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ANGRBODA
BALDER
BRAGI
DONAR
FENRIR Also FENRIS WOLF
FORSETI
FREYR
FREYJA
FRIGG
HEIMDALL
HEL
HERMOD
HODER
IDUNN
LOKI
MIDGARD SERPENT
MIMIR
NERTHUS
NJORD
ODIN Also OTHINN; WODEN; WOTAN
RAGNAROK
TIWAZ
WELAND Also VOLUNDR; WIELAND; WAYLAND
AEGIR
"Alebrewer." So called because Aegir loves to give feasts for the gods. God of the sea.
Saxon pirates gave to Aegir a tenth of their captives, who were thrown into the sea.
The giantess who mated with Loki to create Hel, Fenrir and the Midgard Serpent.
A hero god, the god who dies and rises again. Fair skinned, fair haired, wise and merciful,
beloved of all. Loke tricked Hoder into killing Balder, who had to be rescued from the
underworld. According to the epic poem VOLUSKA, Balder will come to rule again after Ragnarok.
God of poetry and eloquence, husband of Iduun. It is Bragi's duty to prepare Valhalla
for new arrivals.
German god of thunder, forerunner of Thor. His symbol is the swastika. Oak trees are
sacred to Donar, as they are to Jove.
A monstrous wolf conceived by Loki. Fenrir was raised in Asgard, the home of the gods,
until he became so immense and feroucious that only the god Tyr was brave enough to feed
him. Tyr bound Fenrir until the day of Ragnarok, when Fenrir will break loose to slay
Odin.
God of justice, the great arbiter, the god who "stills all strife." Forseti dwells in a
hall of gold and silver called Giltnir.
"The god of the world," son of Njord, husband of Freyja. God of fertility, sunlight and
rain, peace, joy and contentment. Freyr was worshipped with human sacrifices and a kind
of religious play in which men dressed as women mimed and danced to the sound of chimes
and bells. Freyr had some association with the horse cult as well, and horses sacred to
his service were kpet near his shrines. Freyr and his sister/wife FREYJA were of the
Vanir, a family or race of gods which originally competed with the Aesir and later became
allies. The Vanir may have been the gods of an earlier Scandinavian race who were adopted
into the pantheon of later conquerors.
Goddess of magic and death, goddess of sex, daughter of Njord, a shape-shifter who
often took the form of a falcon. When her husband Od disappeared, Freyja wept golden
tears. Donning a magical garment, Freyja could fly long distances. Patroness of seithr,
a practice in which a sorceress would enter a trance to foretell the future. The women
who practiced siethr, who were know as Volva, wandered freely about the country casting
spells and foretelling the future. Freyja's worshippers involved orgiastic rites which
horrified and outraged the Christians. Half of all those slain in battle belonged to
Freyja, the other half belonging to Odin.
Wife of Odin, mother of Balder, queen of Asgard. A fertility goddess.
The god who guards the Bifrost Bridge which is the entrance to Asgard. Heimdall can see
for immense distances, and his ear is so sensitive that he can hear the grass grow. On
the day of Ragnarok, Heimdall will blow the great horn Gjallarhorn, and in the ensuing
battle he will slay Loki.
Goddess of death. Daughter of Loki. Ruler of Niflheim, the land of mists. Heroic souls
go to Valhalla. Those who die of disease or old age come to Niflheim. Surrounded by high
walls and strong gates, Niflheim is impregnable; not even Balder could return from there
without Hel's permission.
A hero god. Hermod rode through the gates of Niflheim to rescue Balder and found Balder
seated on the right hand of Hel. Hel agreed to release Balder on condition that all living
things weep for him.
Little is known about Hoder, other than that he is blind. Loki tricked Hoder into
killing Balder with a sprig of mistletoe. Hoder will join Balder in the new world which
will come into being when the present one is destroyed.
Wife of Bragi, keeper of the golden apples of eternal youth. The giant Thiazzi kidnapped
her with the aid of Loki.
