Norse Mythology

Of Times Past

Ginnungagap is the vast emptiness that lay between the worlds, bridged only by Yggdrasil, the world tree. When men made great ships that bore them across the Ginnungagap, they met the gods in Asgard and Vanaheim. They also met the strange ones that some call elves in Alfheim, but of these we do not speak. And so men lived side by side with the Aesir and the Vanir (the two races of gods). It was the First Age of Glory. Such was Odin’s power that the forces of Loki were trodden underfoot. Men lived long, and when they died, they died in glorious battle against chaos. Victory was to the men and the Aesir and the Vanir.

As the season turns, so the Norns (the fates) weave different fates into their tapesty. Such was it predestined that Loki would gain strength. And such was it destined that in the First Ragnarok order would fight chaos and the world and the universe would be destroyed. Children ask if “the sundering” was the First Ragnarok. Only a child could be so naïve, for the sundering was but a cloudy day compared to the blizzard and hellfire that was Ragnarok, so long ago. Great was the battle between chaos and order, between Loki and Odin; such is the destiny of Ragnarok. And amidst the battle, the greatest fight of them all was between Thor,0 the son of Odin, and the Jurmungandr, the spawn of Loki. It is said that Jormungandr, the great serpent that surrounds the known universe, rose up and fought tooth to hammer with Thor, the mightiest of the gods. Blow for blow they fought amongst the carnage until they slew each other. Before he struck the final blow, and was in turn stricken, Thor gave his mighty Horn to Lif, a mighty human warrior, so that one day Lif’s sons might call him back. In the end, all was destroyed and the universe descended into chaos.

Only one man and one woman (Lif and Lifthrasir) survived to repopulate the world, and so they did, but the old ways were lost. Men floated through the winds of the Ginnungagap and were lost to each other. Men lived without honor or battle and when they died in their sleep they went to Hel instead of the glorious Valhalla. But a few keep the old ways of honor and glory alive. Only the rejoining of men with the gods can put the universe back to right. For although they were defeated and died in the First Ragnarok, gods never truly die. They have been reborn, somewhere across the Ginnungagap, waiting for men to find them once again. They wait there for a son of Lif to call them back with the Horn of Thor. Then will come the Second Age of Glory in which men and Aesir and Vanir will again prepare for the inevitable Raganarok.

The Nature of the Universe

Yggdrasil – The World Tree. A giant ash tree that connects the nine worlds

• Center
  
  • Midgard – realm of men. Surrounded by the sea serpent Jurmungand
    
  • Jutunheim – realm of Jotun (the giants). Across the sea and beyond Jurmungand
    
  • Svartalfheim – realm of the dwarves. Lies underneath midgard
    
• Branches
  
  • Asgard – realm of the Aesir, the gods of war
    
    • Valhalla – Odin’s hall and home of warriors slain in battle (the Einherjar)
      
    • Bifrost – magical rainbow bridge to Asgard guarded by the god Heimdall
      
  • Alfheim – realm of elves
    
  • Vanaheim – realm of the Vanir, the gods of fertility, the sea and prosperity
    
• Roots
  
  • Hel – The realm where those who died of disease or age go
    
    • Gjallabru bridge over the Gjoll river to enter Hel.
      
  • Niflheim – land of ice
    
  • Muspelheim – land of fire
    

Artifacts of the Norse

Mjolnir – the hammer of Thor
Thor owns a short-handled war hammer, Mjolnir, which, when thrown at a target, returns magically to the owner. His Mjolnir also has the power to throw lighting bolts. To wield Mjölnir, Thor wears the belt Megingjord, which boosts the wearer's strength and a pair of special iron gloves, Jarn Griepr, to lift the hammer. Mjolnir is the most fearsome weapon in the arsenal of the Norse pantheon and is used to slay any challengers to Æsir supremacy. While referred to as a club, an axe, and a hammer, Mjolnir was thought to be capable of toppling giants and entire mountains with a single blow. Legend surrounding the war hammer’s origins vary: some relate that Sindri and Brokk, two "The Black Elves" or Dwarves (who live under the ground where the roots of Yggdrasil begin to form, in Svartalfheimr), made it at the behest of the calculating Loki; other tales contend that it descended to earth as a meteorite. Consequently, many Norse pagans believed that lightning strikes were a manifestation of Mjolnir on earth.

