#njord

[palsklingar]

Not the ear hug!! 😭😭😭❤️

[blueheartdisaster]

Njordr illustration 🦪🌊

[jonquilclegane]

Ressources for new Norse mythology fans/pagans

Hello :)

So, as I promised to the lovely @briikwall, here's an updated version of my Norse mythology ressources :)

Enjoy and happy reading!

First of all, I must recommend Rudolf Simek’s Dictionnary of Norse mythology. He’s an expert in the domain. A lot of his works are in German, but at least, we’ve got his dictionnary. It’s a must have if you’re interested in Norse myths :)

(He has also written very interesting things about the world of LotR, if you’re into it :p )

@poeticnorth recommended me Andy Orchard’s Dictionnary of North myth and Legend, and it was fantastic and full of interesting information.

John Lindow is another great expert, and his book on Old Norse mythology is a fantastic reference too! :)

Then of course, there are the books by Neil Price.

I'll recommend two of them:

Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings

It will give you a good idea of who the Vikings truly were, as a society, and deconstructs the false ideas you might have.

The Viking Way: Religion and War in Late Iron Age Scandinavia

If you want to learn more about the different sorts of magic that existed in the Viking world: THAT IS THE BOOK for you! There's Seidr, yes, but so much more too. I learnt A LOT :D

Viking friendship, by Jon Vidar Siggurdsson

Then, there is this book on the concept of friendship in Viking society, and along with Neil Price's books, it really allows you to understand more what kind of people they were, what was important for them, and how things changed and evolved with time.

Myths and symbols in Pagan Europe, Early Scandinavian and Celtic religions, by H.R. Ellis Davidson

My lastest read, and truly interesting too, about holy places, feasting and sacrifices, the rites of battles, etc.

There are also A LOT of interesting academic papers on the subject of Norse mythology on the https://www.academia.edu/ website.

One of my favourites is the one about Loki as a Vatte and in Scandinavian fairytales. Some will tell you Loki is evvvviiilll and is a villain. Such people have not made their research and it shows. With this paper, you can see clearly that's not the case :3

Eldar Heide, Loki, the "Vätte", and the Ash Lad: A Study Combining Old Scandinavian and Late Material, Viking and Medieval Scandinavia, Vol.

The one about the Ardre images was really interesting too!!!

(THEY SHOW LOKI IN A DRESS!!!)

https://www.academia.edu/39542289/Re_Interpretations_of_Gotlandic_Picture_Stones_Based_on_the_Reflectance_Transformation_Imaging_Method_RTI_Some_Examples

And of course, you’ve got Professor Jackson Crawford’s work. He’s amazing and so very knowledgeable on the subject and is an expert in Old Norse. His translations of the Eddas, along with the Volsung saga are on amazon and on Audible, if you prefer.

He also did a lot of videos on youtube on Norse myths and the Old Norse language, etc.

There is also Professor of archeology Howard Williams on Tik Tok who is SUPER interesting and made a series on early Medieval Loki depictions in art and archeology.

If you want to know more about the Norse goddesses/Asynjur, may I recommend you @loptrcoptr 's brilliant master thesis on the subject. A must-read to get to know better all the goddesses from the Norse pantheon!

A Full(a) Roster: Re-addressing the Ásynjur in Snorra Edda and Beyond

The Ásynjur, goddesses of old Icelandic myth, do not draw much scholarly attention. When they do it is fairly dismissive, labeling many deit

And of course, if you're into paganism and want to worship Loki & Sigyn, there's Lea Svendsen's book "Loki and Sigyn: Lessons on Chaos, Laughter & Loyalty from the Norse Gods". Really interesting!!

If I find other interesting books/sources, I'll post about them on my blog :)

Happy reading!

[its-all-norse-to-me]

🎉 freedom! 🎉

Njordr and Skadi’s divorce.

@sigyn-foxyposts

[beccawise7]

Beautiful... 💜🖤

[rainbow-runes]

Thoughts on Nerthus

So I read two papers, and now I've got a weird thought to untangle.

