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A comprehensive study of the mortality of Norse gods, with close readings of the Prose Edda, Poetic Edda and Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum.
Divinity usually implies immortality. The very phrase "gods and mortals" highlights an ontological gap between two distinct categories of existence: immortal deities and transient humans. This divide, however, does not hold true in the Scandinavian mythological tradition, where the gods themselves are mortal. This mortality is central to myths such as those of Baldr and of Ragnarøk, and affords the Norse gods narrative potential, that is unparalleled in other traditions, such as those inherited from antiquity.
The first half of this study explores some salient consequences of this attribute, highlighting the striking anthropomorphism of the gods. The second half takes a more diachronic approach, examining the prehistory of the group of gods who became known as the Æsir and arguing that they developed from non-anthropomorphic divine forces shaped by and mobilized in ideologies of leadership and warfare in pre-Christian Northern Europe. By examining how divine mortality not only drives Norse mythic narratives but also reflects wider patterns of thought and belief, including early medieval theories of rulership and the sacralization of human excellence, this book reconsiders the boundaries between godhood and humanity in pre-Christian Scandinavia and, in doing so, questions what it means to be a god.
List of contents
Table of Contents
Illustrations
Preface
Conventions
Introduction: Gods
and Mortals
Part I: Among Gods
Chapter 1: Gods' End: Theomachy in Old Scandinavian Literature
Chapter 2: Baldr and the Grand Narrative Arc of Mythological History
Chapter 3: Ragnarøk: From Dawn to Dusk
Part II: Adrift
Chapter 4: The Anatopism of Myth in Old Norse Literature
Part III: Among Humans
Chapter 5:
Ansis and Other Demigods
Chapter 6: Lords: Human and Divine
Chapter 7: Gods and Humans in Theophoric Kennings
Coda: Playing Gods
Bibliography
About the author
JONAS WELLENDORF is an Associate Professor in UC Berkeley's Department of Scandinavian, specializing in Old Norse studies. He is the author of
Gods and Humans in Medieval Scandinavia: Retying the Bonds (Cambridge, 2018).
Summary
A comprehensive study of the mortality of Norse gods, with close readings of the Prose Edda, Poetic Edda and Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum.
