Norse Mythology, am I right?
I'd put it up at #2 in terms of how much it's studied in the modern day.
(After Greek Mythology, obviously).
It's important to remember that despite how ubiquitous a lot of ancient myths and legends seem,
how much we know about these Mythologies - and often by extension, the culture they stem from,
is entirely dependent on how many of their old stories actually... survived.
Now, in the case of the Greeks, we know so much about them because they wrote basically everything down.
And their poets and playwrights spent centuries writing and re-writing classic myths that
up until that point had been passed down exclusively through oral tradition.
This resulted in what was admittedly a lot of contradictory ideas in characterization,
but also an abundance of references from mythology that would have otherwise likely been lost to history.
Similarly, almost all of our knowledge of old Norse Mythology comes from the codex Regius.
A mysterious, Ancient manuscript that first appears in the history books in the mid 1600s.
It's thought to have been written about 400 years prior,
Although, beyond that, its origins are almost totally unknown,
and several pages of the manuscript vanished mysteriously in the intervening centuries.
Man, forget the DaVinci Code! Where's my modern Urban Fantasy mystery novel about this book?!
Anyway, today's topic, "The Poetic Edda", consists mostly of poetry from the codex Regius.
And it's pretty much the number one source of all modern knowledge of Norse Mythology.
Closely followed by its non-rhyming counterpart; "The Prose Edda
Now, it's structured like most collections of myths–
in that it's a colossal mess of short stories, most of which have little to no connection to any of the others.
So in this video we will focus on the most
important, interesting or bizarrely culturally representative of the stories found in it.
Oh, and before we get started: do me a favour
and leave your Marvel-based assumptions about the Norse deities by the door right there.
Yeah, thanks.
Just to confirm: Odin is not a neglectful father,
Loki is not a misunderstood puppy dog,
and Thor is not a chick!
Before we go any further, I'd like to apologise profusely for my complete inability to pronounce Icelandic words.
With that in mind, this is the vURLSHbAa. (...Not quite, Red.)
VÖLUSPÁ: THE ONE WHERE EVERYTHING HAPPENS
So the V-Vu...
...Hehhh.
Is the Norse creation myth.
And let me tell ya, it's kinda surreal.
Yes, even by Creation Myth-standards.
Basically, in the beginning there was this big, old giant named Ymir
and a big empty space called the Ginnungagap.
Then along came the sons of Bor; Odin, Vili and Ve who killed Ymir and used his body to make Midgard.
Then all the Æsir got together, because... apparently there were other Gods at this point,
and they had a big ol' party
which was then interrupted when the Norns showed up and told them to get back to work making the dwarves.
What follows is seven stances of dwarf names. Several of which sound... suspiciously familiar...
TOLKIEN, YOU HACK!
So then Odin and a couple of his pals went out and made all the humans, elves, dwarves, et cetera.
Although in a later story, Heimdall is credited to being responsible for that...
Meanwhile Yggdrasil, the world tree, was being grown by the Norns
who hung out under its roots and controlled the fates of men and Gods alike.
Huh. That's sounding a little... Panhellenic...
Weird.
Anyway, then a war happened between the Æsir and the Vanir - who were like the Æsir, but prettier.
And Asgard got a little destroyed, so the Gods commissioned a giant to rebuild it.
However, the giant asked to be paid in the Sun, the Moon and the Goddess Freya as his wife.
And because the Gods really didn't want to pay that price (and who can blame them)...
...they got Loki to do his thing and disrupt the construction so the giant couldn't finish in the time given.
The giant gets pretty pissed about this and threaten the Æsir, at which point Thor did his thing and hit the problem super hard.
This handily sets the characterization for our two most prominent deities.
Now that's where the creation myth basically ends.
And the narrator for the Vuh... Vöurshbuh... (Keep trying.)
Starts talking about the overall structure of the world and the way things work,
Which, while super cool, isn't super relevant, so we'll skip it.
She ties up the story with a description of the future end of the world, Ragnarök-
-and how after the world ends, a new one will arise from the ashes. Fun!
VAFÞRÚÐNISMÁL: THE ONE WHERE ODIN HAS A RIDDLE-BATTLE
So Odin wants to find this super smart giant named Vafthruthnir and challenge him to a battle of wits.
His wife, Frigg thinks this is a bad idea since Vafthruthnir is like, suuper smart...
But Odin is having none of this fore-thought buisness and goes off to find him.
So Vafthruthnir is like:
"Welcome to my humble abode!"
"Unless you're smarter than me, you'll never leave here alive!"
And Odin is like:
"Neat-o. My name is Gagnráðr, got anything to drink?"
Uh, here's an important side note.
Odin, as king of the gods, is often compared to Zeus, Jove and God with a capital G just by virtue of being the top Æsir in charge.
