The Norse God Family Tree

June 20, 2015 at 4:30 pm

I realize this is a weird way to lay out a family tree. In my defense, it’s a weird
family. And also a very inconsistent family – a lot of these relations are vaguely
defined at best, and in some cases different sources directly contradict each other.
The most comprehensive primary source, written by Snorri Sturluson, is the least
reliable by far, because it’s partly true but badly cited, and partly made up, and
we can’t be really sure which is which. But since the choice was use Snorri or
leave half of these descriptions blank, I went with Snorri.

Now, onto the individual descriptions of all those gods up there.

No, wait, first, some classifications (or as close to classifications as medieval

Norsemen got)”

Aesir: the gods.

Vanir: also the gods, but from a different tribe.
Jotnar (singular Jotünn): usually translated as “giants” but probably closer to
“devourers.” If the Aesir represent order and civilization, the Jotnar are
primordial chaos and destruction.

NOW onto the individual descriptions of all those gods up there.

Ymir
Jotünn
According to Norse myth, Ymir was the first being to form within the primeval
chaos that preceded everything. Well, him and a cow (see Auðumbla). It seems
like everyone descended form him, to the extent that we can be sure that anyone
descended from anyone. Pre-Christian European societies weren’t big on
organizing/rationalizing their pantheons. At some point, Odin and his brothers
killed Ymir and made the cosmos out of his corpse.
 Fárbauti
Jotünn
Here’s the first of many deities about whom we know basically nothing. In this
case, we know that his name means something like “dangerous striker,” he’s
married to Laufey, and together they produced Loki. Based only on that, I’m
guessing he was a jerk.

Laufey
Jotünn
I could find even less on Laufey. She’s only mentioned in relation to her son
Loki, and even that’s not always clear. Seriously, at one point Loki’s referred to
as “son of Fárbauti and Laufey or Nál.”

Aegir and Rán

Jotünn
Aegir and Ran were sea giants who live beneath the ocean with their nine
daughters. Aegir’s in charge of friendly, bountiful seas, and Rán is in charge of
seas that drown sailors. Sometimes they throw parties for other gods.

Himinglaeva, Dúfa, Blódughadda, Hefring, Uðr,

Hrönn, Bylgja, Dröfn, and Kólga
These are all sort of spirits of the waves, or specific aspects of the ocean – shine,
transparency, etc. I’m thinking maybe it’s the seafaring viking god version of
how distant northern tribesmen have, what, fifty words for “snow?” Although
I’ve also been told that’s a racist myth, so who knows.

Angrboða
Jotünn
Not much to her other than her name means something like “grief-bringer” and
she and Loki made some horrible monster babies.

Loki
Jotünn? It’s really not clear.
Finally, someone we do know something about. When I started researching for
this, I assumed Loki was some machiavellian schemer, or at least a clever
jokester. But he’s not. He’s just an asshole. Basically every story about him has
him being a huge jerk for no reason, getting in trouble, and then (maybe) fixing
things.
He steals, complains, kidnaps, kills, and at one point shaves Sif’s head. There’s
one skaldic poem that is literally just pages of Loki barging into a feast and
insulting everyone. I don’t know who cast Tom Hiddleston in the part, but
knowing what I know now I might have gone with Danny Devito.
Eventually Loki managed to piss everyone off enough that they chained him up
in a cave where venom drips onto his face forever. His wife Sygin (not pictured)
was loyal enough to stay with him, and block what venom she could with a bowl.
Wikipedia says her name is old norse for “Victorious Girl-friend,” which could
be literal, in that Loki put a ring on it, or it could be ironic, in that she wound up
tending to him in prison for the rest of eternity. But my money’s on neither,
because when you’re translating things across a thousand years of languages and
cultures, meanings get kind of screwy.

A Horse
The story here is that someone had agreed to build a fortified settlement for the
gods in exchange for Freyja, the sun, and the moon. The gods set an unrealistic
deadline in the hopes that the builder would fail and the work would free, but
Loki convinced them to allow the builder to use his horse. Except it turns out the
horse (named Svaðilfari) is a super-horse, so the work goes super-quickly and the
gods get super-mad. They order Loki to fix the problem, which he apparently
took to mean “have sex with a horse.”

