Gods and other beings wades through a river, while the
Æsir ride across the bridge,
Bifröst, in an illustration by
Lorenz Frølich (1895). Central to accounts of Norse mythology are the plights of the gods and their interaction with various other beings, such as with the
jötnar, 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 was
Thor the thunder god, who is portrayed as unrelentingly pursuing his foes, his mountain-crushing, thunderous hammer
Mjölnir 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 goddess
Sif. The god
Odin is also frequently mentioned in surviving texts. One-eyed,
wolf- and
raven-flanked, with a spear in hand, Odin pursues knowledge throughout the nine realms. In an act of self-sacrifice, Odin is described as having hung himself upside-down for nine days and nights on the cosmological tree
Yggdrasil to gain knowledge of the runic alphabet, which he passed on to humanity; he is also associated closely with death, wisdom, and poetry. Odin is portrayed as the ruler of
Asgard, and leader of the
Aesir. Odin's wife is the powerful goddess
Frigg 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 by
Loki, and Baldr thereafter resides in
Hel, a realm ruled over by an
entity of the same name. Odin must share half of his share of the dead with a powerful goddess,
Freyja. She is beautiful, sensual, wears a feathered cloak, and practices
seiðr. She rides to battle to choose among the slain and brings her chosen to her afterlife field
Fólkvangr. Freyja weeps for her missing husband
Óðr and seeks after him in faraway lands. Freyja's brother, the god
Freyr, 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 jötunn
Gerðr, Freyr seeks and wins her love, yet at the price of his future doom. Their father is the powerful god
Njörðr. Njörðr is strongly associated with ships and seafaring, and so also wealth and prosperity. Freyja and Freyr's mother is
Njörðr's unnamed sister (her name is unprovided in the source material). However, there is more information about his pairing with the skiing and hunting goddess
Skaði. Their relationship is ill-fated, as Skaði cannot stand to be away from her beloved mountains, nor Njörðr from the seashore. Together, Freyja, Freyr, and Njörðr form a portion of gods known as the
Vanir. While the Aesir and the Vanir retain distinct identification, they came together as the result of the
Aesir–Vanir War. While they receive less mention, numerous other gods and goddesses appear in the source material. (For a list of these deities, see
List of Germanic deities.) Some of the gods heard less of include the apple-bearing goddess
Iðunn and her husband, the skaldic god
Bragi; the gold-toothed god
Heimdallr, born of
nine mothers; the ancient god
Týr, who lost his right hand while binding the great wolf
Fenrir; and the goddess
Gefjon, who formed modern-day
Zealand,
Denmark. Various beings outside of the gods are mentioned.
Elves and
dwarfs 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. A group of beings variously described as
jötnar,
thursar, and
trolls (in English these are all often
glossed as "
giants") frequently appear. These beings may either aid, deter, or take their place among the gods. The
Norns,
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.
Cosmology is depicted in
The Ash Yggdrasil by
Friedrich Wilhelm Heine (1886). and Háti in
The Wolves Pursuing Sol and Mani by
J. C. Dollman (1909). In
Norse cosmology, all beings live in
Nine Worlds that center around the cosmological tree
Yggdrasil. The gods inhabit the heavenly realm of
Asgard whereas humanity inhabits
Midgard, a region in the center of the cosmos. Outside of the gods, humanity, and the jötnar, these Nine Worlds are inhabited by beings, such as
elves and
dwarfs. 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 squirrel
Ratatoskr and the perching hawk
Veðrfölnir. The tree itself has three major roots, and at the base of one of these roots live the
Norns, female entities associated with fate. 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). The afterlife is a complex matter in Norse mythology. The dead may go to the murky realm of
Hel—a realm ruled over by a female being of the
same name, may be ferried away by valkyries to Odin's martial hall
Valhalla, or may be chosen by the goddess
Freyja to dwell in her field
Fólkvangr. The goddess
Rán may claim those that die at sea, and the goddess
Gefjon is said to be attended by virgins upon their death. Texts also make reference to
reincarnation. Time itself is presented between cyclic and linear, and some scholars have argued that
cyclic time was the original format for the mythology. Various forms of a
cosmological 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.
Humanity According to the
Prose Edda and the
Poetic Edda poem,
Völuspá, the first human couple consisted of
Ask 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. ==See also==