Gettin' Norsey
- KL Forslund
- Feb 16, 2020
- 2 min read
I’m fermenting a new story, and needed to bone up on my Norse family tree. Here’s some notes.
Odin
Hung from the world tree for nine days. Sacrificed his eye. Keeps a talking giant head named Mimir in a pool. Son of Bestla and Borr. Has two brothers, Villi and Ve. Dates back to at least 12 BCE. Has many sons, not all with his wife Frigg. Uses lots of aliases.
Frigg
Goddess of marriage. Married Odin, and had Baldr together. Doesn’t get a lot of text in the myths. Freya might actually be Frigg as the myths spread out and made more characters.
Loki
God of trickery. Father is the giant Farbauti and mother Laufey. He was the mother of Sleipnir, and had three children with the giantess Angrboda (Hel, Fenris and Jormungandr). Married to Sigyn and they had a child Narfi (means Corpse). At the end, he is imprisoned, lips sewn shut and poison drips into his mouth.
Fenris Wolf
One of Loki’s children. Grows bigger and stronger. When Odin summoned Loki’s children to court for review, he deemed Fenris too dangerous and had him chained up. That broke, and the gods found something stronger called Dromi, but Fenris grew stronger in the intervening time and that didn’t last. Finally, they brought Gleipnir, made by Svartalves and challenged him to test it. Being wary, he asked Tyr to put his hand in his mouth to show it wasn’t a trap. It was, so he bit off Tyr’s hand. The gods then tied him up to a rock, which really pissed him off until he breaks loose and starts Ragnarok.
Tyr
Another war god, but also of justice. He was brave enough to feed Fenris since the rest of the gods were scared of him. Loses his hand during the third binding of Fenris.
There’s more gods, it’s a growing list:
These are a few I needed to look up for reference. Who knows what I might be doing with that information.
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