By the Gods!
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In Norse mythology, Gerðr (Old Norse “fenced-in”) is a jötunn, goddess, and the wife of the god Freyr. Gerðr is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources; the Prose Edda and Heimskringla, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson; and in the poetry of skalds. Gerðr is sometimes modernly anglicized as Gerd or Gerth.
In both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, Freyr sees Gerðr from a distance, becomes deeply lovesick at the sight of her shimmering beauty, and has his servant Skírnir go to Jötunheimr (where Gerðr and her father Gymir reside) to gain her love. In the Poetic Edda Gerðr initially refuses, yet after a series of threats by Skírnir she finally agrees. In the Prose Edda, no mention of threats is made. In both sources, Gerðr agrees to meet Freyr at a fixed time at the location of Barri and, after Skírnir returns with Gerðr’s response, Freyr laments that the meeting could not occur sooner. In both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, Gerðr is described as the daughter of Gymir and the mountain jötunn Aurboða.
In Heimskringla, Gerðr is recorded as the wife of Freyr, euhemerized as having been a beloved king of Sweden. In the same source, the couple are the founders of the Yngling dynasty and produced a son, Fjölnir, who rose to kinghood after Freyr’s passing and continued their line. Gerðr is commonly theorized to be a goddess associated with the earth. Gerðr has inspired works of art and literature.
Picture: Skirnir’s Message to Gerd (1908) by W. G. Collingwood.
This is a great blog for all things Norse! If you’re a Thoroholic, give it a look.
Huldufólk
I’m sure that most of you have heard tell of the elves and faeries who live in woods and dells, dwelling just beyond the reaches of human perception right? Right! Well, the Nordic peoples who spread across Western Europe brought with them the tales of their elves (or alfar) wherever they went, and those stories persist even to this day, though in some places they’re closer to the cultural surface than they are in others.
Germany and Scandinavia have hidden alfar or elves (or a close Germanic derivative), but Iceland is an interesting example of further cultural intermingling with their Huldufólk. Norse settlers had their alfar, but Irish settlers out of the more separate Celtic tradition had their hill folk. Some tradition even attaches the Huldufólk to Adam and Eve in Christian mythology, as the second string of “unclean” children Eve bore and tried to hide from God, who then declared “What man hides from God, God will hide from man,” demonstrating what can only be described as a firm grasp of reason and judgment.
Depending on who you ask (and when you were asking them), the various breeds of hidden people in germanic myth can be good or wicked. The Huldufólk seem to be less malicious than some mischievous elves have been known to be, and indeed are respected in much of the Icelandic cultural tradition. Some folk have even built tiny lil’ dwellings for the little people to reside in!
The origins and attitudes of the Huldufólk can change dramatically depending on who you ask about them, but their existence in Icelandic folklore can certainly be traced back a long way, even as far back as in the verses of the Eddas.
Beowulf Vs. the Dragon
Beowulf’s next big fight takes place fifty years after he’s uprooted the Grendel family tree, and our favourite Anglo-Saxon-Written-Swede has returned home and become king of the Geats in his own land. Everything is going great for him until a slave steals a shiny goblet from the lair of a local unnamed dragon. For those of you who don’t have much experience with dragons, here’s a general tip to avoid incurring their fiery wrath: Don’t steal their sh*t.
The dragon (predictably) flips out after finding his treasure hoard invaded, and sets fire to the countryside. A significantly older Beowulf gathers his men to once more slay a monster for the good of his people, and as usual he asks his soldiers to stay back so that he might further increase his fame and renown (a lifetime of slaying “un-killable” monsters does that to one’s ego).
This time, however, Beowulf finds himself outmatched by the dragon and desperately defends himself with a rapidly-melting shield, thanks to the dragon’s fire. Seeing their lord in dire need, most of his soldiers heroically retreat to the woods, but one man, Wiglaf, remembers his oaths and rushes to his king’s aid.
