As a result of the work of the medieval mythographers who compiled the Norse and Germanic myths, we know that the gods were divided into two major families: that of the Æsir (the plural form of áss, “god”), which primarily represented the warrior class but also included female goddesses referred to as the Ásynjur (sg.: Ásynja), and that of the Vanir, which was representative of fertility, magic, and peaceful relationships based on pleasure. Before discussing the gods, however, we need to provide the context for their activities.
Theogony and Cosmogony
At the dawn of time there was only a fathomless void—Ginnungagap—that stretched between Niflheimr, the land of ice and shadows in the north, and Muspellsheimr, the realm of fire in the south. Rivers flowing out of the south toward Niflheimr would come to a halt in vast, icy masses. These masses of frozen water filled the void, where increasingly warmer winds caused them to melt. The drops of water, revitalized by the wind, fused to form the body of the giant Ymir. The cow Auðumla was born in the same way, and her milk fed Ymir. When Ymir started sweating, a man and woman began to grow beneath his left arm, and one of his feet engendered a son from the other foot. By licking the ice, Auðumla caused the emergence of a man named Búri, who was able to reproduce like Ymir. He had a son, Burr (or Borr), who married Bestla, a descendant of Ymir. From their union were born the gods Óðinn (Odin), Vili, and Vé, who killed Ymir and built the world out of his body. Once they had finished they placed a dwarf at each corner of the sky to uphold the celestial vault. According to the Poetic Edda, this is how the gods were born and how the Earth was created.
The universe consists of various worlds. These include Miðgarðr, the “Middle Enclosure” and the world of men; Ásgarðr, the “Enclosure of the Æsir” and thus the world of the gods, which is connected to Miðgarðr by a “rainbow” called Bifröst, or Ásbrú (Æsir-Bridge); and Útgarðr, the “Outer Enclosure” which is the land of giants, demons, and all the malevolent beings. Beneath Miðgarðr lies the realm of the dead, which is ruled by the goddess Hel. The vertical stability of the universe is secured by Yggdrasill, the cosmic tree and world axis, which the Saxons called the Irminsûl (“Pillar of the God Irmin”), and its horizontal coherence by the Miðgarðsormr (Midgard Serpent), the huge sea serpent that is coiled around the Earth.
The Æsir
The most important of the Æsir gods are Óðinn and his sons, Þórr (Thor) and Baldr (Balder); Týr; Heimdallr; and Loki. They live in Ásgarðr, which they had a giant build for them. Located here is Valhalla (Valhöll), the hall of warriors slain in combat, where valkyries serve the valiant dead—the single fighters (einherjar) who will act as Óðinn’s troops for the world’s final battle—the meat of the boar Sæhrímnir and the mead that flows from the udder of the goat Heiðrun.
Óðinn (Wuotan in Old High German, Wodan in Old Saxon, and Woden in Old English) is the supreme god and the chieftain of the divine pantheon. He is the master of runes and magic, the knowledge of which he acquired during nine days and nights hanging on the World Tree, Yggdrasill. Óðinn “was able to cause his enemies to be blind or deaf or fearful in battle, and he could cause their swords to cut no better than wands. His own men went to battle without coats of mail and acted like mad dogs or wolves. They bit their shields and were as strong as bears or bulls.”15 These were the wild warriors known as the berserkir (berserkers), which literally means “bear-shirts.” Óðinn is also the master of poetry.
When the universe was young, the two divine families of the Æsir and the Vanir were at war with one another. Neither side could defeat the other, however, and to seal a peace treaty they spit into a large vessel. From this saliva they created a man named Kvasir, who was profoundly wise. He was slain one day by two dwarves, who poured his blood into a cauldron and mixed it with honey. Whoever drank of this nectar would become a great poet. A giant killed the dwarves, took the beverage, and kept it inside a mountain. Óðinn managed to steal it from the giant by changing himself into a snake.
Óðinn is the guide of souls (psychopomp), and it is he who selects those warriors who will fall on the battlefield and be carried into Valhalla by the valkyries. Cynical and cruel, apt at changing his appearance and his form, Óðinn was interpreted by classical authors as being equivalent to the god Mercury. He was depicted as a one-eyed, graying old man who wears a blue mantle and a broad hat that slopes down and hides his face. He lives exclusively on wine and owns two ravens, Huginn and Muninn (“Thought” and “Memory”), who bring him news of the world because he has endowed them with the power of speech. His attributes include the spear Gungnir, the magic ring Draupnir, and the eight-legged horse Sleipnir, which can be seen depicted on several of the Gotlandic picture stones. Finally, Óðinn was endowed with many bynames that accurately reflect all the aspects of his activity and his many skills: “God of Cargoes,” “Most High,” “All-father,” “Masked One,” “Multifarious One,” “Terrible One,” and so on. One of these names is explained as follows: “at times he would call to life dead men out of the ground, or he would sit down under men that were hanged; on this account he was called Lord of Ghouls or of the Hanged.”
