101 Facts About Norse Mythology

greetings and welcome to this week's sprawling cosmic and downright bizarre edition of 101 facts my name is sam and today we're heading to the nine realms with loki thor odin and co but not the marvel ones the mythological ones with frankly wild stories that movies are just not ready to handle yes it's the wild or worlds of norse mythology strap in but which god gave birth to an eight-legged horse which animal is responsibly for technically licking the gods into existence and are you ready for me to butcher some wonderful scandinavian pronunciation because sadly that is going to happen 293 this question is going to be answered so hit up the dwarves and see if they've got any fancy inventions for you and prepare to enter a factual valhalla as we go through 101 facts about norse mythology number one so let's start at the very beginning shall we norse mythology is a belief system beginning in scandinavia no one can actually tell quite how old it is or when it originated but it's thought that it could have started as early as the bronze age between 3300 and 1200 bce number two basically by the time of the viking age which is 793 to 1066 a.d it was very well established and was the primary religion of scandinavian countries at the time when scandinavian vikings then began settling across northwestern europe including iceland and britain they brought their beliefs with them number three however by the time the viking age ended in 1066 a lot of scandinavian countries and their people had been converted to christianity leaving their polytheistic beliefs behind them at least for the most part number four though not many people believed in north deities after this the story survived until at least the 13th century when they were eventually recorded these recordings are some of the oldest available pieces of evidence for the entire mythology as little to no physical evidence had survived from before this number 5. despite its decline in practice norse mythology and religion has made somewhat of a resurgence since the early 20th century when heathenry began to gain notoriety with its adoption of various forms of paganism including scandinavian there probably aren't more than twenty thousand in the world today number six but anyway the foundations of norse mythology began with a gagunka gap no ganonga gap a huge void of emptiness that existed before the cosmos was created the word gunning gap roughly translates to magically charged gaps so within the darkness existed magic number seven this magic would suddenly create the realms of muspelheim and niflheim and the world tree iggrasil don't ask how it just did okay and there's a lot of that coming up muspelheim is the realm of fire and was a land so hot that the lava was igniting itself sending enormous flames into the nothingness of the ganinga gap number eight niflheim is the realm of fog and mist and is the darkest and coldest of them all nothing was able to grow here and it was mostly ice snow and frost in another stroke of luck this ice would meet the fires of muspelheim creating water drops that would form the deity emir number nine and here we have the top of one of the most confusing family trees in the world so hold on to your butts preferably your own you can't just grab someone else's emir is the father of all giants or yokna and is the ancestor of yoten number 10. luckily for amir through reasons unknown to this very tired researcher there was also a primeval cow named aud hamlet who existed alongside amir and fed him with her milk from her others odd humbler herself gained her sustenance from salty ice rocks and believe me yeah it gets weirder number 11 amir gained enough strength to be able to produce a load of giant offspring through his armpit sweat and even allowed his legs to breed somehow to form a six-headed giant being tolju gets weirder number 12. amir's son certa would become the guardian of muspelheim and another of his sons pharborty alongside his sister lauthy reproduced to create the trickster god loki number 13. more on him later though other emea spawn included aegea and ran the god and goddess of the sea who had produced nine daughters well they must have been bored who became the waves in the sea and would together create heimdall yes together all nine of them moving on number fourteen emea also created hundolfari who produced solemn mam aka the sun and moon both of which were chased by wolves oh and didn't get another case of the mere son and daughter jaime and fraud reproduce to create tyr the god of war not to be confused with this little beardy legend not little he could rip me to pieces number 15. anyway old humbler the super cow remember her licked so much salty ice rock that eventually she melted it enough to uncover a new being this being was buried also known as the ancestor of the aesir gods number 16 bury had a son through unexplained means so let's say magic and called him boar boar would then get it on with bessler the daughter of emir's giant son bolthorn are you confused yet her brother is mimir one of the wisest gods in the entire norse mythology i've told you honestly there's