Norse Gods and
Goddesses
Asgard – heaven
Midgard – Earth
Yggdrasil – World Tree
Viking Maps
Odin/ Woden/ Wotan
Chief of the gods
Father of Thor, Balder,
and other gods
 Odin pierces himself
with a spear and hangs
on Yggdrasil for 9 days
and nights to learn the
secret knowledge of
runes
 Has one eye because
he traded it for a drink
from the spring of
clairvoyance
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His two ravens are called Huginn and
Muninn (Thought and Memory)
Valkyries and Valhalla
Valkyries are female spirit
warriors that ride the
battlefields and find
worthy slain warriors and
takes them to Valhalla
where they will train until
Ragnarok.
 The northern lights are
light shining off of their
shields
 Valhalla is the Hall of the
Slain. It exists in Asgard,
home of the gods
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“Ride of the Valkyries”
Richard Wagner
Thor/ Thunor
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God of thunder and lightning
Mjolnir (the destroyer) – an
ax-hammer that can destroy
giants and mountains in a
single blow
Has a chariot pulled by two
goats. He can kill these
goats and eat them and they
will come back to life.
Is constantly fighting the
World Serpent – Jormungand
He is capable of drinking an
ocean
Thor’s
Helmet
Balder
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“The Beautiful” and “The Good”
Primarily known for his death and resurrection
The favorite child
Loki
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God of mischief and fire
Trickster figure
Unknown parentage
Responsible for Balder’s
death and punished by
having snake venom drip
on his forehead
Jormungand, Hel, and
Fenrir are his children
Will begin Ragnorak
Bragi
God of poetry and
eloquence
 Loki calls him
“Braggart” and the
verb “to brag” comes
from his name.
 Married to Idun
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Idun
Goddess of immortality
 Keeps the golden
apples of youth
 Major story deals with
a giant who, with
Loki’s help, stole the
apples, causing the
gods to wither
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Freyr / Frey
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God of agriculture,
fertility, and plenty
Twin to Freyja (they are
VERY close)
Unlike the other gods,
Freyr and Freyja are
earth dieties
Has a sword that can
fight by itself
The boar is his symbol
Freyja
Goddess of love and fertility
 Twin sister of Frey
 Slept with four dwarves to
get a flaming necklace,
which becomes her symbol
of fertility
 Leader of the Valkyries
 She takes some of the dead
warriors for herself
 Has a chariot drawn by cats
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Freyja’s
hair
Frigg / Frigga / Frea
Mother Goddess
Wife of Odin
Weaves clouds
She knows events
in the present and future,
but is powerless to
change them
 Learning of her son’s (Balder) death, she makes
everything promise not to harm him – except the
mistletoe
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Tyr
God of war and justice
 Precursor of Odin
 Boldest of the gods
 Lost his hand to Fenrir,
Loki’s wolf-son
 His symbol is the spear
which has become a
symbol of justice
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Heimdall
“World Brightener”
 God of the dawn
 Great hearing (can
hear grass grow) and
eyesight
 Is the look out on
Bifrost (the rainbow
bridge to Asgard)
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Hod
God of winter and darkness
 Blind
 Tricked by Loki into killing Balder
 Vali killed Hod in revenge for Balder
 Will return during Ragnarok
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Hel
Daughter of Loki
 Giantess
 Goddess of death and the
underworld
 Half black/ half white
 Her face and body are human
but the legs are of a corpse
 Has two servants: Ganglati and
Ganglot
 Spread the plague with a rake or
a broom
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Hel / Helheim
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The underworld
The road to Hel is an icy river
(Gjoll) full of weapons
Guarded by a large dog (Garm) and
Modgud (an ugly goddess)
Nothing can leave Hel, not even
gods
The wicked go here and the people
who do not die a glorious death in
battle
A giant in the form of an eagle sits
and flaps his wings, making a
freezing wind. His name is
Hraesvelg (corpse eater)
Garm
Garm guards the
entrance to Hel
 Has four eyes and a
bloody chest
 Could be appeased with
cake as long as they
gave the poor bread in
life
 Will join the giants in
Ragnorak
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Creation
In the south was a land of fire; in the north
was a land of ice. They met in the great
emptiness of Ginnungagap, and the ice
began to melt.
From the melting ice came a huge giant,
Ymir.
The first man and woman grew from under
his arms. The frost-giants grew from his
feet.
Ymir fed on the milk of a cow, which licked
another creature, an man named Bur, from
the ice.
Creation
Bur’s grandsons, Odin and 2
others, killed Ymir and made the
world from his parts:
•his skull became the sky
•his eyebrows formed a barrier
between the world of men and the
world of giants
•his blood became sea and lakes
•his bones became the mountains
The world was divided into several parts:
•Utgard, the home of the giants
•Midgard, the land of humans
•Asgard, the home of the gods
•Hel, home of the dead
The world tree, Yggdrasill, extended
between all of these lands.
At its foot in Asgard was the well od Urd,
where the Norns lived, three women who
oversee fate.
World in the
Balance
Yggdrasill, the world tree,
spans the different realms of
Norse myth.
These realms (Utgard,
Midgard, Asgard) are joined
by the three roots of the
great tree Yggdrasill. (Each
seems to have the whole
tree …)
At its roots in Asgard is the
well of Urd, where the Norns
live; at its roots in Utgard is
the well of Ymir.
It represents a world
equilibrium that is more like
entropy:
•Around its roots is a
serpent;
•At its top is an eagle;
•A squirrel runs up and down
between them;
•Deer are constantly eating
at its branches;
•and the Norns continually
try to shore up the damage.
The Norse World
A Myth about Vikings
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The Vikings wore helmets with
horns: This must be the biggest myth
about the Vikings; there are no records of
such helmets having ever existed. All
depictions of Viking helmets dating to the
Viking age, show helmets with no horns
and the only authentic Viking helmet that
has ever been found does not have them
either.
Origin of the Myth
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An explanation for the helmet with horns
myth is that Christians in contemporary
Europe added the detail to make the
Vikings look even more barbarian and
pagan, with horns like Satan's on their
head. It should be noted that the Norse
god Thor wore a helmet with wings on it,
which do look somewhat similar to horns.