Ancient Civilizations: Norse Religion & Mythology

From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth
The Aesir, in Nordic myth, were a vast family of war-gods and creator-gods.

From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
A Scandinavian god of light, the son of Odin and Frigg, noted for his handsomeness and gentle nature.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Norse goddess of love, marriage, and fertility. Her identity and attributes were often confused with those of the goddess Frigg.

From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
In Norse mythology, the brother of freyja and the god of fruitfulness and crops and of the sun and rain.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
In Norse mythology, queen of the gods; wife of Odin.

From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth
Loki (‘allure’ or ‘fire’; also known as Loder, Loke, Lokkju, Lopter and Lopti; German Loge), in Nordic myth, was both the oldest and the youngest of the gods.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Chief god of Norse mythology, god of war, and the source of wisdom. A sky god, he lived in Asgard at the top of the world-tree Yggdrasil.

From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth
Skadi ('hurt' or 'shadow'), in Nordic myth, was the daughter of the giant Thiazi, who stole Idun from the gods and was killed for it.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Norse god of thunder. An ancient and highly revered divinity, Thor was the patron and protector of peasants and warriors.

From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth
Tyr ('dayshine' or 'god'), in Nordic myths, was in some accounts the original sky-god, precursor of Odin.

From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth
Asgard ('home of the Aesir'), in Nordic myth, was the realm of the gods, in the highest of the three levels of existence, above Midgard (home of human beings) and Niflheim (home of the Dead).

From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth
Bifröst, in Nordic myth, was the bridge between Midgard and Asgard, the mortal and immortal worlds.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Title applied to two distinct works in Old Icelandic. The Poetic Edda, or Elder Edda, is a collection (late 13th cent.) of 34 mythological and heroic lays, most of which were composed c.800–c.1200, probably in Iceland or W Norway.

From The Macmillan Encyclopedia
In Norse mythology, the earth, which lies between Hel or Nifleheim, the land of ice, and Muspelheim, the land of fire, and is reached from Asgard (the home of the gods) by Bifrost, the rainbow bridge.

From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth
Ragnarök ('destruction of the powers'), in Nordic myth, also known by its German translation Götterdämmerung, is the end of this cycle of creation.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
In Norse mythology, the golden hall in Odin's palace in Asgard, where he feasted with the souls of half those heroes killed in battle (valr) chosen by his female attendants, the Valkyries; the remainder celebrated in Sessrumnir with Freya, goddess of love and war.

From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth
The Vanir ('beautiful ones'), in Nordic myth, were a family of fertility-gods led by Njörd (the Old Man of the Sea) and his twin children Frey and Freyja.

From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth
Yggdrasil ('ash-tree horse of Ygg'), in Nordic myth, was a giant ash-tree, the hub and support of the universe. It got its name when Ygg (Odin) hung himself for nine days and nights on it, 'riding' it in order to learn all the secrets of creation.

From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth
Ymir ('two-in-one'), in Nordic myth, was the giant formed at the beginning of creation, when glaciers from the ice-kingdom Niflheim spread out across the void and were thawed by flames from the fire-kingdom Muspell.