Original subtitles

hey there i'm mike ragnetta and this is

crash course mythology today we're gonna

try to do justice to the norse pantheon

a very scary wolf an amazing tree a

rainbow bridge some frost giants and way

more than what i learned from reading

thor comics no no no not you tote your

th is a plosive we're talking voiceless

dental fricative here thor

you know this joke might work better in

print

[Music]

we met some of the norse gods when we

looked at one of their creation stories

the source for that myth and many other

stories from norse mythology is the

prose edda an icelandic compendium

written by the amazingly named snorri

sterlison around 1220 ce this means that

one of our main sources for the tales of

germanic and scandinavian gods and

goddesses comes from the far edge of

their world it's also important because

the prose edda is relatively new so one

rainbow bridge that we're going to have

to cross here is the way that later

christian ideas influence the existing

version of these myths partly because of

snorri there's a tendency to think of

norse mythology as belonging to

scandinavia but that's not quite right

the norse pantheon has roots in the

religion and mythology of germanic

people who migrated into europe the

romans especially our paltacitis

recorded what they understood of the

germanic tribes beliefs but they

translated germanic gods into their own

terms so wotan or wodon who we're

calling odin became associated with

mercury tyr or tiwas a warrior god

became associated with the roman god of

war mars and thor was jupiter or jove in

their own terms these are two sets of

norse deities first the vanir associated

with the earth and fertility they're the

older set of gods and second the aesir

associated with the sky the vanir were

led by freyr and freya brother and

sister and also king and queen they were

the children of njord who also has a

terrific name according to sterlison

freyr is an exceedingly famous god he

decides when the sun shall shine when

the rain come down and along with that

the fruitfulness of the earth and he is

good to invoke for peace and plenty he

also brings about the prosperity of men

so he

is definitely the god that you want to

honor if you're having a picnic well him

and amadoratsu the japanese sun goddess

and while we're at it why not also

aphrodite because everyone has a thing

for you guess the vanir and the aesir

ward but eventually reconciled and the

vanir came to live in asgard one of the

nine mythical norse worlds although they

also have their own realm vanaheim not

to be confused with anaheim

the realm of walt disney oranges and

online video conferences if you want the

you humorous opinion or where we take

mythology as an explanation of

historical fact this war may reflect a

time where there were two competing

religions among the tribal people of the

north which eventually teamed up vanir

and aesir stronger together like voltron

but gods another norse god is heimdall

also called the white god he's

associated with the sea because nine

waves birthed him it must have been a

very chaotic day at the maternity ward

heimdall was the century of the gods and

the arch enemy of loki who you might

know from his role as tom hiddleston

according to sterlison heimdall needs

less sleep than a bird and can see a

hundred leagues in front of him as well

by night as by day he can hear the grass

growing on the earth and the wool on the

sheep and everything that makes noise

boy poor heimdall imagine going to a

dinner party and listening to everyone

chew

some traditions place heimdall in the

acer some in the vanir the vania are

also associated with a golden boar said

to travel above and below the earth like

the sun gulen bursty as it was called

appeared on warriors crests and helmets

especially in uppsala just like in

greece and egypt different gods in the

norse pantheon were worshiped in

different regions thor is probably the

most famous of the aesir probably the

second most famous is odin thor's dad

odin is the father god who was

associated with war especially with the

raw almost ecstatic warrior rage of

berserkers he was also a wizard who

swayed battles through magic imagine

like gandalf but with one eye lots of

muscles and an unhealthy desire for

arcane wisdom and a bit of a mean streak

odin inherited his warrior god nature

from his germanic predecessors wodon and

tiwas as kevin crossley holland remarked

a culture finds the gods it needs and

the norse world needed a god to justify

the violence that was one of its

hallmarks basically if you're a war-like

society a war god

is pretty convenient odin inspired

victory and foresaw defeat with his

shamanistic precognition he was also the

god of poetry who traveled to the land

of the giants jodenheim to drink the

mead of poetry and bring it back to the

aesir and the vanir

poetry me another part of odin's story

is his sacrifice and rebirth as a wiser

god according to one version he hung

himself from the world tree so he could

drink the mead of wisdom i guess odin

couldn't stop at just one mead this was

when he sacrificed his eye too odin was

married to frigg a goddess who could

also see the future odin's children were

thor whose mother was the earth itself

balder the most beautiful of the gods

who was killed by hodar his blind

brother and tyr although one source has

tyr's father as the giant hemir in some

stories balder is a human warrior

favored by odin balder is the wisest of

the gods and the sweetest spoken and the

most merciful but it is a characteristic

of his that once he has pronounced a

judgment it can never

be altered odin has another son herma

the bold who was sent to retrieve balder

from a city in the underworld nflheim

