From: dustin@ocf.berkeley.edu (Dustin Tranberg)
Newsgroups: alt.mythology
Subject: Re: Nordic Gods
Date: 14 Dec 1992 21:31:48 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.32.234.22
Keywords: Description

In article <ByBuuv.F9F@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> phi@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Aeleck) writes:
>I think Sleipner was Od's horse.  Thor had the two goats that pulled
>his chariot.  They could be killed, cooked and eaten once a day as long as
>the bones remained in full, unbroken they would come back to life
>to pull the chariot that night.

Yes, Sleipnir was Odinn's horse.  Some say Sleipnir's 8 legs are representative
of the 8 handles on a coffin or the 8 posts holding up a funeral byre, but
this seems to be supposition.  What IS supported by the Eddas (main texts)
is that Sleipnir was one of the many monstrous children of Loki, in this
case conceived during one of the times Loki pulled the gods' fat out of
the fire.

>[Arff writes:]
>>Balder    - Think he was some sort of bard. It once was forseen that he 
>>            would be killed by an arrow, and his mother (belive it was Frey) 
>>            went out in the wood to get all plants to promise not to kill 
>>            him, but she forgot to ask "misteln". 
>>            Afterwards Frey said that anyone could try to shoot him.
>>            Loke took an arrow of "mistel", and killed him. Mistel is a 
>>            parasit plant growing on other trees.
>>
>I was taught that Balder's own kindness was the reason that all plants 
>swore alligence to him, except mistel/mistletoe. 

As I remember the Eddas, Frigg (mother of Baldr, wife of Odinn) extracts
promises from all plants and substances etc. not to harm him, except the
"harmless" mistletoe, which Loki then fashions into a dart, and hands to the
blind (but strong) god Hodr, who slays Baldr.

Baldr was beautiful and good and holy, but not a bard as far as I know.
The bards of the gods were Bragi and Odinn himself.

[Discussion on Tyr and some dogs and wolves:]

>Interesting story about faith.  Ty (or Tyr) once showed his faith to
>the hound protected the kingdom of Hel (can't remember it's name) by
>sticking his hand in it's mouth while someone else chained it.  It
>got angry and bit his hand off.

OK, another of Loki's monstrous kids, Fenrir (the Fenris Wolf) was
rampaging around and making trouble, and the gods knew (prophecy) it
would only get worse.  So they had a magical cord made by dwarves to
chain him.  But the wolf would only allow his strength to be tested
against the weak-looking cord if one of the gods put up his hand for
surety.  Tyr was the one who agreed, and indeed lost the hand to chain
the wolf.  

The dog who guards the gate of hell (Niflheim?) is named Garm, and seems
to be another critter entirely.

>And Hel, the goddess of the dead/damned.  (I think she's supposed to
>be Loki's daughter.)

Yes, Hel is another of Loki's children.  She gets all of the dead who do
not die in battle.  (The battle dead go either to Odinn, or get split
between Odinn and Freyja)

>I can't remmber the name of the goddess who kept the apples of immortality.
>That precious fruit which kept the gods young and vibrant.  It is known
>that the gods were not immortal.

That would be Idunn, wife of the (barely) aforementioned Bragi, god of poetry.

>What was the name for the midgard serpent?  It supposedly is to kill Thor
>in the final battle of Ragnaroek.

OK, this is, I believe, the only important member of Loki's brood we haven't
gotten to yet.  This is Jormundgandr, the Midgard Serpent, who is supposed
to kill and be killed by Thor at Ragnarok.

To recap Loki's kids:  Hel, Fenrir (the Fenris wolf), and Jormundgandr (the
Midgard Serpent) fathered by Loki in relation with the giantess Angrboda.
And Sleipnir, Odinn's 8-legged steed, mothered(!) by Loki in relations
with the stallion of a giant.

>>Arff
>
>Aeleck                 /                  /  

Right.  You know, folks, this stuff is actually quite easy and fun to read.
Find a copy of Snorri's _Prose_Edda_.  It's short and fun, and it is
a huge chunk of the PRIMARY texts for this material.  There is a version
translated by Jean Young that is perfect for anyone interested in this
stuff, and you can read it in 3 or 4 hours, tops.

Another good translation of the primary texts is Lee M. Hollander's
translation of the Poetic Edda, which is the other big chunk of the
main texts.

For secondary sources, I can't recommend highly enough Turville-Petr's
_Gods_of_the_Ancient_Northmen_, if you can find it.  Absolutely the best
overview of this material I've ever seen, by a long shot.

Finally, I feel I must note that I owe all my information to Prof. John
Lindow at UCBerkeley, who recommended these sources for me a year or
so ago.

Have fun, y'all,

Dustin