20
votes
What do the "runes" on this pendant say?
Sorry to say, it's actually nothing more than the Elder Futhark, the eldest of the runic alphabets.
You can read more on it on Wikipedia. A good giveaway that it doesn't "say" anything is the lack of ...
cmw♦
- 7,401
17
votes
Odin's Counterpart
The key point here is Roman Syncretism. The romans believed the world was full of different gods, and they didn't presume to know about all of them, or to know everything about the ones they already ...
- 9,261
17
votes
Accepted
What is the Norse equivalent to the Great Flood?
The Norse flood myth is actually a flood of blood, created when Odin, Vili and Vé slew Ymir, the primeval ancestor of the jötnar. From Snorri's Prose Edda:
The sons of Bor slew the giant Ymer, but ...
- 7,877
16
votes
Accepted
Why is the story of Odin hanging from Yggdrasil so similar to that of Jesus on the cross?
Taking a look at a few things here.
The word Yggdrasil itself firstly. "Ygg," means Death. "Drasil" is a Nordic term that has the dual meanings of both "gallows" and "horse." So Yggdrasil itself ...
- 427
13
votes
Accepted
Did the Sami affect Norse mythology?
Yes, both as figures in historical and semi-legendary stories, and possibly through borrowings of mythological themes and ideas.
History and semi-legendary material
First, let's note the actual ...
- 6,037
12
votes
What is the source of the fable of Thor’s attempt to drink up a small spring?
I love this story! According to good ol' Wiki, which is sourced, this story comes from an Icelandic rímur cycle. It is also cited in the Gylfaginning.
Your story and the rest of it are from the third ...
12
votes
Accepted
Does Hel have a role in Ragnarok?
None, as far as we know. She is not mentioned at all in either the poem Voluspa, which describes the event of Ragnarok, nor in Snorri's version of events in the Prose Edda. All he says is that when ...
- 5,920
12
votes
Accepted
What kind of cats pulled Freya's chariot?
There are actually two references to her cats in Gylfaginning (part of the Prose Edda):
Sessrumir, her hall, is large and beautiful. And when she travels, she
drives two cats and sits in a ...
- 5,920
11
votes
Accepted
Friday: the day of Frigg, or Freyja?
Friday is named for Frigg, see e.g. Gro Stensland's Fornnordisk Religion (if you can read Scandinavian) or Etymology Online. A few Icelandic writers appears to have called it "Freyjudagr" (it would ...
- 6,037
11
votes
What was the role of the bear in Norse mythology? (Are there bears in Asgard?)
You raise a really good point. It is strange that there are no bears in Norse myth. The wolf seems to have really engaged them, perhaps because of the duality of wolf/dog, tame and wild, while the ...
- 5,920
11
votes
What do the "runes" on this pendant say?
As others said, the symbols spell the runic alphabet from the Elder Futhark. They circle Yggdrasil, the mythical tree that connects the nine worlds in Norse cosmology, where Odin hung himself in order ...
- 111
10
votes
Accepted
How was it decided which warriors would go to Fólkvangr and which to Valhalla?
The poetic Eddas say that Freya chose half of the dead in battle and the other half went to Odin in Valhalla, the Valkyries take the slain only after Freya chooses her half. Odin gave this right to ...
10
votes
Did Odin Have A Relationship With Freya?
This is a convoluted topic, and I will start from a somewhat different angle: we are told by Snorri (and find confirmation in Völuspá) that Freya was for a while married to a figure by the name of Od, ...
- 6,037
10
votes
Accepted
What is the source of the fable of Thor’s attempt to drink up a small spring?
This seems to be a somewhat distorted version of a story from Gylfaginning, in which Thor, Loki and Tjalvi travels to Útgarða-Loki, a jotun and sorceror, who presents Thor, Loki and Tjalvi with ...
- 6,037
10
votes
Accepted
What are the functions of Giantesses in the Norse Mythology and Folklore?
Jotuns in general served as a sort of the Other for the gods: a group that they used to define themselves by contrast. Female Jotuns were in some senses even more so.
Here is a list of different ...
- 6,037
10
votes
What kind of cats pulled Freya's chariot?
They were tomcats.
There is really not very much told about Freyas cats. In Gylfaginning, XXIV, we are told that
When she goes forth, she drives her cats and sits in a chariot.
(Note that the ...
- 6,037
10
votes
Is Odin Thor's father?
As you say Snorri Sturluson writes this cited text in the prologue to his Prose Edda, one of our chief sources of Norse mythology. The old Scandinavian worshipers did not have a written language ...
- 166
10
votes
Accepted
What is the relationship between Thor and storms?
The 11th century Christian missionary Adam of Bremen wrote,
"Thor, they say, presides over the air, he governs the thunder and lightning. the winds and rains."
The Norse believed that ...
- 4,068
9
votes
How and why are Idunn and Tyr gods?
To answer briefly: Being a god was not about belonging to a specific "race".
For Idunn, we can compare with the division of the gods into aesir and vanir, where the latter were in some sense linked ...
- 6,037
9
votes
Why is the story of Odin hanging from Yggdrasil so similar to that of Jesus on the cross?
It would be hard to know definitively if this was due Christian influence on Odin's narrative b/c we don't have pre-Christian textual sources for Odin's. (i.e. This material was first recorded about ...
- 14.2k
9
votes
Accepted
Did Loki give birth to a monster?
The verses you're quoting come from an extremely cryptic poem called the Shorter Voluspa, which is inserted into the longer poem Hyndluljod, and has little to do with it. Like the Volupsa itself, you ...
- 5,920
9
votes
Accepted
Revenants in mythology of the British Isles?
I'm not aware of a story that could possibly be a basis for the white walkers, but it could be argued that a zombie story exists in the second branch of the Mabinogi, the tale of Branwen ferch Llŷr. A ...
- 17.1k
9
votes
What was the role of the bear in Norse mythology? (Are there bears in Asgard?)
Bears do not feature much in Norse mythology, at least when it comes to the stories involving the gods. The one story I can think of which even mentions them is how Gleipnir, the chain that fettered ...
- 6,037
9
votes
Accepted
Does Pippi Longstocking have mythological roots?
Explicitly, no.
(I will have to start by apologising, as I will only quote sources in Swedish for this).
Vivi Edström, in Vildtoring och lägereld, analyses several of Lindgren's books. A lot of ...
- 6,037
9
votes
Accepted
Can Thor fly in Norse mythology?
AFAIK, there is actually nothing that explicitly says that he can fly, even when he uses his chariot. Þrymskviða, verse 21, describes how he goes to Jotunheim:
Then home the goats | to the hall ...
- 6,037
9
votes
Accepted
Is there any Norse mythological figure associated with victory?
No, none that is exclusively associated with victory.
The closest we get is probably Odin, who is said to be able to give victory in war. Note however, the Sigrdrífumál, with accompanying prose ...
- 6,037
9
votes
Accepted
Was the alleged Christian influence of Norse Mythology primarily due to Snorri Sturluson's writings?
Short answer: probably yes. He's our primary source for a lot of myths, which makes it hard to say our interpretations are accurate to what was believed a thousand plus years ago because we don't have ...
- 486
8
votes
Did Ragnarök influence the Apocalypse of John?
The Book of Revelations presents us with a linear cosmology, a straight road that inevitably leads to the Messianic Age. This pattern is shared by all Abrahamic tales of the end times.
Ragnarök, on ...
- 17.1k
8
votes
What do the "runes" on this pendant say?
This is literally the Elder Futhark runic alphabet spelled out. In other words it's the equivalent of "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
- 181
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible