Norse mythology

* • Idol Theory
* • Telesma
* • Infection Magic
* • Astrology
* • Australian Mythology
* • Arthurian legends
* • Aztec Mythology
* • Buddhism
* • Celtic Mythology
* • Christianity
* • Cracks
* • Cthulhu Mythos
* • Dreadlord Mythology
* • Egyptian Mythology
* • Folklore
* • Greek Mythology
* • Japanese mythology
* • Hermeticism
* • Hinduism
* • Kabbalah
* • Norse Mythology
* • Shinto
* • Taoism
* • Tarot
* • Thelema
* • Voodoo
* • Russian Orthodox Church
* • Anglican Church
* • Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
* • Magic Circle
* • Angel
* • Spiritual Item
* • Spells
* • Magical life forms
* • Magic-Science Treaty
* • Temple
* • People-Clearing Field
* • Curse
* • Demon

**Norse mythology** is the mythology of the North Germanic people around the time of the Viking Age (at its height covering most of northern Europe, much of modern Germany and Austria, and parts of the British Isles), continuing through into modern-day Scandinavian folklore, and following the lives of the Norse gods — the Æsir and the Vanir — and the men whose lives they directly affected.

## Etymology

It is important to note that the correct appellation is Norse Mythology, not *Viking* Mythology. Originally, the word "viking" meant the act of faring overseas and the sailor participating, while in English it denotes a profession meaning something like "pirate". Only a minority of Norsemen were Vikings.

## Principles

Like most traditional polytheistic systems, it has no set canon and in some ways resembles a body of customary beliefs more than a set religion. It has been speculated that only chieftains and other wealthy people held faith in the Æsir, while the common farmers believed in land-spirits such as dwarves, trolls and giants.

It is a branch of the Proto-Indo-European mythological tradition, which also spawned the Celtic, Greek, and Vedic pantheons; its gods are not only fallible, but also all mortal. They could, and did, die, as exemplified during Ragnarok, the Norse version of the apocalypse, which ends with most of the gods dead.

Many texts describing Norse beliefs have come down to us, but, aside from a few runic inscriptions and similar fragments, all were written hundreds of years after the turn to Christianity. Consequently it's nearly impossible to tell which stories are "Christianized", or how much they are, although academic theories abound. Even ignoring this, another problem arises: since Norse myth has no definitive canon, the myths differ considerably from place to place, according to the time they were written and the purpose they were written for.

Norse Mythology being a polytheistic religion, its gods had emotions that are very much alike those of humans. When the opinions of all the many gods were gathered, it created a single flexible system. As long as that system ultimately led them down the right path, everything was fine. As the gods of Norse Mythology are not absolute, the gods reach perfect answers when combined in a single group by complementing each other's weaknesses, creating a sturdy defense system. Moreover, an intrinsic property of Norse Mythology is that it is a mythology of mutual destruction, set up from the beginning so that over 99% of gods and their enemies would die fighting each other (likely a reference to Ragnarok). As such, a magician can create a countermeasure against a spell that uses figures from Norse Mythology if they made use of the figure that killed the other figure in the mythology.