NORSE MYTHOLOGY PERIOD 9
ENGLISH 12
MR.CARRADIN, PATRICK
RESEARCH PAPER
Have you ever heard of people that are/were polytheistic? Well according to the Norse mythology it’s proved. In Greece man believed in number of different gods that according to them controlled different aspects of life. In the Anglo-Saxon community, the culture inclined Odin; the ruler of all the other gods, Thor; the god of thunder and Loki; the god of mischief as the most prominent gods in Norse Mythology. These Gods had distinctive qualities which made them influential.
As out of all the three gods Odin was discovered first. He was one of the very prominent gods. Odin was known to be the Creator of the human kind and the galaxy as it says “He then created the first man and woman from an ash trees and an elm tree” (“Odin”) this sentence proves that according to this myth he was the creator. This God has special powers that where rare to be found in any other gods he could disguise himself into nearly anything as it says “Odin had the power to change his appearance, and his shape shifting played a part in the myth” (“Odin”) this proved his powers and created an image of him as a shape shifter. The God of war, wisdom, magic and poetry was what he was known by the man. He was been seen by the women and men on earth as an elderly figure as it says “Odin liked to wander the earth in the form of an old man wearing a blue cloak and a wide-brimmed hat that hid his one-eyed face” (“Odin”) this explained how people noticed him and due his special powers he was the creator of all, he was very noticeable.
Noticing the god of thunder was very easy; Thor was the most popular god out of all and he was well known for his attire and the unique qualities that they had, including his most famous weapon, the hammer as it says “Thor’s treasures also included a magical belt that doubled his strength whenever he wore it” (“Thor”) and the quote about the weapon was “The thunder god’s chief weapon was his mighty hammer Mjollner” (“Thor”) this quotes perfectly explains the unique qualities of what he wore. The god of thunder was also well known because throughout from the start of the Norse mythology till the end he had a strong positive characteristic represented as it says “Thor appears throughout Norse Mythology as a huge, strongly built, red-bearded fellow with a huge appetite” (“Thor”) this basically shows how physically fit this god seemed and how charismatic he was. He also was known for his heroic deeds of fighting his foes which were the frost giants. One of the times he had faced an enormous giant (Akymie) and tried to crush him as it says “Thor tried to crush the giant’s head with Mjollnir. Akymie simply brushed away the blow as through it were no more than falling leaves” this shows how life-threatening giants he fought, this proved how brave he was an this is a distinctive quality to be of being the most prominent.
Talking about being prominent Loki the god mischief was well known to trick anyone who he desired to. He was beneficial to the gods at a point but then became annoying cause of his tricks as it says “Nevertheless, Loki helped the gods on many occasions.” (“Loki”) This shows him being helpful to the gods with his specialty of tricking the antagonists. He is one of the most well known, because if he wasn’t there, Thor (as said to be his step brother) wouldn’t have had his hammer with him back as it was been taken by the king of frost giants as it says “trickster god Loki came up with a clever plan to recover Mjollnr” (“Thor”). Although Loki helped the gods a lot and his brother, he was turning into after what the gods had done to his beloved children and despite this he was a murder and played a negative role and is caged for the