family trees like the kardashians but in alabama or something number 17 okay so boar and bessler get it on again and produce arguably the most important date in all of norse mythology odin also known as the all father and the king of the aesir gods they also made his brothers villian vey but not much is said about them really apart from the fact that they're there number 18. odin marries frigg the goddess of marriage and motherhood that's convenient right and together they have three children baldur the god of light and purity hoda who is a blind god and her mod the messenger of the gods and maybe a god himself it's not really specified number 19. you might have noticed quite a glaring omission there in the shape of everyone's favorite god of thunder chris hemsworth i'm sorry i mean thor well thor and his brother maylie are products of odin's affair with euro a literal personification of the planet earth so yeah odin did naughty things with the entire of earth and then made thor number 22 thor mary siff known for her golden hair and whose god purpose isn't quite clear it could be a grain or earth fertility something like that she and thor make a daughter named thr which is horrible name which means strength and has the same name as one of the valkyries of valhalla are they the same person it's incredibly likely but again nothing's definite number 21 thor then has two more sons with the yotanyan saxa called magni and modi magni roughly translates to anger or wrath while modi translates to strong almighty sounds pretty godlike to me oh and by the way yan saksa is one of the mothers of heimdall number 22 sith also had a son not fathered by thor called ulla he is the god of skiing and snow and wintry type things much like his mother there's very little known about him but he too is believed to be a date of importance even if that's importance has been lost to history number 23. back to odin now and he also gets it on with two vermeer's giant test descendants gridder and reinder and creates his two other sons vradar and valley vidar was known in some stories as the silent god though it's never clarified why and both brothers would have a future of vengeance in front of them but we'll get to that in a bit number 24 other odin's spawn include braggy the god of poetry who marries eden the goddess of youth who keeps all the gods in asgard looking useful and fresh with her golden apples number 25. okay so that's it iseah gods but there's also the veneer gods yep there's more let's start with njord we don't really know where he came from but he was the god of wealth prosperity and the wind and sea so if you've ever heard someone say the phrase wealthiest nude that's why number 26 he gets along with one of his sisters not condoned here by the way most likely neuron or nertha whichever one it was they birthed the twins freya and freya freya is the god of virility peace and prosperity and freyja the goddess of love beauty and fertility and in proper game of thrones style she and freyja get some twin loving on number 27 okay it's also quite likely that freya and frigg are the same person and that their names could have been misinterpreted at some point if they're not the same person they are crazily similar also freyja's husband is called oda which is basically odin isn't it you decide number 28 we're almost done with all the people i swear as we said earlier loki was made by two of yamir's giant children in some kind of bafflingly common incestuous relationship but anyway loki that mysterious scamp gets it on with his aunt and another daughter of amir angaboda and they have three children number 29 these children are fenrir who's a wolf for some reason hell the goddess of death and jormungand also known as the world serpent to encircle the entirety of midgard number 30. at some points he also disguises himself as a lady horse and has relations with a male horse called savadolfari and loki himself gets pregnant and burns an eight-legged horse named sleepnir who is gifted to odin as a steed yep nothing else i can add to this i can't even fathom a witty remark it's just insanity number 31 as well as those gods they also had nine realms before i mentioned muspelheim and niflheim and them being attached to igbrazil well that's still the case but here's seven more realms and what they do let's go number 32 when the gods were created odin and his brothers villian vey decided that they would kill amir because they didn't like him in his giant offspring and so they did the blood from amir's wounds would drown most of his children and with his body would create the world number 33 amir's flesh would create the earth and soil his bones would create the mountains and his jaw some of the rocks and apparently even his brains would make clouds number 34 this world would take the form of the nine realms in total all sitting on the branches of igrazil or the world tree bang in the middle you've got midgard also known as the world that us puny humans live in called earth number 35 odin and his brothers used a mere skull to make our sky and this was held in place by four dwarfs named naudry austri sudry and vestry or to us