The first category is Odin, the Lord of gods, and his family members. The Lord God Odin, like Zeus in Greek mythology, is the god of gods and the omnipotent father. In fact, he is the ruler of the world, respectable and awesome. He is an old man with a wrinkled face and a long silver beard, but he is not kind-hearted, but cunning and insidious, because he looks cruel with one eye. He is wearing a big golden helmet, wrapped in gold and chain mail, holding a spear and a changing Delaunay gold ring. The temple where he lives is called Varhala Palace, which is the temple of the soul. The hall is very magnificent, with walls erected with spears and a shield on the roof. There are five hundred and forty doors in the main hall, in front of which is tied his eight-legged steed, Slipner. On weekdays, he sits in a golden high-backed chair symbolizing power in the main hall, and two wolves, Gray (greed) and Frick (lust), crouch at his feet to guard and defend his safety. There are two crows on his shoulders, named Hoon (thought) and Muning (memory). Every morning, Odin sent two ravens to scout around the world, and they flew back to report to him, so that he knew his position like the back of his hand. The Lord God Odin knows that force is a necessary means to maintain rule, so he has a group of Valkyrie fairies composed of young girls. Some of these fairies are gods, some are demigods, and some are people who volunteer to serve God. They went to various battlefields in groups of nine, wearing armor and helmets and holding swords. According to Odin's orders, they decided the outcome of the war and led brave soldiers to the temple of the soul to have a feast with Odin. The fairies galloped in the sky on horseback, and the shining armor made up the Northern Lights. The fairies also led many female soldiers. They are shield fairies and swan fairies. (Note: The legend of the swan fairy has been circulating in Germanic areas for a long time, and the Russian ballet Swan Lake was adapted accordingly. )。 The Lord God Odin lost an eye in order to gain wisdom and consolidate his dominant position. Odin was hung upside down by a giant on a tree for nine days. kuya stole the mystery of ancient Chinese characters and was stabbed by a spear. He was blackmailed by Mimir, the god of wisdom, to drink the water from the holy spring of wisdom. He finally drank the water of wisdom at the cost of gouging out an eye, but that was different from Prometheus stealing skyfire from the world in Greek mythology. However, even if Odin is as powerful and deformed, he can't stop the coming of the end and his own destruction.
The second kind of god is represented by Raytheon, usually a free man or a craftsman. But in order to show his prominent position, fairy tales say that he is the eldest son of Odin, the Lord God, and the illegitimate son of Odin and Ivor, the female giant. However, the relationship between their father and son does not seem to be very intimate and harmonious. Odin seems to be wary and mocking Raytheon everywhere, because Raytheon has made great contributions and high prestige, which inevitably makes Odin secretly wary. Thor is a burly man with great arm strength. He has leopard eyes and a red beard. Dressed simply, only a blouse. He wears a magic belt around his waist, which can double his strength. He wears iron gloves and holds the magic hammer of M 'Neill. With a wave of his hand, the flexible magic hammer flew out of the air and smashed the enemy's skull. This magic hammer is thunder. No matter how far it flies, it can always return to Raytheon's hands by itself. Thor often goes out in a chariot pulled by two rams. Along the way, he slaughtered sheep to satisfy his hunger. All he has to do is wrap the sheep's bones tightly with sheepskin. The next morning, he knocked on the sheepskin with a magic hammer, and the two rams came back to life to continue pulling the cart. Thor is also the god of war who defends the territory. He is loyal to his duties, often fighting against the attacks of oriental frost trolls and pythons and defending the homes of the gods. He is outspoken and dares to refute Odin; Grumpy, kind and heroic, decent life, lofty thoughts. Therefore, in the later period of Nordic polytheism, his prestige surpassed Odin, and he became the most respected and worshipped god, and was most admired by vikings, immigrants and craftsmen.
