King Gylfi of Sweden compassionately awarded an old woman with as much land as four oxen could plow. She was secretly the Norse goddess Gefjon, and her four oxen dragged away enough land to create the island of Zealand. The hole left behind was Sweden's Lake Mälar. #WyrdWednesday#folklore#mythology#NorseMythology#Norse#Viking
"I know that I hung on a windy tree
Nine long nights,
Wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin,
Myself to myself,
On that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run...."
THORFINN AND THE WITCH'S CURSE (Forerunner Series Book 1)
10-yr-old Finn is a normal boy in the #Viking Kingdoms of 9th-century England. When a #Witch curse comes alive, a mishap thrusts him into a realm beyond Midgard.
In #Norse cosmology, there is no such thing as "the world".
Creation myths explain how parts of the cosmos were created (e.g., the sky is the skull of Ymir¹) and that several worlds are separated from each other. To be precise, there are nine.
Shamans can travel with the soul, but it should be physically possible too. Often, the methods described are quite strange, but fascinating:
• Walking on the rainbow
• Diving in some pools of water
• Walking in the dark
• Through memorial barrows²
• Traversing inaccessible forests and mountains
Also, gods have such powers that can break the barriers among them.
It was said, for example, that the lightning was #Thor striking Jötnar (the giants) with its hammer, and the thunder was the sound of the creature falling apart.
Our world, thus the reality we see, is called Midgard³, inhabited only by humans.
Interestingly, the other worlds don't have a specific direction (e.g. to the West) – they're just "far away".
At the center of Norse cosmology there is Yggdrasil⁴, a huge #tree (maybe an ash tree) which connects all the worlds. Its name could mean "Horse of the Terrible One" because Odin used its branches to quickly move among the worlds.
Here is a quick list:
Asgard – home of the Æsir gods
Jotunheim –home of the evil giants
Alfheim – home of the elves, (never described in any resource)
Nidavellir – where dwarves lived
Vanaheim – home of Vanir gods (never described!)
Hel – the underworld
Muspelheim – a world made of Fire
Niflheim – a world made of Ice
Midgard – our world, the only one not part of the "Otherworld"
It is extremely confusing, and in the past, people who tried to join the lines were confused, too! Here is a scheme from XIX century, which does not help at all 😅