ruled by the goddess hell that's hell

with one single hockey stick and she was

said to be the daughter of loki who also

helped kill balder loki

is confusing it's never clear whether

he's a god or a giant or even whether

he's good or evil he's been called the

son of two giants but also the foster

brother of odin he's a trickster so

maybe his uncertain pedigree makes some

sense he's also a thief but also also

sometimes helps the acer he's the father

of several monsters including the world

serpent jormungand the wolf fenrir and

hell not to put too fine a point on it

but loki is

the worst as we're going to see in our

episode on ragnarok the mythical event

not the comic book event not the movie

event not even the guar record just the

literal end of the world tyr is

identified with war and justice in some

traditions he's also a son of odin but

as you've probably noticed it's not

exactly easy to pin down parentage in

the norse world i blame those nine waves

tyr's position as a god of both war and

justice is interesting given what we

learned about vikings in crash course

world history while known for their

fearsome raiding vikings also had a

strict legal code with certain elements

of democratic governance and they were

also really into skiing there are other

gods in the norse pantheon but they

don't really feature much bragi a son of

odin was another god of poetry while

uhler was concerned mainly with archery

and hit in the slopes that's right

there's a god of skiing there's volley

odin's son who avenged balder's death

and vidar son of odin and the giantess

greed avenged odin's death i'm gonna

need an infographic oh great the norse

goddesses are relatively minor figures

in the myths freya is the only one who

seems to have personality she's a

goddess of love faithfulness to her

husband freyr is not her strong suit her

strong suit is definitely her amazing

feather jacket she also has a cat drawn

chariot that is not a joke and like

freya goddess gyphon is one of the vanir

and she is associated with plowing and

fertility ear is a goddess of healing

ceophane and lofen are goddesses of love

var punishes those who betray their

marriage oaths and nothing can be hidden

from her sin with a why is a goddess

associated with justice and who couldn't

love a goddess named snotra who is

associated with wisdom and

self-discipline and also head colds i'll

be here all week sinatra stands in

contrast with saga a goddess of poetry

whose main role seems to be odin's

drinking companion skull frigg is odin's

wife and the mother of multiple gods but

we don't know that much about her she's

a maternal goddess who mourns the loss

of her son balder and was invoked by

women in labor like odin she seemed to

be able to know the future now on to a

myth i'm gonna be honest norse myths are

like the frat party of mythology there's

a lot of fighting and drinking and

laughing though there's no beer pong

first some quick backstory odin

championed warriors picking his

favorites and sending valkyries to bring

them to valhalla which seems like a

pretty nifty way to travel

thor was the god of farmers and there

were a lot of farmers in scandinavia but

he was also a mighty warrior huge with a

giant red beard not so bright but who

needs smarts when you're the god of

thunder and lightning he protected the

aesir and vanir from giants and in a

stunning bit of surely coincidental

wordplay mjolnir his famous hammer was

also a symbol

of fertility let's go to the fat bubble

one day thor woke up and couldn't find

his hammer he sent loki to locate it

loki borrowed freya's sweet falcon

jacket turned it into an actual falcon

and went searching he found his way to

the hall of the giant thrim who said

that he had stolen thor's hammer and he

wouldn't give it back unless freyja

agreed to marry him freya said over my

dead body so heimdall the century god

came up with a brilliant idea put thor

in a wedding dress and have him pretend

to be freya the other gods laughed and

thor sulked but loki prevailed on him

because without his hammer the gods were

vulnerable to giants so they found a

giant wedding dress and a thick veil and

headed off to jodenheim once there thrim

threw his new bride and her bridesmaid

loki a wedding feat thor ate an entire

ox eight salmon all the sweets and three

horns of mead when thrium commented that

he'd never seen a woman eat so much loki

explained that freya was so excited to

be married that she hadn't eaten for

eight days brim seemed satisfied but

then he peeked under her veil and saw

his bride's glowing red eyes loki again

reassured frame that his bride was so

excited that she hadn't slept for seven

days finally thrim offered up mjolnir as

a wedding symbol saying put mjolnir

between her knees so that var will hear

our marriage oath and give her blessing

thor snatched it up ripped off his veil

and did what he does best clobbered some

giants he crushed thrim's skull and

killed every other giant at the wedding

feast including the women the tail ends

and so thor

son of odin

won back his hammer thanks that bubble

that was

awesome and disturbing and of course

soaked in mead and blood norse gods like

greek ones are all too human and they

seem to misbehave accordingly but unlike

other mythic traditions the norse sagas

seem to lean less heavily on metaphor

they're rollicking adventure tales

perfect for vikings lusty warriors who

like nothing more than a roasted ox a

few horns of ale and a good punch-up oh

and also skiing

thanks for watching we'll see you next

time

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watching and just because the world

needs more freya effects she was also

accompanied by a boar named

dysphini which translates to battle

swine