The representative of the third kind of god is Frey, the god of abundance, who is in charge of harvest and reproduction as well as love. He is charming, smiling and luxuriously dressed. He has a magic sword that can fly around and kill enemies at will; There is also a foldable Skibrad Neil treasure ship, which can carry all the gods and their weapons when necessary; His mount is a flying boar with a golden mane. Frey's twin sister Freya, beautiful and dissolute, is the god of reproduction. She is not only responsible for reproduction, but also for matchmaking, and secretly has an affair with the Lord God Odin. In peacetime, love and fertility, sowing and harvesting, prosperity and prosperity are people's wishes, so Frey is a very popular god, and worshipping him is often associated with the totem of worshipping the sun and reproduction. Because he was too popular and ambitious, he coveted the throne of Odin, the Lord God, and was punished by Odin. In Norse mythology, besides these three gods who enjoy sacrifices, there are also some famous gods: Loki, the fire god, the son of giant Farbetti and Odin's foster mother Laufey, and Odin's sworn brother. He is handsome, but he has a bad temper. He has done good things and many bad things. He helped Odin to create the world and human beings, and helped Odin and others get the magic weapon to join hands with Raytheon against the frost troll. However, he was rebellious and refused to obey Odin's rule. He secretly cut off Thor's wife Sifu's long blond hair as a prank, and kidnapped Eton, the goddess of longevity who was in charge of keeping the golden apple of immortality. In order to show the evil spirits that the gods forbade him to attend the banquet, he broke into the hall to humiliate Odin, the Lord God, and exposed the lewdness and debauchery of the gods. He forged a hatred with the gods and encouraged hoddle, the god of darkness, to shoot god of light Bader. He was unfaithful to Angiboust and gave birth to a large group of monsters, such as the giant wolf Finlini and the Midgard python. The end came, these monsters went out together, and Odin, the Lord God, finally failed to escape the bad luck of being bitten to death. Tyr, the god of war, is also the guardian of the oath. He is the son of the giant himl. At that time, the guarantor of the contract was an important role. Keeping promises and fulfilling contracts is considered to be the greatest virtue, while breaking promises is the greatest shame. Tyre set an example and played an exemplary role. When the gods trapped the wolf in Finlini, the wolf asked Tyr, the guarantor of the contract, to put his right hand in his mouth. Knowing that the gods were cheating, Tyr put his right hand into the wolf's mouth and lost one.
There is also Heimdahl, the protector of the gods, also known as Rigg, who is full of gold teeth; He has keen and far-reaching vision, and can see anywhere, and he can see places 300 nautical miles away day and night. He listened in all directions, and when he fell to the ground, he could hear the hiss of grass growing. He stayed up all night, guarding the entrance to heaven-Befrost Rainbow Bridge. He hung a big horn over his shoulder. In case of sneak attack or emergency, he will blow the horn, which will blow the sky and summon the gods to come.
There are also many goddesses in the mythology of Nordic polytheism. Their status is not as prominent as that of male gods, and they are often the spouses of male gods, which probably reflects the disintegration of matriarchal society and the establishment of monogamy in the later period of clan society. Frigga, the god of love, is the wife of Odin who is in charge of marriage and family. She has a dignified appearance, long blond hair with white feathers, a white robe and a golden belt around her waist. Skade, the mountain god, is the daughter of Tjatse, the giant Jinbei. After her father was killed by Raytheon, she demanded compensation from the Lord God Odin. Odin had no choice but to let her choose a husband among the gods. She took a fancy to Bud, the beautiful young god of light, but Odin played a trick or two to marry her to Neeld, the ugly old sea god. Sifu, the goddess of the land, is Thor's wife. Her long blond hair was accidentally burned, causing an uproar. Eton, the goddess of longevity, is the wife of the poet Blaquis. She is responsible for keeping the golden apples that live forever, but she is weak in nature and was coaxed away, which caused great panic among the gods, because they can't leave the golden apples for a moment if they want to stay young forever. However, the most unknowable ones who are in charge of life and death and seize power are the three goddesses of fate. They are wearing thick veils, and no one can recognize their true faces.
Nordic mythology not only makes believers pious with mysterious truths and stories of gods, but also has many gods who can perform their duties and act as the patron saint of a certain aspect. At that time, there were too many risks and unknowable doom in people's lives. They always hope to have a god to protect themselves, make them feel safe and pray for help at any time, especially when fishing or robbing at sea. Polytheism meets this requirement of believers, so the names of Nordic gods have been preserved, just like the names of the days of the week in English: Tuesday is Tyre Day, Wednesday is Odin Day, Thursday is Thor Day, and Friday is Frey Harvest Day. There are many gods in Nordic mythology, so there must be genealogy and all kinds of anecdotes. Iceland's poem "Eda" lists the genealogy of God very clearly. Eda, an Icelandic poetic style, describes the earliest appearance of giants, and the giant Imil is the ancestor, whose flesh and blood were used to create the world. His son Bree and grandson Bohr have bred many frost trolls. This ethnic group lives in the remote Jotunheim, in other words, they are probably primitive savages living in the frozen wasteland. They are not only closely related to God (the three brothers Odin, the Lord God, are all sons of giants, and Skade, the female giant, married Neeld, the sea god, etc. ), but also the biggest enemy in the eyes of God. In order to compete for the survival site, the gods and giants fought hard and drove them farther and farther.
