CHAPTER SIXTEEN ( 1 )

THE OLD NORSE GODS

Jens Peter Schjødt

O

ur knowledge of the Old Norse gods stems mostly from medieval sources. The
sources from pre-Christian times (skaldic poems, runic inscriptions etc.) only give
us some names and hints of certain myths which would be almost impossible to
reconstruct as narrative units if we could not take into consideration the Poetic Edda and
Snorri’s Edda and other medieval sources. This situation, of course, suggests that what
we have is only ‘the tips of the narrative icebergs’ (Clunies Ross 1994 : 25 ). For instance
it is remarkable that only three gods have more than one known myth attached to
them (Óðinn, Þórr and Loki), a situation which is not likely to be representative for the
pre-Christian situation. Nevertheless, what we face in the extant source material gives
us an idea of what the world-view was like among the pagan Norsemen.
It is not possible in the limited space available here to go into detailed discussions of
the historical development of the individual gods. There is no doubt that many different
influences can be traced in not only the source material of post-pagan times but also in
the pagan religion of the Viking Age itself. There are no doubt traces of Indo-European
mythical structures, of ideas originally belonging to the Sámis, and of Christian notions.
The picture presented in the following is thus the basic characteristics which we may
ascribe to the last period of the pagan religion, that is, the Viking Age, being well aware
that we will never know exactly which information in the sources is a pagan view and
what is due to Christian influence by the medieval authors.
The god we know most about is no doubt Óðinn. He is an old god, but many scholars
believe that his outstanding position in the Viking pantheon is due to a late develop-
ment, although this cannot be proved in any way. There is no doubt that he was
especially worshipped by certain social groups: kings, chieftains and warriors. Mytho-
logically he was himself the king among the gods, and as is reported by Adam of
Bremen in his Gesta he was especially called upon when war was being prepared. It is
remarkable, however, that he is never portrayed as a warrior himself. When he interacts
with human beings we usually see him as an old, one-eyed man, giving advice con-
cerning warfare or presenting special gifts, such as weapons, to his favourites. Óðinn is
characterised as a great magician (the best description of Óðinn and his characteristics
is seen in Snorri’s Ynglinga saga chs 6 and 7 ), and almost all of the myths in which he is
the main character tell us either how he seeks knowledge or how he passes it on to his