anglicized folk north east south and west clefair right number 36 it's here in midgard that odin created mankind using the lock of an ash tree and the log of an elm tree because they were both regarded as sturdy woods for making weapons they carved out two humans called ask and embler basically adam and eve but you know norse number 37 but how did a couple of logs become humans i hear you ask well this time i can actually give you a vague answer odin himself breathed life into them so yeah it's magic again but at least there's some kind of explanation this time anyway ask and embler became the father and mother of the entire human race so well done then number 38 to the north you have nivelheim the realm of mist and ice and to the south there's muspelheim the realm of fire then to the east there's jotenheim which is the realm of giants where amir's remaining spawn would go and to the west there's anaheim the realm of the veneer gods such as neward freyja and freyja number 39 also branching out from midgard is alpine the realm of the night elves which branches off to asgard the realm of the asea gods like odin and thor asgard is also connected to midgard by the biofroster bridge a magical rainbow bridge protected by heimdall number 40 asgard is also home to valhalla and folk wagner valhalla is also known as the hall of the fallen and is where those who odin deems worthy of spending the afterlife with him end up they're said to be brought by and waited on by beautiful valkyries number 41. folk wenger on the other hand is known as the field of the people or field of armies and is where the veneer goddess freya takes those who she believes to be worthy of a peaceful afterlife the most accepted way to get to valhalla or folk vanguard is to have died a worthy death through battle though it's not clear how they decide which one you'd go to the meaning of life the last realm connected to midgard is vartal which is the realm of the dark elves this in turn is connected to helheim the realm of the dead which very literally is hell it's even guarded by the goddess hell with one l number 43 the world tree also has three roots the first is protected by three powerful female youtans called norns in their well known as urdebrunner or erd as well the second is mimisbrunner or mimir's well protected by the yotnam mamir and the third is in fergalmir which is a boiling spring that is also home to the dragon nidhogger number 44 much like nidhoggr at the bottom of the iggrasil there's also an eagle that sits at the top of the tree with a hawk between his eyes who's named verdefulner both these creatures are often taunted by a squirrel creature called ratatosker not the pixar film who carries insults between them number 45 but hey why are there nine realms well basically the number nine was significant to those of ancient genomic beliefs odin hang from the world tree for nine days aguirre and ran have nine daughters and thor can take nine steps after his battle with yamanganda during ragnarok number 46 odin had a thirst for knowledge and seemingly many other things but it's unknown whether he studied sculpture at martin's college wonder how many of you will get that however he did make serious sacrifices in order to expand his understanding of life and on one occasion even sacrificed an eye to gain more wisdom just for reference something i wouldn't recommend doing for a pop test number 47 the story of how odin became one-eyed involves him traveling to mamia as well nestled in the roots of the world tree the world had water jammed packed with healthy goodness and by healthy goodness i mean pretty much all knowledge of the entire cosmos and odin wanted to sleek his thirst number 48 there was just one problem the well was guarded by mimir i mean it's good for me as well for a reason mia is the wisest god of the azir according to some sources and had a prize for drinking his brain water an eye so naturally odin sliced up his own face removed an eye and dropped it into the well had a nice cold drink and became super smart how's that for a slice of fried gold number 49. luckily and despite making him poke his own eye out odin stepped in to save mamir well some of him anyway odin preserved his head using herb's magical chance odin would then consult the served head of amir when in need of advice just like kratos does in the game god of war number 50 going back to the world tree the world of erd and those norms i mentioned earlier the three norns were super powerful and super smart beings since they literally controlled the fate of everyone number 51 to create those fates the norns carved runes into igrazil and the symbols of the runes would then be made real through the world tree and affect everything in the nine realms odin being odin he fancied a piece of that pie and once again went to extreme lengths to get it number 52 so he hung himself from igrasil so he could look down into the well of erd from which it grew to prove he was worthy of the knowledge of the runes he also stabbed himself with a spear to pierce himself and draw blood no other god was allowed to help him while he was hanging there number 53 odin