Gods and Myths of Northern Europe

their pledges to Thor and Freyr, who, as they said courageously in the face of the angry young missionary king Olaf, had given them help and counsel as long as they could remember. But the old faith could no longer offer men what they needed; it was incapable of further development to satisfy the new needs and questionings when fresh knowledge and a different way of living came into the north. To realize the tremendous impact of Christian teaching, it is only necessary to read of the life of St Aidan or St Cuthbert in newly converted Northumbria. Men flocked to these inspired leaders for help which the old faith could not offer them, and the saints did not fail the suppliants, but wore themselves out with generous and unceasing response.

In many ways the old religion had pointed forward to the new, but while much of the pattern was the same, the Christian conception of the relationship between God and man was immeasurably richer and deeper. When we lament the passing of the old faith, it is largely a lamentation for a simpler way of life, and for the heroic ideas which belonged to that life, doomed to be lost when a more complex and organized society replaced the old one. As the way of living changed, and new vistas opened before the eyes of the young, the old deities could no longer satisfy, and men had reached the point of no return. The story of their struggles and problems in striving after a different goal and taking Christ as their leader is indeed an absorbing one, but falls outside the scope of this book.

Works of Reference

References to special books and articles are given in footnotes. For those who wish to follow up any branch of the subject in detail, there are three works which contain extensive bibliographies. The fullest and most valuable book of reference on both Germanic and Scandinavian religion is:

Jan de Vries, Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte, 2 vols., 2nd edition, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 1956.

Additional information about recent work on Scandinavian mythology will be found in:

E. O. G. Turville-Petre, Myth and Religion of the North, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1964.

An earlier book in English which may be useful is:

J. A. MacCulloch, Mythology of All Races, Vol. 11 (Eddic), 1930.

Where reliable English translations are available of the works referred to, they are given in the list of names and sources.

Names and Sources

In accordance with the usual English custom, I have throughout this book simplified Old Norse and other unfamiliar names when this seemed desirable, in particular omitting accents and final r, and replacing the letter ? by d and ? by th. In the following list of names and sources which may be unfamiliar to the reader, the Old Icelandic or Old English form has been given in brackets where a change has been made.

The following may serve as a rough guide to pronunciation of Old Icelandic names:

? – voiced sound of th, as in English then

? – voiceless sound of th, as in English thin

a – as oa in English broad

– as o in English not

o – as eu in French peur

? – as ai in English air

au – as ou in English loud

The final r is not pronounced as a separate syllable, therefore Garmr and similar words are not pronounced as two syllables. The accent normally falls on the first syllable.

ADAM OF BREMEN: Author of the History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen, Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum (translated by F. J. Tschan, Columbia University Press (New York) 1959), who lived in the eleventh century.

AEGIR (?GIR): God of the sea.

AESIR (?SIR): Race of the gods to which Odin and Thor belong

ALFHEIM: Home of the light elves

AGNI: Early king of Sweden, married to Skialf, who caused his death

ALAISIAGAE: Female supernatural beings, connected with the war god, called ‘goddesses’ on an altar of the Roman period on Hadrian’s Wall

ALCIS: Twin gods, said by Tacitus to be worshipped by the Germans

ANDVARI: Dwarf who possessed a golden treasure, taken from him by Loki to pay the ransom for Otter

ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE: Set of annals in Anglo-Saxon, giving a year by year record of events, begun in Wessex in the mid ninth century and continued, in a number of local versions, until the Norman Conquest

ANGRBODA: ‘Boder of Grief’, giantess on whom Loki begot monsters

ASGARD (ASGAR?R): Home of the gods

ASKR: ‘Ash tree’. Name of the first man created by the gods from a tree on the sea-shore

AU?HUMLA: ‘Rich hornless cow’. The primeval cow which nourished the first being, Ymir, and licked the ancestor of the gods out of the melting ice

AURVANDIL (AURVANDILL): The husband of a seeress who tried to charm the whetstone out of Thor’s head, whose toe Thor threw up to become a star

BALDER (BALDR): Son of Odin, called the Beautiful, slain by Hoder

BALDRS DRAUMAR: ‘Balder’s Dreams’, poem in the Edda telling how Odin sought to discover the fate of Balder. Also known as Vegtamskvi?a

BATTLE OF THE GOTHS AND HUNS: Name given to poem in Hervarar Saga, a survival of earlier heroic poetry (translated by N. Kershaw, Anglo-Saxon and Norse Poems, Cambridge University Press, 1922)

BAUGI: Brother of Suttung, the giant who held the mead of inspiration

BEDE (BEDA): Known as the Venerable. Scholar and historian in the Northumbrian monastery of Jarrow in the eighth century, who wrote many Latin works, including A History of the English Church and People (translated by Leo Sherley-Price, Penguin Classics, 1955)

BEOW: Or Beaw. Name occurring in genealogies of Anglo-Saxon kings, thought by some to be a heathen deity of fertility

BEOWULF: Anglo-Saxon epic poem, surviving in one MS. of about A.D. 1000, known by the name of its hero, Beowulf of the Geats (translated by David Wright, Penguin Classics, 1957)

BERGELMIR: Giant who survived the flood caused by the blood of the slaughtered Ymir

BERSERKS (BERSERKIR): Warriors possessed by battle fury, usually impervious to wounds

BEYLA: ‘Bee’ (?). Companion of Byggvir, a minor inhabitant of Asgard, mentioned in Lokasenna

BIARKI (BO?VAR-BIARKI): ‘Little Bear’. Famous Danish warrior who could fight in bear form, follower of King Hrolf

BIFROST (BIFROST): Rainbow bridge linking earth and heaven

BOBD: Female spirit of battle in Irish sagas, who often appeared in bird form

BOE (BOUS): Son of Odin and Rinda in Saxo, who avenges Balder’s death

BOR (BORR): Son of Buri and father of Odin

BRAGI: God of poetry, married to Idun. Also the name of the ninth-century Icelandic poet, Bragi