Logi (Old Norse: "fire") is a jotun (giant) in Norse mythology, a deity and personification of fire. Logi is the son of Fornjot, thus brother of Aegir (god of the sea) and Kári (god of the wind). In the Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar, ch. 1, mention is made of a king Logi or Hálogi, who reigned over the northern lands of Norway, married to Glóð with whom he had two very beautiful daughters, Eisa and Eimyrja. Eimyrja married a warrior named Vífil and they had a son named Viking, the protagonist of Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar. Logi has sometimes been confused with Loki, another Norse deity. Mentio ..read more

Fornjot (Old Norse: Fornjótr) is a giant in Norse mythology. He is the father of Kári, the symbol of wind, Logi, the symbol of fire, and Aegir, the symbol of the sea. He is also said to have been the founding father of Finland. In the second section of the Song of Humil in the Old Edda, Aegir is called "a rock-dweller (giant) who resembles the child of Miskorblindi," and it is thought that this Miskorblindi may be another name for Fornjot. Etymology The meaning of the name "Fornjot" is not clear. Perhaps it is "forn" (old) + "jótr" (Jute), or more likely than Jute, "giant" (both Finnish ..read more

Angrboda ("she who brings sorrow") is an ice giant from Norse mythology. She is described as having hair that is the color of dried blood. According to the Völuspá hin skamma, it was with Angrboda that Loki fathered the wolf Fenrir. Snorri Sturluson's Edda adds that she is a giantess of Jötunheim and that she is also the mother of Jörmungandr, the snake of Midgard, and of Hel, who rules the world of the dead. Her name appears only in these two sources, and it is probably an invention of the twelfth century. Angrboda may be identical to "the old woman" ("in aldna") living in Járnviðr who rais ..read more

Gullveig (Drunkenness (or power) of gold) is a magician that can only be found in the Völuspá, a poem of Norse mythology probably composed in the 10th or 11th century. History The Aesir kill her with a sword and burn her three times in vain. This is what would have triggered the first world war. Georges Dumézil considers Gullveig as a Vanir because it fits with her name and her essence: gold, which, like any form of wealth, is placed under their patronage. Gullveig would be a hypostasis of the goddess Freya or the goddess herself. Interpretations of the myth K. V. Müllenhoff sees in the violen ..read more

Njörun (Norse: Njǫrun) was a little-known (presumably Vanir) goddess of Norse mythology, attested only in the Edda in Prose and in some kenningar of the Poetic Edda. Scholars believe that her name is etymologically related to the male god Njörðr and the proto-Germanic Nerthus and that she could be the personification of the earth or Njörðr's sister-wife. Attestations In Snorri's Edda Njörun is enumerated in the list of the Aesir, but no other information is given about her. Other attestations of the name recur in kenningar denoting women, found in the Krákumál, Íslendinga saga, Njáls saga, and ..read more

Lofn (from Old Norse lof "permission, the mild") is an Aesir goddess in Norse mythology. Snorri Sturluson names her in his Prose Edda in the Gylfaginning in chapter 34. In addition to Snorri, the goddess still appears in the Þulur, which were known to Snorri and were processed by him into a mythical narrative of their own. Snorri resorts to etymology (lof "permission"), inspired by the paraphrases of the Kenningar: Lofn had been given permission by Odin and Frigg on the basis of her nature to join and marry loving men and women who had previously been forbidden to do so ..read more

Hodr is the god of winter and darkness in Norse mythology, son of Odin and Frigg, twin brother of Baldr. His name means "war". He has several half-brothers, including Thor, Vidar and Váli. Being blind, he judges not by outward appearance but by inner values. Hodr is very strong, beautiful and sensitive, but blind. He is easily influenced, and while he was under Baldr's influence, he was liked by everyone. But when he is in the company of Loki and Gullveig (Angrboda), he does many things that he later regrets bitterly. Not least when Loki makes him shoot the mistletoe arrow at Baldr ..read more

In Norse mythology, Forseti is the son of Baldr and Nanna, and has his residence and estate in Asgard. He is mentioned by Snorre in the edicts of Grimnismal, which describe his hall, Glitner, with a roof of silver and golden posts, where he makes peace and reconciles. Forseti is the fairest arbiter of gods and men. The Frisian figure of Forseti Forseti was probably originally neither son of Baldr nor judge of conciliation. When St Willibrord came to Frisia in the 700s, he heard of a pagan idol, Fosite, on an island between the Frisian and Danish lands; a shrine where Willibrord went ashor ..read more

Dellingr (Old Norse, possibly, "the dawn" or "the shining one") is a god in Norse mythology. Dellingr is mentioned in the poetic edda, compiled in the 13th century by early traditional sources, and in the prosaic edda, written in the same century by Snorri Sturluson. In both sources, he is described as the father of Dag, the personification of the day. The Prosaic Edda adds that he is the third husband of Nótt, the personification of night. He is also mentioned in the legendary Hervararar saga ok Heiðreks. Scholars have proposed that Dellingr is the personification of twilight, and his n ..read more

In Norse mythology, the Valkyries (from Norse val = male and kjosa = choose) were a group of feminine beings associated with war and death and the god Odin. The sources tell that they were deities who chose which warriors would fall in battle and who would spend the afterlife in Odin's stronghold Valhalla. This function linked them to the concept of fate, which played a major role in Norse culture. In Valhalla, the warriors would become members of Odin's horde, the Einherjer, who would fight for him in the final battle at Ragnarok. In this realm of death, warriors would be brought up by Valk ..read more