An overview of the most important figures of Norse mythology – with what defines them. Striking is their duality: hardly any god is only light or only dark.
The all-father is god of wisdom and poetry – and at the same time lord of war, death and ecstasy. For insight he gave an eye at Mímir’s well and hung for nine nights, pierced by a spear, on the world tree to win the runes. As a grey wanderer in hat and cloak he travels the worlds, accompanied by the ravens Huginn and Muninn.
Duality: Wisdom and madness in one figure: he grants poetry and insight, yet also stirs war and discord. He is faithful and deceitful at once – a god who gives and takes.
The thunder god is the protector of gods and humans, tireless foe of the giants, with the hammer Mjölnir and the power-belt Megingjörð. Among ordinary people he was the most beloved god – over a thousand hammer amulets survive.
Duality: Raw and yet blessing: his thunder destroys and at the same time brings the fertile rain. He is the impetuous force that keeps chaos in check – a protector through sheer might.
The most powerful goddess is mistress of love and fertility – and equally of death: half of the fallen go to her hall Sessrúmnir, only the other half to Odin. She masters seidr magic, drives a chariot drawn by cats and wears the necklace Brísingamen.
Duality: Love and death in one hand: she awakens desire and receives the battle-dead. Beauty and battlefield, fullness of life and transience belong inseparably together in her.
The Vanir god stands for good weather, harvest, peace and prosperity. To him belong the golden-bristled boar Gullinbursti and the magic ship Skíðblaðnir. To win the giantess Gerd he gave away his wonderful sword.
Duality: Peace at the price of defencelessness: the god of plenty gives up his weapon for love – and therefore falls defenceless at Ragnarök. Fertility and sacrifice, peace and vulnerability.
The old god of law, the oath and war laid his hand in the jaws of the wolf Fenrir so that the gods could bind him – knowing that he would lose it.
Duality: Justice that costs something: law and war, courage and loss. Order is not given but bought with a sacrifice.
The most watchful god guards the rainbow bridge Bifröst. He hears the grass grow, sees a hundred miles and bears the Gjallarhorn. As Ríg he wanders the earth and becomes the forefather of the human social orders.
Duality: Guardian and herald of doom: forever he watches over the world – and yet it is he who, with his horn, heralds the end, Ragnarök. Preserver and harbinger at once.
The cunning shape-shifter lives among the gods but belongs to the giants. Sometimes he saves the Æsir with a trick, sometimes he plunges them into ruin. He is father of the wolf Fenrir, the Midgard Serpent and the death goddess Hel.
Duality: Helper and destroyer in one person: in him order and chaos are inseparable. He brings forth life (Odin’s steed Sleipnir) and death (Baldr’s end) – the necessary counterplay of the world of the gods.
The highest of the goddesses, Odin’s wife, is goddess of marriage, the home and fate. She knows the destinies of all – yet she does not speak them.
Duality: Omniscience and powerlessness: she knows every fate and yet cannot avert the death of her son Baldr. Knowledge that does not protect from sorrow.
The shining god, beloved by all, is killed by a trick of Loki’s – his death heralds the twilight of the gods. From the new, green world after Ragnarök he returns.
Duality: Light and death: it is the purest who must die. In him lies the downfall – and at the same time the hope of return and renewal.
The Vanir god of the sea, the wind and wealth lives by the coast. His marriage to the mountain giantess Skadi fails over the quarrel of where to live: by the roaring sea or in the silent mountains.
Duality: Sea and mountain that do not get along: wealth and longing, closeness and strangeness – a union of opposites that finds no home.
The giant’s daughter came to Asgard to avenge her father’s death – and stayed as goddess of winter, the hunt and skiing. Instead of blood she took reconciliation and a husband.
Duality: Giantess and goddess, vengeance and reconciliation: she comes as an enemy and becomes part of the world of the gods. Cold and the hunt, hardness and a new bond.
The goddess guards the apples that grant the Æsir eternal youth. When the giant Thjazi steals her, the gods begin to age at once – only her return brings youth back.
Duality: Fragile and indispensable: the immortality of all hangs on a single goddess. Youth and transience lie an arm’s length apart in her.
Loki’s daughter rules over the realm of the dead of the same name, to which come those who do not fall in battle. Half she appears living, half as a corpse.
Duality: Half living, half dead: hostess and jailer at once. Her silent realm is neither punishment nor paradise – only the inescapable other.
Three women of fate – Urd, Verdandi and Skuld – dwell at the Well of Urd beneath the world tree. They water its roots and determine the lot of gods and humans.
Duality: They nourish and they bind: the same hands that keep the tree alive weave everyone’s end. Becoming and passing away from a single source.
More stories and public-domain sources in our Library. © Glanz & Gravur, original text.