Ragnarök. The north portal of the 11th century Urnes stave church has been interpreted as containing depictions of snakes and dragons that represent Ragnarök In Norse mythology, Ragnarök is a series of future events, including a great battle foretold to ultimately result in the death of a number of major figures (including the gods Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdallr, and Loki), the occurrence of various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world in water. Afterward, the world will resurface anew and fertile, the surviving and returning gods will meet, and the world will be repopulated by two human survivors.
Ragnarök is an important event in the Norse canon, and has been the subject of scholarly discourse and theory. The event is attested primarily in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. Mythology[edit] The Old Norse word "ragnarok" is a compound of two words. "world tree" gold. Valhalla. In Norse mythology, Valhalla (from Old Norse Valhöll "hall of the slain"[1]) is a majestic, enormous hall located in Asgard, ruled over by the god Odin. Chosen by Odin, half of those who die in combat travel to Valhalla upon death, led by valkyries, while the other half go to the goddess Freyja's field Fólkvangr. In Valhalla, the dead join the masses of those who have died in combat known as Einherjar, as well as various legendary Germanic heroes and kings, as they prepare to aid Odin during the events of Ragnarök.
Before the hall stands the golden tree Glasir, and the hall's ceiling is thatched with golden shields. Various creatures live around Valhalla, such as the stag Eikþyrnir and the goat Heiðrún, both described as standing atop Valhalla and consuming the foliage of the tree Læraðr. Attestations[edit] Poetic Edda[edit] Grímnismál[edit] Helgakviða Hundingsbana II[edit] In stanza 38 of the poem Helgakviða Hundingsbana II, the hero Helgi Hundingsbane dies and goes to Valhalla. Baldr. "Each arrow overshot his head" (1902) by Elmer Boyd Smith.
Baldr (also Balder, Baldur) is a god of light and purity in Norse mythology, and a son of the god Odin and the goddess Frigg. He has numerous brothers, such as Thor and Váli. In the 12th century, Danish accounts by Saxo Grammaticus and other Danish Latin chroniclers recorded a euhemerized account of his story. Compiled in Iceland in the 13th century, but based on much older Old Norse poetry, the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda contain numerous references to the death of Baldr as both a great tragedy to the Æsir and a harbinger of Ragnarök. Name[edit] Jacob Grimm in his Teutonic Mythology (ch. 11) identifies Old Norse Baldr with the Old High German Baldere (2nd Merseburg Charm, Thuringia), Palter (theonym, Bavaria), Paltar (personal name) and with Old English bealdor, baldor "lord, prince, king" (used always with a genitive plural, as in gumena baldor "lord of men", wigena baldor "lord of warriors", et cetera). Attestations[edit]
Jörmungandr. Sources[edit] The major sources for myths about Jörmungandr are the Prose Edda, the skaldic poem Húsdrápa, and the Eddic poems Hymiskviða and Völuspá. Less important sources include kennings in other skaldic poems. For example in Þórsdrápa, faðir lögseims, "father of the sea-thread", is used as a kenning for Loki. There are also image stones from ancient times depicting the story of Thor fishing for Jörmungandr. Stories[edit] There are three preserved myths detailing Thor's encounters with Jörmungandr: Lifting the cat[edit] Thor goes fishing for the Midgard Serpent in this picture from an 18th-century Icelandic manuscript. In one, Thor encounters the serpent in the form of a colossal cat, disguised by the magic of the giant king Útgarða-Loki, who challenges the god to lift the cat as a test of strength.
Thor's fishing trip[edit] Another encounter comes when Thor goes fishing with the giant Hymir. The final battle[edit] See also[edit] Notes[edit] References[edit] Æsir–Vanir War. Óðinn throws his spear at the Vanir host, illustration by Lorenz Frølich (1895) In Norse mythology, the Æsir–Vanir War was a conflict between the Æsir and the Vanir, two groups of gods, that ultimately resulted in the unification of the two groups into a single group of gods. The war is an important event in Norse mythology, and the implications of the war and the potential historicity surrounding the accounts of the war are a matter of scholarly debate and discourse.
Fragmented information about the war appears in surviving sources, including Völuspá, a poem collected in the Poetic Edda in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources; in the book Skáldskaparmál in the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson; and in euhemerized form in the Ynglinga saga from Heimskringla, also written by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century. Attestations[edit] The following attestations provide information about the war: Poetic Edda[edit] Prose Edda[edit] Heimskringla[edit] Other[edit] Völva. A vǫlva or völva (Old Norse and Icelandic respectively (the same word, except that the second letter evolved from ǫ to ö); plural vǫlvur (O.N.), völvur (Icel.), sometimes anglicized vala; also spákona or spækona) is a shamanic seeress in Norse paganism, and a recurring motif in Norse mythology. The seeress speaks her prophecy in this illustration to a 19th-century Swedish translation of the Poetic Edda.
Names and etymology[edit] The völur were referred to by many names. The Old Norse word vǫlva means "wand carrier" or "carrier of a magic staff",[1] and it continues Proto-Germanic *walwōn, which is derived from a word for "wand" (Old Norse vǫlr).[2] Vala, on the other hand, is a literary form based on Völva.[2] A practitioner of seiðr is a seiðkona (female) or a seiðmaðr (male). Overview[edit] Early accounts[edit] The migrations of the Teutons and the Cimbri. Cimbri and Teutons defeats. Cimbri and Teutons victories. Jordanes relates in his Getica (XXIV:121) of Gothic Völvas called Aliorumnas. Deva (Hinduism)
Deva (देव in Devanagari script) is the Sanskrit word for deity, its related feminine term is devi. In modern Hinduism, it can be loosely interpreted as any benevolent supernatural being. The devas in Hinduism, also called Suras, are often juxtaposed to the Asuras, their half brothers.[1] Devas are also the maintainers of the realms as ordained by the Trimurti.
They are often warring with their equally powerful counterparts, the Asuras. The Sanskrit deva- derives from Indo-Iranian *dev- which in turn descends from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) word, *deiwos, originally an adjective meaning "celestial" or "shining", which is a PIE (not synchronic Sanskrit) vrddhi derivative from the root *diw meaning "to shine", especially as the day-lit sky. The feminine form of PIE *deiwos is PIE *deiwih2, which descends into Indic languages as devi, in that context meaning "female deity". There is also Diwali the "festival of lights". In Sanskrit: Asura. Accounts[edit] In early Vedic texts, both suras and asuras were deities who constantly competed with each other, some bearing both designations at the same time. In late-Vedic and post-Vedic literature the Vedic asuras became lesser beings while in the Avesta, the Persian counterpart of the Vedas, the devas began to be considered lesser beings.
Later, in the Puranas, Kashyapa is portrayed as the father of both, devas and asuras. In the Puranas, Kashyapa is said to have married 13 daughters of Prajapati and fathered all beings on earth including devas, asuras, manavas and the entire animal world.[1] Symbolism[edit] Alain Daniélou says: It is significant that it was not for their sins that the anti-gods had to be destroyed but because of their power, their virtue, their knowledge, which threatened that of the gods—that is, the gods of the Aryas. Alain Daniélou explains the nature of social division between the devas and asuras; and the subsequent assimilation thus: Characteristics[edit] P.L.