But Odin is actually much more of a loner and a trickster achetype than any of the other head-gods.
A detail which is easy to overlook when put in context of that comparison.
Odin goes out and quests for knowledge a lot, because he's kind of a *huge nerd*.
And to help facilitate his journeys he routinely disguises himself as conspicuously Not-Odin.
This puts people off their guard and lets Odin get all their delicious knowledge without them freaking out.
So anyway, Odin and Vafthruthnir have a riddle competition to determine which one is smarter.
In which Vafthruthnir quizzes Not-Odin on trivia about how the world works.
Surprising precisely no one but Vafthruthnir, Not-Odin is amazingly well-read about that sort of thing-
being directly responsible for most of it.
And somewhere along the line, Vafthruthnir decides to bet his life on the outcome of the riddle-match-
(Always a good decision)
-but then Not-Odin, for his final riddle, asks him the question which has tormented researchers for centuries:
What did Odin whisper into Baldr's ear when they held his furneral?
Which you might know is something only Odin would know, since Baldr was... suuuper dead at the time.
More on that later.
Anyway, Vafthruthnir puts two and two together and figures out he was matching wits with Odin, the literal God of Knowledge.
Way to go, smart guy!
GRÍMNISMÁL: THE ONE WHERE ODIN GETS SET ON FIRE
So in keeping with the pattern of behaviours set by the previous poem, Odin's tendency to disguise himself as a harmless mortal has gotten him into a spot of trouble.
Basically, Odin and his wife, Frigg were comparing favourite mortals, and Odin is like:
"My guy, Geirröth is doing great, dude! He's a King!"
And Frigg is like:
"Uh, dude, Geirröth tortures his guests if they look at him funny."
And Odin is like:
"Whaaat?! Come on, man, there's no way!"
"Look, I'll prove it!"
And disguises himself as a mortal and pops down to hang out with Geirröth,
Whereupon he is promptly imprisoned and tortured.
Welp!
To be fair, it's partly Frigg's fault.
Since in an effort to win the bet, she sent a servant down to warn Geirröth that an immensely powerful mage was gonna be stopping by to bewitch him-
-and told him how to identify this potential threat.
Man, Norse Gods do not play fair.
So anyway, Odin is understandably rather pissed, but there is a silver lining.
Geirröth's son, Agnarr has been stopping by to give him water, and in return, Odin has been telling him about how the world works.
The rest of the story is mostly a re-tread of the initial creation myth up till the end, where Odin decides the time has come to reveal himself in all his glory,
- possibly originating the "Hero lists their many names and titles"-trope in the process
And Geirröth trips and falls onto his sword like an idiot.
Odin vanishes, presumably to apologise to Frigg and then go find some Aloe Vera,
And Agnarr becomes king and rules for many years!
SKÍRNISMÁL: THE ONE WHERE FREYR GETS A GIRLFRIEND
So, one day, Freyr - twinbrother to Freya, and god of happy sunshine and fertility - is minding his own business surveying the worlds.
Hey... isn't that Heimdall's job?
When he spots an absolutely gooorgeous Giantess off in Jotunheim.
Freyr is immediately lovestruck and sends his servant, Skírnir to try and win her over, giving him a neat horse and magic sword.
So Skírnir rides over to Jotunheim, and Gerðr, the hot Giantess from earlier, lets him into her house where he offers her 11 gold-apples if she'll marry Freyr.
Gerðr refuses, so Skírnir adds a magic self-duplicating ring to the offer.
Gerðr is still unimpressed so Skírnir threatens to kill her instead.
Gerðr is having none of that, so Skírnir resorts to casting a curse on her that will only manifest if she doesn't marry Freyr.
Gerðr is like:
"Uuuugh, fine..."
And promises to meet up with Freyr in a nine-days time.
She and Freyr gets their Happily Ever After, and life is good.
It's relevant to know that different versions of this story exclude the threats to Gerðr's well-being.
So if you'd prefer imagine that there's no creepy element to the romance, that's tootally an option.
HÁRBARÐSLJÓÐ: THE ONE WHERE THOR GETS HIS FEET WET
So Thor is on his way back to Asgard after some shenanigans in Jotunheim-
But I guess he left his magic Goat-drawn chariot at home, since for some reason he's walking the whole way.
Anyway, he encounters a turbulent river, which presents an unreasonably insurmountable obstacle...
But luckily for Thor, there's a ferryman with a boat!
But this ferryman takes an unreasonable disliking to Thor and starts taunting him mercilessly,
saying that Thor dresses poorly, and also his mom is dead.
Thor is like:
"Oh yeah? Well do you even know how many furious battles I've fought with the Jotuns?
A lot! That do anything for ya?"
And the ferryman's like:
"Oh I'm sorry, I probably didn't notice because I was busy getting laid the whole time!"
