META: What do the RACC Readers think is the best?

Dave Van Domelen dvandom at haven.eyrie.org
Wed Jan 5 09:53:59 PST 2005


In article <1104922535.601218.76210 at c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
 <phippsmartin at hotmail.com> wrote:
>Arspitzer wrote:
>
>> Favorite Mythology?
>>
>> Norse
>
>Hmm.  That's the mythology in which there's a male father figure with a
>wife who he's always cheating on and produces many offspring and
>there's also Gods of war, the ocean, love and death, right?

     Actually...no.  Odin, as far as I recall, was faithful to Frigga.  While
many of the other Aesir were Odin's offspring, he had two brothers who also
sired their share of gods (before fading into obscurity), plus there was an
entire other tribe of gods in the Vanir, who syncretized into things.  And
the occasional Jotun like Loki or a hunt goddess whose name escapes me (she
ended up married to Njord, god of the sea).  
     Odin himself was sky god and god of victory in war.  His son Thor was
certainly a warrior, but Odin was the one who decided which side would win in
any given mortal battle.
     Njord, god of the sea, I forget the background of, but he mighta been a
Vanir. 
     The closest the Norse have to a love deity is Freya, a Vanir and by all
accounts about the hottest babe in the nine worlds.
     Death is kinda split up.  Odin and his Valkyries run the warrior
afterlife.  Hel, Jotunish daughter of Loki and Angrboda, runs the general
afterlife.  And I think the really scummy dead end up being down with Nidhogg
the dragon that chews on the roots of Yggdrasil.

     Norse mythology is interesting in part because the seams are so clear,
even in later redactions that try to tie it all together.

     Dave Van Domelen, notes that the similarity in names between Frigga and
Freya is one of those seams....





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