Context of Practice 3: Research into Norse Mythology

 I then wanted to do some research into Norse Mythology as this was the topic that links in very well with Svalbard and the Scandinavian countries. Its really interesting to research as I was already quite into the whole idea of it. The whole idea of Norse Mythology comes under the world of Thor and these are films that I really enjoy as well.

 

This website was very interesting.
'Different sources have come up with several definitions of these myths and so the conflictions in understanding of the Norse mythology. While in the middle age it is believed that the Norse and people of Germanic origin before they were converted to Christianity, they had their own religion which was very complex and sophisticated. Norse mythology was one of the expressions of this religion.'

As was this website as well.
'This religion never had a true name – those who practiced it just called it “tradition.” However, people who continued to follow the old ways after the arrival of Christianity were sometimes called “heathens,” which originally meant simply “people who live on the heaths” or elsewhere in the countryside, and the name has stuck. Throughout this site, I refer to it as “the heathen Germanic religion,” “the pre-Christian Germanic religion,” or something to that effect.'

So, Norse, or Scandinavian mythology is tales about the lives of numerous gods, of some that include Thor, Loki and Odin, now very popular superheroes. There are many more different God's and a lot more to learn about the topic, but I really wanted to just scratch the surface of the mythology to see if there's an interesting area that would be worth looking at to make into some kind of symbol or sign. The cosmos consists of 9 worlds that are all built on a system of hierarchy that fall under Asgard, the realm of the gods.

Gods
I then wanted to do a bit of research into some of the more famous gods, I got the information from this website.

Odin'Odin is one of the most complex and enigmatic characters in Norse mythology, and perhaps in all of world literature. He’s the chief of the Aesir tribe of deities, yet he often ventures far from their kingdom, Asgard, on long, solitary wanderings throughout the cosmos on purely self-interested quests. He’s a relentless seeker after and giver of wisdom, but he has little regard for communal values such as justice, fairness, or respect for law and convention. He’s the divine patron of rulers, and also of outcasts. He’s a war-god, but also a poetry-god, and he has prominent transgender qualities that would bring unspeakable shame to any traditional Norse/Germanic warrior. He’s worshiped by those in search of prestige, honor, and nobility, yet he’s often cursed for being a fickle trickster. What kind of literary figure – let alone a god whose historical worship spanned much of a continent and several centuries – could possibly embody all of these qualities at once, with their apparently glaring contradictions?'

Thor'Thor is one of the most prominent figures in Norse mythology. He was a major god of all branches of the Germanic peoples before their conversion to Christianity, although he reached the height of his popularity among the Scandinavians of the late Viking Age. Thor, the brawny thunder god, is the archetype of a loyal and honorable warrior, the ideal toward which the average human warrior aspired. He’s the indefatigable defender of the Aesir gods and their fortress, Asgard, from the encroachments of the giants, who are usually (although far from invariably) the enemies of the gods.

No one is better suited for this task than Thor. His courage and sense of duty are unshakeable, and his physical strength is virtually unmatched. He even owns an unnamed belt of strength. Only rarely does he go anywhere without it. For the heathen Scandinavians, just as thunder was the embodiment of Thor, lightning was the embodiment of his hammer slaying giants as he rode across the sky in his goat-drawn chariot. Thor’s particular enemy is Jormungand, the enormous sea serpent who encircles Midgard, the world of human civilization. At one point in the mythical cycle, he tries to pull Jormungand out of the ocean while on a fishing trip, and is stopped only when his giant companion cuts the fishing line out of fear. Thor and Jormungand finally face each other during Ragnarok, however, when the two put an end to each other.
Given his ever-vigilant protection of the ordered cosmos of pre-Christian northern Europe against the forces of chaos, destruction, and entropy represented by the giants, it’s somewhat ironic that Thor is himself three-quarters giant. His father, Odin, is half-giant, and his mother, variously named as Jord (Old Norse “Earth”), Hlöðyn, or Fjörgyn, is entirely of giant ancestry. However, such a lineage is very common amongst the gods, and shows how the relationship between the gods and the giants, as tense and full of strife as it is, can’t be reduced to just enmity.'

Loki

'Loki is the wily trickster god of Norse mythology. While treated as a nominal member of the Aesir tribe of gods in the Eddas and sagas, Loki occupies a highly ambivalent and ultimately solitary position amongst the gods, giants, and the other classes of invisible beings that populate the traditional spirituality of the Norse and other Germanic peoples.

His familial relations attest to this. His father is the giant Fárbauti (“Cruel Striker”), and his mother, Laufey (possibly “Tree”), could be a goddess, a giantess, or something else entirely – the surviving sources are silent on this point. Loki is the father, by the giantess Angrboða (“Anguish-Boding”) of Hel, the goddess of the grave, Jormungand, the great serpent who slays Thor during Ragnarok, and Fenrir, the wolf who bites off one of the hands of Tyr and who kills Odin during Ragnarok – hardly a reputable brood, to say the least. As we’ll see below, Loki demonstrates a complete lack of concern for the well-being of his fellow gods, a trait which could be discerned, in vague outline, merely by considering his offspring.'

Bifrost and the Realms

'Bifrost is the rainbow bridge that connects Asgard, the world of the Aesir tribe of gods, with Midgard, the world of humanity. Bifrost is guarded by the ever-vigilant god Heimdall. During Ragnarok, the giants breach Heimdall’s defenses and cross the bridge to storm Asgard and slay the gods.

All rainbows, of course, are “fleeting.” In the pre-Christian Germanic worldview, the invisible, religious modality of existence doesn’t lie in a realm of absolute remove from the material world, as in monotheistic religions. Rather, it lies within or behind the everyday, material world. The mythological image of Bifrost expresses the existential meaning that the rainbow carries in this perspective, and, accordingly, Bifrost lies behind and within any and every visible rainbow, each of which is a transitory and quaking bridge between
the sky and the earth, between Asgard and Midgard.'

I really want to now start looking at the different realms as I think this will be the best place to figure out what my symbol could be in my game level.