norse-mythology

"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."

"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!"

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

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

"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."

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

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

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

"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 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."

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

"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)"

"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!""

"No harm, no foul."

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

"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)"

"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)"

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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)"

"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."

"Miðgarðsormr, son"

"Hel, daughter"

"Fenrir, son"

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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..."

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

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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.)"

"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."

"“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!”"

"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."

"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."