Norse Mythology Family Tree

[Grapeshot]

Anyone have a gif or link to a webpage with the Norse Mythology family tree starting from the tops and going down? Also norse mythology information about the different gods.

Thanks

 

[rpgHQ]

Anyone have a gif or link to a webpage with the Norse Mythology family tree starting from the tops and going down? Also norse mythology information about the different gods.

Thanks

http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~cherryne/mythology.html

has a nice presentation, you should try this thing called Google

 

[Oni]

http://www.pantheon.org/

Look around a bit, I'm sure you'll find at least part of what you're looking for.

 

[Grapeshot]

Okely

I found this one. Clickable links in the tree I like it

http://www.timelessmyths.com/norse/norsegodhouse.html

 

[Umbran]

It is important to note that Norse mythology is not really a single entity. It is a thing that's spread over large stretches of time, and between versions things changed - including some of the relationships between the gods.

The most important of which I can think of is the relationship between Tyr and Odin. In the norse myth most of us know, Tyr is represented as a god of war and justice, and is an offspring of Odin One-Eye, the Allfather.

But earlier versions of the mythology are quire different. In some Odin is not Allfather. He's a more minor messenger-god. And Tyr (aka Tiw or Tiwaz) ran the show, and is of parentage equal to odin, rather than a descendant.

So, you can use whatever family tree you want, but just realize that no single tree is really definitive, because there is no single story that is all of Norse myth.

 

[Sharraunna]

This is a very thorough list, though I don't think I've come across anything so neat as a family tree.

http://www.thetroth.org/ourfaith/gods.html

It is important to note that Norse mythology is not really a single entity. It is a thing that's spread over large stretches of time, and between versions things changed - including some of the relationships between the gods.

The most important of which I can think of is the relationship between Tyr and Odin. In the norse myth most of us know, Tyr is represented as a god of war and justice, and is an offspring of Odin One-Eye, the Allfather.

But earlier versions of the mythology are quire different. In some Odin is not Allfather. He's a more minor messenger-god. And Tyr (aka Tiw or Tiwaz) ran the show, and is of parentage equal to odin, rather than a descendant.

So, you can use whatever family tree you want, but just realize that no single tree is really definitive, because there is no single story that is all of Norse myth.

Where did you come across that bit of lore? I've been studying the sagas and Eddas a lot lately, and haven't seen that mentioned.

~~Sharraunna

 

[Desdichado]

Norse mythology as we know it is the product of some late written Icelandic sagas, for the most part. The mythology not only evolved over hundreds of years, but also over a large portion of Europe. I've also read, and I can't remember where, although I believe Grimm (of Grimm's tales fame, but really a famous linguist and folklorist) was the author, that Thor was the king of the gods for much of the Germanic world until the cult of Odin started to spread on the continent. In fact, he says that Christianity caught up to the cult of Odin so that some far, outlying reaches of the Germanic world still didn't see Odin as the king of the gods and the Allfather when Christianity came.

 

[Desdichado]

Where did you come across that bit of lore? I've been studying the sagas and Eddas a lot lately, and haven't seen that mentioned.

~~Sharraunna

I wouldn't expect you would. The Eddas and sagas, as I said in the last post, are the result of a particularly geographic location and a particular moment in time. They were, in fact, written after Christianity had replaced the worship of the old gods, and its amazing in some ways that they survived at all. But if you look at the (admittedly somewhat sketchy) evidence for the Germanic mythology across a broader time frame and across a broader time frame, you can see all kinds of variants that existed.

It's important to keep in mind that "Norse" mythology isn't necessarily really Norse -- it's Germanic in a broader sense. The days of the week in English, as an example, use the names of "Norse" gods as their root in most cases (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday anyway) but they do not use Norse forms of the names, they use Anglo-Saxon forms. Most of the names of the gods and heroes of Germanic mythology can quite easily be reconstructed to proto-Germanic, and quite likely existed long before any recorded history captured the myths in a moment in time.

 

[Hand of Evil]

http://www.pantheon.org/

Look around a bit, I'm sure you'll find at least part of what you're looking for.

I did and it is here...

http://www.pantheon.org/areas/genealogy/principal_norse.html

 

[Umbran]

Where did you come across that bit of lore? I've been studying the sagas and Eddas a lot lately, and haven't seen that mentioned.

I picked it up here and there. Mr. Dyal has the right of it. The Eddas are all from roughly the same time, and thus all use the same version of the mythology. I'm talking about the evolution of the mythology through time.

And, after all, shouldn't you expect that the Norse mythology would change over time? Surely every other mythology has changed with the passage of time. Why should the Norse be different? As times and the social and political climate changes, you'd expect things to shift aroudn a bit.

I've not heard the "Thor as king of the gods" idea. What I have heard is that Thor may have been, for a long time, the god most important to the worshippers. Thor being the one who cares most about the lives of normal folks. Thor's the one who goes out and beats up the beasties that plague the mortal realm, and such. That and his general atitude making him a kind of a god for the everyman, instead of the biggest and highest of the high and mighty.