stayed hanging from the tree halfway between life and death for nine days and nights on that last night the world finally showed him the runes his sacrifice for himself had been proven worthy the runes symbol imbued with magic gave odin incredible power and he screamed as he absorbed all the knowledge falling from the tree number 54 norse mythology is full of slightly weird tales in one story they got after a piece of giant test called scardy after they killed her father thiazi they played compensation in three forms the first saw the audi's eyes thrown into the sky where they became stars nothing particularly strange about that i mean well there is but you know as a bass level number 55 second part bit weirder the god's promise to make scardy laugh but nothing worked so they tagged in loki who had the ingenious idea of having a tug-of-war battle against a goat hilarious so he attached a rope to the goat and the other end to his uh tested clay and then had the tug loki eventually ended up landing in scaddy's lap and she finally laughed number 56 and because i'm sure you all want closure the third thing was the scardies get married to a god she ended up with njord a sea god after spending 18 days together as a couple they decided to split because neither liked where the other lived sure number 57 but just why did the gods kill her daddy well one day highnear who's another obscure god that apparently loves divine inspiration and giving that to people alongside odin and loki decided to head some mountains for an undisclosed reason and they got hungry so they killed an ox and began to cook it number 58 weirdly it wouldn't cook on the fire so they looked up and saw a massive eagle sat above them and the eagle told them he wouldn't let their meat cook unless they gave him some they agreed because you know it's reasonable number 59 but once their beefy snack had cooked mr eagle was super greedy and ate all the best bits the gods were not happy about that and loki tried to kill the eagle eagle didn't like that and picked up loki and dragged him along the ground until he was pretty mangled number 60 to cut a long story short the eagle was the giant thiazi in disguise who said he'd release loki if he promised to bring the goddess iden and her magical fruit to his home loki agreed and kidnapped ayden by tricking her into thinking that there were better golden apples elsewhere and so he gave her to thiazi number 61 idon is the goddess of youth and the gods kept their youthful appearance and power through her and her golden apples so when she was gone things went bad eventually they realized what loki did and went to gutenheim to save her and killed thiazi which started all the other stuff i mentioned a moment ago number 62 this wasn't the only mischief that loki got up to i mean he is the trickster god after all on one occasion he decided it'd be really funny to cut the hair of thor's wife sif you know for the lols thor was fuming and threatened to break every bone in his body which seems a bit harsh because hair grows back but whatever number 63 basically loki begged thought to let him travel to svartalheim to see the dwarves and see if they could make a new head of hair for sith thor agreed and so did the dwarves but they also made him a ship that can be folded up into your pocket and a deadly spear nintendo 64. that wasn't good enough for loki though and he challenged the two brother dwarves of brookier and sindry to make three new things as good as those made by master forger ivaldi and his sons if they succeeded they could take his head number 65. together they made gullenbersty a boar who glowed in the dark and could run faster than a horse even in water and in the air their second creation was drop near a ring that would magically create eight more rings every nine days i don't know why either but cool i guess number 66 finally and most importantly their third creation was a little hammer called mjolnir which means lightning upon loki's return to asgard he gifted the new hair and the fancy hammer to thor the spear and the rings to odin and the boar and the ship to freyja the dwarves are still a little bit annoyed at loki but instead of taking his head they settled with sowing his mouth shut instead number 67 at some point thor lost his hammer what a silly boy which left asgard more vulnerable to giant attacks thor concluded that the giants probably nicked it and headed over to hotenheim with loki using some of freya's magical falcon feathers which turned the holder into a falcon number 68 turns out a giant called fruit nick dick and refused to give it back until freya married him she didn't want to do that as is her right so thor dressed up as freya and married the giant no seriously when the hammer was returned at the reception thor grabbed it and killed frim and all of his wedding guests all while wearing a fetching bridal dress number 69 you might have noticed that the asir gods and veneer gods tend to all be chilling in asgard for the most part the two god tribes didn't always get on though when freya first moved to asgard the asea gods used her magic for greed but blamed that on her rather than