Drawing Connections Between Vikings and Greeks

While reading the Norse myths I saw many connections between the stories of the Vikings and the stories of the Greeks. They were also very different, which makes sense considering the two cultures were very different and had different priorities. One thing that they did have in common was the high status that warriors held in their societies. However, even that differs in extreme ways. In Greek mythology the heroes and great warriors went to the Elysian Fields after death, basically as close as you can get to our modern day version of heaven, and there they would stay until the end of time. In the Norse mythology Odin would give men strength and bravery in battle, but he would do nothing to help prevent their deaths, because when they died they went to Odin’s Hall in Asgard to train for the final battle, Ragnarok (Introduction). Odin needed as many fierce and valiant warriors as he could find to help the gods defeat the giants in the battle that was foretold.
One very defining character from Norse mythology is Loki, the half-giant brother of Odin and the notorious trickster. The closest that the Greeks have to a trickster god is Hermes, who was well known for his pranks on his divine brothers and sisters and also on unfortunate humans who crossed his path, but Loki is far more duplicitous and sinister than his Greek counterpart. Loki was responsible for the trick that the gods played on the builder/giant who offered to build a wall around Asgard in exchange for Freyja, the Sun, and the Moon (Asgard’s Wall). When the gods were on the brink of losing the wager they made Loki changed not only his shape, but his sex, and turned into a mare in order to distract the giant’s stallion that was helping to build the wall, resulting in him giving birth to an eight-legged colt that he gave to Odin. Whereas the Greeks were very open about homosexuality, the Norse made it punishable by outlawry, therefore Loki’s exploits involving changing sex, and bisexuality were seen as extremely distasteful. Both the Greek and Norse gods had some strange offspring, Zeus was well known for his escapades, Rhea (mother of Zeus), gave birth to a giant snake that she attempted to use to stop the gods from gaining control. Loki also sired a giant snake, Jormungand was so large that he wrapped entirely around Midgard and bit his own tale (Loki’s Children and the Binding of Fenrir).
Loki was also at the heart of the problem when Idun and her apples disappeared from Asgard (Theft of Idun’s Apples). Idun’s golden apples we the source of the gods’ everlasting youth so their disappearance was disastrous. The Greeks also had a few tales involving golden apples, all of which involved the gods but never as the gods’ downfalls. Whereas the Norse believed that their gods could die, Odin dies twice, and several other gods are doomed to die in Ragnarok, the Greeks believed their gods to be immortal and incapable of death. As only a small population in either culture was likely to be literate, it was important that the people could recognize pictures or paintings of their gods, therefore many of the gods were always depicted with their different gifts and powers. Zeus with his lightning bolts, Thor with his hammer, Odin and his spear, Apollo and his bow, etc. The Norse gods were given many of their gifts from the dwarves (The Treasures of the Gods), again, Loki played a key role this story. Power and cunning were essential to both cultures and you can see this in the way they depict their gods. You can tell a lot by a people by what they prioritize. The personification of the necessary traits in their gods shows the disparities between societies.