That's... pretty much indicative of the overall quality of argument through the rest of the story,
and eventually the ferryman just tells Thor to go around the river.
It's all very surreal.
HYMISKVIÐA: HOW THE ÆSIR GOT THEIR SICK PARTY VENUE
So the Æsir are all having a party in Ægir's house one day--
--Ægir, by the way, is some friendly ocean Jotun who apparently throws some pretty wild parties.
So the Æsir suggest that they party it up at his place more often, and Ægir agrees on one condition:
they have to get him a kettle that's big enough so that he can warm up enough ale for all of them at once.
So Thor and Týr go on a quest together to find a big enough kettle
(because the Norse gods had their priorities in order)
and Týr suggests that they get the huge kettle from his dad, who apparently owns one that's a mile deep.
How much do these guys drink!?
Right, stupid question. Never mind.
Anyway, so they go to Týr's dad Hymir, who serves them dinner and offers to let them spend the night.
Thor, like all hot-headed protagonists has an enormous appetite,
and he eats so much that they have to go fishing the next day for dinner,
during which Thor accidentally fishes up Jörmungandr, the Midgard serpent,
possibly nearly destroying the world in the process.
Whoops!
Anyway, Hymir's like,
"Alright kid, you're pretty strong, but can you break... this glass?"
And Thor's like,
"Uh... probably?"
But the glass proves to be intriguingly indestructible and Hymir's like
"Oh no, what a shame. Looks like you're not that strong after all."
But Hymir's wife is like:
"Psst. Kid. Chuck it at his head."
And Thor's like,
"Why not?"
and curve balls the glass into Hymir's skull, whereupon it promptly shatters.
Hymir's like,
"Ah, Christ! Fine, you're strong, just take the stupid kettle and go."
So they do, but first they're attacked by a horde of giants which they beat because obviously.
ÞRYMSKVIÐA: THE ONE WHERE THOR WEARS A DRESS
So the Marvel comics and movies have kind of misrepresented Mjölnir, I'm afraid.
It's not that only Thor or someone equally worthy can pick it up,
it's more like it's so horrifyingly powerful and destructive
that only Thor or someone of his caliber is capable of even holding it without disintegrating or something.
So imagine how upset Thor is when he wakes up one day, looks under his bed and finds Mjölnir has gone missing!
Of course he initially blames Loki, because obviously, but Loki insists it wasn't him.
So Loki, under threat of getting the crap kicked out of him, borrows Freya's feather cloak, which lets him fly,
and flies over to Jotunheim to look for the missing hammer.
There he finds that Þrymr, the king of the frost giants, has stolen Mjölnir, and won't give it back unless he gets to marry Freya.
Freya, of course, is having none of this, so the Æsir all get together to try and formulate a plan that doesn't involve Freya canoodling around with a frost giant.
Hilariously, the final plan they settle on isn't Loki's idea: it's Heimdall's, of all people!
Heimdall proposed that the best strategy is to dress up Thor all pretty-like and pass him off as Freya.
Amazingly, this plan is okayed by everyone, so they get Thor dolled up all fancy,
and Thor and Loki drive off to Jotunheim, with Loki posing as his lovely maidservant.
So Þrymr is of course overjoyed to have "Freya" as his bride and throws a huge party,
while Loki tries desperately to explain away why the most beautiful and refined of all the goddesses is drinking in oceans worth of mead,
growling with rage whenever Þrymr looks at her and absolutely rocking an enormous beard.
So eventually Þrymr's like,
"Hey Freya, want to see Thor's hammer?
And Thor's like,
"HELL YEA----Ahem... Yyyes, darling!"
And Þrymr's like,
"Great, here you go!"
And Thor immediately kills every last one of them.
LOKASENNA: THE ONE WHERE LOKI THINKS HE'S HILARIOUS AND IS PROVED HORRIBLY HORRIBLY WRONG
So here's one important thing to know about Loki:
He's a pretty fun guy, you know.
A trickster archetype, a shapeshifter and nowhere near as cute as Tom Hiddleston will have you believe.
This is one of the better known stories about Loki, and could also be considered one of the last, since this is basically the one where he takes the joke way too far.
Versions of this story vary, but the one I personally prefer - because, in my opinion it makes a little more sense,
is the one that incorporates consequences from a different myth entirely,
such that Loki recieves the punishment that he does, not just for mercilessly insulting the Æsir
but also because he confessed to his part in the death of Baldr.
Now you may remember, this isn't the first time we've brought up Baldr's death
- it was referenced as early as the second poem we looked at.
And that's because it's kind of a big deal and actually could be considered
one of the biggest in the whole mythology so before I tell you this
story I have to tell you that one. So basically Baldr was the golden boy
Asgardian among the Æsir, god pretty much everything good: love, peace justice,
forgiveness, purity, light. All that good stuff.