Óðinn’s wife is Frigg (Langobardic Frea, Old High German Frîja, Old English Frige), who owns a falcon cloak, an allusion to an early ability to shapeshift. Her son is Baldr, nicknamed “the Good.” After having several dire dreams, she asked and received the pledge of all the elements, all plants, all metals, all wood, all stones, and all diseases that they would spare her son, but she forgot to ask this of the mistletoe, a branch of which then mortally injures Baldr during a sporting event. Inconsolable, Óðinn charged his son Hermóðr with the task of going to the realm of the dead and coming back with Baldr. The goddess Hel agrees to let Baldr leave, provided that all of creation will weep for him, but the god Loki, responsible for his murder, refuses, and Hel keeps hold of her prey.
Óðinn’s second son is Þórr (Thor, literally “Thunder”; Donar in Old High German, Þunor in Old English, Thunær in Old Saxon), born from the coupling of the master of the pantheon with the giantess Jörð (Earth). He is the strongest of the gods and lives in Þrúðvangr. Quick to anger and truculent, he has a red beard and an incredible appetite. He owns the hammer Mjöllnir (with which he smashes the giants), a pair of iron gloves necessary to wield the hammer, a belt that doubles his strength, and two goats that pull his chariot when he travels.
Þórr is famous for his battles against monsters. Once, on a fishing trip, he almost managed to catch the Midgard Serpent. He also rules over thunder and lightning, wind and rain. His wife is Sif, who bore him two sons, Magni (“Strength”) and Móði (“Courage”), and a daughter, Þrúðr (“Force”).
Týr (Tiw in Old English) is the son of Óðinn or of the giant Hymir. He is a god of justice whose name underlies that of the weekday Tuesday (Old English tiwesdæg; Old Norse týsdagr). He is the guardian of the world’s order and the patron of the legal assemblies of free men. He is one-armed after having placed his hand as a pledge in the mouth of the wolf Fenrir, whom the gods sought to bind because he had grown so large he had become a threat: “all prophecies foretold that it was destined to cause them harm.” Their first two attempts at binding the wolf ended in failure, and the gods then asked the dwarves to forge a new fetter. Now suspicious, Fenrir demanded that a god place his hand in his mouth, otherwise he would not submit to being shackled. “Tyr put forward his right hand and put it in the wolf ’s mouth. And now when the wolf kicked, the band grew harder, and the harder he struggled, the tougher became the band. Then they all laughed except for Tyr. He lost his hand.”18 Týr is undoubtedly the oldest of all the deities, and his name simply means “god” (it is cognate with Latin deus and Sanskrit dyaus).
Heimdallr, who is referred to as the “white god,” is the guardian of the gods. He lives at the end of the sky and keeps watch over the bridge leading to Ásgarðr. The Prose Edda informs us about Heimdallr: “He needs less sleep than a bird. He can see, by night just as well as by day, a distance of hundreds of leagues. He can also hear the grass growing on the earth and wool on sheep and everything that sounds louder than that. He has a trumpet called Gjallarhorn and its blast can be heard in all worlds.”19 We may add that he has gold teeth, carries a sword, and his horse is named Gullfaxi (“Golden Mane”). At the end of the world, he and Loki will kill each other.
Loki is an extremely complex god: the embodiment of evil, a troublemaker, and a sower of discord. He is the son of Laufey and the giant Farbauti. His wife is Sigyn, with whom he had a son. The giantess Angrboða bore him three children: the wolf Fenrir and the Midgard Serpent, both of whom play important roles in the eschatological battle, and Hel, the goddess of the dead.
These are the leading members of the Æsir. The Eddas and place-names provide us with many other names, but this information can be as scanty as the mention of a nickname. An example would be Ullr, known as the “bow god,” “ski god,” or “hunting god,” whose ancient significance is, however, apparent from an enigmatic remark by Saxo Grammaticus: Ollerus (Ullr) allegedly ruled over the gods when Othinus (Odin) was exiled.