First, John Julian Molin's MA thesis, “Ullr: A God on the Edge of Memory.” In it, he exhaustively covers theophoric place names associated with Ullr and places named for other gods nearby. He points out that there are several places named after *Njärd or *Njörð, as older feminine forms of the god Njord. That's not a huge deal. Academics have been arguing that Njord was originally a goddess, especially in Sweden, for a while now. He also points out places in Norway that use the masculine form. His purpose is to show theophoric place names that are near places named for Ullr, so its not an exhaustive survey of places named for Njord. The important part, for me, is that there is a goddess with a name analogous to Njord, worshipped in Scandinavia, and linguistics suggests she's Bronze Age-old.

Second, Lotte Motz's "The Goddess Nerthus: A New Approach." She makes several arguments (convincingly to my mind) and comes to the conclusion that Tacitus is describing the worship of the Frau Holle/Perchta/Frou Gode/etc family of goddesses, and the "Nerthus" he's describing has nothing to do with Njord, the Vanir, or fertility.

She's not actually reliably named Nerthus by Tacitus. "Nerthus, i.e., nertum, is only one of the several forms transmitted by the manuscripts: the others are necthum, neithum, herthum, Neherthum, Verthum. The variant nertum was chosen by Grimm because it corresponds to Njǫrðr."

This is a sus choice by Grimm and other academics, because Tacitus doesn't use north-Germanic names for deities anywhere else in this work. Where he uses Germanic names, there isn't a north-Germanic counterpart. For example, The Alci, Baduhenna.

Vanir gods were pretty much completely limited to Scandinavia. He's describing a goddess on the continent.

All of this leads her to: "I merely wish to state that the phonetic coincidence of a variant with the name of an Eddic god does not suffice to support an identity of the two numina. I suggest that the name of the goddess, like that of Tamfana, Baduhenna, and the Alci, cannot be equated with that of a known deity of north-Germanic religion." Absolutely fair!

Continuing on:

4. She points out that goddesses of the animate and sanctified Earth, i.e. Mother Earth figures, had worship that took a specific shape in Europe, and it looks nothing like what Tacitus is describing for Nerthus. Not only does what's described lack any of the features of a typical Mother Earth's cult, her worship has features that are very odd for a Mother Earth. For example, Mother Earth is always imagined as part of the immediate human environment, never as residing somewhere far away and secret.

5. Academics interpret this goddess as an agricultural fertility goddess, because Tacitus calls her "Terra Mater" but her worship doesn't describe a typical Mother Earth figure. So what's another interpretation of that phrase? Romans don't call their goddesses Mater. That's a title for foreign goddesses, like Cybele and the Matronae. Terra can mean Earth as in "soil," but it can also mean "nation." It's reasonable to interpret "Terra Mater" as "The Patron Goddess of This Foreign Nation."

6. Looking at continental Germanic folklore, the goddess described by Tacitus has several features in common with Frau Holle, Perchta, Frau Gode, etc. That family of goddesses has figures that a) are very important b) live in some remote, secret place in the wilds c) are invisible to men/hidden/veiled d) visit when they feel like it and concern themselves with human domestic affairs when they do e) is associated with a cart procession and f) is associated with bathing

7. The Roman author is probably conflating all the goddesses of this family of related figures into one goddess, because their worship has so much overlap. Lote Motz is not arguing that the Frau Holle, Perchta, etc figures are all one goddess.

This leaves me in a really weird place. I have to conclude that there was a Scandinavian goddess named Nerthus or *Njärd, probably associated with the Vanir, maybe married to Ullr in the Bronze Age, who maybe evolved in Njord of the Eddas towards the Viking Age. And, she's got nothing to do with the goddess described by Tacitus, because Tacitus was probably talking about Wodan's continental Germanic wives.

AND, even if all of that is true, I go to a pagan festival that has a vé for Nerthus. The people think she's one of the Vanir, the wife of Njord, and credit her with providing fertility and abundance. They also veil her statue, put her on a cow-drawn cart, and associate her with water and mysteries (i.e. give her Frou Holle's attributes). Whether it's because of bad scholarship or not, these two streams of divinity have been thoroughly (probably irrevocably) syncretized at this point. (I'm not sure how I feel about any of that, but I don't worship her, so I also don't need to have any feelings on the subject.)

Anyway, thanks for joining me on this weird journey.

[notthesomefather]

Rain like this always reminds me of Thor, Freyr, and Njord.

Thank you for this blessing of water, nourishing our plant and animal cousins. I’m grateful to live somewhere where I can safely and cozily appreciate this beauty.

[uncannybob]

Norse Mythology Family Tree