He was Thor's little brother, and pretty much everybody loved him. However, Baldr
started getting prophetic dreams telling him that he was going to die, which kinda
bummed him out. So his mother Frigg tracked down every single thing on the
face of the nine realms and made them personally promise her that they
wouldn't do anything to hurt Baldr everything, except for harmless mistletoe
which was apparently too young to sign legally binding contracts. So as a
consequence to this Baldr became pretty much indestructible, which all the other
Æsir thought was awesome, because that way they could throw all the
dangerous weaponry they wanted at him with absolutely no negative consequences.
It's the ultimate party game! Play it with your friends! Anyway, Loki - god of
ruining things for everyone else - decided it'd be super funny if he straight up
killed Baldr with the one thing that could still do it: mistletoe. So he made a
spear out of mistletoe, handed it to Baldr's blind twin brother Höðr and
watched the fireworks. So Balder died of mistletoe poisoning
and also a spear to the chest. But Hel, goddess of the underworld
also named Hel was willing to bring him back if everything alive or dead wept
for him. Now how could Loki pass up such a golden opportunity to ruin everything again?
So Baldr had to stay dead, but don't feel too bad,
apparently he's destined to return to life after Ragnarok and become
the lone God of the new world. Wait a minute. One God ruling a new world with
only two humans in it? And the God is a God of light, purity, and literally all
that is good in the world? And also he died one time? I have a sneaking
suspicion SOMEONE tried to wrangle Christian monotheism out of Norse Mythology.
Anyway, Loki is basically single-handedly responsible for
Baldr's death, but he did the whole thing all sneaky-like so nobody
explicitly knows it's his fault. Keep that in mind when he decides that
confessing to murder is a hoot at parties.
So the Æsir having a party, because they literally never do anything else.
And Loki gets pissed and kills one of Ægir's servants. So the Æsir are like
"Loki, if you're gonna be like that you're uninvited." And Loki's like "fine who
even needs your stupid party", and goes out into the woods to sulk. But then he
decides the party's just asking for a ruinin', so he invites himself back in and
gets himself a seat by calling in a favor from Odin, since they're blood brothers
- yet another thing Marvel got wrong -
they're obligated to have a drink together. So Loki set himself down and
toasts every God. Except for Bragi. Because f**k poetry, am i right?
And Bragi is like "Loki can we not do this?
I'll literally give you my worldly possessions if you don't do this."
And Loki's like "that sounds like something a
poor person would say, also you suck at fighting." This pretty much continues on
in the same vein, with Loki roasting any Æsir who has the misfortune of talking
to him. Although he basically just spews random insults with no regard for basis
in reality, which is very bad roasting etiquette. So then Thor *BOOM* shows up, having
been delayed by probably Giants and threatens to knock Loki's head off if he
continues with the roasting, and Loki's like "Man, can any of you take a joke? it's
not like I killed Baldr or something. OH WAIT~." So Loki skedaddles and shape-shifts
into a salmon to hide from the enraged Æsir, but unfortunately for him Odin,
being a literal god of knowledge, doesn't have any trouble locating him, at which
point they capture Loki, tie him to a rock with the entrails of one of his sons, and
stick a venomous snake over him that drips poison into his eyes. MAN, the Æsir
do not mess around. So Loki's wife holds a bowl over him so the venom
accumulates in that instead of hitting him in the eyes all the time.
But sometimes she has to go empty it out, and when that happens Loki temporarily loses
his eyes. And that kids is why earthquakes happen.
(Don't turn from your screens yet, buddies.)
(A wild Red appears!)
Alright, so this part of the video is a little unconventional.
See, this video...
Was actually SPONSORED.
*AUDIBLE GASP*
I know right? What is this, "professionalism"?!
Anyway, this video was brought to you in part by Alexander Patterson, who's just written a book
called "Choices", which is a young adult fantasy novel set in Norway a thousand
years ago. It's heavily inspired by Norse mythology and calls on a lot of the
legends: the gods, the Norns, all that jazz. Now as you may have noticed, Norse
mythology is filled with godly shenanigans: great warriors and acts of
heroism of varying degrees. Choices has none of these, largely because nearly all
the gods are dead and our protagonist Richard is about as far from a classical
great hero as you can get. Just about the only thing going for him is that he's
got this cool dragon then one of the last surviving gods gave him, and Richard
didn't even do that part heroically because he straight-up ditched the God
and ran off with the dragon without even stopping to say thank you.
Our protagonist ladies and gentlemen. I mean to be fair, I'd do the same thing but
that's hardly the point. So if you like subverted tropes, Norse mythology, quasi-heroes,
and/or Dragons give it a look. In conclusion:
Alex Patterson. Choices. He has a blog. Thank you for your time.