Vanaheim (Old Norse Vanaheimr, “Homeland of the Vanir“) is one of the Nine Worlds that are situated around the world-tree Yggdrasil. As the name implies, it’s the home of the Vanir tribe of deities, who tend to be somewhat more associated with fertility and what we today would call “nature” than the other tribe of … Continue reading Vanaheim →

Gullveig (pronounced “GULL-vayg”) is a female figure mentioned only in two stanzas in the Völuspá, one of the poems in the Poetic Edda. The stanzas describe the events leading up to the Aesir-Vanir War, the war between the two main tribes of deities in Norse mythology, the Aesir and the Vanir. The two stanzas read: … Continue reading Gullveig →

In Norse mythology, gods and goddesses usually belong to one of two tribes: the Aesir and the Vanir. Throughout most of the Norse tales, deities from the two tribes get along fairly easily, and it’s hard to pin down firm distinctions between the two groups. But there was a time when that wasn’t the case. … Continue reading The Aesir-Vanir War →

Asgard (Old Norse Ásgarðr, “Enclosure of the Aesir) is one of the Nine Worlds of Norse mythology and the home and fortress of the Aesir, one of the two tribes of gods (the other being the Vanir, who have their home in Vanaheim). Asgard is located in the sky[1] (albeit spiritually rather than physically, of … Continue reading Asgard →

The Nine Worlds (Old Norse Níu Heimar) are the homelands of the various types of beings found in the pre-Christian worldview of the Norse and other Germanic peoples. They’re held in the branches and roots of the world-tree Yggdrasil, although none of the sources for our present knowledge of Norse mythology and religion describe exactly … Continue reading The Nine Worlds →

The Vanir (Old Norse Vanir, pronounced “VAN-ir”) are one of the two principal tribes of deities featured in Norse mythology. (The other tribe is the Aesir.) Among their ranks are Freya, Freyr, Njord, and arguably the early Germanic goddess Nerthus as well. Their home is Vanaheim, one of the Nine Worlds held within the branches … Continue reading The Vanir Gods and Goddesses →

The cosmology of Norse mythology – the places in which the action occurs and their arrangement, you could say – is primarily an invisible, spiritual otherworld, although it overlapped with the Vikings’ physical world in a few cases. The Norse cosmology shares much in common with the cosmologies of other northern Eurasian shamanic traditions, but … Continue reading Cosmology →