NORSE

MYTHOLOGY &
FOLKLORE
✣ Euginn A. Buletin
 NORSE MYTHOLOGY
✣ Norse mythology is the myths and legends
of the Vikings
 THE NORSEMEN
✣ The Norsemen were
fierce warriors and
fearless sailors.
✣ Vikings, the
Scandinavian raiders
✣ Bersekers, were
animal-pelt-wearing
warriors. The word
berserk originates
here.
 THE NORSEMEN
✣ Norse legends are filled with stories
of shield-maidens or women who
fought alongside their men.

✣ Living condition in Scandinavia were

frigid and cruel.

✣ Norsemen colonized Iceland,

Greenland and were the first to
discover North America.
 THE WORLD
✣ Yggdrasil, the World Tree
✣ One world was ASGARD, Home of the
Gods
✣ JOTUNHEIM, the Land of the Giants
✣ SVARTHEIM, The Land of the Dwarves
(Dark Elves)
✣ MIDGARD, “Middle Earth,” the World of
Men
✣ MUSPELLSHEIM, the Realm of Heat
✣ ALFHEIM- Home of the Light Elves
✣ VANAHEIM- inhabitants are the
Vanir
✣ INFIERNO- Kingdom of the Dead
✣ NIFLHEIM, the Land of ice and fog
✣ BIFROST
MAJOR GODS
AND
GODDESSES
 ODIN
✣ All- Father of Gods

✣ The Bringer of Rain

✣ Traded an eye for

Wisdom

✣ Gave “Runes”
symbolic writing to
men
✣ GOLDEN HELMET & MAGICAL
SWORD
✣ TWO RAVENS:
Huginn (Thought) and Muninn
(Memory)
✣ TWO WOLVES:
Geri (Greedy) and Freki (Gobbler)
 FRIGGA
✣ Odin’s wife and
queen
✣ Protector of
Marriage
✣ Mother of Balder
✣ Sits at her spinning
wheel day after
day
 BALDER
✣ The most beloved
of all the Gods
✣ Out of all he was
totally pure
✣ His death was
caused through
the tricks of Loki
✣ His death is one of
the great Norse
tragedies
 THOR
✣ God of Thunder
✣ Wears girdle that
doubled his strength
✣ His magic hammer is
Mjolnir
✣ His wife is Sif of the
Golden Hair
 TYR
✣ God of Single
Combat
✣ Lost one of his
hands to Fenrir, a
giant wolf
✣ Presided over
public assemblies,
legal matters and
battles.
 HEIMDALL
✣ Watchman of the
Gods
✣ Guard of Bifrost
 FREYA
✣ Goddess of Love
and Beauty
✣ Wears
Brisingamen, the
Necklace of the
Dwarves
 LOKI
✣ The Doer of Good
and the Doer of Evil
✣ Crossbred God and
Giant
✣ Master Trickster
who is sometimes
helpful and
sometimes hurtful
 HEL
✣ Goddess of the
netherworld
✣ She ruled the
dead
 Supernatural
Races in Norse
Myth
 VALKYRIES
✣ Odin’s battlemaidens who determine
the outcome of battles
✣ Carry the victorious dead to the Hall
of Odin, Valhalla
✣ “chooser of the slain”
 AESIR
✣ Primary race of the Gods, which
included Odin, Thor, Tyr, Blader and
Heimdall, among others.
✣ Lived in Asgard and held temporary
power over the cosmos
 VANIR
✣ Secondary race of Gods
✣ Among these Gods were Frey and his
Beautiful sister Freya
 THE NORNS
✣ Three female creatures who control
the fate of all races
✣ Sit at the Well of Urd at the base of the
World Tree
 GIANTS
✣ Enormous brutes who are the enemies
of the Aesir
✣ Not all the Giants are evil, but the
majority are
✣ Thor is the god that they hate the
most
 DWARVES
✣ Subterranean race of craftsman
✣ Short, hairy creatures
✣ Makers of Mjolnir and Brisingamen
 RAGNAROK
✣ The day of the Doom that will destroy
the Gods and the entire Earth
✣ Loki, his children, and the giants will
overrun the Aesir
✣ The World Tree will burn
✣ Mani (Moon) and Sol (Sun) will be
devoured by the wolves of darkness
that chase them
 NORSE FOLKLORE
✣ The folklore of Norway, Sweden,
Finland, Denmark, Iceland and the
Faroe Islands
BEINGS OF SCANDINAVIAN
FOLKLORE
✣ Mythological creature from Norse
mythology continue to live on in
Scandinavian folklore, little affected
by Christian beliefs.
✣ The stories about the livings and
doings of these beings
10 Creatures
in Norse
Folklore
 10.HULDRA
✣ Called Tallemaja in Swedish, is a troll-like
woman in the wood.
✣ She is fair and beautiful, but wild and has a
long cow tail which she hides behind her back
upon meeting a human.
✣ She is flirtatious, young girl who is neither good
nor evil
 9. NISSER
✣ In Scandinavian Christmas tradition, there is no
Santa.
✣ These creatures are typical pranksters, but can
easily be befriended, and around Christmas
they have the same function as Santa in Western
traditions.
 8. DWARVES/ELEVES
✣ Dwarves and Elves originates from Norse
Mythology.
✣ Dwarves lived in their own part of Midgard; a
place no human could find.
✣ The elves lived in a deep forest nearby the castle
of Frøy, the god of fertility, called Alvheim.
 7. MARE
✣ Is a female Vette, who gives people bad dreams
at night by sitting on them in their sleep.
✣ Common belief in Germanic folklore and
appears in many different shapes.
 6. FOSSEGRIMMEN
✣ Fossegrimmen, or just Grim (Foss is Norwegian
for Waterfall) is a water-creature.
✣ He is a young, handsome man who sits naked
under waterfalls, playing the fiddle.
 5. TROLL
✣ The troll comes from Norse Mythology,
inspired by the cruel giants who were the main
enemies of the gods, known as
jotner/jotuner/jötunn, who lived in the
mountains of Utgard.
 4. PESTA
✣ Pesta comes as the figure of death and illness, in
the shape of a hideous, old woman dressed in
black, carrying a broom and a rake.
✣ If she carried with her the rake, some of the
inhabitants would survive, but if she was
carrying the broom, everyone in the family
would soon die.
 3. NOKKEN
✣ Nökken/Nyk/Nykkjen is a mysterious
water creature, residing in fresh-
water, lakes and deep ponds.
✣ “Nyk! Nyk! Naal i vatn. Jomfru Maria
kastet styaal i vatn! Du sæk, æk flyt!”
was a riddle for protection, meaning:
“Nyk! Nyk! Needle in the water. The
Virgin Mary threw steel in the water!
You are sinking, I float!”
 2. DRAUGEN
✣ Draugen, from Norse “draugr”
meaning ghost.
✣ Draugen is the ghost of a man who
died at sea. He is huge and monster-
like, and covered in seaweed, rowing
in half a boat.
 1. KRAKEN
✣ In old times, the Kraken was said to
be in the shape of a huge crab, the size
of an island.
✣ Later descriptions tell of a monster in
the shape of an enormous octopus,
which dragged ships down to the
bottom of the sea.