Some deities were later removed from the pantheon and transformed into simple heroes; the best example is Völundr (Wayland), who was most certainly a smith god, a gold-crafting god closely connected to the elves. All we know about Sól, the sun goddess, is that she was punished for a mismarriage. The gods placed her in the sky where she travels every day in a chariot drawn by two horses, pursued by a wolf that seeks to devour her.
The Vanir
The second family of gods is that of the Vanir, who seem older than the Æsir. It is thought they represent a settled culture (farmers) that was subjugated by a more warlike nomadic culture (hunters, gatherers, fishermen). A great myth tells how they gained a seat among the Æsir in Ásgarðr. The Vanir sent a witch named Gullveig (her name means “Drunkeness for Gold,” which may suggest that the Vanir believed a lust for precious metal would make the Æsir less bellicose) to the Æsir. The Æsir sought to wrest Gullveig’s secrets from her, and when she refused to reveal them they tried to burn her—in vain. The Vanir demanded reparation for these violent acts, asking for either a payment of tribute or admittance among the Æsir. The Æsir preferred to settle the matter by weapons. The war was long and hard, and neither side could win. A truce was finally declared and an exchange of hostages took place: the Vanir gave their most distinguished men, Njörðr and his son Freyr, while the Æsir offered Mímir, a man of deep wisdom, and Hœnir. This was how a new family of gods appeared in Ásgarðr.
The Vanir are essentially represented by Njörðr and his children Freyr and Freyja. They are agrarian gods with connections to the land and water; they dispense goods and pleasures, wealth and fertility, love and peace. The main Vanir god is Freyr (“Lord”), who is the son of Njörðr. He commands the rains, sunshine, and plant life, and, according to Adam of Bremen, he was depicted with an enormous phallus in the temple at Uppsala. The pig and the stallion are his preferred animals. He lives in Ásgarðr in a home called Álfheimr (“World of the Elves”) and owns a marvelous boat—it can be folded up, it aways has a good wind, and all the Æsir can fit on it—and a boar with gold bristles. His wife is the giantess Gerðr, whom he won at the expense of his sword. One day in the land of the giants he spied a splendid young woman, Gerðr, daughter of the giant Gymir, and fell desperately in love with her. Freyr’s friend Skírnir borrowed his sword and horse and set off to retrieve her; after many ups and downs and through the use of magic, Skírnir (Freyr’s “messenger”) was successful in his undertaking but loses the sword and Freyr will not have it during the Last Battle when he confronts the fire giant Surtr, who will slay him.
At one time Freyr had a connection with the elves inhabiting Álfheimr, a heavenly realm that was his domain. During this earlier stage Freyr and the elves were probably not entirely separate beings. The elves are experts in magic and detest blemishes and impurities. Historically elves were worshipped, and sacrifices were made to them. In more recent folk beliefs they represent the “good dead” (that is, the good ancestors, elevated to the status of guardian spirits).
Freyja (“Lady”), Freyr’s sister, is famed for her gaiety, and the worship devoted to her was erotic in nature. She lives in Fólkvangr and travels in a chariot drawn by cats. Her sphere of activity includes life, battle and death (she shares half of the deceased with Óðinn), fertility, and black magic. She adores jewels and adornments, and one text describes how she came into possession of her famous necklace. Four dwarves lived in a cave near to her palace. One day she saw they had a gold necklace, and she burned with the desire to own it. They refused to sell it to her but instead demanded that she sleep with each of them in exchange for it. She accepted their bargain and received the jewelry. But Loki told Óðinn about this, and Óðinn ordered the trickster god to steal the necklace, which he did by shapeshifting into various animals. Freyja eventually got her item back, however.
A word should be said about the dwarves that are linked to the gods in many myths. They were alive at the origin of the world; one tradition states that they were born from the putrefaction of the body of the primordial giant Ymir. They are skilled blacksmiths who craft all the treasures of the gods, as we have seen, as well as baleful weapons. They are thieves and magicians, and they maintain close relations with the dead (so much so that some scholars think they are the mythic transposition of dangerous dead individuals with evil intent). In fact, the dwarves’ names often connote the idea of death. They inhabit the stones and mounds, and they will themselves turn to stone if they are caught out in the light of day.
Written by Claude Lecouteux (translated by Jon E. Graham) in "Encyclopedia of Norse and Germanic Folklore, Mythology and Magic", (Originally published in French under the title "Dictionnaire de Mythologie Germanique: Odin, Thor, Siegfried & Cie"-Éditions Imago), U.S. edition published in 2016, Inner Traditions. Digitized, adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.