GEIRAVÖR

GEIRAVÖR

"The voice of Thor resounds again on high,

While arm'd Valyries ride from out the sky;

The Gods of Asgard all their powers release

To rouse the dullard from his dream of peace."

H.P. Lovecraft, The Teuton's Battle-Song

"Wise thought her the valkyrie; were welcome never

men to the bright-eyed one, her who the birds' speech knew well.

Greeted the light-lashed maiden,the lily-throated woman,

The hymir's-skull-cleaver as on cliff he was perching."

Þorbjörn Hornklofi, Hrafnsmál

"Gol and Geiravör (Spear Bearer),
Randgrid and Radgrid,
And Reginleif;
These bear ale to the einherjes.

These are called valkyries. Odin sends them to all battles, where they choose those who are to be slain, and rule over the victory. Gud and Rosta, and the youngest norn, Skuld, always ride to sway the battle and choose the slain. Jord, the mother of Thor, and Rind, Vale’s mother, are numbered among the goddesses."
Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda

"They favor the most heroic fighter: those most highly qualified to join the heroes already in Valhalla. Each Valkyry identifies such a man and urges him into the thickest of the fray, sharpening his bloodlust with her savage cries and bidding him to ignore the wounds which sap his strength. At last he falls to the weapons of his opponents, and his attendant Valkyry waits by the bleeding corpse."
Michael Page & Robert Ingpen, Encyclopedia Of Things That Never Were

THOR

THOR

The mighty Woden laughs upon his throne,

And once more claims his children for his own.

The voice of Thor resounds again on high,

While arm'd Valkyries ride from out the sky

H.P. Lovecraft, The Teuton's Battle Song

"But a god must be more than well loved: he must show the attributes of godhead, and this Thor did, abundantly. By name and quality he was the thunder god, who rumbled in his goat drawn chariot across the heavens and was armed with the thunderbolt in the shape of his short-handled hammer Mjollnir. Red-bearded, massive of frame, enormously strong, he was cast in a protecting role for Asgard and the gods and by implication for 

Midgard and the race of men." 

"It was Red Thor, not Odinn, who stood out against White Christ. It was the hammer, not the spear, which warded off the cross."

Gwyn Jones, The Vikings

"Thor has two he-goats, that are called Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr, and a chariot wherein he drives, and the he-goats draw the chariot;"

He has also three things of great price: one is the hammer Mjöllnir, which the Rime-Giants and the Hill-Giants know, when it is raised on high; and that is no wonder, it has bruised many a skull among their fathers or their kinsmen. He has a second costly thing, best of all: thegirdle of might; and when he clasps it about him, then the godlike strength within him is increased by half. Yet a third thing he has, in which there is much virtue: his iron gloves; he cannot do without them when he uses his hammer-shaft. But no one is so wise that he can tell all his mighty works; yet I can tell thee so much tidings of him that the hours would be spent before all that I know were told."

"About evening, Thor took his he-goats and slaughtered them both; after that they were flayed and borne to the caldron. When the cooking was done, then Thor and his companion sat down to supper. Thor invited to meat with him the husbandman and his wife, and their children: the husbandman's son was called Thjálfi, and the daughter Röskva. Then Thor laid the goat-hides farther away from the fire, and said that the husbandman and his servants should cast the bones on the goat-hides. Thjálfi, the husbandman's son, was holding a thigh-bone of the goat, and split it with his knife and broke it for the marrow. "Thor tarried there overnight; and in the interval before day he rose up and clothed himself, took the hammer Mjöllnir, swung it up, and hallowed the goat-hides; straightway the he-goats rose up, and then one of them was lame in a hind leg."

Gylfaginning

"On his way to meet the giant, Thor spends the night with a friendly giantess, 
who lends him her magic staff."
Heather O'Donoghue, From Asgard To Valhalla: The Remarkable History Of Norse Myths

ODIN

WODEN/ODIN

"My strength is waning; dimly can I see

The helmeted Valkyries close to me. 

Ten more I slay! How strange the thought of fear, 

With Woden's mounted messengers so near!"

H.P. Lovecraft, The Teuton's Battle-Song

"These is a myth of Odin’s acquiring runes by hanging on a tree and wounded by a spear, an offering to himself. He bows his head and looks down, perhaps into the deep, and takes up the runes, falling now from the tree to the ground. How he took up runes while hanging is not clear: perhaps a magical act is intended."

"In other Eddic attributes of Odin there is a further resemblance-his skill in arts, his mastery in magic, his description as a traveller. Like Mercury he was a god or leader of the dead. Both gods were depicted with hat and staff."

"Here Odin rides, wearing a broad-brimmed hat, he appeared as an old man, one-eyed, of sombre aspect, wearing a broad-brimmed hat, and wise of speech."

