Gods and Myths of Northern Europe

KJALNESINGA SAGA: One of the Icelandic family sagas, containing legendary material similar to that in the Fornaldar Sogur

KORMAKS SAGA: One of the Icelandic family sagas, the story of Kormak, a poet and adventurer of the ninth century (translated by L. M. Hollander, New York, 1949)

KVASIR: Called the wisest of the gods, a being made from the saliva of the Aesir and Vanir, from whose blood was made the mead of inspiration

LANDNAMABOK: Book of the settlement of Iceland, originally written by Ari the Wise in the eleventh century, but added to by others

LEMMINKAINEN: Hero of some of the lays in the Kalevala, who was killed and brought to life again by his mother

LODUR (LO?URR): One of the gods said to take part in the creation of man

LIF (LIF): ‘Life’. Said in Vaf?ru?nismal to be preserved through Ragnarok in order to found a new race of men

LIFTHRASIR (LIF?RASIR): ‘Eager for life’ (?). Companion of Lif

LOGI: ‘Flame’. Competitor who outdid Loki in an eating contest in the hall of Utgard-Loki

LOKASENNA: ‘Loki’s Mocking’. Poem in the Edda which describes Loki mocking and abusing all the gods and goddesses in turn

LOKI: Inhabitant of Asgard who frequently causes mischief, and who was bound under the earth for his part in the slaying of Balder, to break loose at Ragnarok

LYTIR (LYTIR): God who according to a story in Flateyjarbok was worshipped by the Swedes

MAGNI: Son of Thor and the giantess Jarnsaxa, who survives Ragnarok and has part possession of Thor’s hammer

MANANNAN MAC LIR: Celtic god of the sea

MENGLAD (MENGLO?): ‘Necklace-glad’. Maid of supernatural realm, wooed by Svipdagr in the Edda poem Svipdagsmal

MERSEBURG CHARMS: Two pagan spells found in 1841 in a ninth-century MS. in the Merseburg Cathedral Library.

MIDGARD (MIDGAR?R): The world of men, midway between the gods and the giants

MIDGARD SERPENT (MI?GAR?SORMR): The World Serpent, curled round the earth, beneath the sea, which is to break loose at Ragnarok

MIMIR (MIMIR): Also found as Mimr and Mimi. A wise being associated with the World Tree and the Spring of Urd. Put to death by the Vanir, after which his head was kept by Odin and consulted in time of perplexity

MIMINGUS: Old man from whom Hotherus (Hoder) obtained a magic sword with which to kill Balder, in Saxo’s account

MIST-CALF (MOKKURKALFI): Clay man made by the giants to support Hrungnir in his duel with Thor

MISTLETOE (MISTILLTEINN): Name of a wonderful sword possessed by Hromund Greipsson and others

MJOLLNIR (MJOLLNIR): Hammer of Thor, made by the dwarfs, to protect the gods from their enemies

MODGUD (MO?GU?R): Maiden who kept the bridge on the road to Hel

MOTHERS: Group of female deities connected with plenty who were worshipped by the Germans and Celts in Roman times

MUSPELL (MUSPELL): Realm of fire, the heat from which helped in the creation of the world. The sons of Muspell ride out against the gods at Ragnarok

MUSPILLI: Name given to a German poem about the end of the world, where this word is used. The poem is in a tenth-century MS.

MUNINN: From muna, to remember. One of Odin’s ravens

NAGLFAR: Ship of dead men’s nails, which is to bring Loki and the giants against the gods at Ragnarok

NANNA: Wife of Balder, who died at his funeral and was burned with him

NEHALENNIA: Goddess of plenty worshipped on the Island of Walcheren in Roman times

NERTHUS: Fertility goddess worshipped in Denmark in the first century A.D., as described by Tacitus

NI?HOGGR: Serpent at the foot of the World Tree, also described as a flying dragon, who feeds on corpses

NIFLHEIM: The abode of darkness, beneath the roots of the World Tree

NJALS SAGA: Also called Brennu-Njals Saga. Longest and most famous of the Icelandic family sagas, the story of the burning of the Icelander Niall and his family (translated by Bayerschmidt and Hollander, Allen & Unwin, 1956)

NJORD (NJOR?R): God associated with ships and the sea. The father of Freyr and Freyja, and one of the Vanir

NORNA-GEST (NORNA-GESTR): ‘Stranger of the Norns’. Hero of a tale inserted into Olaf Tryggvason’s saga in Flateyjarbok (translated by N. Kershaw, Stories and Ballads of the Far Past, Cambridge University Press, 1921)

OD (O?R): Husband of Freyja, who deserted her

ODIN (O?INN): Leader of the Aesir, god of battle, inspiration, and death

OLAF ELF OF GEIRSTAD: Olafr Geirsta?aalfr. Early king in Vestfold, Norway, to whose burial mound men sacrificed after his death

OLAF THE HOLY: St Olaf, great Christian king of Norway, 1016–30

OLAF TRYGGVASON: King of Norway 995–1000, who set out to convert the country to Christianity

OROSIUS: Paulus Orosius, author of Historiae adversum Paganos, a history of the world, in the fifth century A.D.

ORVAR-ODDS SAGA: One of the legendary sagas in the Fornaldar SOgur collection, the story of the hero Odd and his travels abroad

OTTER (OTR): Son of Hreidmar, killed by Loki

OTTAR THE SIMPLE (OTTARR HEIMSKI): A worshipper of Freyja, helped by her to discover his ancestry, as told in the Edda poem Hyndluljo?

PAUL THE DEACON: Paulus Diaconus, author of a history of the Lombards, Historia Langobardorum, in the eighth century (translated by Foulke, New York, 1907)

PHOL: Vol (?). Mentioned with Volla in the 2nd Merseburg Charm, and thought to be a fertility deity

PROCOPIUS: Greek historian of sixth century B.C. who wrote a history of the Gothic Wars

PROSE EDDA: Book about poetic imagery and diction by Snorri Sturluson, containing many myths and quotations (translated by Brodeur, Oxford University Press, 1916, and partially by J. I. Young, Bowes & Bowes, 1954)

RAGNAR LODBROK (RAGNARR LO?BROK): ‘Leather-breeks’. Famous hero who slew a dragon, and whose sons conquered England, in Ragnars Saga Lo?brokar, one of the Fornaldar Sogur (translated by O. Schlauch, 1949)

RAGNAROK (RAGNAROKR): ‘Destruction of the powers’. Term used to describe the end of the world, when the monsters slay the gods, and Midgard and Asgard are destroyed

RAGNVALD OF ORKNEY (ROGNVALDR): Famous Earl of the Orkneys, 1135–58, poet and adventurer

RAGNVALD RETTILBEINI (ROGNVALDR): Son of Harald Fairhair of Norway, who practised witchcraft and was finally put to death by his father

RAN: Wife of the sea god Aegir, who catches drowned seamen in her net, and gives them hospitality in her halls

RAGNARSDRAPA: Ninth-century poem by Bragi Boddason about the gods

RATATOSK (RATATOSKR): Squirrel who runs up and down the World Tree

RAUD (RAU?R): Worshipper of the heathen gods, especially Thor, in Northern Norway, put to death by Olaf Tryggvason

REDWALD (R?DWALD): King of East Anglia in the seventh century, who was partially converted to Christianity

REGIN (REGINN): Famous smith, son of Hreidmar, who slew his father and helped Sigurd the Volsung to slay his brother Fafnir, the dragon