Today I am celebrating the fact that I completed another goal on my Day Zero Project's list: read the Prose Edda. What is the Prose Edda? It is one of the two texts (the other being the Poetic Edda) which contains most of the stories about Norse mythology. Frigg, Loki, Thor, Odin: all of their tales can be found in this wonderful book.
The reason why I chose this text was simple: I know virtually nothing about Norse history and mythology. With my first semester of teaching coming up, along with the release of the Avengers, I know some students who will want to do a project that would somehow be related to this topic. So I had to learn. Perhaps this is just my excuse to get started. After all I've always wanted to learn about Norse mythology; I simply never had the opportunity/ drive/ will power to do so until now.
So, what have I learned? Mostly, the Avengers are, for the most part, wrong about Norse mythology. This obviously is the case with any comic book rendition of old myths and legends; the writers reinvent stories in order to make the plots compatable with their ongoing story-lines and comic universes.
The Norse Pantheon is broken down into groups of twelve gods and goddesses. Of course there are the ones most well known to us: Odin, Thor, Loki Baldr. There are many lesser known gods included in the pantheon as well. There is the realm of giants, who became a sort of lesser group compared to the Aesir (Odin's "clan," let's call them) and one of whom is destroyed, and thus with his demise came the creation of the Earth.
The reason why I chose this text was simple: I know virtually nothing about Norse history and mythology. With my first semester of teaching coming up, along with the release of the Avengers, I know some students who will want to do a project that would somehow be related to this topic. So I had to learn. Perhaps this is just my excuse to get started. After all I've always wanted to learn about Norse mythology; I simply never had the opportunity/ drive/ will power to do so until now.
So, what have I learned? Mostly, the Avengers are, for the most part, wrong about Norse mythology. This obviously is the case with any comic book rendition of old myths and legends; the writers reinvent stories in order to make the plots compatable with their ongoing story-lines and comic universes.
The Norse Pantheon is broken down into groups of twelve gods and goddesses. Of course there are the ones most well known to us: Odin, Thor, Loki Baldr. There are many lesser known gods included in the pantheon as well. There is the realm of giants, who became a sort of lesser group compared to the Aesir (Odin's "clan," let's call them) and one of whom is destroyed, and thus with his demise came the creation of the Earth.
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| He's so proud to be the manwhore of the gods! |
Here's a breakdown of some of the geneology:
The House of Odin:
Odin- Frigg= BaldrThe House of Odin:
Odin-Earth= Asr-Thor
Odin-Rind= Vali ( or Ali)
Odin-Grid= Vidar
House of Thor:
House of Thor:
Thor- Sif= Thrud
Thor -Jarnsaxa= Magni
Sif- ?= Ull (stepson of Thor)
Loki- Sigyn = Nar
Loki-Angrboda= Fenirswolf= Hel
= Jormundgand (Midgard Serpant)
Loki-Svadilfari = Sleipnir
Loki- ? = Vali
My favorite tales from the Prose Edda was abut the monsterous children of Loki. Not all of Loki's children were demon-spawns, just his three with the giantess Angrboda, who was said to be, shall we say, less than appealling? Loki, on the otherhand, was said to be very pleasent to look at- in fact he can be called "Jouhdenheim's mightiest lover" for his frollocks with the ladies. I bet he regrets spawning these three "adourable" munchkins: I know I wouldn't be pleased giving birth to a wolf, giant serpent hell bent on devouring the Earth, and the guardian of the Underworld. I wonder if the gods have parenting therapy groups?
There are very few primary texts that can be considered easy "beach reads," however, if you love fantasy then this is a good beach read for you. It's filled with stories of heros, wars, and sir-ing. Being one of the texts that influenced J.R. Tolkien, and popular fantasy stories afterwards, its easy to follow and understand. It comes highly recommended by yours truly.
Curl up with a nice mug of ale, and make your ancestors proud, my friends!
MA
Curl up with a nice mug of ale, and make your ancestors proud, my friends!
MA
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