"Odin’s ring, Draupnir, “Dropper,” made by the dwarf Sindri and given by his brother to Odin, was so called because eight rings of the same weight dropped from it every ninth night." 
John Arnott MacCulloch, The Mythology Of All Races

"The Scandinavian god Odin had human victims regularly offered to him, and these were put to death by being hung on a tree and stabbed with a spear. One of his titles was "God of the Hanged," or "Lord of the Gallows," and the Hamaval tells how when young, he was sacrificed to himself in the same way."
The Forest In Folklore and Mythology, Alexander Porteous 

 
"I trow I hung on that windy 
Tree nine whole days and nights, 
stabbed with a spear, offered to Odin, 
myself to mine own self given, 
high on that Tree of which none hath heard 
from what roots it rises to heaven."
Hávamál
 



 

HEINDALL

HEINDALL

"There to remain, till Heindall's horn shall sound, 

And Ragnarok enclose creation round; 

And Bifrost break beneath bold Surtur's horde, 

And Gods and men fall dead beneath the sword;"

H.P. Lovecraft, The Teuton's Battle-Song

"In the Eddic poems he is “whitest of the gods,” and, like the Vanir, he knows the future.
Heimdall is “the man mighty in arms,” and, as watchman of the gods, he has a horn, the Gjallar-horn, which meanwhile rests under the ash Yggdrasil."

Snorri combines much of this and gives further details about Heimdall. He is “the white god,” great and holy, born of nine sisters. He is also called Hallinskidi, “ram”,
and Gullintani, “Golden teeth.”

"Grimm compared Heimdall at Heaven’s bridge to the angel guarding Paradise with a sword, and his horn blown before the Doom to the
trumpet blown by the angel at the Last Day."
 John Arnott MacCulloch,  The Mythology Of All Races

"Of all the gods, Heimdall has the closest connection with an animal, namey, the ram. According to Skáldskaparmál, a form of his name, Heimdali, is a word for ram, and Heimdali and Hallinskídi turn up in the thurlur for ram."
Norse Mythology, John Lindow

SCHRIMNIR

SCHRIMNIR

"Who cares to find the heaven of the priest, 

When only warriors can with Woden feast? 

The flesh of Schrimnir, and the cup of mead, 

Are but for him who falls in martial deed"

H.P. Lovecraft, The Teuton's Battle-Song

"Valhalla is the great hall of Odin, wherein he feasts with his chosen heroes, all those who have fallen bravely in battle, for all who die a peaceful death are excluded. The flesh of the boar Schrimnir is served up to them, and is abundant for all. For although this boar is cooked every morning, he becomes whole again every night."
Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology

JÖRMUNGANDR

 JÖRMUNGANDR

"With our swords have we contended! 

Come but new to Gothland's shore

For the killing of the serpent 

We have gaine'd from Thor"

H.P. Lovecraft, Regner Lodbrog's Epicedium

"For our blood is the same the vandals are vaunting; 

We too are the stout sons of Woden and Thor;"

"So must we face the serpents that seek to destroy us, 

And with spirit as light, ev'ry fiend overwhelm!" 
H.P. Lovecraft, Ad Britannos-1918

"And Ragnarok enclose creation round; 
And Bifrost break beneath bold Surtur's horde, 
And Gods and men fall dead beneath the sword'
When sun shall die, and sea devour the land, 
And stars descend, and naught but Chaos stand.
H.P. Lovecraft, The Teuton's Battle-Song

"The wolf Fenrir, whos jaws stretch from heaven to earth, breaks his fetters' the Midgard Snake, spewing poison, rises from the sea; Naglfar, the Ship of the Dead, made of the uncut nails of dead men, breaks from her moorings down in Hel."
Gwyn Jones, The Vikings

"The sea will rear up because Jormungand, the Midgard Serpent, is twisting and writhing in fury as he makes his way toward the land. With every breath, Jormungand will stain the soil and the sky with his poison. The waves caused by the serpent's emerging will set free the ship Naglfar, and with the giant Hymir as their commander,
the giants will sail towards the battlefield."
Micha F. Lindemans, Encyclopedia Mythica

"Jormungand is not the only serpent in Norse mythology but he is much the most fearsome. He is so vast that he actually encircles Midgard; all humankind is caught within his coil as he lies on the ocean bed, biting on his own tail."
Kevin Crossley-Holland, The Norse Myths



 

 

SURTUR

SURTUR

'There to remain til Heindall's horn shall sound, 

And Ragnarok enclose creation round; 

And Bifrost break beneath Surtur's horde, 

And Gods and men fall dead beneath the sword;"

H.P. Lovecraft, The Teuton's Battle-Song

"Giant particularly associated with Ragnarok."

"After the individual gods have fallen, Surt casts fire over the earth and burns the entire world. The name Surt is used in poetry as a general name for a giant. It meant something like "black," as if he were charred"
John Lindow, Norse Mythology

"The fire giants, led by Surt, come riding out of Muspell, and as they approach Asgard the rainbow bridge Bifrost cracks under their weight."

"The sun grows dark, stars fall from the sky, the sea invades the land, Surt flings fire over all the world; heaven and earth, the whole universe are consumed, 
and Earth sinks into the sea."
Gwyn Jones, The Vikings

"That one is called Surt, who sits there at the end of the world as a guardian. He has a burning sword, and at the end of the world he will travel and harry and defeat all the gods and burn the entire world with fire."
 Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning