Treasury of Norse Mythology Read online

  Text Copyright © 2015 Donna Jo Napoli

  Illustrations Copyright © 2015 Christina Balit

  Compilation Copyright © 2015 National Geographic Society

  All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission from the publisher is prohibited.

  Staff for This Book

  Priyanka Sherman and Amy Briggs, Senior Editors

  David M. Seager, Art Director and Designer

  Callie Broaddus, Associate Designer

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  Sanjida Rashid and Rachel Kenny, Design Production Assistants

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  ILLUSTRATIONS CREDITS

  All illustrations: Christina Balit.

  Photos: 1.2 (INSET), Vito Palmisano/Getty Images; 2.2 (INSET), filmfoto/Shutterstock; 3.2 (INSET), Werner Forman Archive/Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm/Heritage-Images/Art Resource, NY; 4.3 (INSET), Ko Backpacko/Shutterstock; 5.3 (INSET), Oldmantravels/Flickr; 6.2 (INSET), Werner Forman Archive/Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm/Heritage-Images/Art Resource, NY; 7.2 (INSET), Detail of figures illustrating a saga, from the Isle of Gotland (stone) by Viking (9th century), Historiska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden/Bridgeman Images; 8.2 (INSET), David Robertson/Alamy; 8.2 (INSET BACK), Chanwut Jukrachai/Shutterstock; 9.2 (INSET), The Market of Tlatelolco, detail from the Great City of Tenochtitlan, from the cycle “Pre-Hispanic and Colonial Mexico,” 1945 (mural) (see also 97395), Rivera, Diego (1886–1957)/Palacio Nacional, Mexico City, Mexico/Bridgeman Images; 10.2 (INSET), Shutterstock; 11.2 (INSET), © Juan Carlos Munoz/Robert Harding World Imagery; 12.2 (INSET), Fedorov Oleksiy/Shutterstock; 13.2 (INSET), Soldiers for the Norwegian King Sverre, Torstein Skevla and Skjervald Skrukka carrying the king’s son Hakon Hakonsson, 1869 (oil on canvas)/Bridgeman Images; 14.2 (INSET), simonekesh/Shutterstock; 15.2 (INSET), Henrik Larsson/Shutterstock; 16.2 (INSET), Jason Steel/Shutterstock; 17.2 (INSET), Odin, with his two crows, Hugin (thought) and Munin (memory) (pen & ink on paper), Icelandic School (18th century)/Royal Library, Copenhagen, Denmark/Bridgeman Images; 18.2 (INSET), NMPFT/Science Museum/SSPL/Getty Images; bm1.1, Heimdall Blowing His Horn Before Ragnarok, from “Melsted’s Edda” (pen & ink and w/c on paper), Icelandic School (18th century)/Arni Magnusson Institute, Reykjavik, Iceland/Bridgeman Images; bm1.2, Valhalla and the Midgard Serpent, 1680, Icelandic School (17th century)/Arni Magnusson Institute, Reykjavik, Iceland/Bridgeman Images

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Napoli, Donna Jo, 1948- author.

  Treasury of Norse mythology : stories of intrigue, trickery, love, and revenge

  / by Donna Jo Napoli; illustrated by Christina Balit.

  pages cm

  Audience: Ages 8-12

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-4263-2357-7

  ISBN 978-1-4263-2098-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-4263-2099-6 (library binding : alk. paper)

  1. Mythology, Norse–Juvenile literature. 2. Gods, Norse–Juvenile literature. 3. Tales–Scandinavia. I. Balit, Christina, illustrator. II. Title.

  BL860.N25 2015

  398.209368–dc23

  15/RRDS/1

  v3.1

  Cover: Four inhabitants of Asgard: Odin on his throne, two wolves at his feet; stunning Freyja in her falcon-feather coat; Thor with his hammer high, ready to bash enemies; and Loki lurking, envious and spiteful

  For Barry, il mio vichingo. —DJN

  For my very dear friend Joe Boyle …

  a Norse traveler if ever there was one. —CB

  Enormous gratitude for guidance throughout this project goes to Professor Scott Mellor of the Department of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The author and illustrator also thank the National Geographic team who worked on this project for their resourcefulness, energy, and wisdom: Amy Briggs, Priyanka Lamichhane, Hillary Leo, and David Seager.

