Norsemen were observers of the stars. Snorri Sturluson records that in 960, the calendar reformer Thorsteinn the Black revised the ancient and flawed 364-day calendar, discovering that a week needed to be added every six or seven years to keep the calendar in sync.
Two centuries later, in 1150, the Icelandic astronomer Oddi Helgason created the Oddatal charts, a series of diagrams used to represent the noon sun height and the direction of sunrise and sunset for each day of the year.
Modern Viking Astronomy
In the 20th century, Bjorn Jonsson, a Canadian resident, aspired to find links between Norse myths and traditional stellar skies. He published his findings in “Star Myths of the Vikings” in 1994.
In his Norse star charts, the Milky Way is the world tree Yggdrasil. He suggests that the constellation Aquila is the eagle at the top of the world tree, and the brightest star of the constellation, Altair, was Vedrfolnir, the hawk that sits between the eyes of the unnamed eagle.
Dainn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr, and Durathror, the four stags that live among the branches of Yggdrasil eating its leaves, have been identified as the night star Vega and the four Lyra stars, the constellation Cepheus and Polaris, much of the Perseus constellation, and some of Ursa Major.
He calls Sirius, or Canis Major, Lokabrenna, which means “burning done by Loki.” There is no specific story of Loki burning, though he is meant to lead the great fight against the gods at Ragnarok in which the world will burn.
He identified the stars Castor and Pollux, in the constellation Gemini, as the eyes of the giant Thjazi. This links back to a story in which Odin claimed to throw the eyes of Thjazi into the bright heavens. He called Ursa Major, or the Big Dipper, Odin’s wagon.
The Sun Wheel
In an Icelandic manuscript known as SAM 66, dating to the 18th century, both Thor and Odin appear with a sun symbol hanging around their neck. This association is not seen in Viking Age depictions, and it is unclear which aspect of Norse mythology to make this connection.
Odin does sometimes appear in association with the sun cross, which looks like a swastika, the meaning of which has been corrupted by modern use. It is believed that this represented the sun, and perhaps Odin’s supreme power, as the sun was considered the ruler of the earth.
Why the manuscript artist decided to associate the sun with Odin and Thor, and none of the other Norse gods, is unclear.
This Norse symbol seems to relate to the Celtic sun wheel symbol, also known as the Wheel of Taranis. It has six or eight spokes associated with the Celtic goddess Taranis, a god of the sky, sun, and thunder, rather than the four spokes of the swastika. Taranis is often associated with the Greek god Zeus, the Roman god Jupiter, and the Norse god Thor.
In Druidry, the hub of the wheel signifies the center of the universe and the concept of eternal return and natural cycles. It was often worn as a protective amulet. Images of the wheel are found throughout the Celtic world, including in combination with inscriptions referencing Taranis.
