Are the gods the good guys or the bad guys? On that note, did ancient Norse people ever worship the jötnar? This week we take a look at what it really means to be a god in the Norse mind. Two surprising sources will help inform our analysis: a horse phallus preserved in herbs and an Icelandic volcano. Don't miss it!

Sources:

• Giants” by Margaret Clunies Ross in Pre-Christian Religions of the North volume II, 2020
• “Cyclical Rituals” by Jens Peter Schjødt, also in Pre-Christian Religions of the North volume II, 2020.
• “Ritual responses to catastrophic volcanism in Viking Age iceland: Reconsidering surtshellir cave through bayesian analyses of AMS dates, tephrochronology, and texts” by Kevin Smith, et al in the Journal of Archaeological Science volume 126, 2021.
• “Lausavísa from Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar in Heimskringla 1” by Diana Whaley in “Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to circa 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1.” 2012.
• “The Poetic Edda”, transl. by Carolyne Larrington, 2014
• “The Prose Edda”, transl. by Anthony Faulkes, 1995

Contact:

• Write in: waelhraefn (at) gmail (dot) com
• Join the Discord: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/Nvw5hmkRsW⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music:

Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This time we dig into a rarely discussed aspect of Norse mythology: stealing your enemy's power by eating their heart or drinking their blood. But just who's power can be stolen by way of this gory ritual? Animals? Monsters? Humans? Let's find out together.

Sources:

• • “Heimskringla Volume 1, The Beginnings to Óláfr Tryggvason” transl. by Alison Finlay and Anthony Faulkes, 2011
  • “Gesta Danorum” transl. by Karsten Friis-Jensen and Peter Fisher, 2015
  • “The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki” transl. By Jesse Byock, 1998
  • “The Dating of Eddic Poetry: Evidence from Alliteration” by Haukur Þorgeirsson, 2016
  • “Dating the Old Norse Poetic Edda” by Christopher Sapp, 2022
  • "Eaten hearts and supernatural knowledge in Eiríks saga rauða" by Andrea Maraschi, 2018
  • “The Poetic Edda”, transl. by Edward Pettit, 2023
  • “The Prose Edda”, transl. by Anthony Faulkes, 1995

• Contact:

  • Write in: waelhraefn (at) gmail (dot) com
  • Join the Discord: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/Nvw5hmkRsW⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

  Music:

  Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

After a nice, long break, NMTUG is back to cover a relatively obscure topic in Norse mythology: the dísir. What makes the dísir distinct from valkyries, norns, and other death-entangled women? Let's find out.

Sources:

• “The Merseburg Spells” by Joseph S. Hopkins, 2023

• “Dísir” by John Lindow in Pre-Christian Religions of the North volume III, 2020

• “Dictionary of Northern Mythology” by Rudolf Simek, 2007

• “Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs”, by John Lindow, 2002

• “The Poetic Edda”, transl. by Carolyne Larrington, 2014

• “The Prose Edda”, transl. by Anthony Faulkes, 1995

Contact:

• Write in: waelhraefn (at) gmail (dot) com
• Join the Discord: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/Nvw5hmkRsW⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music:

Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/