THERE ARE DIFFERENT DARK BEINGS, BOTH WITHIN THE ÆSIR CULT AND WITHIN THE OLD NORDIC FOLKBELIEF, SOME OF THEM ARE CLOSE CONNECTED WITH EACH OTHER.
I WILL ALSO USE THIS PAGE FOR PRESENTING OTHER MYSTERIOUS CREATURES, SUCH AS THE VÄTTS, THE CREEK-HORSE AND THE NUDE ONE, ALL THESE BELONGING TO THE NORDIC FOLKBELIEF AND MANY STILL IN USE TODAY TO SCARE THE CHILDREN FROM GOING INTO THE WOODS ALONE.
THIS PAGE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION (WELL, THE WHOLE SITE IS...) - IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING WHICH YOU CAN'T FIND, MAYBE YOU WILL FIND IT LATER THIS YEAR...
I WILL ALSO DEFINE OTHER WORDS / NAMES THAT RELATE TO THIS TOPIC.
THE CREATURES BELONGING TO THE OLD NORDIC FOLKBELIEF IS COLOURED IN THIS GREEN COLOUR.
Allwise
Andvari
Angirboda
Aurboda
Aurgelmir
Aurvandil
Bergelmir
Berling
Bili
Biära
Boltorn
Brokk
The Creek-horse
Draug
Dwarfs
Eitri
Elli
Farbauti
Fenja
Fjalar
Fornjot
Galar
Geirrod
Gerd
Giants/Giantesses
2.In the later Nordic folkbelief, the Giants are gigantic beings, often living in the mountains. They are considered as being extremely strong and a bit stupid. Huge rocks and stones which lay in the middle of a plain or in the woods, far away from the nearest mountain, were explained as stones which a giant had thrown there.
Gilling
Gjalp
Greip
Grid
Gullveig
Gunnlod
Gymir
Hugi
Hymir
Hyndla
Hyrrokkin
Ivaldi
The Ivaldi's Sons
Jotnar
Ironsaxa
Laufey
Lit
Lofar
Menja
Mimir
Muspel's Sons
Mökkurkalfe
Nal
Nari
Narfi (1)
Narfi (2)
Nidhögg(2)
The Nude One
Nörfi
Narfi (2)
Ragnhild
UNDER SEVERE CONSTRUCTION!!!!!!!!!
THE MOST COMMON "DARK BEING" ON THIS PAGE IS PROBABLY RELATED TO THE GIANTS (THE RIMTURSES), THE WORST ENEMY OF THE ÆSIR AND THE WORST THREAT TO ASGARD.
-BE SURE TO CHECK BACK OFTEN!
THE DIFFERENT "RACES" ARE COLOURED BROWN AND ARE IN ITALICS.
Name of a Dwarf who kidnapes a woman because she is so beautiful that he wants her to become his wife. None of the Æsir wants to give her away to Allwise, but Thor says that it is OK if Allwise is wise enough, which Thor will find out by letting him answer questions about the nine worlds. Now, Allwise happen to know all the answers, so Thor figures out another plan, he keeps on asking until the break of dawn.
When the sunlight touches Allwise, he turns into solid rock, because like all dark beings, he can't stand the sun.
Andvari is a Dwarf too, he lives in the mythological Andvari River. Here he uses the Guise of a northern pike to get food from the river, far more efficient than fishing.
This horrible Giantess's name means "she who brings sorrow" and is also called "the Old in Ironwood". She has three children with the mean and shrewd Loki - the Midgard's Serpent, Fenrir and Hel.
She is a Giantess from the mountains and married to the Giant Gymir.
Their daughter Gerd later marries the Vana Frey.
The name means "the First Rumbler". Another name for Ymir.
This mythological being was probably married to the Trollwoman Groa and once he had frostbitten his big toe. Thor broke it off and threw it up to the sky where it turned into a star and has remained ever since. This perticular star was called Aurvandil's toe in the Viking Age.
This is one of the Giants from the mystic beginning of time. His grand-father was Aurgelmir - the First Rumbler. When Aurgelmir was killed by the three sons of Buri, all Giants of that time drowned in the blood that flushed out, except for Bergelmir and his woman, who saved themselves up to the top of a wind-mill.
So this Giants is also seen as the great fore-father of all now living Giants, or Rimturses as the Giants rightously should be called.
One of the four Dwarfs that smithed Brisingamén - Freya's beloved necklace.
This Giant is killed by Frey with a deer-horn, as Frey hadn't his sword at the moment.
This is some kind of a guise for an animal, sent by a Witch. For example; the hare which could be sent by a Witch to milk somebody's cows or the cat which is some cases took the form of a spool.
His daughter Beyla is the mother of Odin among others.
This Dwarf is the son of Ivaldi. He took part in the creation of Frey's pig Gyllinborsti, Odin's ring Draupnir and Thor's hammer Mjolnir.
The spirit of the water, the creeks in this case, took the guise of a horse to trick and kill people. If a person got too close to the water, he may meet the Creek-horse which would fool anyone to rie on his back and then galopp down in the water and drown the person.
This was a wise way of having children not go to close to the water in the old days, even though all peopled believed in it...
This is a dead man, drowned from the Norweigan folkbelief, who had come back from the dead for vengeance.
These small creatures live beneath the surface of the Earth, usually in tunnels and caves. They origins from the maggots that nourrished of the humus of Aurgelmir's flesh.
They are skillful smiths and is the same as the Black-Elves.
The word "Dwarf" came from the German word Zwerg in the later Viking Age and Black-Elves had been the word used before that period of time.
Later years Nordic folkbelief have not kept the Dwarfs, but do now refer to these small ones living in the holes in the ground as Vätts and maybe also the Mountain-Trolls and the Mountain-King had the same role then as the Dwarfs had once for people.
