Thank you in advance.

I'm writing a short novel that's a remake of the Ragnarok myth, adding dialogue and extra stuff and stuff. But I don't know EXACTLY what happened in Ragnarok. Who were the survivors, what happened before, etc.

This is what I know (Feel free to skip this part):

-Frigg's dreams about Baldr, the oath to all living beings not to kill him. All except the mistletoe.

-Baldr holds a tournament to prove his immortality. His blind brother Hodr, god of winter (?), is tricked by Loki and kills him by shooting him with a mistletoe arrow.

-Vali burns Hodr, Fimbulwinter begins because of his death (?).

-They try to revive Baldr, they fail because Loki transformed into a giantess (?).

-Loki is discovered by the events of Lokasenna. After that he is enclosed in a stone with the guts of his normal children and sprinkled with snake venom.

-Three years pass, Ragnarok begins.

-Skoll and Hati catch the moon and the sun.

-Garm breaks his chains in the cave howling.

-An earthquake frees Loki.

-Fenrir breaks his chains (?)

-Surtr goes to Asgard (?)

-Jormungandr get out of the sea (?).

-The giants go to Asgard with their ships.

-Hel and Loki go to Asgard from Helheim with their ships.

-Fenrir kills Odin, Vidar took revenge for his father by killing Fenrir.

-Thor kills Jormungandr, dies later from the poison. Magni and Modi keep the match.

-Garm and Tyr kill each other.

-Surtr kills Freyr because he left without his sword.

-Surtr burns the universe, only a few survive.

-Two humans survive, Baldr and Hodr revive, Magni, Modi, Freya survive, and others I don't know what else stills alive (Heeeeeeelp)

-Niddhoggr escapes from the roots of the world tree in Nastrond, scattering corpses in the world (?)

Thanks for reading, have a nice day and sorry for writing so much.

I'm running a dnd game and they're fighting evil dwarves and I want to name them after dwarves who were antagonists in norse myth. I've already turned Fjalar and Galar into a pair of necromancers trying to exhume Kvasir's corpse. And I have the sons of ivaldi as a cult of Loki who have an ancient vendetta against Brokkr and Eitri for beheading their god eons ago. But that's the only 2 cases of dwarves being antagonists in norse myth I can find and I admit to stretching the definition of antagonist for the sons of Ivaldi.

Why do we know nothing about her?

What are your favorite stories from Norse mythology that have a good moral lesson to be learned from them?

Just wondering if anyone knows of any short prayers that Vikings may have uttered before they went into battle/knew their death was imminent?

Original Norwegian or English translations welcome!

Really need to find something appropriate for a university project so would be so so appreciated

"About the secrets of giants and of all gods

I can tell the truth,

because I have come to each world;

I came to nine worlds beneath Niflhel;

humans die there from Hel."

As far as I know (mostly from people on subs like this and r/Norse), the idea of nine underworld realms is a possible explanation of what the phrase "níu heimar" is referring to. I think I agree with this (though I haven't really read any of the sources outside of the Eddas, and I don't know if there even are any other sources that talk about this since I don't think I've seen people cite anything else), but I don't understand why Vafþrúðnir brings up having been to nine homes/realms beneath Niflhel as the reason that he can tell "[the truth] about the secrets of giants and of all gods." My only guess was that maybe it has something to do with talking with the dead like Óðinn does sometimes, but I'm not sure if that makes sense.

just wondering

Hi, I'm not too big into Norse mythology as much as I am curious about mythology in general world wide. However, I just learned that apparently it's not just Nidhöggr gnawing at the world tree's roots but rather 7 other serpents as well.

Does anyone know if there is any symbolism or significance to that number?

(Curiously, the Japanese myth of Yamata no Orochi involves the thunder god Susanoo slaying the eight-headed serpent Orochi. Although the number of serpents or heads aren't specified in other myths, the idea reoccurs in other cultures: The Greek Typhon was a multi-headed serpentine giant, Lotan/Leviathan slain by Hadad-Baʿal, the Egyptian Apep fought by Ra, and the Sumerian/Babylonian draconic mother goddess Tiamat slain by Marduk. This seems to occur roughly around the time period the Proto Indo-European earth mother goddess was falling out of favor.)

Can an expert at this tell me sort of what this means?

I've been trying to find a definitive answer to this question for the past few months and have come up short. Are Geri and Freki different colors, Huginn and Munninn or is it that all four of them are? A lot of depictions, although entirely made up and of no historical importance, show both sets of the four creatures as both being the same color and different colors. I always thought that it was Geri and Freki that differed in color but some illustrations show Huginn and Muninn being different as well.

Basically I am confused as to how the nine realms sit cosmologicaly. Is, for example, Muspelheimr below the earth much like Hades or Hell, or does it sit as it's own continent so very far to the south of us?

Answers on this topic have been hard to find, and I also know that hey may not even be clear or exist. But at this point I will take even educated theories at this point.

