Curated category
Norse gods
- OdinOdin has more than 170 recorded names, more than any other god among the Germanic peoples. The names describe his attributes, point to myths involving him…
- ThorThor, the hammer-wielding deity of Germanic paganism, is not simply a god of storms. He is a protector of farmers, a champion of fertility, a father, a…
- FreyrFreyr, whose name in Old Norse simply means "the Lord", once stood at the center of a golden temple in Uppsala, his statue carved with an enormous phallus…
- LokiLoki is a god in Norse mythology whose identity has been debated by scholars more than any other figure in the Norse pantheon.
- BragiBragi is the god of poetry in Norse mythology, a figure whose existence raises a question that scholars have debated for generations: was he ever a god at…
- DagrIn stanza 25 of Vafþrúðnismál, the jötunn Vafþrúðnir answers Odin's question about the origin of day. He states that Delling is the father of day while night…
- NjörðrNjörðr is a Norse god who rules the wind, calms the sea, and grants wealth to those who ask. He lives in a hall called Nóatún and is the father of two of the…
- MániMáni is the Moon personified in Germanic mythology. One of the oldest surviving poems about him admits something startling: "the moon knew not what might was…
- BaldrBaldr, the Norse god whose name may mean "brave," "lord," or "the shining one," is remembered above all for a death that shook the cosmos.
- TýrTýr is a god in Germanic mythology whose name, in its oldest recoverable form, simply meant "God." That single fact contains a puzzle: how does a deity so…
- ÓðrÓðr is one of Norse mythology's most elusive figures. His name means "soul," "mind," "wit," or "sense" in Old Norse, and also carries the weight of "song"…
- RígsþulaA single sheet of parchment from the fourteenth century holds the only surviving copy of Rígsþula. This fragment rests within Codex Wormianus, cataloged as…