A trickster. Sly, deceitful, a master thief, not to be trusted. Nevertheless, Loki is
charming, witty, quite capable, and possessed of a sardonic sense of humor which he aims
at himself no less often than at others. A shape shifter who can change into almost any
animal form. Loki was involved in many of the gods' adventures, usually because one of
his tricks had made some kind of a mess.
The great snake which lies in the ocean and encircles the world, its tail in its mouth. On
the day of Ragnarok, the world will disappear under the ocean's waters when the Midgard
Serpent rises from the sea. Thor will kill the Midgard Serpent but will be killed by the
Serpent's poision.
The guardian of a spring of wisdom at the root of Yggdrasill, the world tree which
connects the lower and higher worlds and is the source of all life. Odin gave an eye to
drink from that spring.
An earth mother worshipped by the German tribe of the
Suebi. Her sacred grove stood on an island in the North Sea.
The chief of the Vanir, who warred with the Aesir. Lord of the winds and of the sea, giver
of wealth. Particularly revered on the west coast of Sweden. In pagan days, oaths in law
courts were sworn in his name. Njord may be a masculine form of Nerthus.
A god of strife and war, magic and death. The chief of the Aesir who lives in his hall
Valaskjal in Sagard from which he can look out over all the worlds. In his hall Valhalla,
valkyries (female war spirits) serve heros who have fallen in battle and will aid the god
in the great battle of Ragnarok. On Odin's shoulders perch two ravens, Hugin ("Thought")
and Munin ("Memory") who can fly about all the worlds to bring Odin knowledge. Odin often
aids great heros but is quite fickle and can turn against a man for any reason or none.
Tales of Odin's treachery are not merely Christian propaganda. Odin's worshippers
themselves could be quite sharp-tongued about Odin's unfaithfulness. Odin's worship
involved human sacrifices, who were generally hung from trees or gallows.
"Destruction of the powerful ones." The Twilight of the Gods. The time of fire and ice.
The great battle at the end of time between the gods and the Frost Giants in which the
world will be destroyed and made anew. Ragnarok will be preceded by three winters of bitter
wars followed by the Fimbulvetr, a winter so cold that the usn will give no heat. Then the
forces of evil will gather and make war on the gods. THOR God of thunder. Huge, red-bearded,
red-eyed, powerful. His weapon is the magic hammer Mjollnir, which is augmented by a magic
belt which doubles Thor's strength, and iron gloves with which Thor grips Mjollnir. In some
ways Odin's rival, Thor is the god of law and order, the champion of the people. Unlike Odin,
Thor will keep faith. Oaths were sworn in Thor's name, which no sane man would ever do
with Odin. When Christianity came to Iceland, the other gods surrendered meekly, but Thor
fought to the bitter end. The Hammer is Thor's sacred sign and is the most common image in
Nordic art. The worship of Thor survived well into the Christian age; little silver hammers
were often made in the smith's shop along with crosses and crucifixes.
The one-handed sky god and war god of the early Germanic peoples. Tiwaz was worshipped
with human sacrifices conducted in the deep forest. Tiwaz is god of law and justice, and
oaths were sworn in his name. His functions were later taken over by Odin and Thor, though
unlike Odin Tiwaz is completely without deceit and guile. Tiwaz is also known as Irmin,
and his sacred pillar Irminsul symbollically held the universe together. TYR God of battle,
the only god with the strength and courage to bind Fenris. Warriors marked their swords
with a T to gain the god's protection. Tyr was originally was Tiwaz, retained in a later
pantheon but overshadowed by Odin and Thor.
God of smiths and metal workers. Son of the giant Wade. Weland has much in common with
smith gods such as Govannon and Hephaistos, which comes as no surprise. Technology and
metalworking spread slowly in the ancient world, usually on a person to person basis,
and highly skilled metalsmiths and other technical workers formed a virtual international
brotherhood similar to the Masons.
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