The Most Violent Sagas From Norse Mythology

After Loki caused the demise of Baldur, one of Odin's sons, the gods were out for vengeance. Tracking Loki down, they bound him in a cave. They then found Loki's two sons, Vali and Narfi, and turned Vali into a ravenous wolf. The gods watched as Vali tore Narfi limb from limb. After taking Narfi's organs, they cast a magic spell to make the parts as hard as iron, using them to bind Loki in the cave.

Their thirst for vengeance wasn't quenched yet, however. Skadi, the goddess of the moon, caught a treacherous snake and tied it above Loki. The creature dripped venom on the god for all eternity. Fortunately for the trickster god, his wife Sigyn decided she would sit with him, holding a dish that caught the drops. She sits with him to this day.

In fact, this is the Norse explanation for earthquakes. Every time Sigyn has to empty the dish, some venom drips on Loki's face, causing him to shake uncontrollably and set off earthquakes.

Hadingus and Harthgrepa had an unusual relationship: Harthgrepa was a giantess who nursed the human Hadingus when he was a child. As he grew up, Harthgrepa offered herself to him as a lover, explaining she could change her size and shape, and was willing to shrink down for him. He embraced this, and the two traveled together.

It all went well until Harthgrepa used magic to save Hadingus from an assault by a mysterious giant hand. Magnifying herself, Harthgrepa grappled with the hand so Hadingus could chop it apart. However, in doing so, she went against her own kind, and a group of giants arrived and tore her apart.

Hadingus recovered remarkably fast and went off on a new adventure.

In Norse mythology, there is nothing as sacred as Yggdrasil, the World Tree. It binds the nine realms together, and its doom is the final goal of Ragnarok. However, it also promises knowledge to those who seek it. Odin, ever searching for knowledge, went to the roots of the World Tree to seek Mimir, a shadowy figure who understood the flow of time (roughly analogous to the Fates in Greek mythology).

Mimir guarded the Well of Urd, or the Well of Fate, and Odin realized drinking from it would give him knowledge of events to come. In some tellings, he is specifically seeking knowledge of Ragnarok.

However, for reasons of his own, Mimir demanded Odin sacrifice his eye in exchange for a drink, to which Odin agreed. Unwilling to wait for any kind of help, Odin tore out his own eye and tossed it in the water.

The clash between the Aesir and Vanir was endless and evenly matched. Sick of fighting, they called a truce and, as was tradition, sent hostages to live with the other side to enforce good behavior. The Vanir received Hoenir and the indispensable oracle Mimir.

Hoenir was capable of giving great advice, but only when Mimir was around. However, the Vanir were unaware of this stipulation and became angry when Hoenir was useless. They decided to cut Mimir's head off and send it to Odin to show their dissatisfaction. Odin, aware they had mistakenly offed the real seer, kept Mimir's head alive through magic and continued to receive good advice from Mimir long afterward.

The wolf Fenrir, one of Loki's children, was destined to devour Odin during Ragnarok. To keep an eye on him, the gods decided they would raise him in Asgard. However, Fenrir grew too quickly, and the gods decided he must be bound.

They tried a number of different chains. Each time, they tricked Fenrir by saying the chains were only there to test his strength. Inevitably, Fenrir broke all of them, but the gods clapped and cheered, secretly hoping to find a chain the wolf couldn't break.

Finally, they went to the dwarves of Svartalfheim, who agreed to form a chain out of rare material - things like a cat's footsteps, a woman's beard, and a mountain's roots - and therefore couldn't be broken. They brought this chain to Fenrir, who was immediately suspicious, as it was so light compared to the other ones.

He agreed to test it if one of the gods put his hand in Fenrir's mouth while he was trying it. The only god brave enough was Tyr, who was Fenrir's keeper when he was a pup. Fenrir put on the chain, couldn't remove it, and tore Tyr's hand clean off.

In the beginning, there was the icy realm of Niflheim and the fiery land of Muspelheim. When the two met, water was created, and out of that water formed the body of Ymir, the father of giants and first being in the universe. Ymir produced giants from his body and, somewhere nearby, the cow Audhumla licked river rocks into the shape of men. These men would become the first gods, and they would father Odin.

Odin and his brothers slew Ymir and threw his body out into the void. From his remains, they fashioned the entire world as the Vikings understood it. For example, the gods used Ymir's brains to create clouds. This became the land of Midgard, and this event was the first act of aggression between the gods and giants.