Norse mythology

"Trolls, it is said, were bred by Melkor because he desired a race as powerful as the giant Ents, the Tree-herds."

"Assume good faith. This is so easier said than done ;/ But for real, assume good faith. When someone asks a question and you think they are trolling, it’s entirely possible they are not. (Maybe they are 15 years old, or their English is imperfect, or they have an impairment of some kind.) Even if they are trolling: there will always be onlookers who don’t know it, and who, whatever the provocation, will recoil if you are curt or unkind. Trolling also gives you an opportunity to equip onlookers with reasonable arguments that they can go on to use themselves."

"The folk belief … is that lightning seeks out trolls and giants, perhaps a reflection the giant-slaying of Thor in Old Norse mythology. Many informants have told collectors that the reason the giants or trolls are no longer populous is the accuracy and efficiency of the lightning strokes."

"Senator Stampingston: Gentlemen, it's clear that we're in a universally precarious situation. Dethklok has summoned a troll. General Crozier: That's impossible, there's no such thing as trolls. Senator Stampingston: Then how do you explain the dead unicorns?"

"They were trolls. Obviously trolls. Even Bilbo, in spite of his sheltered life, could see that: from the great heavy faces of them, and their size, and the shape of their legs, not to mention their language, which was not drawing-room fashion at all, at all."

"Trolls are slow in the uptake, and mighty suspicious about anything new to them."

"Trolls simply detest the very sight of dwarves (uncooked)."

"Trolls do not build."

"'Now is the time!' cried Gandalf. 'Let us go, before the troll returns!'"

"Trolls are only counterfeits, made by the Enemy in the Great Darkness, in mockery of Ents, as Orcs were of Elves."

"Thor was the God of Thunder and, frankly, acted like it."

"Immortals are what you wanted," said Thor in a low, quiet voice. "Immortals are what you got. It is a little hard on us. You wanted us to be for ever, so we are for ever. Then you forget about us. But we are still for ever. Now at last, many are dead, many are dying," he then added in a quiet voice, "but it takes a special effort." "I can't even begin to understand what you're talking about," said Kate, "you say that I, we —" "You can begin to understand," said Thor, angrily, "which is why I have come to you. Do you know that most people hardly see me? Hardly notice me at all? It is not that we are hidden. We are here. We move among you. My people. Your gods. You gave birth to us. You made us what you would not dare to be yourselves. Yet you will not acknowledge us. If I walk along one of your streets in this... world you have made for yourselves without us, then barely an eye will once flicker in my direction." "Is this when you're wearing the helmet?" "Especially when I'm wearing the helmet!"

"Well, what if I'm wrong, I mean — anybody could be wrong. We could all be wrong about the and the pink unicorn and the flying teapot. You happen to have been brought up, I would presume, in a Christian faith. You know what it's like to not believe in a particular faith because you're not a Muslim. You're not a Hindu. Why aren't you a Hindu? Because you happen to have been brought up in America, not in India. If you had been brought up in India, you'd be a Hindu. If you had been brought up in Denmark in the time of the Vikings, you'd be believing in Wotan and Thor. If you were brought up in classical Greece, you'd be believing in . If you were brought up in central Africa, you'd be believing in the great up the mountain. There's no particular reason to pick on the Judeo-Christian god, in which by the sheerest accident you happen to have been brought up and ask me the question, "What if I'm wrong?" What if you're wrong about the great Juju at the bottom of the sea?"

"Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other breaks into pieces."

"It seems to me clear that Thor was not a god at all but a hero. Nothing resembling a religion would picture anybodying resembling a god as groping like a pigmy in a great cavern, that turned out to be the glove of a giant. That is the glorious ignorance called adventure. Thor may have been a great adventurer; but to call him a god is like trying to compare Jehovah with Jack and the Beanstalk."

"I am the unknown Will, The Anger that threatens glory and ruin: Lord of Storms am I, in heaven high and caverns deep. I am the Father of the War, Odin for you, Wotan for him, Wayfarer, Wanderer, beggar, king, numen, genius, strength and ring."