just stop being greedy classy number 17 they tried to kill freya three times but every time she'd be reborn from the ashes causing fear and hatred between the two tribes so they had a war it went on for ages and then they suddenly realized that they were too equally matched in power so they called it a truce number 71 as part of that truce the two tribes would have to exchange hostages and pay tribute to each other so freya her twin brother freyja and yard all went to live in asgard with the yasir and mamir and highnear were moved to vanaheim with the veneer number 72 the veneer quickly realized that high near was actually a bit stupid and not a fair swap so they beheaded mamir and sent his head back to asgard where odin used all the magical poems and embalming herbs to save him and keep him receiving mumir's advice that's when mimir ended up at his well before making odin give him his eye number 73 did you know that the days of the week are named after the norse gods sunday is named after seoul monday after marnie tuesday after tear wednesday after odin or woden thursday after thor friday after frigg saturday though doesn't have the god but they did call it logadega which means laundry day number 74 thor's sworn enemy is the giant spawn of loki the world serpent jormungand this sneaky boy is so big he wrapped himself around the entirety of midgard so of course one day thor decided to try and fish him out for the lols number 75 thor had had dinner with ajir and ran the giant gods of the sea and ate them out of house and home so in an effort for more food he thought he'd kill and cook jormungund however as thought reeled in the giant serpent hamir cut the line loose out of fear letting him go so thor threw hamir overboard and decided to take a couple of whales instead number 76 the gods also had some run-ins with loki's other children hell was sent to the underworld and took on the role of goddess of death this would cause some issues later in some events that would spark the beginning of ragnarok number 77 when odin's son balder started to have dreams about his own demise odin sought out a dead seer in the underworld to decipher these dreams when he got there odin found the seer in a hall ready to throw an extravagant feast ready for a guest of honor that would be arriving shortly boulder number 78 so odin proverbially cacked himself and went back to worst guard and frigg balder's mother got oaths from every living and non-living entity in the cosmos to swear no harm on her son lovely stuff right it even became a game amongst cigars to throw things in boulder because nothing would hurt him number 79 enter loki of course he realized she hadn't gotten an oath from mistletoe because as such an innocuous and innocent thing they didn't believe it could cause harm so loki carved a spear out of it and tricked the blind god and brother of balder hoda to throw it at boulder number 80. hoda threw it and it went straight through boulder and killed him on the spot another of odin's sons pledged him to go to the underworld to beg hell to release boulder back to the world of the living he did so by telling her that every living thing mourned his departure number 81 hal agreed that if every living thing in the cosmos wept for boulder she would release him but if they didn't he'd stay with her down in the underworld of course everyone and everything except one giant death swept for boulder that giant test named tock turned out to be loki in disguise but it still meant that balder would remain in hell number 82 after the gods realized loki's role in baldur's death they decided to bind him making sure he'd no longer be able to cause mischief once caught he was bound using the entrails of one of his sons in a cave scardy the goddess of wintry things placed a venomous snake above him to drop venom on his face number 83 loki's wife sigen stayed by his side holding up a bowl to capture the venom however when the bowl needed to be emptied the venom would once again hit the tricks to god causing him to shake violently in pain this shaking was said by people to be the cause of earthquakes in real life number 84. loki would remain here until ragnarok but he wasn't the only one to be bound his son fenrir was also bound after it was prophesied he was fated to kill odin the gods raised loki's wolf's son from youth when he was allowed free roam of asgard but as he grew in size and strength the gods realized they had to chain him up to avoid destruction number 85. so they did they sent word to the dwarves of svardalheim to forge a chain of unequaled strength and so it was made with the sound of a cat's footsteps the beard of a woman the roots of a mountain the breath of a fish and the spittle of a bird in other words things they didn't believe existed number 86 so feneria was bound with his magic cord but he knew something was up so said he'd only allow himself to be bound if one of the gods put their hand in his mouth to guarantee it wasn't a trick and that he'd be able to escape he couldn't escape and that's how the ac god tier lost his hand number 87 once bound fenera was sent to an unspecified desolate location where