Heimdall
Aesir
Heimdall is the god’s watchman. He stands at the end of a fabulous rainbow
bridge, ever watchful in case of Ragnarok (read: the apocalypse). When
Ragnarok comes knocking, Heimdall’s job is to blow real hard on his horn so
everyone knows. I don’t know what the horn was supposed to look like,
but this is my favorite illustration of it.
Fenrir
Wolf
Fenrir is a giant fearsome horrible big bad wolf who spends most of his time
eating things he shouldn’t. Or he did – the gods eventually managed to trick him
into being chained up forever by playing a “game” where they bet him he
couldn’t break out of a bunch of chains. I know these are big important myths
that had deep significance to a lot of people, but I swear, sometimes I feel like
I’m reading about a bunch of third-graders. Anyway. On the third try, they used
special unbreakable chains, but Fenrir got suspicious and demanded that
someone put their hand in his mouth as collateral. And that’s how Tyr lost his
hand.
During Ragnarok, Fenrir breaks free, eats a good portion of the world, and kills
Odin.

Jormungandr
Snake
Jormungandr is pretty much the coolest explanation for the edge of the world that
I’ve ever heard. None of this “and the water falls off into nothing forever” stuff –
the Norse world is bound on all sides by a giant snake monster. Thor spends
some time fishing for him, and actually manages to snag him at one point, but a
nearby giant cuts the line for fear that Thor was triggering Ragnarok.

Hel
Jotünn, I think.
Hel rules helheim, aka niflheim, aka the norse underworld. She’s portrayed as
looking half-dead, with blueish skin. Creepy corpse lady? Brooding goth? I’ve
never heard anyone say vikings *didn’t* wear pounds of eyeliner. But regardless
of appearances, from what I’ve read, Hel actually seems like a pretty cool lady.
Her realm is apparently nice enough, and she provides the dead with food and
lodging. A couple times she even offered to return folks to life, although there
were strings attached and to my knowledge no one actually made it.

Sleipnir
Loki’s eight-legged son/Odin’s eight-legged steed.

Auðumbla
So, it’s not strictly true that Ymir was the first being in existence. He was tied for
first with a primeval supercow named Auðumbla. The first thing Ymir did was
drink Auðumbla’s milk (straight from the source, if you believe the paintings)
and the first thing Auðumbla did was to lick a block of salt.

Tyr
Aesir
Tyr is an interesting one. He’s referenced enough in stories, sayings, and place
names that he was probably a really big deal at some point, maybe even the
leader of the gods, but by the time things started getting written down he’d fallen
out of favor. The best explanation I could find is that as the culture and
circumstances of the people worshipping changed, the gods they chose to
worship did too. Tyr out, Odin in.
But I should actually describe the guy, shouldn’t I? Tyr is a god of law, justice,
and oaths. Odin is, too, but where Odin’s all about will and inspiration and
knowledge and generally being a canny old bastard, Tyr is more about law and
responsibility and caring for those under your power.
 Mimir
Aesir
Mimir is a god of wisdom and knowledge and is mostly important for two
reasons. First, Odin sacrificed an eye at the well of Mimir in exchange for inner
wisdom. Second, at the end of the Aesir-Vanir War, he was sent with Hoenir to
live with the Vanir as a hostage and wound up beheaded. But it was ok, because
Odin embalmed his head with magic herbs and now it keeps him company and
gives advice.

Bestla
Jotünn?
Mother of Odin, Vili, and Vé. And that’s about it.

Borr
Jotünn?
There’s even less info out there on Borr. Basically the only time he, Bestla, or
Búri come up is in lists of Odin’s ancestors.

Búri
Jotünn?
Well. There is one other cool thing about Búri. Remember that salt block
Auðumbla was licking? Búri was inside. I’m not sure if that makes the cow his
mother, but I figure it’s close enough to connect them in the family tree.

Fjorgynn
Aesir
Fjorgynn is Frig’s dad. I wish I could say more.

Vili and Vé
Aesir (I think)
Here are two more we know very, very little about. Their positions as Odin’s
brothers and long historical footprint seem to indicate that they were pretty big
deals at some point, but there aren’t many primary sources around that even
mention them at this point. We do know that Odin, Vili, and Vé are sort of about
inspiration, conscious intention, and the sacred, respectively. And we also kind of
know that they all got together to beat up Ymir back in the beginning of
everything, although that might also be an invention of Snorri Sturluson’s.