"You work for me now. You protect me. You transport me from place to place. You run errands. In an emergency, but only in an emergency, you hurt people who need to be hurt. In the unlikely event of my death, you will hold my vigil. And in return I shall make sure that your needs are adequately taken care of."

"I told you I would tell you my names. This is what they call me. I'm called Glad-of-War, Grim, Raider, and Third. I am One-Eyed. I am also called Highest, and True-Guesser. I am Grimnir, and I am the Hooded One. I am All-Father, Gondlir Wand-Bearer. I have as many names as there are winds, as many titles as there are ways to die. My ravens are Huginn and Muninn, Thought and Memory; my wolves are Freki and Geri; my horse is the gallows."

"There's never been a true war that wasn't fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right. The really dangerous people believe they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do. And that is what makes them dangerous."

"I know an eighteenth charm, and that charm is the greatest of all, and that charm I can tell no man, for a secret that no one knows but you is the most powerful secret there can ever be."

"Even for my kind, pain still hurts. If you move and act in the material world, then the material world acts on you. Pain hurts, just as greed intoxicates and lust burns. We may not die easy and we sure as hell don't die well, but we can die. If we're still loved and remembered, something else a whole lot like us comes along and takes our place and the whole damn thing starts all over again. And if we're forgotten, we're done."

"Mr. Chairman, my warriors, male and female, dead in honorable combat, are my equals, not my slaves — I am to be first among such equals."

"This thing is beyond your understanding, my child. Think no further on the matter and maybe you will read the riddle in the end. Who knows? Meanwhile the air is fresh and the day golden and my palace is near at hand. The young should enjoy themselves while they may, so come!"

"There is no magic when one no longer believes."

"You have forgotten … And you will forget still more!"

"Are you Thor, the God of Hammers? That hammer was to help you control your power, to focus it. It was never your source of strength. … Asgard is not a place. It never was. This could be Asgard. Asgard is where our people stand. Even now, right now, those people need your help."

"Odin (Scand.). The god of battles, the old German Sabbaoth, the same as the Scandinavian Wodan. He is the great hero in the Edda and one of the creators of man. Roman antiquity regarded him as one with Hermes or Mercury (Budha), and modern Orientalism (Sir W. Jones) accordingly confused him with Buddha. In the Pantheon of the Norse men, he is the “father of the gods” and divine wisdom, and as such he is of course Hermes or the creative wisdom. Odin or Wodan in creating the first man from trees—the Ask (ash) and Embla (the alder)_ endowed them with life and soul, Honir with intellect, and Lodur with form and colour. p. 239"

"Exceeding many names have ye given him; and, by my faith, it must indeed be a goodly wit that knows all the lore and the examples of what chances have brought about each of these names." Then Hárr made answer: "It is truly a vast sum of knowledge to gather together and set forth fittingly. But it is briefest to tell thee that most of his names have been given him by reason of this chance: there being so many branches of tongues in the world, all peoples believed that it was needful for them to turn his name into their own tongue, by which they might the better invoke him and entreat him on their own behalf. But some occasions for these names arose in his wanderings; and that matter is recorded in tales. Nor canst thou ever be called a wise man if thou shalt not be able to tell of those great events."

"Odinism was certainly not racist. Germanic settlers in new lands, such as the Franks in France, the Longobards in Italy or the Vikings in Normandy or Sicily, always intermarried with locals and adopted the local language and religion within at most two generations. Preservation of their racial and cultural identity was the least of their concerns. Likewise in their mythology, the different categories of their gods (Aesir, Vanir, Giants) intermarried, e.g. Odin himself was the offspring of a mixed Ase-Giant union. For obsessions with racial purity, few religions would be more unfit than Odinism."

"Jehovah destroyed city after city, every man, woman, and child, down to the youngest baby. Odin killed only in combat against opponents his own size. But, most important difference of all, Father Odin is not all–powerful and does not claim to be all–wise."