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Introduction

  Note on Norse Names

  CREATION

  THE COSMOS

  THE GODS CLASH

  ODIN’S QUEST

  LOKI’S MONSTROUS CHILDREN

  WAGERS & TREASURES

  SHAPE-SHIFTERS

  HEIMDALL’S MANY CHILDREN

  FREYJA’S SHAME

  THOR’S HAMMER

  THOR THE GREEDY

  IDUNN’S APPLES

  SKADI & NJORD

  FREY & GERD

  DEATH BY BLUNDER

  T
HE GODS TAKE VENGEANCE

  KVASIR’S ENDURING POETRY

  DESTRUCTION

  AFTERWORD

  Map of the Ancient Norse World

  Time Line of Norse History

  Cast of Characters

  Bibliography

  Index

  About the Authors

  INTRODUCTION

  During the Middle Ages Latin became the language of writing and of much religious storytelling in many lands of Europe. So, for example, in Germany and France people would speak German or French to friends and business associates, but when they wrote books or told Christian stories, they used Latin. The countries in what is today Scandinavia spoke Old Norse, common to all three countries, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. However, even after Latin writing came to Iceland—which was settled by Norse people—they wrote their own stories in Old Norse, not Latin. In Iceland the tradition of skaldic poetry and song was fundamental to daily culture. People gathered in large halls at any excuse to listen to stories, often because a visiting poet had come to the village. Stories could warm a long cold night, after all. This might well be the reason why some Norse people tenaciously maintained the worldview you will encounter in the stories here until the middle of the 12th century, in opposition to the rising strength of Christianity in neighboring countries.

  The Norse stories in many ways reflect the geophysical world the people of Norway and Iceland inhabited. Norway is covered with mountains, the tallest of which are essentially barren—and four are volcanic. Iceland is covered with volcanoes, many of which are active. And both countries have snow and ice in many areas in winter and in some areas even year-round, and each has a long coast lapped by an icy ocean. In such an environment the land and sea themselves must have seemed alive. At any moment the earth might roar, spit fire, and swallow you, or it might shake and an avalanche of snow could smother your homestead. Even a piece of rock, if smacked against a glassy stone, could produce hot sparks that set afire whatever dry twigs were at hand. It’s no wonder then that not just living beings had names, but all sorts of objects had names, too. Bridges and halls, trees and swords, inanimate objects of so many kinds had personalities and powers, and it was important to show respect through calling them by name—and never, never to do so frivolously.

  The world must have seemed outrageously dangerous; death waited behind any door, and, oh, how savage that death might be. Nevertheless, these people got in boats and braved seas turbulent with storms as they explored and exploited other worlds. The Norse both paid homage to and defied the unknown. The spirit of courage colors their mythology, even as trickery leads to tragedy. And perhaps facing adversity all the time is at least partly the reason why they had a democratic society in which all free men (not women, and not slaves) had a vote—just as all gods had a vote in the assemblies that the major god, Odin, led. Lives depended on decisions made in communal meetings, so it was best to share both the privilege and the responsibility.

  A note to ebook readers: We hope you find the art in this book as enchanting as we do. To experience it in more detail, you may be able to enlarge it. In most reading systems, you can double tap on the image to bring up a full-screen viewer with zoom and pan functionality.

  NOTE ON NORSE NAMES

  Old Norse used letters that don’t appear in the modern alphabet for English, such as Þ, which indicates the first sound in think; ð, which indicates the first sound in the; and æ, which indicates the first sound in act. They also added marks above or below vowels to indicate a variety of sounds. While these Old Norse alphabetic symbols are beautiful, I feared that using them here would inhibit you from reading passages aloud. I wouldn’t risk robbing you of that joy. So, I have anglicized all proper names here. Further, Norse names often end in r because a final r can be a nominative case marker, showing that the word is the subject of its sentence. Since English does not use case markings on names, for the sake of consistency, I’ve chosen to leave out nominative case-marking final r’s. Thus, “Óðinn, the Alfaðir of the Æsir,” is known here as “Odin, the Allfather of the Aesir.” “Þorr, who swings his hammer, Mjölnir,” is here “Thor, who swings his hammer, Mjolnir.” And so on.

  If you would like to know more about Old Norse, please consult a site for the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), such as www.phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter1/chapter1.html or en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet. Then use the IPA to help you understand a site on Old Norse, such as www.omniglot.com/writing/oldnorse.htm. Please watch the wonderful video there.

  The frost giant Ymir emerged from the melting rivers of Ginnungagap. A daughter sprang from his sweaty armpit; a son, from his feet. The sweet-tempered cow Audhumla licked at the ice until she uncovered the head of the first god, Buri.

