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Odin

Viking rituals. Source:  Rarity Asset Club / Adobe Stock.

Unusual Viking Rituals That Will Surprise You (Video)

Vikings , renowned as fierce warriors, possessed an intriguing blend of superstition and battle strategy. Their rituals , spanning from omens to magic, marked their distinct beliefs. Warriors etched...
A gold piece from the Vindelev hoard. Source: Oleryhlolsson / CC by SA 4.0.

The Ancient Golden Treasure Rewriting Danish History (Video)

A remarkable chance discovery in the Danish village of Vindelev is revolutionizing our understanding of early Norse history. Two old school friends, armed only with a metal detector, stumbled across...
The funeral rites of a mummy on the Nile, by Frederic Arthur Bridgman (1876–77). Speed Art Museum, Louisville (Public Domain)

The Dead Below Deck: Funerary Boat Customs

Archaeologists discovered a 5,000-year-old Egyptian funerary boat, measuring 60 feet (18 meters), that was so well preserved that it still had intact plant fibers attached to it, in 2016. Found near...
The medallion bearing the earliest known mention of the Norse god Odin.     Source: Arnold Mikkelsen/ Denmark National Museum

Oldest Inscription of ‘Odin’ Resets Beliefs About Norse Mythology

Archaeologists in Denmark are celebrating the discovery of the oldest inscription mentioning the god Odin. This story begins with the 2021 discovery of a 5th century collection of Norse treasures at...
Umbrian-sienese anonim - Hercules at the crossroads (Public Domain)

Encountering Liminal Deities At Crossroads, Where Veils Are Thinnest

In antiquity every village, town or city had a central crossroads, probably marked by the largest statue, fountain, temple or cathedral in the area. This is not by chance. Since prehistory crossroads...
The Saga of the Völsungs features Norse hero Sigurd hunting the dragon Fafnir. Source: Wachirawit / Adobe Stock

The Saga of the Völsungs: Epic Story of the Greatest Norse Heroes

Much of what we know about Norse mythology and history comes from their sagas. These are stories written in the Old Norse language that recount early Viking voyages, battles, and feuds between...
Top image: In the Norse creation myth, worlds of fire and ice emerge from the abyss at the beginning of the universe.	Source: ivanovevgeniy / Adobe Stock

Norse Creation Myth: Fire and Ice from the Abyss

The Norse people were the ancient tribal communities of Scandinavia, who in the modern day are often referred to or thought of as the Vikings (who were actually a subset of them). Like many other...
Odin and his brothers defeated Ymir in Norse mythology, and used his body to create Midgard. Odin’s symbol, a raven, seen superimposed on a cosmic background.	Source: jozefklopacka / Adobe Stock

Ymir in Norse Mythology: A Cosmic Creation Story

The story of Ymir and the creation of the universe typifies the emphasis on sacrifice as a theme, in Nordic myth and in creation stories around the world. In Norse mythology, Ymir was the primeval...
Diana Huntress and her Nymphs (1637) by Peter Paul Rubens (Public Domain)

Goddesses Of The Hunt, The Moon, Child Birth And The Underworld

"Man the Hunter," an early 20h-century human origins story, saw hunting as the primary driver of human evolution, emphasizing mankind’s forefathers' bipedalism, large brains, sharp tools, and...
Jotunheim, land of the giants in Norse mythology, was the source of many antagonists and adventures for our mythical heroes. Source: lobard / Adobe Stock

Jotunheim: Outsized Tales from the Norse Land of the Giants

In Norse mythology, the cosmos consisted of nine realms. Some realms we know a lot about, others remain largely a mystery. Jotunheim, the land of the frost giants, is one of the better-recorded...
The Valknut symbol has transcended time, remaining popular today.	Source: danlersk / Adobe Stock

The Enigmatic Valknut: Odin’s Symbol Shrouded in Mystery

Norse mythology is a rich and vibrant source of tales, myths and legends. It has provided us with some iconic gods, monsters, and even symbols. One of the most controversial and mysterious of these...
Kvasir and the Mead of Poetry in Norse Mythology

