Viking mythology and all that goes with it

I wonder which sort of people worshiped which gods during the ancient times. For example I have heard that farmers worshiped Tor rather then Oden because they feared him or something like that. Anyone know anything about that?

I also wonder to which extents the asatru existed before the viking age(800-1100 right?).
 
As far as I know, the farmers worshiped Thor because he is responsible for the weather. Actually the storys about Thor fighting against giants can be interpretated as ... well ... the giants represent something bad for the farmer, and Thor is like the thunderstorm, bringing rain, washing something away ... smashing the stones ...

(Yeah, I know: I really need to read more about the gods :blush: )
However: that's how all the stories about Odin, Thor, Baldur, Freya and so on should be understood: they all mean something, and the key to understand them, is to know what the god or godess represents.
(Doesn't mean that you can't just listen to a story and be amazed about it, without questioning the true meaning from time to time)
 
Larsson said:
I wonder which sort of people worshiped which gods during the ancient times. For example I have heard that farmers worshiped Tor rather then Oden because they feared him or something like that. Anyone know anything about that?

I also wonder to which extents the asatru existed before the viking age(800-1100 right?).
Click to expand...

I dont really think that people feared the gods.
and Odinism/Asatru/whatever has been around for thousands of years.
 
Hi guys,

I've been digging thru the norse mythology lately but reading on internet is far from fun. so i'm searching a book about it. Any of you guys have a title, or better, an ISBN number for me about it?

some things that must be in it:
- the gods and their relation (family tree?)
- about the "universe". The nine worlds, ect
- Saga's and events like Ragnarok ect.
In other words: everything.

Thanks.
 
Larsson said:
I wonder which sort of people worshiped which gods during the ancient times. For example I have heard that farmers worshiped Tor rather then Oden because they feared him or something like that. Anyone know anything about that?

I also wonder to which extents the asatru existed before the viking age(800-1100 right?).
Click to expand...

Please excuse my screwed up keyboard...temporary glitch.

This is a difficult question to answer. There is not a name for the faith before the introduction of the Christian faith, so we don t really know what people would have considered themselves. However, symbols and words representing some of the asatru deities are present around the year 0, and for sure by 400 AD. Runes are present by anno 400, also, and symbols often used to represent each god is present in the art by then. Tacitus and others tells of goddess worship being the predominant religion before the year 0. The goddess Nerthus, the main subject of worshipped before then, is thought to have eventually grown into Njord, and Tyr is the main male deity for the period. He seems to have merged with Odin and also remained as Tyr himself in the later period. Either way, at some point, one must, as Lord Renfrew has pointed out, reach The Edge of Knowability. We can only know so many things for sure without having an actual eye witness to ask, and, unfortunately, we don t have one of them. The farther back in time you go, the quicker you will reach that Edge. Goddessworship, none the less, seems almost universal for northern Europe before the bronze age, and some of those goddesses were incorporated into asatru as time went by. The dispute of how the male gods arrived into the culture is ongoing and very nasty, but in the Edda it says there was a war between the Aesir and the Vanir and that they melded at the end of it.

As for the Thor thing, this is my understanding...
Odin is and was feared by some because he knows seith, because he is fickle and because he is the god of war. He is very smart and can fool even Loki. Thor is not so smart. He is friendly and very human in his ways. He is the darling of the plain people because of that, and because he defends them, whereas Odin protects the warriors. Farmers would worship Frej, who is the god of fertility, human, animal and plant. Without him, nothing grows, including cattle and crop. Thor is in charge of thunder, not wetaher. That is Frej s gebiet.
 
For someone like me that doesnt have the Edda yet... Whats the difference between the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, etc... Which should I pick up?
 
it's all in the name. the Poetic Edda was written in verse form and the Prose Edda was written in (guess what) prose form. i like the Poetic because it was written first and gives a 'truer' form of the stories, but i'm probably biased because i read a lot of poetry anyway. i also have the Prose Edda, and they work well together for comparison purposes. check out the book list posted by Sleipnir above, it's a great starting point. i recommend 'Sagas of the Icelanders' and 'Heimskringla' for historical reading about the Viking Age. both books are big (huge) but very well worth the reading.
 
Njord is in charge of money matters and wealth, but Frey also, to a lesser extent. There are some minor gods also, who are in charge of specific kinds of trades (Var is the goddess of contract, for example), and specific sports.

As for the athletic thing, it depends on what kind of sport. Ullr and Skadi both do the skiing thing, and Freya is in charge of hunting, for example.

When in doubt, invoke the runes with galdr. The runes are very specific and will find their target whether you know who is in charge of what or not! It is not very wise to mess with your wyrd, though, so BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR and use galdr wisely. T.
 
Var is more aligned with marriage contracts and Ullr and Skadhi both are affiliated with hunting as well, Ullr specifically archery...which I mainly do...and my kinsman is dedicated to Skadhi and he and I are both avid outdoorsman so it is only natural.

BTW, welcome back T!!!!!!!
 
Sleipnir said:
Var is more aligned with marriage contracts and Ullr and Skadhi both are affiliated with hunting as well, Ullr specifically archery...which I mainly do...and my kinsman is dedicated to Skadhi and he and I are both avid outdoorsman so it is only natural.

BTW, welcome back T!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

Thanks dude! Long debriefing type e-mail to follow shortly!

(Interesting sidenote, sort of OT, re my own comment about Var and contracts: I suppose my comment comes from my own very old-school Scandinavian way of looking at a marriage contract as any other trades contract... This serves to highlight the difference between marrying for religious reasons, like Judeo-Christians do, vs marrying for practical reasons, as the ON used to. It is all a very pragmatic thing, really.
Anyhow, it's cool that you pointed it out to me, because oftentimes when people ask me to pinpoint something that I do differently because of being brought up in the old way, I cannot come up with something "off the top of my head". Here's one such case, that has now been brought to my attention, and that I will now make a point of remembering for future reference. A bit of cultural kneejerk reaction on my behalf!)
 
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