Hoenir
Aesir
Hoenir is either a frightening war-leader or a complete doofus, depending on
which accounts you read. The most famous one involves him and Mimir being
traded to the Vanir as hostages following the Aesir-Vanir war. The Vanir look at
Hoenir, figure “this guy seems like a leader” and start asking him to make
decisions for them. Unfortunately for everyone involved, it turns out that while
Hoenir has the body, Mimir has the brains, and when Mimir isn’t around to
advise him Hoenir refuses to make any decisions. So the Vanir behead Mimir.
Poor guy can’t catch a break.

Frigg
Aesir
Frigg is a sort of mother spirit, as well as a famously adept practitioner of seidr,
which is a traditional Norse form of divination involving weaving thread. Frigg is
very similar to Freya – in fact, people have made the case that they were actually
the same goddess in previous traditions, who was in the process of being
separated into two when Christianity came along and replaced the whole
shebang. If they’re right, then Frigg and Freya are sort of goddesses being born.

Odin
Aesir
Odin kind of blows my mind. Like, he’s definitely the leader of the pantheon,
which would lead me to expect that he’d be big or strong or serious or
respectable or, you know, leadery. Maybe not a god of war, but at least in the
same ballpark. But he’s not – or at least not the way you might expect. Odin is
sometimes associated with war, but more often wisdom, wit, learning, and magic.
Most of the stories about him have him wandering off alone and doing things like
trading his eye for wisdom, or hanging himself as a sacrifice to himself, which
sounds like some post-modern take on godhood, but then, a lot of Odin sounds
like some post-modern take on godhood. Speaking of which, if you’re looking
for a post-modern take on godhood featuring Odin as a main character, you might
try American Gods by Neil Gaimon. I read it last year and loved it.

Jörd
Earth
Jörd is a personification of the earth. It seems like she’s used interchangeably
with the more general concept of earth. I’m not sure what that means for her
relationship with Odin, but it produced Thor, so who am I to judge?

Nanna
Aesir
Goddess of joy itself. She eventually died of grief over her dead husband, Baldr.
Or, in another version of the story, didn’t die and never married him in the first
place because she liked Hoðr more.

Baldr
Aesir
Poor, poor Baldr. I’ve heard him referred to as Norse Jesus, but only because he
died. If you’re at a party at somehow get on the subject of Norse myths, but it’s
not the kind of party where you can talk about Loki and A Horse, I’d go with this
one instead.
Baldr was the totally beautiful god of radiance and love and light and everyone
just loved the dude. And everything was pretty great until one night his mother,
Frigg, had a dream predicting his death. So she went to every single thing in
existence and demanded that it not harm Baldr, and every single thing in
existence promised not to harm Baldr. Except for mistletoe, because it’s small
and harmless and Frigg didn’t think to ask it. Perhaps you can see where this is
going.
One day the gods are playing their new favorite game, throw-stuff-at-Baldr-and-
watch-it-not-hurt-him, except for Hoðr, who is blind, and Loki, who is a jerk.
Loki offers to help Hoðr shoot an arrow at Baldr, and even provides the
(mistletoe) arrow. And that’s how Baldr died, Hoðr was revenge-killed, and Loki
finally did something bad enough to be chained up forever.

Hoðr
Aesir
The blind god I just mentioned who got tricked into killing his brother Baldr. Or,
in another telling, the winner in a competition with Baldr for Nanna’s love. Or, in
my roommate’s telling, “We literally just watched Game of Thrones, Korwin.
Hodor doesn’t have a beard.”

Bragi
Aesir
Bragi is the god of poetry, and I think he’s the most metal member of the Norse
pantheon. He’s so poetic that he has runes on his tongue.

Iðunn
Aesir
Iðunn takes care of the fruits that the gods eat to maintain their immortality. But
that’s not what I want to talk about. Instead, here is my favorite Iðunn story:
Odin, Loki, and Hoenir encountered a giant named Thjazi and agreed to share a
meal. Loki, who is a jerk, got into a fight with Thjazi (something about who got
the choicest cuts of meat). Thjazi turned into an eagle, snagged Loki in his talons,
flew up high, and threatened him until Loki agreed to bring him Iðunn and her
fruits. Later, when everyone got back home, Loki tricked Iðunn into wandering
into the woods where Thjazi waited to kidnap her.
When the other gods realized what he’d done, they seized Loki and threatened
him with all kinds of horrible things unless he brought Iðunn back. So he turned
into a hawk, flew to Thjazi’s house, turned Iðunn into a nut, and carried her back,
with eagle-Thjazi chasing close behind. The other gods saw them coming and
prepared kindling, lighting it just after Loki flew past and just in time to burn
eagle-Thjazi to a crisp.
So, in summary, Loki kidnapped a goddess to save his own skin, and then
returned that goddess to save his own skin, and in the end someone who wasn’t
Loki died.

