- I. Introduction
- Introduction to Norse Mythology
- The Origins of Norse Mythology
- Where does our knowledge of Norse Religion Come From?
- II. Norse Cosmology — The Description of the Universe According To The Norse
- The Origins of the Norse Cosmos
- The Nine Realms of Norse Mythology
- The Norse Creation myth
- Primordial realms and the birth of the cosmos
- The Inhabitants of the Nine Realms
- Yggdrasil, the World Tree, and its significance in Norse cosmology
- III. The Gods and Goddesses of Asgard
- Odin, the Allfather: wisdom, war, and sacrifice B. Thor, the Thunderer: strength, protection, and the defender of Asgard C. Freyja and Freyr: love, fertility, and prosperity D. Loki, the Trickster: chaos, mischief, and the challenges of divine kinship
- IV. Creatures and Beings of Norse Mythology
- Giants and Jötunn: primordial forces of nature and adversaries of the gods
- Dwarves and Elves: craftsmen, guardians, and inhabitants of hidden realms
- Fenrir, Jormungandr, and other mythical beasts: symbols of chaos and cosmic strife
- V. The Heroes and Heroines of Norse Mythology
- Sigurd and the Völsung Saga: courage, destiny, and betrayal
- The Valkyries: choosers of the slain and companions of heroes
- Ragnarök: the twilight of the gods and the final battle between order and chaos
- VI. Rituals, Ceremonies, and Beliefs
- Offerings and sacrifices: appeasing the gods and seeking divine favor
- Seiðr and Galdr: magic, prophecy, and the shamanic practices of the Norse
- The concept of fate (wyrd) and the role of destiny in Norse mythology
- VII. Legacy and Influence —
- The Coming of Christianity to Scandinavia and the decline of Norse religion
- Preservation of Norse mythology in medieval literature and sagas
- The enduring legacy of Norse mythology in modern culture, literature, and media
- The Importance of Norse Mythology in history and culture
- IX. Additional Resources
- Recommended reading on Norse mythology
- Websites, museums, and cultural institutions for Norse history and heritage
- Glossary of key terms and concepts
Recent Articles
by Brandon West
The Nine Realms of Norse Mythology
In Norse mythology, the cosmos is depicted as consisting of nine interconnected realms, each inhabited by various beings, gods, and creatures. These realms are bound together by the branches of Yggdrasil, the World Tree, and are integral to the cosmology of Norse belief.
The Nine Realms of the Norse religion are:
1. Asgard — Asgard the realm of the Aesir gods, the celestial home of Odin, Thor, and other gods and goddesses remembered by the Norse. It is a place of grand halls, towering fortresses, and divine palaces, where the gods rule over the cosmos and oversee the affairs of mortals.
2. Midgard — which means literally “Middle Earth,” is the realm of humanity and is situated at the center of the Norse cosmos. Midgard is the home of humans, surrounded by vast oceans and on the border of Asgard and Jotunheim.
3. Jotunheim — is the realm of the Jotnar, or giants, who are often depicted as powerful and formidable adversaries of the gods. It is a harsh and inhospitable land of mountains, glaciers, and frost, where the forces of chaos and destruction hold sway.
4. Vanaheim — Vanaheim is the realm of the Vanir gods, a group of deities generally associated with fertility, prosperity, and the natural world featuring most in matters of agriculture and fertility rites. Though less prominent than the Aesir, the Vanir play a vital role in Norse mythology, particularly in matters of agriculture and fertility rites.
5. Alfheim — Alfheim is the realm of the light elves, beings of beauty, grace, and ethereal light. It is a realm of perpetual daylight and verdant forests, where the light elves dwell in harmony with nature and magic.
6. Svartalfheim — is the land of the dark elves, beings known for their skill in mining and craftsmanship, famous for their crafts and the magical artifacts, weapons, and armour they have the skill to forge. The dark elves are also known as dwarves
7. Nidavellir — It is in the realm of Nidavellir where the dark elves specifically do their work as master artisans and blacksmiths (rather than Svartalfheim) devoted to crafting weapons, armor, and the treasures for which their praise is sung.