Kvasir and the Mead of Poetry in Norse Mythology

For the ancient Vikings, poetry was a way to tell the stories of their gods, their religion, their heroes and villains. Works that have survived centuries are told with such eloquence; it would only...
Baldr’s death by Odin is sitting in the middle of the Æsir by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckerberg. Yggdrasil and the three Norns can be seen in the background. (1817) Charlottenborg Palace (Public Domain)

Seidr Norse Magic And Noaidi Shamans Shaping Destinies

Controlling outcomes, steering destiny and reversing fate in ancient times was all about spells and old-school hands-on magic. Practitioners in ancient Greek and Rome commonly used ‘binding spells’...
The Norse God Odin: Viking God of War, Father of Thor, But There’s More

The Norse God Odin: Viking God of War, Father of Thor, But There’s More

Odin is the chief deity of the Norse pantheon. Although Odin was worshipped more generally in Germanic paganism, the information we have today about this god is derived mostly from Norse mythology...
Elite Gold Pendants Unearthed in Norway Were ‘Sacrifices’ to the Gods

Elite Gold Pendants Unearthed in Norway Were ‘Sacrifices’ to the Gods

In separate discoveries that occurred in 2019 and 2020, searchers found seven ancient gold pendants buried in a field near the Norwegian municipality of Råde in Østfold County. The first four gold...
The Sjellebro Mask Stone with lines drawn in red chalk.

Does a Viking Age Mask Stone Picture the Real Hamlet?

Does a Viking Age Mask Stone picture the real Hamlet? Surely not, the immediate reply might be. It is well-known that Shakespeare modeled his Hamlet story over older versions of the story about...
Of Runes And Sacrifice: The Initiation Ritual Of Odin in Norse Myth

Of Runes And Sacrifice: The Initiation Ritual Of Odin in Norse Myth

The total of the poetic, mythological and sapiential heritage of the ancient and early medieval Scandinavian tradition is contained in the texts canonically collected under the title of Edda . Within...
The Northern Mysteries Current: Futhark and Mystery Schools of the Viking Age

The Northern Mysteries Current: Futhark and Mystery Schools of the Viking Age

The existence of mystery schools in the Viking Age (800-1200 CE) is deduced from myth and folklore. The poems of the Edda display the structure and content of cultic texts used within the framework...
Runriket, Where the Power Struggle of a Viking Ruler is Written in Stone

Runriket, Where the Power Struggle of a Viking Ruler is Written in Stone

The Viking era (800 -1066 AD) is arguably one of the most fascinating in history. Runriket, or the Rune Kingdom, is a unique archaeological area in Sweden, containing more than a hundred runestones...
The Wild Hunt of Odin by Peter Nicolai Arbo (1872)(Public Domain)

The God-Gifted Weapons of Norse Mythology

The Vikings were warriors and therefore weaponry was at the forefront of their culture, and this is why the heroes and gods of Norse religion and folklore were armed with a range of awesome weapons...
The site of the newly discovered rare ancient Viking temple found in Norway with an imagined reconstruction of the actual building.   Source: University Museum of Bergen

Viking Temple to Thor and Odin Unearthed In Norway

The Viking Age has fascinated people for generations and now we have a newly discovered ancient Viking temple that has finally shed some new light on Norse religion . Believe it or not, there is a...
Representation of Hel, the Norse goddess of the Underworld

Going to Hel and Back: The Realm of the Norse Goddess of the Underworld

By far, Loki’s most well-known children are the ones he had with the giantess Angurboda. These include the wolf Fenrir, the Midgard Serpent Jormugandr, and the goddess Hel. Legends say that the...
Mimir, the bodiless god of wisdom, plays a fundamental role in the stories of Odin and the Norse gods.

The Bodiless God of Wisdom: Mimir in Norse Mythology

The god who transcends even Odin’s power, Mimir (or sometimes called Mim) is remembered throughout Norse mythology as the oracular head from which the two races of gods, the Aesir and Vanir, seek...
Closeup of the front side of double-side mold recently found in Switzerland.                Source: Graubünden Archaeological Service

Does This Ancient Mold Depict Christ Or Odin? You Decide

A team of excavators at an archaeological dig in Chur, Switzerland have unearthed a 1000-year-old double-sided mold that was used to forge Christian jewellery . Or was it? The unusual double-sided...

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