Forseti
Aesir
He seems to be a god of law, justice, and government, but there’s so little written
down about him that that’s basically all we know.

Sif
Aesir
Sif had totally bodacious golden hair and loved it, but then Loki cut it all off
while she was sleeping. Did I mention he’s a jerk? Loki’s a jerk. Anyway, Thor
god mad, and went to kill Loki, but Loki got him to spare his life on the
condition that he find Sif some better hair. Now Sif has a wig made of gold.

Thor
Aesir
Thor is strength personified. He’s also a god of thunderstorms, oak trees, healing
and hallowing, but mostly he’s a god of being a total badass. He is fierce and
honorable. He is not, however, very wise, and his go-to solution for when he has
a problem is to hit it until it stops moving. He has a famous hammer (Mjolnir) as
well as a slightly-less famous belt and pair of gloves.
Oh! And there’s one story where a giant steals Thor’s hammer, hides it, and says
he’ll only give it back if Freya marries him. Thor is forced to crossdress and pose
as the bride until they bring out the hammer for the wedding, whereupon he grabs
it and beats everyone involved to death.

Jarnsaxa
Jötunn
Literally nothing to say here except that she and Thor got jiggy.

Skadi
Jötunn
Goddess of mountains and wintery things like skiing. Did you know they had
skis in medieval Scandinavia? I had no idea, but after a few google searches I
feel like I’m the last person to learn this.
Anyhow, after the gods killed Thjazi (see Iðunn), his daughter Skadi showed up
demanding reparations. There a few couple parts to this, including a bit where
Loki tied one end of a rope to his balls and the other end to a live goat for a game
of tug-of-war, but the upshot of the whole thing was that Skadi got Njord as a
husband and they went off to live together. Problem was, Njord lived on a sunny
beach and Skadi lived in a cold dark place on a mountain, and neither could stand
the idea of living in the other’s place, so they split up. I don’t know if it counts as
a divorce, because I don’t know much about what viking marriages entailed in
the first place, but I’ve started calling Skadi the goddess of divorcees anyway.

Njord
Vanir
Wealthy, somber god of the sea. Apparently very wealthy, and possessed of the
most beautiful legs (seriously, that comes up.) Married and then divorced from
Skadi.

Ullr
Aesir?
I have no idea who Ullr was. He was apparently a big deal at some point, but the
mentions of him that survive today tell us basically nothing. Like, “all this stuff
was happening and also Ullr was there, you know, Ullr, that guy we all know
about.”
And that’s all we know about him. I found someone saying that there might be a
lost story of him sailing across the ocean on a shield?

Móði, Þrúðr, Magni

Aesir?
Their names apparently mean “Angry,” “Strength,” and “Strong,” so I drew them
as bodybuilders.

Gerðr
Jötunn?
All I know about Gerðr is that Freyr thought she was really, really hot. So hot
that he traded a sword that fought on its own for her hand in marriage.

Freyr
Vanir
Freyr was a god of fertility, harvests, wealth, and peace. Apparently he was
depicted with a golden board, a collapsable ship, and/or a raging erection. While
I was reading about him, I found some descriptions of priests and priestesses of
Freyr, who would ride chariots with statues of him from town to town starting
giant parties everywhere they went, like some medieval effigy party bus.

Freya
Vanir
Beautiful goddess of love and fertility (which is anthropologist for sex). She was
also an accomplished seer and weaver, and led the valkyries. It’s possible that
she’s the same goddess as Frigg, but I already went into more detail on that in her
article so I won’t bother repeating it here.

Oðr
Vanir
Some people have theorized that Oðr might be the same as Odin, but called
something different. Some people have theorized that those two gods were
gradually being divided into two by their worshippers. I have no idea.

Whew – done! Well, mostly done. I didn’t include everyone, and if you think
some of these descriptions are scant, you should see some of the ones I didn’t
include. Example: Loki’s two brothers, Byleistr and Helblindi, who are
mentioned like twice as being Loki’s brothers, and that’s it. Who were they?
What did they represent? Were they important? Were they even relevant? Were
they just the product of some poor preliterate soul’s failed attempt to remember
the song of his people? I doubt it. But it’s possible, right?

I have no idea what I’ll do next. Maybe some women’s history – I just learned
about Nancy Wake and now she’s pretty much my hero.

~Korwin