Beowulf has recurring trouble with swords; he is described as simply too strong to use them properly, and his super manly grip breaks the blade uselessly on the dragon’s scaly hide. Luckily, Wiglaf doesn’t have this problem and is able to stab into the beast’s belly, thus bleeding out the fire that had been roasting his lord. This allowed Beowulf get good and close to the dread lizard and stab it in the face (for some reason, his dagger isn’t susceptible to his sword-breaking problem).
The two are victorious, but not without cost: Beowulf’s armour could not withstand the power of the dragon and he lay mortally wounded in Wiglaf’s arms. Beowulf reassures his distressed thane, tells him to have courage in the coming days, and then dies like a champ. He is buried with all the treasures of the dragon’s hoard, and is laid to rest at what scholars suspect is now the barrow of Skalunda. Beowulf is remembered as “most gracious and fair-minded, kindest to his people and keenest to win fame.” Rest in Peace, you magnificent bastard.
Beowulf vs. Grendel’s Mother
The celebration of Beowulf’s victory against Grendel was like an Anglo-Saxon rock star: it partied incredibly hard and died young.
The very next night, after Hrothgar’s people and Beowulf’s thanes went to sleep in Herot, Grendel’s mother crept in and slaughtered a good portion of the partygoers. After all the rewards that had been heaped on Beowulf for slaying Grendel, he felt obligated to help Hrothgar again, and in the morning everyone who could hold a sword set out to track Grendel’s mother to her lair.
Beowulf and the Geats and Hrothgar and his Danes followed her tracks to the water, frothing red with blood, and filled to the brim with monsters. Hrothgar himself shot and killed one aquatic-beast with an arrow, but no one was especially eager to follow Grendel’s mother into her wet home. Luckily, “bloody and full of monsters” is exactly how Beowulf gets his bath-time on. In he jumped, thrashing about with an ancestral sword lent him by one of Hrothgar’s men. His armour protected him from the claws and tusks of the sea-beasts, but once Grendel’s mother grappled him and dragged him into her own monstrous hall the game changed entirely; the gifted sword broke against her magic hide, and she hit him hard enough to send the hero sprawling.
From his new vantage point on the ground, Beowulf spotted a magic sword among the hoarded treasure splayed around the hall. Lose one enchanted blade, find another; the universe never closes a door without opening a window, I guess. It was an ancient sword of the Eotens (giants) that Beowulf managed to lift with his vast strength, and in one mighty swing he finished the fight by decapitating his foe. His blade melted like ice under her corrupted blood, so Beowulf returned victorious with her head as his only trophy. In fact, it was a two-for-one head sale that day: the corpse of Grendel had been displayed by the late Grendel’s Mom in her cavernous abode as an attempt to brighten up the place, and it was just begging to have its head removed.
So finally, up comes Beowulf after nine hours to at last celebrate his victory and the safety of the Danes. There aren’t words in the English language to accurately describe how much mead was consumed that night, but most scholars estimate is was close to “a buttload.”
Amazing, completely accurate submission from softhead on Norse mythology. I think I see a pattern.
Yggdrasil and the Realms
A convenient guide to the way the Old Norse mapped out the universe. See: Norse and Germanic Mythology for more!
Týr
The original Germanic god of war and the patron god of justice, the precursor of Odin. At the time of the Vikings, Tyr had to make way for Odin, who became the god of war himself. Tyr was by then regarded as Odin’s son (or possibly of the giant Hymir). He is the boldest of the gods, who inspires courage and heroism in battle. Tyr is represented as a man with one hand, because his right hand was bitten off by the gigantic wolf Fenrir (in old-Norse, the wrist was called ‘wolf-joint’). His attribute is a spear; the symbol of justice, as well as a weapon.
At the day of Ragnarok, Tyr will kill the hound Garm, the guardian of the hell, but will die from the wounds inflicted by the animal. In later mythology, “Tyr” became to mean “god”. He is also known as Tîwaz, Tiw and Ziu.