8. Helheim — is the realm of the dead, presided over by the goddess Hel. It is a dark and desolate realm where those who die of sickness or old age are said to dwell in eternal gloom.
9. Muspelheim — is a realm of fire defined by infernal heat and volcanic fury. Muschpelheim is the home of the fire giants, ruled by the great fire giant Surtr, from which emerge rivers of fire. forces of chaos and destruction are unleashed.
These Nine Realms form the cosmological framework of Norse mythology, representing a rich and interconnected tapestry of worlds that are both distinct and inseparable in the grand scheme of the Norse cosmos.
Resources
by Brandon West
Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period
During the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period the Earth was on the tail end of the Last Ice Age. Most recently the severe, but short, Younger Dryas. But climate was changing in Mesopotamia, and around the world. The people who lived in Mesopotamia appear to have preferred the foothills of the Taurus Mountain range (the northern reaches of Mesopotamia) and the Zagros Mountains (the east of Mesopotamia towards the Iranian Plateau), including populations in the northern reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys.
During the Pre-Pottery Neolithic we see a number of major revolutions in human culture, believed by many to mark our first steps out of our more primitive, older, prehistoric level of civilization. Indeed it was these revolutions that set us apart from all of our ancestor and sibling species of homo. During the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) period humanity first learned and adopted agriculture. A revolutionary new way of life was born. We began farming first, and later learned how to domesticate — protect, raise, feed, and care for — animals, essentially as pets.
The PPN period is subdivided into the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) periods. During the PPNA period we see the first evidence of Mesopotamian people practicing farming — gathering seeds, planting them, tending to them as they grew, and harvesting. This led the transition a sedentary lifestyle, living permanently in a single location, on an ancient farm, tending to their crops. In the next couple thousand years the people begin to practice animal husbandry, raising their own flocks and herds, and tending to animals. The two division of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period span about 3200 years from 10,000 BCE. The PPNA lasted from 10,000–8700 and the PPNB lasting from 8700–6800.
The Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period was a time of dramatic transformation within human civilization. We learned to farm. Tending to crops of grains and gardens filled with vegetables, intentionally growing our food from the Earth herself. We began raising our own animals for meat, to sustain our people with a convenient, readily available source of nutrition to mitigate against famine, along with the vegetables, seeds, grains, and whatever wild game could be harvested. This is called the Neolithic Revolution. Mastering our environment by understanding it, organizing nature to produce for us, allowing people during this time to reliably create a surplus of food year-in and year-out, capable of sustaining larger and larger populations. This revolution laid the foundation for the next revolutions to come, a few thousand years later.
Gobekli Tepe was built and occupied during the PPN period. Perhaps the most striking example of human settlement, art, and sophistication this early in our history. In a way Gobekli Tepe is a monument to the dramatic transformation going on in the world during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period. Sites like Abu Hureyra and Mureybet document this transition in their archaeological record, since they were occupied from the Natufian well into the PPNB period. [1]
Pre-Pottery Neolithic Contents
Further Reading
Resources
- Pre-Pottery Neolithic. Wikipedia. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Pottery_Neolithic>. Accessed 31 Oct 2023.
- History of Mesopotamia. Wikipedia. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mesopotamia>. Accessed 31 Oct 2023.
by Brandon West
The Middle Ages of Europe
We know from the writings of Middle Ages scholars that they considered the time they lived in as a Dark Age. When I put myself in their shoes, I do not blame them. They looked back to the previous age at lost glory of Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. They lamented lamented this loss, whose glory was even more resplendent in contrast with the war, instability, famine, and disease that marred their times.
The Middle Ages (also called the Medieval Period) are a division of European History that covers the middle time between ancient history and the modern world. This is the central of three traditional divisions of Western history — antiquity, medieval, and modern.
Early Middle Ages (500—1000)
The Medieval Period begins with the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE, and ends with the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 CE. Rome was strong, one of the mightiest civilizations to have ever lived, and laid the final layers on the foundation for the modern world. Yet they were victims of their own success. They were too wealthy, decadent in their luxury. They grew weak and corroded from within, leaving a power vacuum in Europe when theirs waned.