"The Germanic Wodan (and variants) and his Scandinavian counterpart Odin presents an interesting case... He is king Skygod in Valhalla, has magic knowledge and grants victory: thus he resembles Varuna. That such a major deity, even if subsequent to Tîwaz, should arise as a native independent development from the storm-fury alone seems unlikely, though not impossible. Wodan/Odin may be a development of a PIE deity appearing as V [Vedic] Váta (=wind: an allonym of the more common Váyu) who exhibits traits pertinent to the Gmc [Germanic] god."

"Before them stood an old man, very tall and upright, carrying a staff as though it were a king's sceptre. There was something so noble about the old man that the children knew, in spite of his simple tunic and broad-brimmed hat, that he must be a king at the very least."

"Magnifying and applying come I, Outbidding at the start the old cautious hucksters, Taking myself the exact dimensions of Jehovah, Lithographing Kronos, Zeus his son, and Hercules his grandson, Buying drafts of Osiris, Isis, Belus, Brahma, Buddha, In my portfolio placing Manito loose, Allah on a leaf, the crucifix engraved, With Odin and the hideous-faced Mexitli and every idol and image, Taking them all for what they are worth and not a cent more, Admitting they were alive and did the work of their days, (They bore mites as for unfledg'd birds who have now to rise and fly and sing for themselves,) Accepting the rough deific sketches to fill out better in myself, bestowing them freely on each man and woman I see, Discovering as much or more in a framer framing a house, Putting higher claims for him there with his roll'd-up sleeves driving the mallet and chisel, Not objecting to special revelations, considering a curl of smoke or a hair on the back of my hand just as curious as any revelation, Lads ahold of fire-engines and hook-and-ladder ropes no less to me than the gods of the antique wars..."

"The dark does not weep for itself because there is no light. Rather, it accepts that it is the dark. It is said that even the gods must die. … But not without one hell of a fight."

"Neither does the Scandinavian Hel or Hela, imply either a state or a place of punishment; for when Frigga, the grief-stricken mother of Bal-dur, the white god, who died and found himself in the dark abodes of the shadows (Hades) sent Hermod, a son of Thor, in quest of her beloved child, the messenger found him in the inexorable region — alas! but still comfortably seated on a rock, and reading a book."

"Oh, hello," Dr. M says, shaking Balder's hand. "Wonderful costume. I'm a bit of a role player myself on the weekends. Tell me, where did you get the helmet?" "It was forged in the North, blessed by the hands of Odin, given to me by my mother, Frigg," Balder answers. "Lovely. I got mine on the Internet."

"Balder holds up a completely blank rune. Wyrd. The beginning and the end. Fate. I don't know what that means, but it's not doing anything to uncreep me."

"They felt the land of the folk-songs, Where the gifts hang on the tree, Where the girls give ale at morning And the tears come easily. The mighty people, womanlike, That have pleasure in their pain As he sang of Balder beautiful, Whom the heavens loved in vain. As he sang of Balder beautiful, Whom the heavens could not save, Till the world was like a sea of tears And every soul a wave.There is always a thing forgotten When all the world goes well; A thing forgotten, as long ago, When the gods forgot the mistletoe, And soundless as an arrow of snow The arrow of anguish fell. The thing on the blind side of the heart, On the wrong side of the door, The green plant groweth, menacing Almighty lovers in the spring; There is always a forgotten thing, And love is not secure."

"“O Balder, he who fashion’d us, And bade us live and move, Shall weave for Death’s sad heavenly hair Immortal flowers of love. “Ah! never fail’d my servant Death, Whene’er I named his name,— But at my bidding he hath flown As swift as frost or flame. “Yea, as a sleuth-hound tracks a man, And finds his form, and springs, So hath he hunted down the gods As well as human things! “Yet only thro’ the strength of Death A god shall fall or rise — A thousand lie on the cold snows, Stone still, with marble eyes. “But whosoe’er shall conquer Death, Tho’ mortal man he be, Shall in his season rise again, And live, with thee, and me! “And whosoe’er loves mortals most Shall conquer Death the best, Yea, whosoe’er grows beautiful Shall grow divinely blest.” The white Christ raised his shining face To that still bright’ning sky. “Only the beautiful shall abide, Only the base shall die!”"