This Dwarf is the son of Ivaldi and a skillful smith and together with the Dwarf Brokk, he took part in the creation of Frey's pig Gyllinborsti, Odin's ring Draupnir and Thor's hammer Mjolnir.
The Giantwoman Elli represent ageing and high age.
Father of Loki, Byleist and Helblindi, married to Laufey. His name means "he who punches hard".
Fenja and Menja is the names of two sisters and Giantwomen who grind gold in the enormous Grotti-mill. These two first served as thrallesses to King Fjolnir of Sweden, but were bought by King Frodi of Denmark to grind gold, peace and happiness.
King Frodi is very cruel to the sisters, they don't get any rest and then they grind a hostile army led by the Sea King Mysing. He kills King Frodi and steals the Grotti-mill and its thrallesses Fenja and Menja. But he isn't better to them than Frodi was, but meaner. He forces them to work even harder, and this time they have to grind salt instead of gold. They take a cruel vengeance of Mysing by grinding the salt until his ship sinks and he drowns. This is the reason why the ocean is so salt.
This name seems to be very popular, some examples:
One of the Dwarfs that kills Kvasir. Then there are a lot of other Giants and Dwarfs that is named Fjalar, and one cock, he who will crow in Ironwood when Ragnarok arrives.
Giant who is the father of Ægir and close connected to wind and fire. He is killed by Thor.
One of the Dwarfs that kills Kvasir.
A Giant who fights Thor.
Daughter of the Giant couple Gymir and Aurboda. She lives in an infernal place in the North. When she streches out her armes, she lights upp everything around her, and all fo the worlds shines by her reflection. The As Frey falls in love with her and proposes to her. She has probably been some sort of a fertility divinenty.
1.In the Æsir cult, the giants are the big inhabitants in Jotunheim. They are often eavil and skilful in black magic; they are the Gods' worst enimies and it is also they who fights the Gods in the final cosmic battle Ragnarök. The Gods' best weapon against the Giants is Thor and his hammer, Mjolnir. There are persons who origins from the Giants, that are (MORE OR LESS) accepted among the Gods: Mimir, Gerd, Loki and, Tyr (WHO ACTUALLY COUNTS AS AN AS). Besides them, many of the Gods have Gintess lovers, even Thor.
A Giant who was killed together with his wife by the same Dwarfs that kill Kvasir. His son, Suttung, takes his vengeance and demands the Skald-Mead of the dwarfs.
The name means the shouting. She is one of Geirrod's daughters.
A Giant maiden, Gjalp's sister, Geirrod's daughter. It is told that her spine is broken when Thor's chair falls over her.
A Giantess, who becomes Thor's lover.
The name means "Golden beverage", and she has a strong desire for gold. This is one of the Giantess' Angirboda's disguises, one that makes her pretty. The Æsir didn't like her and she was killed and burned three times in a row, but she kept on coming back each time. Eventually she came as Heid, a type of troll-woman who practises seyd (Black magic) and which brings misfortune.
Gullveig is told to be the reason of the Vanir-war.
She is the daughter of Suttung and the guard of the Skald-Mead, which is being kept deep in a mountain. Odin wants the mead, and he seduces Gunnlod and sleeps with her for three nights, then he finally is allowed to taste the mead in three gulps. He takes three enormous gulps and turns himself into an eagle and then he escapes with all the mead to Asgard, where the other Æsir wait with big barrels.
The faithful Gunnlod is left alone and in deep sorrow.
Gynir is a Giant, married to Aurboda.
Hug is the word for thought and Hugi is an illusion figure who competes in a running-contest against Thor's servant Tjalvi. Hugi is made of Outgard-Loki's thought and as nothing is faster than the tought, Hugi easily wins the contest.
A fierce Giant with big eyes. The power of his frenzy eyes can destroy massive stones. He is the As Tyr's father.
A Giantess who is an expert in the &Aelig;sir's genealogy. She calls Freya a big vamp.
She is a Giantess who once helps the Gods pushing out Baldur's burial ship.
The Dwarfs' Prince and, of course, The Ivaldi's Sons' father.
The most famous are Brokk, Eitri and Sindri. They are very skillful smiths, and made weapons, jewelery and ships for the Gods. You can read about it in the myth How Thor Gained His Hammer Mjolnir.
Old Nordic name for Giants.
A Giantess, who's name means "She with the Ironsword". She is Thor's son Magni's mother.
Her name means leaf-island and she is Loki's mother and Farbauti's wife.
A dwarf who runs in Thor's way when he and the other Gods are preraring Baldur's ship-pyre. Thor gets mad at Lit and kicks him into the ship-pyre so he burns up.
All Dwarfs' first ancestor.
Giantess and Fenja sister. Read more about the two sisters at Fenja.
The evil Giants that joins Surt to the big settlement in Ragnarök.
An artificial Giant made of clay. His heart is from a mare and he gets his consciousness from galdirs, magic songs, in his chest. He looks awful and is extremely big. The Giants create him so that he can be at Rungnir's assistance in a battle against Thor, but when Mökkurkalfe sees the strong and mighty God he starts shelving of fear. Then Tjalvi can kill the Clay-Giant with an arrow from his bow.
Nal means needle, and is another name for Laufey.
Another name for the more known Narfi (1).
A giant, son of Loki and Sigyn.
This Narfi is a Giant, Night's father.
The Dragon which lives by Yggdrasil, by the well Hvergelmir, gnawing at Yggdrasil's roots.
He is a nude supernatural being who rules the inland's lakes and watercourses, in the Nordic folkbelief. He is dangerous as he entices humans with his music, mostly violin, then he drownes them in the water.
Another name for Narfi (2).
This Narfi is a Giant, Night's father.
A Giantess who is married to Hadding.
Just like Skadi, she
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