The Mythological Beings

· Ymir: The first giant ever.
· Audhumla: The first cow ever.
· Ask: The first man.
· Embla: The first woman.
· Surt: A flaming giant.
· Nidhogg: A dragon who chews at Yggdrasil's roots.
· Ratatosk: A squirrel who ferries insults between an eagle who lives in Yggdrasill's branches and Nidhogg, a dragon that lives beneath its roots.
· Odin: God of magic, poetry, death and the gallows. Host of Asgard. One of three gods who created the universe after slaying Ymir.
··· Hugin: One of Odin's seeing-eye ravens. His name means "thought".
··· Munin: One of Odin's seeing-eye ravens. His name means "memory".
· Ve: One of three gods who created the universe after slaying Ymir.
· Vili: One of three gods who created the universe after slaying Ymir.
· Frigg: Queen of Asgard, she was Baldr's mother and made everything in creation to swear that it would not harm her son when he came to her with news of a dream in which he was harmed.
· Baldr: The handsomest of the gods, all but the mistletoe had sworn not to harm him. Loki used this fault to kill him.
· Loki: The trickster god. His tricks peaked when he killed Baldr and didn't weep. Hence, Odin locked him in the center of the earth with a poisonous serpent dripping poison on him, but Loki's wife held a bowl over his face. Of course, she had to dish it out, and during that break Loki's face is poisoned and he screams and shakes the earth, causing an earthquake.
· Hel: Loki's half-giantess daughter. Goddess of the underworld. Her power was so strong in Nifflheim, she could defy the other gods themselves! Half her body is dead, the other half living.
· Tyr: The one-handed (not by birth. See Fenrir) god of battle and justice.
· Fenris: Loki's wolf son. He was so monstrous, only Tyr dared feed him. Finally the dwarves made a chain out of the roots of a mountain, the breath of a fish, the footsteps of a cat, the sinews of a bear, the beard of a woman, and the spittle of a bird. The gods claimed that they would unbind Fenrir if he did not like it; However, Fenrir, distrusting this, would only let the chain be placed around his neck if someone put his or her hand in his mouth as a symbol of good faith. Tyr did this, and when it became clear that he could not break the chain and the gods would not keep their word and unbind him, Fenrir bit off his hand. Even after that, Fenrir howled so loudly the gods had to gag him. · Sleipnir: Birthed by Loki, Sleipnir was Odin's eight-legged steed.
· Jörmungandr: The world Serpent, a creature fathered by Loki, large enough that it wrapped itself around the world and bit its own tail, hence its other name: "The World Serpent." The separating of the tail from it's mouth is a sign of Ragnarok, (the Norse apocalypse.)
· Hoenr: Odin's blind son.
· Gefion: Gefion the giantess had four sons whom she wished to be farmers. King Gylfi promised her all the land she could plow in a day, so she turned her sons into giant oxen. They plowed so much that they formed the Danish island of Zealand.
· Forseti: The god of justice lived in a golden palace. He could always create a fair compromise between the gods at each dispute, satisfying everyone. Sometimes he would talk over possibilities for so long that when he came to a decision the quarreling gods wouldn't be listening and just say "yes" to whatever the decision was without considering it.
· Thor: Thor was the god of thunder and lightning. He was strong, energetic and among the most popular of the gods. His magical hammer never missed its mark, but the dwarf who made the shaft made it too short, and the "thunderer" had to wear gloves whenever wielding his mighty weapon. Thor had an enormous appetite: a whole cow could be a snack for him.
· Freyja: Freyja was the goddess of love and fertility. She had a golden necklace forged by the dwarves and a feather cloak.
· Thrym: The jarl (a prided cavalry that guarded estates) king of the Thurses stole Thor's hammer and demanded Freyja in return. But Thor disguised himself as his wife and came to Thrym. All the Thurses were surprised when "Freyja" ate several gallons of mead, a cow and about a hundred salmon, but Loki said that "Freyja" had not eaten in several days, since she had been so excited. Later Thrym looked under "Freyja's" dress to find that "Freyja" was a boy. Thor sprang from his costume and killed all the giants there.
· Skadi: After the Æsir killed her father, Skadi marched to Asgard where she challenged her father's killers. Afraid of her, the Æsir offered her several things: one, to make her laugh; two, to place her father's eyes in the sky; three, she could choose a husband from among them, but only by looking at their feet. Skadi wanted to pick Baldr, but ended up with Njord because his feet were the most clean ones.
· Njord: Njord was god of the sea. After being wed to Skadi, they moved to Skadi's mountain home, but that was too far from the sea for Njord. They moved to the Njord's sea-side home, but Skadi missed her mountain home. So Skadi moved away without her husband, and storms are the result of Njord's sadness.
· Frey: Frey was god of fertility and Freyja's twin brother. He had a chariot pulled by two mechanical boars. He and his sister were the children of Njord and a wife among the Vanir.
· Iduna: The goddess Iduna had the magic apples of youth.
· Nanna: Wife of Baldr.
· Thiazi: The giant Thiazi captured Loki and had him lure Idun into the forest where the giants captured her. When The gods grew old, they knew what had happened. So Loki used Freyja's feathered cloak to fly over and free Idun.
· The Norns: the weird sisters live beneath the roots of Yggdrasil where they weave the tapestry of fate. Each person’s life is a string in their loom, the length is the lengh of the person’s life.
··· Uro; weird, fate
··· Veroandi: what is emerging, the present moment
··· Skuld: debt, necessity