he'd remain with the sword in his mouth to hold his jaws open that is until ragnarok number 88 so let's talk ragnarok this event would see the obliteration of the norse cosmos and everything in it including the gods in fact the word ragnarok itself means fate of the gods and spoiler alert it doesn't end well for them number 89 ranked a rock was described in the icelandic poem voluspa which means sybil's prophecy which tells that the events of ragnarok will be preceded by cruel winters and moral chaos causing humanity to descend into war number 90 the wolf siblings scotland haiti who have been chasing the sun and moon since time began would finally catch their prey sending the world into darkness and leaving a void in the skies above the world tree igrazil would then tremble causing damage across the realms including to fenrir's chain which snapped and allow him to run free number 91 three roosters would grow to signal the arrival of ragnarok in the dawn of war with one going to asgard one to the giant and another to helheim to tell the dishonorable dead the giants would arrive on a ship captained by none other than loki who's pretty pissed off about being tied up for however long he was number 92 and here starts the war in the void of the sky the fire giants arrive led by certa the guardian of muspelheim and they all cross the bifrost bridge heimdall will sound his horn and the gods get ready for battle number 93 as prophesized odin fights fenrir who's already devoured the earth lol r.i.p us and alongside his strongest fighters fenrir simply swallows odin and his champions like it's not even a big deal that annoys radar one of oden's thousand suns and vadar uses a magic shoe to hold femoris mouth open before plunging his sword through the wolves throat killing him instantly number 94 remember balder dying a few facts ago well his brother valley wasn't over that either and so killed hoda the brother responsible for throwing the mistletoe speed sloo boulder number 95 tyr also makes his end at ragnarok while fighting another wolf creator called garm who is the guard dog of hell the two slay each other much like loki and heimdall do at the same time putting an end to the tricks the gods reigned at mayhem number 96 in another spot on the battlefield freya met his sworn enemy certa the guardian of muspelheim he had a sword that burned brighter than the fire of the sun and freyja turned up with an antler it might have been a magical but either way it didn't match a sun sword so freya dies number 97 next up thor and his sworn enemy jormungand whose name i've mispronounced a few times this video i'm sure go head to head and while thor does win the battle the venom left in the gods wounds mean he can only take nine steps after his victory before succumbing to his own death number 98 so who actually survives the events of ragnarok odin's sons vadar and valley and thor sons modi and magni will survive though their future and the future of the world post ragnarok differs from source to source number 99 the most popular ending is that the world is reborn and repopulated by two humans called lif and lifthrazier who hid beneath idrazil during the war to survive the new sun is also born from the devoured soul and the new world will have a new albeit unspecified ruler number 100 odin and his eight-legged flying horse are often considered the inspiration for our modern day imagery of santa claus during the celebration of yule it was said that odin would give out gifts or punishments dependent on behavior and children would leave out treats for the freaky demon horse sleipnir number 101 fun fact the first kings from denmark and norway are said to have descended from these norse gods that's cool in itself but even cooler when you realize that this family tree extends all the way down to the house of wessex which currently sits with queen elizabeth ii yep old liz could be related to the king of the asia gods those were 101 facts about norse mythology we didn't really get time to go through them all like the fact that thought was ginger for example didn't have time to mention that one who's your favorite norse god though let me know in the comments down below while you're down there give us a like and subscribe to one of my fans if you haven't already please thank you very much indeed in the meantime though two videos on screen that are really gonna i don't know they're gonna be nicer than siff's hair is that weird probably oh well see you there bye

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Keywords: 101 facts, 101, 101facts, norse mythology, norse mythology explained, norse mythology stories, norse mythology facts, facts about norse mythology, vikings, viking facts, facts about vikings, viking myths, thor, odin, loki, ragnarok, mimir, ymir, freya, freyr, frigg, norway, scandinavia, valhalla, assassins creed valhalla, god of war, loki disney plus, marvel, heimdall, asgard, hel, helheim, jotunheim, midgard, yggdrasil, world serpent, 9 realms, muspelheim, niflheim, dwarves, giants, baldur, mjolnir

Id: 3Jpg-l1IQao

Length: 27min 58sec (1678 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 03 2021