I want to ask something, in norse mythology, there are 9 worlds and humans live in midgard, is midgard like a planet, or like a universe for humans?

Some dude

I can't seem to find a clear answer. There's the frost giants and fire giants, which as far as I can tell are their own things, usually pretty regular in form. Then there's a veriety of other jotnar that I can't pin down, including Loki, Angrboða, and their children (and a few of the æsir as well I guess, since they're more of a clan).

These jotnar I'm asking about often come in varying forms as well; Hel, Jormungandr, and Fenrir for instance are all completely different dispite all having the same parents (granted, their father is a shapeshifter, but still, iirc they're not the only examples).

I know the norse didn't put stuff like this in nice little categories very much, and we are sorely lacking in a lot of information, so I won't be too surprised if there isn't a real answer, but if there is one I would like to know.

"In Norse mythology, Móði (Old Norse: [ˈmoːðe]; anglicized Módi or Mothi) and Magni [ˈmɑɣne] are the sons of Thor. Their names translate to "Wrath" and "Mighty," respectively. Rudolf Simek states that, along with Thor's daughter Þrúðr ("Strength"), they embody their father's features"

The name Móði should therefore mean "Wrath" but in current Danish it means brave. Could it reveal a long interplay between being brave and being angry? That it is associated with Thor and not Týr makes me doubt that it would have anything to do with fighting anger, ferocity, "going berserk", but then how should it be understood as an expression of Tor's characteristics?

And that his daughter is 'strength' makes me, as a modern feminist, want to believe that the Vikings/people in the Iron Age also considered women to be full of strength. In this case, the strength could stem from Sif's qualities - here I'm thinking especially of her qualities as a midwife god.

In many ways, Thor is the typical "Masculine" of the time and Sif the typical "Feminine" of the time. Together with their children, they are an expression of a (divine) family. Are their children (wrath, mighty and strength) what children are or what godchildren are or results of their parents' traits?

All these thoughts play out from a video I saw of analysis of "God of War" that I haven't really heard of before. I can imagine there are already many discussions on here about it, which I look forward to reading, but would also like to hear your thoughts on it.

PS I am native Danish and is schooled in religion not in English so forgive any spelling mistakes ect.

Hey guys, I'm new here so I really want to know about Norse mythology from the very beginning. Like who is Odin? etc. But I don’t know which book to start getting acquainted with this.. I was thinking about Prose Edda but I don't know if it’s worth it. Can you recommend a book please?

I want to read Manzum Edda. I already read the Nesir Edda so I wanna go deeper. Can someone tell me where can I find that book?

I've been researching Norse mythology for a while now. I've been making a little project which Njord in the main character. I know the basics but finding deeper information about him is difficult. Can anyone lend a hand here? Any information about him is helpful. Like family,personality, and anything that will help me understand him.

So, afaik, “hung” is almost always the past tense of “hang”. You only use “hanged” specifically for someone who was sentenced to death or unalived themselves via hanging.

So, Neil Gaiman says that Odin hung himself from Yggdrasil in the beginning of his book “Norse Mythology”, and Larrington has Odin say in her translation of the poetic edda something like: “nine nights, I hung from the wind-swept tree”. So clearly, Odin did not hang via a rope from Yggdrasil, because then they would use “hanged”.

So then what did he do? Was it like a dead hang an athlete will do to increase grip strength? Is hanging from Yggdrasil just a way for Odin to flex his grip strength? Or was it a crucifixion style thing where his hands were bound to the tree and so he hung from his hands? Or was he hung upside down with his feet tied to the tree? Or maybe “hanged” doesn’t work since odin didn’t actually die from hanging?

But then, it seems the pop-culture understanding is that Odin hanged from a rope the same way as is done in an execution(see: god of war ragnorak). And larrington herself, in the footnote to the aforementioned verse, mentions the motif of the “hanged god”, which would only make sense if Odin suspended from the tree in such a way that is the typical “rope around the neck” execution, since that is the only correct usage of “hanged”.

So, anyone who actually knows old norse, what is it? Odin hanged or hung from Yggdrasil?

Is there a consensus on whether mythical creatures are in fact deities?

Are Huginn and Muninn parts of Odin or are they their own entities? Are Fenrir, Jorgi and that crazy squirrel on Yggdrasil deities?

From what I understand, of Loki’s children, only Hel made the cut, and it wasn’t her birthright, it was given to her (correct me if I’m wrong but, to keep her and all of Angrboda’s babies away from Asgard because of a prophecy?)

Sleipnir came in handy because of how he could run through the nine realms so he got to stay but is he a god?

Does one have to be Human-presenting to access the status of God?

Enlighten me (please)

Thor's belt gives him the power to wield Mjölnir. Similiar to how modern powerlifters use lifting belts to increase their capability. Did norse people understand that a belt around your waist can help you lift heavy things? Or ist it just a coincidence that the equiment that gives power just happens to be a belt?