Heroes of Gemini

Beowulf: A great hero born when a Jotun Hag Witch tricked Thor with wine and bore him a son. Because of his combination of Guile and Strength, he became a favored warrior of Odin: he figures into many many legends (sort of like Hercules in Greek Myth) spanning from Before Ragnarok, through the sundering, to the war with the Aeneans. In all the great battles he is shown as a brilliant warrior who, against ever increasing odds, defeated the enemy at every turn until, by treachery or deceit or simply overwhelming numbers, he is killed. Only one legend exists to explain this (it's only an inconsistency for non-believers, really): namely, that because of his Jotun heritage, he was denied entrance into valhalla each time he fell, but he was too mighty for Hel, so he was returned to life again and again to fight the foe.

Jagha: Also called the Traveller, or The Witch (with Capitals). She was the most wily and villainous agent of Loki, suckled at the teats of the Serpent (forgot it's name), who wrought much evil in the Gemini until she layed eyes on Beowulf. Then, overcome with Love, she laid aside her evil ways and became his faithful wife, guiding him with her wisdom.

Jaghatai Kahn: Literally “King Jaghatai”: The only son of Jagha and Beowulf, also features prominently in many legends. Supposedly, he was destined to lead your people to greatness around the time of the Aenean invasion (about 100 years ago), and, to keep them from their destiny, the Aeneans used treachery and foul guile to assassinate him.

Hrulfgarr Erickson: A notable fighter in the resistance against the Aeneans, he was eventually recruited to the crew of the notorious pirate Archibald the Wayfarer. He was killed fighting a desperate (yet successful) rearguard in the only ambush that ever caught the Wayfarer. Those responsible for the trap were never known.

From the book of Thor

A particular passage in the book of Thor strikes a chord in you as your ship approaches Diomedes, one in which Odin reprimands Thor's headstrong ways:

" The tricks of Loki are many. Even in telling the truth, he may hide the Truth. The warrior is more easily deceived by the omission of the Truth than by the presence of lies: thus, do not be satisfied with truth, but rather rest not until ye have the whole Truth."