Hi. This is Jack Rackam and today I’m going
to show you the family tree of Norse gods.
Most people are familiar with Odin, Thor and
Loki but there are actually a lot of other
gods in Norse mythology and today we’re
going look at how they are all connected as
well as some various other aspects of the
Old Norse worldview. But before we begin,
I’d like to thank Dr. Jackson Crawford,
an instructor in Nordic Studies at the University
of Colorado, for giving his feedback on this
chart. Dr. Crawford has his own YouTube channel
and if you’re interested in Norse mythology,
you’ll definitely want to check it out.
You can find the link in the description.
Finally, the chart that we’ll be looking
at today is available as a poster. If you’re
interesting in buying a copy, you can head
over to UsefulCharts dot com or click the
link on screen at the end of the video
Intro
Okay, let’s start at the top. According
to Norse mythology, there was a giant born
out of the primeval void named Ymir and from
Ymir came a race of giants known as Jotnar,
the singular of which is pronounced Jotunn).
In Norse mythology, there are a lot of giants
and on this chart, they are shown in brown.
Please note that these giants were generally
considered to be a different race from the
gods, which are shown in purple, blue, or
green.
One of the more important giants was a fellow
named Surt who was the guardian of the fire
realm. Now, it’s not actually clear whether
this particular giant came from Ymir or whether
he simply emerged out of the fire. It’s
important to remember that we’re talking
about mythology here and therefore things
are not always straight forward. We only have
a few really old sources to go by and because
these often got interpreted and re-interpreted
by later sources, it’s sometimes difficult
to distinguish between popular beliefs about
Norse mythology and the more original beliefs.
This is further complicated by the fact that
the myths continue to evolve even today, through
franchises like Marvel. That being said, I’m
going to do my best throughout this video
to be as accurate as possible. But do keep
in mind that accurate means something different
when we’re talking about mythology as opposed
to history.
Another important giant is Utgard-Loki. Originally,
he might have been the same character as the
more well-known Loki but later he is considered
to be separate. In popular portrayals of Norse
mythology, he’s sometimes seen as being
the ruler of a big castle where all the giants
lived. This castle is called Utgard, hence
his name, but originally Utgard was simply
another name for the realm in which the giants
lived, not necessarily a castle.
Some other important giants include Farbauti,
the father of the more famous Loki; Angraboda,
the mother of Loki’s three main children;
and this pair of giants here, Aegir and Ran
– who are the closest thing in Norse mythology
to a god and goddess of the sea.
So those are some of the Giants. Now let’s
look at the gods. At the same time as Ymir,
there was also a primeval creature, a cow,
named Audhumla, who licked the ice that made
up the world at that time. Out of the ice,
came the first god, named Buri. Buri then
had Borr who in turn had Odin - the king of
the Norse gods. Odin is portrayed as having
one eye and he is associated with lots of
things, including war, wisdom, and poetry.
In Norse mythology, there’s not really a
“God of this” or a “God of that” but
over the years several have developed certain
associations with certain roles, similar to
the Greek and Roman gods, so I’ll be mentioning
those throughout. You’ll notice here that
Odin had two brothers, Vili and Ve.
More important though is Odin’s wife, named
Frigg. She’s kind of the queen of the gods.
And at this point, I should mention that there
are actually two main races of gods. There
are the Aesir gods, shown on this chart in
blue, and the Vanir gods, shown over here
in green - we’ll get to them in a second.
Odin and Frigg had a son named Balder who
was kind of the god of light and purity and
was supposedly very beautiful and wonderful
to look. It was also said that nothing could
hurt him except for mistletoe. There's a famous
story in which Loki tricks Balder’s blind
brother Hod into hurling a spear tipped with
mistletoe. This ends up killing Balder, making
Odin, of course, very angry. In fact, he gets
so angry that he bears another son, Vali,
for the sole purpose of killing Hod.
You’ll notice that Odin has several other
children as well. For example, there’s Bragi,
the god of poetry, who is married to Idunn,
the goddess of youth. Then there’s Hermod,
whose name sounds a lot of Hermes and is thus
often thought of as being the Norse equivalent
of a “messenger of the gods”. I should
also point out that Balder had a wife named
Nanna and together they had a son named Forseti,
who was the God of Justice.
Then of course, we have Odin’s most famous
son – Thor, god of thunder and famous for
weilding a huge hammer. Thor was the son of
Odin, not via Frigg, but via a different female
- a giant named Jord, who was basically just
the personification of the Earth. Thor has
a brother named Meili and a wife named Sif.
Together, he and he wife had a daughter named
Thrud and Thor's wife also has a son named
Ullr, who’s the god of skiing. Of course,
we’re dealing with Norse gods here so it’s
not a surprise to see some “wintery” type
gods.
Before we leave the Aesir gods, I should point
out a few more, that are not directly related
to Odin. There’s Heimdall, guardian of the
gates of Asgard, where to Aesir gods live.
He is well known for carrying a giant horn,
used to warn the gods of an attack. He supposedly
had nine mothers, but these are thought to
be separate from the nine daughters associated
with Aegir and Ran. Then there’s Fulla,
who’s kind of like Frigg’s BFF and someone
that Frigg often confides in. And there’s
also Sol and Mani, the literal sun and moon.