"Along the melting shores of earth An emerald flame there ran, Forest and field grew bright, and mirth Gladdened the flocks of man. Then glory grew on earth and heaven, Full glory of full day! Then the bright rainbow's colours seven On every iceberg lay! In Balder's hand Christ placed His own, And it was golden weather, And on that berg as on a throne The Brethren stood together! And countless voices far and wide Sang sweet beneath the sky — "All that is beautiful shall abide, All that is base shall die.""

"Men prayed to Tyr for victory in battle, and justice in peace. He is renown for his wisdom as well as his valor. Tuesday is named in his honor. In some places he was called Tiwaz and was associated with the Roman God, Mars, the Celtic God Nadu [sic], as well as the Indian God, Mitra. Tyr was the original God of war, and the precursor of Odin, much in the same way that Mars was the God of war in Rome, and once held a higher place than Jupiter."

"Tyr … is a relatively minor Aesir god in Viking Age Norse mythology. However, his name and attributes along with evidence from the study of comparative religion divulge to us that his Viking Age form is a severely diminished version of a divine figure who, in earlier ages, was the highest god of the Norse and other Germanic peoples. (By the Viking Age, this role had been usurped by Odin.)"

"Odin gave the Gjallerhorn to Heimdall, watchman of the gods. On the day the Gjallerhorn is blown, it will wake the gods, no matter where they are, no matter how deeply they sleep. Heimdall will blow the Gjallerhorn only once, at the end of all things, at Ragnarok."

"Ragnarok is coming. When the sky splits asunder and the dark powers of Muspell march out on their war journey, Frey will wish he still had his sword."

"Now I shall tell you of the days to come. I shall tell you how it will end, and then how it will begin once more. These are dark days I will tell you of, dark days and hidden things, concerning the ends of the earth and the death of the gods. Listen, and you will learn. This is how we will know that the end times are upon us. It will be far from the age of the gods, in the time of men. It will happen when the gods all sleep, every god but all-seeing Heimdall. He will watch everything as it begins, although he will be powerless to prevent what he sees from happening."

"At Ragnarok the world as we know it will be destroyed. But that is not the end. After a long time, a time of healing, a new universe will be created, one better and cleaner and free from the evils of this world. It too will last for countless millennia... until again the forces of evil and cold contend against the forces of goodness and light... and again there is a time of rest, followed by a new creation and another chance for men. Nothing is ever finished, nothing is ever perfect, but over and over again the race of men gets another chance to do better than last time, ever and again without end."

"I am sorry... but I do believe that Loki is loose. The signs show it. Now anything can happen. We enter the Twilight of the Gods. Ragnarok comes. Our world ends."

"I had no objection to calling Armageddon by the name 'Ragnarok'. Jesus or Joshua or Jesu; Mary or Miriam or Maryam or Maria, Jehovah or Yahweh — any verbal symbol will do as long as speaker and listener agree on meaning. But Loki? Ask me to believe that a mythical demigod of an ignorant, barbarian race has wrought changes in the whole universe? Now, really!"

"Ragnarok, the end of the Viking world with a terrible winter that covered the Earth in ice, when vile crimes were rampant and all humanity lost. I could see how someone impressionable might get it into their head that we were at the end of time."

"Brothers will fight and kill each other, sisters' children will defile kinship. It is harsh in the world, whoredom rife —an axe age, a sword age —shields are riven— a wind age, a wolf age— before the world goes headlong. No man will have mercy on another."

