Most of the surviving mythology centers on the plights of the gods and their interaction with several other beings, such as humanity and thejötnar, beings who may be friends, lovers, foes, or family members of the gods. Thecosmos in Norse mythology consists ofNine Worlds that flank a centralsacred tree,Yggdrasil. Units of time and elements of the cosmology are personified as deities or beings. Various forms of a creation myth are recounted, where the world is created from the flesh of the primordial beingYmir, and the first two humans areAsk and Embla. These worlds are foretold to be reborn after the events ofRagnarök when an immense battle occurs between the gods and their enemies, and the world is enveloped in flames, only to be reborn anew. There the surviving gods will meet, and the land will be fertile and green, andtwo humans will repopulate the world.
Norse mythology has been the subject of scholarly discourse since the 17th century when key texts attracted the attention of the intellectual circles of Europe. By way ofcomparative mythology andhistorical linguistics, scholars have identified elements of Germanic mythology reaching as far back asProto-Indo-European mythology. During the modern period, theRomanticistViking revival re-awoke an interest in the subject matter, and references to Norse mythology may now be found throughout modernpopular culture. The myths have further been revived in a religious context among adherents ofGermanic Neopaganism.
The historical religion of theNorse people is commonly referred to asNorse mythology. Other terms areScandinavian mythology,[1][2][3]North Germanic mythology[4] orNordic mythology.[5]
Norse mythology is primarily attested in dialects ofOld Norse, aNorth Germanic language spoken by the Scandinavian people during the EuropeanMiddle Ages and the ancestor of modernScandinavian languages. The majority of these Old Norse texts were created inIceland, where the oral tradition stemming from the pre-Christian inhabitants of the island was collected and recorded in manuscripts. This occurred primarily in the 13th century. These texts include theProse Edda, composed in the 13th century by the Icelandic scholar,lawspeaker, and historianSnorri Sturluson, and thePoetic Edda, a collection of poems from earlier traditional material anonymously compiled in the 13th century.[6]
TheProse Edda was composed as a prose manual for producingskaldic poetry—traditionalOld Norse poetry composed byskalds. Originally composed and transmitted orally, skaldic poetry utilizesalliterative verse,kennings, and several metrical forms. TheProse Edda presents numerous examples of works by various skalds from before and after the Christianization process and also frequently refers back to the poems found in thePoetic Edda. ThePoetic Edda consists almost entirely of poems, with some prose narrative added, and this poetry—Eddic poetry—utilizes fewerkennings. In comparison to skaldic poetry, Eddic poetry is relatively unadorned.[6]
TheProse Edda features layers ofeuhemerization, a process in which deities and supernatural beings are presented as having been either actual, magic-wielding human beings who have beendeified in time or beingsdemonized by way ofChristian mythology.[7] Texts such asHeimskringla, composed in the 13th century by Snorri andGesta Danorum, composed inLatin bySaxo Grammaticus in Denmark in the 12th century, are the results of heavy amounts of euhemerization.[8]
Objects from the archaeological record may also be interpreted as depictions of subjects from Norse mythology, such as amulets of the god Thor's hammerMjölnir found among pagan burials and small silver female figures interpreted asvalkyries ordísir, beings associated with war, fate or ancestor cults.[10] By way ofhistorical linguistics andcomparative mythology, comparisons to other attested branches of Germanic mythology (such as theOld High GermanMerseburg Incantations) may also lend insight.[11] Wider comparisons to the mythology of other Indo-European peoples by scholars has resulted in the potential reconstruction of far earlier myths.[12][13]
Only a tiny amount of poems and tales survive of the many mythical tales and poems that are presumed to have existed during the Middle Ages, Viking Age, Migration Period, and before.[14] Later sources reaching into the modern period, such as a medieval charm recorded as used by the Norwegian womanRagnhild Tregagås—convicted ofwitchcraft in Norway in the 14th century—and spells found in the 17th century IcelandicGaldrabókgrimoire also sometimes make references to Norse mythology.[15] Other traces, such asplace names bearing the names of gods may provide further information about deities, such as a potential association between deities based on the placement of locations bearing their names, their local popularity, and associations with geological features.[16]
The godThor wades through a river, while theÆsir ride across the bridge,Bifröst, in an illustration byLorenz Frølich (1895).