Finally, we have Tyr, sometimes thought to
have been a war god because the Romans associated
him with Mars.
Okay, let's now talk about the Vanir gods.
They are thought of as being a separate race
of gods because they come from a different
source. They originate from a god named Njord
who is the god of fishing and seafaring, and
his wife Skadi, who is a giant but who is
also thought of as being yet another god associated
with skiing.
Together, they were the parents of two very
important gods known as Frey and Freya. Frey
was the god of fertility, sunlight and peace
and he can be recognized because he’s usually
riding a bull. His sister Freya was the goddess
of love and beauty. I should mention that
Freya and Frigg are sometimes confused but
these are two different goddesses. They may
have originally been one but over time they
were definitely seen as being distinct. It
is from Freya that we get the name Friday.
In fact, four of the days of the week are
named after Norse gods. The other ones are
Tuesday, named for Tyr’s day; Wednesday,
named for Odin’s day; and Thursday, named
for Thor’s day. The other days have Latin
roots, Sunday and Monday being named after
the Sun and Moon and Saturday being named
after Saturn.
Another interesting fact when it comes to
distinction between the Aesir and Vanir gods
is that the kings of Denmark are said to descend
from Odin, an Aesir god; whereas the kings
of Sweden and Norway are said to descend from
Frey, a Vanir god.
Okay, last but not least - the infamous shapeshifter
known as Loki. Now, it’s important to note
that not all Norse legends portray Loki as
the bad guy. He’s more of a trickster and
creator of mischief who only becomes an enemy
of the gods after he arranges the death of
Balder. But he’s also an important character
because of his children. He’s the father
of Fenrir, who is a wolf who’s bound by
a chain and is supposedly going to be released
at the great final battle at the end of the
age. He’s also the father of Hel, the goddess
of death, and a sea serpent called Jormungand,
which simply means giant monster. Finally,
he has a fourth child with a different female,
who is the 8-legged horse ridden by Odin.
Okay, so that pretty much takes care of the
family tree. But I also want to show you a
couple other parts of this chart. This section
here charts the nine realms of Yggdrasil,
which is sometimes referred to as being like
a giant world tree. But although these realms
are sometimes called worlds, they are not
really planets or specific locations. In fact,
they are more like parallel universes or something.
But they are often mapped out in a certain
way so I’m going to describe that to you.
Midgard, which means “middle realm” is
where we all live and above us is Asgard,
the realm of the Aesir gods as well as Alfheim,
the realm of the light elves. To the west
is Vanaheim, home of the Vanir gods and to
the east is Jotunheim, the realm of the Giants.
Now, if you think about where the Norse people
lived, this next part will make sense. To
the north of them it would have been really
cold so they figured that to the north of
Midgard was a primordial realm of ice which
they calleded Niflheim. On the other hand,
to the South, things got warmer and hotter
so they thought of the area to the south as
being a realm of fire, which they called Muspellheim.
You might remember that that is where the
giant Surt can be found.
Finally, below earth we get a realm called
Svartalfheim where we find the dark elves
(or dwarves) and then below that, way way
down, we get Hel, the realm of the Dead where
you’ll find Loki's daughter, who goes by
the same name.
But if we think of Yggdrasil as a tree, there
are some other characters that we should point
out. At the bottom of the tree are the Norns
(female beings who thread destiny), Mimir
(a disembodied head that gives wisdom at a
well) and a giant snake named Nidhogg (who
gnaws at the root of the tree). Then, at the
top of the tree is an eagle or hawk and running
up and down the tree is a little squirrel
named Ratatoskr who relays insults that the
snake Nidhogg gives to various people. Finally,
there are also four deer that eat among the
branches.
And two more things about Asgard. First, there
are two halls where the dead who die in battle
go. There's Valhalla (ruled by Odin) and Folkvangr
(ruled by Freya). And there’s these beings
called the Valkyries, who are maidens who
go and get warriors after they die and bring
half of them to Valhalla and the other half
to Folkvangr. In those two halls, the wariors
wait until Ragnarok (a final battle where
they will fight again). Second, there’s
the Bifrost Bridge, which connects Midgard
and Asgard. That’s where Heimdall stands,
equipped with his horn, ready to warn the
gods of any danger.
A couple of the other things to note on this
poster: there's a guide to runes which were
basically kind of like an alphabet that was
used by the Norse. You can see the rune, its
rough English equivalent, the name of the
rune, and its basic meaning.
Finally, at the very bottom of the chart are
some important items in Norse mythology, known
as the gifts of the dwarves as they were made
by dwarves, either the sons of Ivaldi or a
pair known as Brokk and Sindri. The objects
made by the sons of Ivaldi include Sif’s
hair; Skidbadnir, Frey’s flying ship which
very conveniently can also fold up and fit
in his pocket; and Gungnir, Odin’s spear
that never misses. Three of the objects or
given by Brokk and Sindri include Gullinbursti,
Frey’s flying board; draupnir, Odin’s
golden ring; and the most famous object in
all of Norse mythology – Mjolnir, Thor’s
mighty hammer.
Okay, so that was a very basic overview of
Norse mythology. Again, if you want to delve
deeper into the subject, I suggest you check
out Dr. Jackson Crawford’s channel; or,
if you want to get a copy of the poster you
can click the link on the screen.
Thanks for watching.