"Then is fulfilled Hlín's second sorrow, when Óðinn goes to fight with the wolf, and Beli's slayer, bright, against Surtr. Then shall Frigg's sweet friend fall."

"Where did you get this Christmas tree?" "Nowhere." "Did you cut down the Yggdrasil?" "Maybe..."

"An ash I know there stands, Yggdrasill is its name, a tall tree, showered with shining loam. From there come the dews that drop in the valleys. It stands forever green over Urðr's well."

"Does Yggdrasil drink from it because it is the Well of Wisdom, or is it the Well of Wisdom because Yggdrasil drinks from it?"

"I know that I hung on the windy tree Nine full nights, Pierced by a spear offered to Odin Myself to myself of which none knows Upon that tree Where its roots run..."

"Behold ! Valhalla proudly shrouds, Her towers in the ambient clouds: Five hundred portals grace the side, With forty more unfolding wide. Thro' ev'ry gate in war array, With banners streaming to the day, Eight hundred warriors passage find, When for martial deeds inclin'd."

"Ah, ah, We come from the land of the ice and snow, From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow. The hammer of the gods, we'll drive our ships to new lands, To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming! On we sweep with threshing oar, Our only goal will be the western shore."

"The great sea is held together by Jörmungand, the serpent who surrounds it with his gigantic body and who holds his tail in his mouth to complete the circle, and thus stops the waves from forming. One day, the god Thor, son of the earth, was fishing in the serpent sea, using an ox's head as bait. Jörmungand reared up, and the waves hit the shores as he twisted and writhed like a fury. They were equally strong, the serpent and the god in that furious struggle. The sea boiled around them, but then the hook was removed and the snake slithered free and quickly sank beneath the waves again. And soon the sea was calm again as if nothing had disturbed it. (Vikings)"

"Midgardsormen, the world serpent, will leap out of the ocean, raising the tides and submerging the land. The wolf, giant Fenrir, will break his invisible chains. [...] Thor will kill the serpent, but will die from its poison. (Vikings)"

"And the serpent sank into the sea. Thor threw the hammer after him, and some say he cut off his head at the bottom, but I think I must tell you truly that the serpent of Miðgarðr still lives and lies in the ocean."

"Then the ocean will roll over the lands, because the serpent Miðgarðr will be seized by the fury of the giants and will reach the land. [...] Miðgarðr's serpent will breathe so much poison that it will splash all the air and water, and it will be really scary, and it will stand by the wolf's side."

"One can say that one has not seen a frightening sight if one has not been able to see how Thor pierced the serpent with his eyes and how the serpent stared back at him from below and spat venom."

"I have a talent that I am very ready to put to the test, that there is no one in here who eats his food faster than me. (Snorri Sturluson)"

"If people paid more attention to the words they use, they wouldn't dare compare themselves with Loki, the wisest, the most brilliant, the most cunning, the most intelligent, the most beautiful... (Neil Gaiman)"

"Mass genocide is the most exhausting activity there is, on par with football."

"No harm, no foul."

"That poem, the Walrus and the Carpenter, is an indictment of organized religion. The Walrus, with its corpulence and goodness, represents either the Buddha or with its tusks the Hindu Elephant God, Ganesh. This settles the Eastern religions. Now, the Carpenter is an obvious reference to Jesus Christ; he was the son of a carpenter and thus represents Western religions. Now, in the poem, what do they do? What are they doing? They snare a bag of oysters to get followed and then with large thrusts they shuck and devour those helpless creatures en masse. I don't know what you think, but to me all this says that following these faiths, based on mythological figures, favors the destruction of a person's interiority. Organized religion destroys who we are by inhibiting our actions, inhibiting our decisions for fear of an intangible father figure who has been pointing the finger at us for thousands of years now and saying, "Do it! Do it! I'll fucking split you in two!""