During the Early Middle Ages population was in decline. People fled the cities in a process called counterurbanization, searching for rural places to live where they had better prospect to provide for themselves and their families, in smaller, more isolated communities. This was probably in response to the famine, loss of order, and violence that came with the collapse of centralized Roman authority.
Mass migration of tribes throughout Europe had begun in late antiquity. This Migration Period continued through the Early Middle Ages. The Germanic peoples like the Franks established the Carolingian Empire in what became France. Invasion became common. The Vikings from the North, Muslims from the south, and Magyars from the East.
High Middle Ages (1000—1300)
The instability of the Early Middle Ages abated slightly as we move into the High Middle Ages. The climate warmed slightly during the Medieval Warm Period, which led to greater agricultural surpluses. More food equals less starvation, so the population of Europe rose significantly. Unfortunately, this was only so that their progeny could die in the Late Middle Ages, but for now…
Culture surged. The idea that the people should pay rent to a central authority to live on their land was invented, and knights roamed the country like the samurai of Japan, serving their lords. Universities were established, and writers like Dante and Chaucer gift the world with their works.
The Late Middle Ages (1300—1453)
The Late Middle Ages — the final phase of medieval Europe before the modern era — are a turbulent one. In place of the warmth and plenty of the previous centuries, came death. Europe is decimated by disease. Probably around 1/3 of the population are killed by the Black Death.
Large-scale famine exacerbated the situation and all of this intensified the turbulence of the times. Peasants revolted against the nobles of their kingdoms, all as the kingdoms fought among themselves. But among this instability, light was growing. In the final years of the Late Middle Ages revolutionaries like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Nicolaus Copernicus were born — a handful of the truly great individuals to come — whose works were destined to shift humanity onto a new path.
In a few short decades after the Fall of Constantinople (1453), Christopher Columbus would set his sights across the Atlantic where he would find a world new to (most) of Europe. By doing so he set in motion a chain reaction of events that would usher in the modern era over the coming centuries.
by Brandon West
Medieval History
Medieval History is a period of World History that serves as a bridge between ancient and modern times, from the year 500 to 1500 of the modern era. In many ways this is a period of transition. A transition from the primordial glory of the god-like civilizations of the ancients, to the dawning of the modern world with the birth of science, and the industrialization, secularization, and democratization of much of the world. A transition of people from their ancient achievements, to modern heights.
The term medieval was originally used to refer to a phase in the History of Europe, the Medieval Period, also called the Middle Ages (from 500 CE to 1500). In Europe the Middle Ages bridge the gap between antiquity and the modern era. Those who study World History professionally call this the Post-Classic Period, which spans the same frame of time as the Middle Ages of Europe (about 500—1500). I chose the same time frame independently. Not by accident, but because it makes sense as a logical division.
Medieval scholars called the time they lived through the Dark Ages. In their mind, the time they lived did not shimmer with the same resplendent glory of Greece and Rome in classical times. Not surprising, because during the Middle Ages plague might have killed half the population, along with war, famine, and a little ice age. Yet as Medieval History comes to a close in Europe, a great transformation comes in the form of the Renaissance — literally the “rebirth” of past glory in art, science, and culture of Europe.
While the beginning of the period doesn’t fit well with the historical periods of the major civilizations around the world at the time, the end date lines up quite well, for a reason with some infamous consequences. The revolutions of the Renaissance led directly to a boom in science, technology, art and industry that forged the great nations of Europe and the British Empire. Increasing globalization and multiple attempts at world domination changed the world.
While the start of the Medieval Period is arbitrary in the context of world history — cultures around the world are living through their own local history on their own terms, with no knowledge of distant lands except in whispers — by the end, a new phase of global synchronization had begun. Ships from distant empires had crossed the oceans, bringing peoples, nations, and empires into contact that had never known one another before.
In Ancient History the world saw the emergence of the first high-civilizations, which spread, were refined, and crystallized over thousands of years to create the shining jewels of Classical History. The middle years of the Medieval Period saw evolution of world cultures from the past heights into the modern era.