The Icelandic poem Eda divides gods into four gods. The first two (asir tribe and Vanier tribe) are real gods, but they belong to different tribes. The latter two (elves and dwarves) belong to demigod, demigod or non-god races, which were created in Germanic areas and have been circulating for a long time. The asir tribe headed by Odin, the Lord God, is probably the orthodoxy of God, with an epoch-making glorious past and a glorious career of expanding territory. Later, they lived in Asgard, God's paradise. However, family feuds and contradictions emerge one after another, even the Lord God Odin and his wife Frigga are constantly quarreling. Odin was partial to the people he protected and did not hesitate to take the victory of the war as a gift. Frigga stole Odin's gold to buy a valuable necklace. Odin was so angry that he left for seven months. The frost giant immediately took advantage of it, and the cold winter killed all the vitality. It was not until Odin returned to Asgard that the crisis passed. Between the handsome and clever god of light Budd and the ugly and blind twin brother hoddle, Otis prefers Budd and hates hoddle, thus sowing the seeds of jealousy and hatred. Hoddle finally shot Bud at the instigation of Vulcan Loki. In fact, the tribes in asir are not carefree, but constantly suffering from internal and external troubles, including the rebellion of Vulcan Loki, the harassment of beasts such as wolves and pythons, and the invasion of frost trolls. In addition, they also face a severe challenge, that is, the rise of emerging tribes. Another god described by Heydari in Icelandic poetic style is Vanier tribe, which may be a tribe that migrated late. They built their own castle near the asir tribe and named it Wanahem (the location of Vanier tribe). The main god of Vanier tribe is Neeld, the sea god. There is a saying that Neo is Nartos, the goddess of the earth worshipped by Germans. His twin children Frey and Freya are in charge of reproduction and love, death and regeneration, sowing and harvesting, grazing and raising livestock, and other matters related to people's vital interests. In a word, although the Wanier tribe is a latecomer, its management and care are quite effective, and its population is prosperous and rich. Moreover, they seem to get along well with the giants, and even have an in-laws alliance: Niyold married the giant Skade, and Frey married the giant's daughter Gade. There was friction and conflict between the two tribes until the war broke out. After putting down the rebellion of Vulcan Loki, the asir tribe immediately managed to trap and burn Loki's mistress, Egibda (Gulvig), a female giant who acted as a spy. At this time, she was the mother-in-law of the God of Wealth Frey, and the Vanier tribe attacked the asir tribe under the pretext of blood feud between relatives. Decheng village in Asgar is broken, but asir tribe is still strong after all. Although the city wall was broken, it resisted the attack and won some victories. Both tribes are exhausted and it is difficult to completely defeat each other, so they have to negotiate and make peace. The asir tribe sent two gods, Mimel, a low-ranking god of wisdom, as hostages to Wanahem. The second-ranked Vannier tribe was taken to Asgard as a hostage by the main god Niod. Later, the Vannier tribe killed Mimi because she was too arrogant, and returned his head to the helpless Odin. Frey was very popular among asir tribes, so he coveted Odin's throne, but Odin found him and took preventive measures.
The two gods in Norse mythology, elves and dwarves, seem to be later created gods with vague identities. There is a saying that elves and dwarves are the same dwarf god. It is said that they are condensed from the souls of ancestors and bring happiness to future generations. They are often humorous and naughty, but they are willing to help in an emergency. They usually live in the deep underground, mining and smelting, forging all kinds of weapons and jewels, which seems to be an indispensable portrayal of miners and craftsmen in the later life of clan society. They can participate in God's sacrificial activities, such as feasting, but their status is far lower than that of God, so when Alves the dwarf wants to marry Thor's daughter, Thor can't help but fly into a rage. Before killing his adoptive father Regin, Sigurd, a strong dragon slayer, once said contemptuously that he was just a dwarf while the iron was hot. After the defeat, Wallund, the dwarf monarch, was broken in the leg and imprisoned on a desert island to make jewelry for the king, leading a miserable life. They are craftsmen who are subordinate to and serve God. Usually, Thor seems to be in charge of them, but when the end comes, they will go to disaster and destruction with the gods.