"Among the Aesir is also counted what some call the slanderer of the Aesir or the origin of deception and the misfortune of all gods and men, he is called Loki or Loptr, son of the giant Fárbauti. His mother is Laufey or Nál, his brothers are Býleistr and Helbindi. Loki is handsome and handsome in appearance, evil in character and very changeable in behavior. He possessed much more than other men the science which is called cunning, and he achieves everything through deception. He always led the Aesir into great difficulties and often got them out of trouble with deceptive designs. (Snorri Sturluson)"

"You were angry with him even when you owed him deep gratitude, and you were grateful even when you hated him."

"Loki is very handsome. He is very persuasive, convincing, nice, and is by far the shrewdest, most subtle and most sagacious of the inhabitants of Asgard. Therefore it is really a shame that inside him there is a sea of ​​darkness: so much anger, so much envy, so much greed. [...] He is more intelligent, sharp and cunning than any other god or giant. Not even Odin is as cunning as Loki. [...] The other gods tolerate him, perhaps because his stratagems and plans have saved them as many times as they have gotten them into trouble."

"Loki was handsome, and he knew it. Everyone wanted to love him and believe in him, but he was at best unreliable and self-centered, and at worst malevolent or even evil. He married a woman named Sigyn, who at the time of their courtship and marriage was beautiful and happy but after a while she had the face of someone who is always waiting for bad news."

"Loki makes the world more interesting but less safe. He is the father of monsters, the author of suffering, the evil god."

"When I don't have my hammer, you're better than me at getting people to do things. (Thor)"

"When something bad happens the first thing I think is, "It's Loki's fault." It saves a lot of time. (Thor)"

"When the god Loki did an incredibly bad thing, the other gods took him to a horrible, dark cave, and there they chained him to three sharp stones. Over him they hung a disgusting serpent, so that its venom would drip, drip, drip forever on Loki's face."

"That scoundrel, that impostor. The suffering of men is a joy to him."

"Suffering and pain were his bread and his nectar."

"Fenrir, son"

"Hel, daughter"

"Miðgarðsormr, son"

"Fenrir shall with impious tooth Slay the sire of rolling years: Vithar shall avenge his fall, And, struggling with the shaggy wolf, Shall cleave his cold and gory jaw."

"Ek man jǫtna ár of borna, þás forðum mik fœdda hǫfðu; níu mank hęima, níu ívíði, mjǫtvið mæran fyr mold neðan.Ár vas alda þars Ymir byggði, vasa sandr né sær, né svalar unnir; jǫrð fansk æva né upphiminn; gap vas ginnunga, ęn gras hvęrgi."

"Brœðr muno beriaz ok at bǫnomverða, muno systrungar sifiom spilla. Hart er í heimi, hórdómr mikill. Skeggǫld, skálmǫld, skildir ro klofnir. Vindǫld, vargǫld, áðr verǫld steypiz. Mun engi maðr ǫðrom þyrma."

"Eldr er beztr með ýta sonum ok sólar sýn, heilyndi sitt, ef maðr hafa náir, án við löst at lifa."

"Skin-faxi is the skyey steed Who bears aloft the smiling day To all the regions of mankind: His the ever-shining mane. * * * Hrim-faxi is the sable steed, From the east who brings the night, Fraught with showering joys of love As he champs the foamy bit, Drops of dew are scattered round To adorn the vales of earth."

"Ymer's flesh produced the earth; Ymer's bones, its rocky ribs; Ymer's skull, the skyey vault; Ymer's teeth, the mountain ice; Ymer's sweat, the ocean salt."

"It was Atali, the daughter of Ymir, the frost-giant! To fields of the dead she comes, and shows herself to the dying! Myself when a boy I saw her, when I lay half-slain on the bloody field of Wolraven. I saw her walk among the dead in the snows, her naked body gleaming like ivory and her golden hair unbearably bright in the moonlight. I lay and howled like a dying dog because I could not crawl after her. She lures men from stricken fields into the wastelands to be slain by her brothers, the ice-giants, who lay men’s red hearts smoking on Ymir’s board. The Cimmerian has seen Atali, the frost-giant’s daughter!"