THE MOTHER OF SLEIPNIR was also the father of three appalling children. Not content with his faithful wife Sigyn, Loki sometimes took off for Jotunheim; the long-legged god hurried east and spent days and nights on end with the giantess Angrboda. Loki and Angrboda had three monstrous offspring. The eldest was the wolf Fenrir; the [...]
Tag Archives: Niflheim
Myth 1 – The Creation
These tales have existed for thousands of years in the form of poems, songs and stories until put into written form in the early 11th century. Though several authors attempted to preserve them our “best” source is Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda. This is the creation story. The first of the 32+ Norse Myths. My main [...]
The Nine Worlds of Norse mythology
The Norsemen visualized the universe in three vertical levels; a tricentric structure. Between each level and its adjacent level was a space. The axis of the three levels and nine worlds was the Yggdrasill tree, a mighty ash which is timeless, has no origin and will survive Ragnarok. The first level Asgard, world of the [...]
Norse Mythology: A Brief Synopsis
According to Norse mythology, the beginning of life was fire and ice, with the existence of only two worlds: Muspelheim and Niflheim. When the warm air of Muspelheim hit the cold ice of Niflheim, the jötunn Ymir and the icy cow Audhumla were created. Ymir’s foot bred a son and a man and a woman [...]
Niflheim
Niflheim (“house of mists”) is the far northern region of icy fogs and mists, darkness and cold. It is situated on the lowest level of the universe. The realm of death, Helheim is part of the vast, cold region. Niflheim lies underneath the third root of Yggdrasil, close to the spring Hvergelmir (“roaring cauldron”). Also [...]