  CREATION

  The north was frozen—snow and ice, nothing more. It was called Niflheim. It was the embodiment of bleakness.

  The south was aflame–ready to consume whatever might come. It was called Muspell. It was the embodiment of insanity.

  Between them lay a vast emptiness. It was called Ginnungagap. It waited.

  In the midst of the northern realm, water bubbled up—in the spring known as Hvergelmir. From it ran 11 rivers, straight down into the void, filling the northern part of Ginnungagap. The cold rivers slowed and thickened, like icy syrup, but a venomous kind of syrup. One that matched the desolate cries of the haunted winds.

  The southern part of Ginnungagap was hot, though. Muspell kept it molten, like lava.

  So when the gusts from the northern part met the heaving heat from the southern part, the middle of Ginnungagap grew almost balmy. The icy rivers thawed just enough to drip over that wide middle part.

  That was enough: The frost giant Ymir stepped out of those drops. From the sweat of his left armpit grew a frost giant son and daughter. Ymir’s feet rubbed together, and another frost giant was born. Ymir’s every move, every thought, resulted in more frost giants. And all of them were spitting mean. What else could they be, given the bitter source of the very liquid in their veins?

  Heavenly Movements

  The moon and sun

  People used to think the sun and moon crossed the sky. But in 1543 astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus argued that the Earth circles the sun, based on his observations of constellations and a lunar eclipse. Later astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler made astronomical measurements, which led to Kepler’s laws of planetary motion around the sun. In 1609 astronomer Galileo Galilei invented the telescope and added support to Copernicus’s model based on observations of the planet Venus.

  The ice of Ginnungagap kept melting as the air grew milder. It formed a cow, a huge good-natured beast, from whose udders spurted four milk rivers. Her name was Audhumla. She stood in the middle of the glistening blocks of salty ice, and like any good cow, she immediately started licking. She licked all day long, until, under her great rasping tongue, hair appeared out of the ice. She licked all the next day, until a whole head appeared. By the evening of the third day, an entire being stood there. He was Buri, the first god.

  Buri soon had a son named Bor, and Bor married the daughter of a frost giant and fathered three sons, the grandchildren of Buri: Odin and Vili and Ve.

  Now the trouble began: The sons of Bor and the gang of frost giants hated each other. Inevitably, perhaps, for the world was still such an inhospitable place, ice on one side, fire on the other, that hate found a natural home there. Bor’s sons killed Ymir.

  The blood of that ancient frost giant surged out over Ginnungagap and drowned all the other frost giants—all but two: Bergelmir and his wife. They got in their boat and let the gory current carry them where it would.

  But now the sons of Bor found themselves with this enormous corpse, and they recognized the possibilities: Life could come from death. That could be the circle of things. So they used every part of the slain Ymir to create many worlds. His blood made seas and lakes. His flesh made earth. His bones formed mountains. His teeth became ro
cks and pebbles.

  Ymir’s hollowed-out skull made the sky, and the three sons of Bor took the maggots crawling in Ymir’s rotted carcass and created small creatures called dwarfs. They set a dwarf under each of the four corners of this skull-sky to hold it up, arching over the earth. One dwarf was called Nordri—North; one, Austri—East; one, Sudri—South; one, Vestri—West. The other dwarfs ran off to live in the rocky caves. They became skilled craftsmen. It was they who wrought the decorative treasures of the gods.

  The three sons of Bor killed the frost giant Ymir and used his body parts to create worlds and the objects within those worlds. From his skull they made the sky.

  But there was still more of Ymir’s body to exploit. The sons of Bor threw his brains up into the sky to form clouds. They stole embers from Muspell and created the sun and moon, and from the sparks they made all the many stars.

  With Ymir’s eyebrows they made a wall to keep out the giants. The land outside that wall was called Jotunheim, and the only two giants left alive settled there. The land inside that wall was called Midgard.

  So now the land of Midgard was protected from giants, from ice, from fire, and it had sweet air above. It grew green with leeks and fragrant clover. Trees shot up, spruce and elm and ash. The gods, who had grown in number, wandered over this land. From two pieces of driftwood on the seashore, three gods created a man and a woman, the first humans. Odin put his mouth to theirs and gave them Ond—Breath—so they could live and love. Hoenir gave them Od—Mind—so they could understand and laugh. Lodur gave them La—Sense—so they could appreciate beauty. And that lone man, Ask, and that lone woman, Embla, set about having children to populate the land of Midgard.