Lewis Stead

The Ravenbook

within it. In most of the non-Viking

countries, Odins warrior aspect was played down. In England, where

he is known as Woden, he is a gray cloaked wanderer (the inspiration

for Tolkiens Gandalf) who travels the country, usually alone,

surveying his land. Here again we see him in the position of a father

figure, a warder of the land but not necessarily a King. Odin is also

a God of the dead. Half of the slain in battles go to him to prepare

for the Ragnarok. (The remaining half go to Freya.) He also has

associations with the dead as a practitioner of Seidhr, a form of

shamanic magick which he learned from Freya and used on various

occasions to travel to Hel and seek the knowledge of those who have

passed from this world. Its difficult to classify Odin simply because

he was such a popular God during the last stages of Norse Paganism and

thus absorbed many traits of other Gods.

Thor is probably the best known of the Norse Gods. He is a simple

God, the patron of farmers and other folk who are wise, but not too

wise as the Eddas advise us to be. Thor is best known for wandering

the world in search of adventure; usually found in the form of giants

or other monsters to kill. He possesses tremendous strength and the

hammer Mjolnir, which was made for him by the Dwarfs. Mjolnir is

considered to be the Gods greatest treasure because it is sure

protection from the forces of chaos. Using Mjolnir, Thor is a warrior

figure, but he is less a professional warrior than a common man called

upon to defend his land. He loves battle not for itself as do the

berserkers of Odin, nor does he have a strong code of honor such as

that of Tyr--in fact he chronically breaks with honor and kills giants

whether they have the protection of hospitality or not. Thor is

associated with thunder, and is also the God of rain and storms, but

its important to note that he is not the God of destructive storms.

Thor is nature as a benefit to man. The Jotnar are held to be the

source of the destruction found in nature. Thor was the God of

everyman. He was simple in purpose, strong, and free. He was most

beloved of the freemen farmers who populated the Germanic lands.

Frey is a God of peace and fertility. If Thor is the God of the

farmer, then Frey is the God of the crops themselves. He is a God of

the Vanir, but lives with the Aesir to secure their treaty with the

Vanir. His symbol is the priapus and his blessings were sought at

planting and other important agricultural festivals. The word frey

means Lord and its unsure if this is the Gods name or his title. He

is also known as Ing or Ingvi, so some have speculated his title is

properly Frey Ingvi--Lord Ingvi. We do not known a great deal more

about Frey as few myths have survived which give us any insight into

his character. As much as he is a God of fertility, he is also a God

of peace and Ing was said to have brought a Golden Age of peace and

prosperity to old Denmark. Horses are held to be sacred to Frey,

probably because of fertility connections.

Goddesses

In general we know much less about how our ancestors worshipped the

Goddesses than the Gods. Later Norse culture was very bound up with

the vikings and it is likely that the Goddesses were deemphasized at

this point. More importantly, virtually all the mythology we have

today was recorded during the Christian period and Christian culture

had little respect for women, least of all independent and strong

women like those of Nordic society.

Freya is the most important of the Goddesses or at least that Goddess

about which we known the most. She is the sister of Frey and along

with him was sent to live with the Aesir in order to seal a peace

agreement. Freya is a Goddess with two distinct sides to her. First,

she is the Goddess of love and beauty and second a Goddess of war who

shares the battle-slain with Odin. Unlike our modern culture, the

ancients saw no contradiction in this. She was also a sorceress who

practiced the shamanic magick known as Seidhr, which she taught to

Odin. Freya is the Goddess most often invoked by independent women.

While she is a Goddess of beauty, she is not dependent on men as is

the stereotype of so many love Goddesses, but is strong and fiercely