This is definitely a blog worth following if Norse/Germanic myth is your thing. Lots of updates, great information! We’ve talked about Tyr here before, but a refresher couldn’t hurt, seeing as he is a tremendous badass.
Hi
Just read this post:
http://bythegods.tumblr.com/post/4897938356/loki-is-indeed-not-your-average-trickster-in
Could you clear up what Loki's status is? Is he considered a god, when he's not the son of one. His blood father is Farbaute, the giant, his mother Laufey, also a giant. Isn't it only in Snorri Sturlason's books that he is referred to as one of the gods. He's not considered a god by most, as you need to be born by God parents to be one.
Norse/Germanic mythology isn’t as clear cut as, say, Greek or Egyptian myth in this department. Loki is one of the divine/magic beings, as are the Aesir, the Vanir, and the Jotun.
“Aesir” (and the absorbed “Vanir”) are generally interchangeable with the term “gods” in Germanic myth. Loki helps the Aesir out from time to time, but of course he also hinders them fairly regularly, and sometimes performs outright dastardly deeds (like masterminding Baldr’s death). He’s a being of comparable power to many of the Aesir, so for this reason it’s reasonable to call him a “god.”
On the other hand, he ends up as a major adversary of the Aesir, condemned to a near-eternal torture until Ragnarok begins, when he will firmly place himself in the anti-Aesir camp for the final battle.
Another way to look at it, is that Loki does not have any domain that he oversees in the realm of men. By that I mean that he doesn’t have an area he’s seen as “master” of in the lives of the folk who wrote the myths. In battle sacrifices were made to Odin, prayers to Tyr and Thor. Sailors would pray and sacrifice to Njord, mothers to Frigg and young women to Freya. The people didn’t worship Loki, but simply acknowledged his role in divine developments.
The way I see it, we don’t have enough hard evidence on Germanic/Norse myth to be specific in our classifications. Most of what we’ve got is from Snorri Sturluson, as you mentioned, which was recorded centuries after the “golden age” of Norse/Germanic religious practice.
Loki was definitely an important figure; some people think he used to have a more important role, but his duties were relegated to other Aesir as the stories changed. There are some theoretical systems that believe Odin to be the only “god” figure in an essentially monotheistic Norse religion, with the rest of the Aesir being semi-divine, closer to “angel” status beings.
Búri (or Buri) was the first god in Norse mythology. He is the father of Borr and grandfather of Odin. He was formed by the cow Auðumbla licking the salty ice of Ginnungagap. The only extant source of this myth is Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda.
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Thanks for the Submission! Remember folks: you can send your favourite myths and deities in as a submission to have them show up on the main BTG tumblr!
Thor
In honour of today’s premiere of the Marvel “Thor,” let’s give some credit to the Germanic god of thunder on whom the character is based!
The son of Odin the All-Father (and leader of the Aesir), Thor was the champion of good in Norse/German mythology. Riding his chariot pulled by goats through the sky, long red beard and hair blowing in the wind, Thor wields the magic hammer Mjollnir and brings the pain to Frost Giants. The name “Thor” means thunder, and “Mjollnir” may have once meant lightning.
Things that Thor loves: contests of strength, eating enormous amounts of food in one sitting (a whole ox, for example), drinking like a champ (at one time he drank so much that he lowered sea levels all over the earth), and as aforementioned, cracking Frost Giant skulls. The Frost Giants were the adversaries of the Aesir, and were generally gigantic, angry, and immensely strong. They all hated Thor, because he kept taking out their champions in duels and contests, one by one reducing their numbers and building his own prestige.
Though you might know Loki, the trickster, as an enemy of the Aesir (which he did eventually become), he and Thor used to have adventures together back in the good ol’ days. They have a complex relationship now, I suppose. I mean, sure, Loki did try and get Thor killed a few times, but it was all in the spirit of fun!
That should tide you over for now. Go out and see the movie (I’m checking it out tonight!) and try to spot the differences between Norse and Marvel mythos; Thor wasn’t a natural blonde, guys.
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