Central to accounts of Norse mythology are the plights of the gods and their interaction with various other beings, such as with thejötnar, who may be friends, lovers, foes, or family members of the gods. Numerous gods are mentioned in the source texts. As evidenced by records of personal names and place names, the most popular god among the Scandinavians during the Viking Age wasThor the thunder god, who is portrayed as unrelentingly pursuing his foes, his mountain-crushing, thunderous hammerMjölnir in hand. In the mythology, Thor lays waste to numerous jötnar who are foes to the gods or humanity, and is wed to the beautiful, golden-haired goddessSif.[17]
The godOdin is also frequently mentioned in surviving texts. One-eyed,wolf- andraven-flanked, with a spear in hand, Odin pursues knowledge throughout the nine realms. In an act of self-sacrifice, Odin is described as having hanged himself upside-down for nine days and nights on the cosmological treeYggdrasil to gain knowledge of the runic alphabet, which he passed on to humanity, and is associated closely with death, wisdom, and poetry. Odin is portrayed as the ruler ofAsgard, and leader of theAesir. Odin's wife is the powerful goddessFrigg who can see the future but tells no one, and together they have a beloved son,Baldr. After a series of dreams had by Baldr of his impending death, his death is engineered byLoki, and Baldr thereafter resides inHel, a realm ruled over by anentity of the same name.[18]
Odin must share half of his share of the dead with a powerful goddess,Freyja. She is beautiful, sensual, wears a feathered cloak, and practicesseiðr. She rides to battle to choose among the slain and brings her chosen to her afterlife fieldFólkvangr. Freyja weeps for her missing husbandÓðr and seeks after him in faraway lands.[19] Freyja's brother, the godFreyr, is also frequently mentioned in surviving texts, and in his association with the weather, royalty, human sexuality, and agriculture brings peace and pleasure to humanity. Deeply lovesick after catching sight of the beautiful jötunnGerðr, Freyr seeks and wins her love, yet at the price of his future doom.[20] Their father is the powerful godNjörðr. Njörðr is strongly associated with ships and seafaring, and so also wealth and prosperity. Freyja and Freyr's mother isNjörðr's unnamed sister (her name is unprovided in the source material). However, there is more information about his pairing with the skiing and hunting goddessSkaði. Their relationship is ill-fated, as Skaði cannot stand to be away from her beloved mountains, nor Njörðr from the seashore.[21] Together, Freyja, Freyr, and Njörðr form a portion of gods known as theVanir. While the Aesir and the Vanir retain distinct identification, they came together as the result of theAesir–Vanir War.[22]
While they receive less mention, numerous other gods and goddesses appear in the source material. (For a list of these deities, seeList of Germanic deities.) Some of the gods heard less of include the apple-bearing goddessIðunn and her husband, the skaldic godBragi; the gold-toothed godHeimdallr, born ofnine mothers; the ancient godTýr, who lost his right hand while binding the great wolfFenrir; and the goddessGefjon, who formed modern-dayZealand,Denmark.[23]
Various beings outside of the gods are mentioned.Elves anddwarfs are commonly mentioned and appear to be connected, but their attributes are vague and the relation between the two is ambiguous. Elves are described as radiant and beautiful, whereas dwarfs often act as earthen smiths.[24] A group of beings variously described asjötnar,thursar, andtrolls (in English these are all oftenglossed as "giants") frequently appear. These beings may either aid, deter, or take their place among the gods.[25] TheNorns,dísir, and aforementioned valkyries also receive frequent mention. While their functions and roles may overlap and differ, all are collective female beings associated with fate.[26]
The cosmological, central treeYggdrasil is depicted inThe Ash Yggdrasil byFriedrich Wilhelm Heine (1886).Sól, the Sun, and Máni, the Moon, are chased by the wolvesSköll and Háti inThe Wolves Pursuing Sol and Mani byJ. C. Dollman (1909).
InNorse cosmology, all beings live inNine Worlds that center around the cosmological treeYggdrasil. The gods inhabit the heavenly realm ofAsgard whereas humanity inhabitsMidgard, a region in the center of the cosmos. Outside of the gods, humanity, and the jötnar, these Nine Worlds are inhabited by beings, such aselves anddwarfs. Travel between the worlds is frequently recounted in the myths, where the gods and other beings may interact directly with humanity. Numerous creatures live on Yggdrasil, such as the insulting messenger squirrelRatatoskr and the perching hawkVeðrfölnir. The tree itself has three major roots, and at the base of one of these roots live theNorns, female entities associated with fate.[27] Elements of the cosmos are personified, such as the Sun (Sól, a goddess), the Moon (Máni, a god), and Earth (Jörð, a goddess), as well as units of time, such as day (Dagr, a god) and night (Nótt, a jötunn).[28]
The afterlife is a complex matter in Norse mythology. The dead may go to the murky realm ofHel—a realm ruled over by a female being of thesame name, may be ferried away by valkyries to Odin's martial hallValhalla, or may be chosen by the goddessFreyja to dwell in her fieldFólkvangr.[29] The goddessRán may claim those that die at sea, and the goddessGefjon is said to be attended by virgins upon their death.[30] Texts also make reference toreincarnation.[31] Time itself is presented between cyclic and linear, and some scholars have argued thatcyclic time was the original format for the mythology.[32] Various forms of acosmological creation story are provided in Icelandic sources, and references to a future destruction and rebirth of the world—Ragnarok—are frequently mentioned in some texts.[33]
According to theProse Edda and thePoetic Edda poem,Völuspá, the first human couple consisted ofAsk and Embla; driftwood found by a trio of gods and imbued with life in the form of three gifts. After the cataclysm of Ragnarok, this process is mirrored in the survival of two humans from a wood;Líf and Lífþrasir. From these two humankind is foretold to repopulate the new and green earth.[34]
^Murdoch, Brian; Hardin, James N.; Read, Malcolm Kevin (2004).Early Germanic Literature and Culture.Boydell & Brewer. pp. 98–99.ISBN157113199X.Of even more importance isSnorri Sturluson, the Icelandic scholar and politician, who did our knowledge of heathen religion such good service... he offers a scholarly portrayal of Old Norse mythology, which is admittedly heavily influenced by his Christian education and classical education, but remains nonetheless our most important medieval source for North Germanic mythology.
^Regarding the dísir, valkyries, and figurines (with images), seeLindow (2001), pp. 95–97. For hammers, seeSimek (2007), pp. 218–19, andLindow (2001), pp. 288–89.
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