What is the difference between a Myth, a Legend and a Saga?
-Well, not that easy to tell, that is why I have them all mentioned, just to make sure.
But I do know what a Saga is! The most common English equivalent would be a FAIRY TALE - something you tell your children to entertain and excite them (WELL; NOT IF IT IS A BEDTIME STORY - THEN YOU TELL IT TO GET THEM CALM AND SLEEPY) and maybe sometimes educate a little too...
This is a Saga in modern meaning of today.
This page is always under construction, well, until we have run out of myths to tell anyway - and that, my friend, will take some time...
But this is a site of ancient Nordic culture - and in those days the word Saga ment something more than just a fiction tale.
A Saga (IN ICELANDIC) was true! An example is Ynglíngasaga, written by Snorri Sturluson - the Saga of the Ynglir-ätt (YNGLIR-FAMILY) which were the historic enumeration of the Swedish Kings through the history.
A King or a chief or someother high man could order an author to come and write down the Saga of his family. So, in this case, I would prefer the English translation HISTORY or STORY.
Be silent, you Villain - Thor's great hammer,
-Lokasenna, The Poetic Edda
Mjolnir, shall shut your mouth.
Thor will throw you - out to the East,
And then - no God will see you again.
The night had fallen over Asgard, the home of the Æsir and everybody were asleep, everybody except for Loki. He tried hard to go to sleep but he just couldn't. Just before dawn, Loki couldn't stand it anymore. Frustrated he got up from his lumpy bed and dressed. He felt raging and evil. He went outside where the fresh dew was being formed, and hated everything. Loki knew that Thor was out hunting trolls in the East and wouldn't be at home for a while. Therefore he went to Thor's farm Bilskirnir in Trudheim to spread misery. As the gates were locked he climbed up the wall with the help of some climbing plants and sneaked in through an open window. Inside he saw Thor's wife Sif lieing in her bed, sleeping.
Sif's loud cry after having discovered the disaster woke up all of her neighbours. Freya and Baldur's wife Nanna came to Sif's assistance and tried to calm her down.
...and he did, that very morning. When Thor saw his wife he got very mad and when he saw Loki's shoe he got furious.
And so Thor went wild and frantic to take vengeance on Loki. Loki was sleeping well with a wide smile on his face when Thor angrily pounded on his door. He understood that it was Thor who had discovered his work. Loki went up and answered the door, very anxious and scared of what the strongest of Gods might do to him...
..but Thor didn't let go of him, he merely changed hands and continued shaking Loki...
Eventually Loki succeded in persuading Thor with gifts and Thor let him go. Loki rushed away to Black-Elfheim, the home of the Dwarfs.
In Asgard, Loki and Brokk showed the valuables to the Æsir, who decided that Odin, Thor and Frey would be the judges. Loki gave the spear Gungnir to Odin, the ship Skidbladnir to Frey and, of course the hair for Sif to Thor. The three Gods were very impressed and Loki considered the victory as his, especially as he was certain that Brokk's third gift was no good. Now Brokk gave Frey the boar:
The three Gods discussed for a while and then Odin announced their decission: Brokk and Eitre had won the wager. Ironically, Odin, Frey and Thor had agreed on that Mjolnir, the third item, the one which was a bit malformed was the best. The only defect on it was that the shaft was a bit too short, but with Thor's strength that wouldn't be any problem. Loki tried his best to make the Gods change their minds, but they were determined. Since that didn't work Loki begged Brokk for mercy, but the dwarf remembered the gadfly, the horsefly and the wasp and wouldn't show any mercy to Loki.
This, the Gods agreed on, was a great blessing.
It was an ordinary weekday in Asgard. Nothing special was happening, and this made the mighty thunder God Thor, who was used to amuse himself by fighting Giants, absolutely bored. He was badly in need of some action and excitement. He sat down and tried to figure out something to do, and suddenly he came up with a totally wild idea: to catch the Midgards-serpent.
Her beautiful golden hair looked like shining silk where it spread over the pillow. This filled Loki's cruel heart with spiteful envy and without thinking of the great vengeance that Thor would take, he took a pair of scissors and started cropping all of Sif's hair, very carefully so that she wouldn't wake up...
When Loki was done, Sif began to move and slowly awake. Loki put all the hair inside his jacket and hurried out of the window, but on his way down, he accidently dropped one of his shoes...
There was no time for him to pick it up, so he ran off to his own castle.
-Who would do such a horrible thing? moaned Freya.
Nanna found the shoe by the window.
-Look at this! she said. This can help us find the guilty one!
-What help is that for me? Sif sobbed out. I'll still be as bold as a coot! Where is my husband when he actually is needed? It's his fault! He should be here with me, instead of hunting trolls and beating giants! I wish he'd come home!
-It's Loki, by the Midgards-serpent! I could have recognized that sissy sandalette only by the smell of it! Ooh, I will punch every tooth out of his mouth and break ever bone in his weak and tiny body! He will regret this and when he is done regretting, it's because he's DEAD!!!
-Oh, Goodmorning Thor! Loki tried to act normal. What brings you here? ...Oh, by the way, welcome home! How was your..hrrm..hunting? May I offer you anything? Mead perhaps or...
-Shut up!!! Thor shouted. You know perfectly well why I'm here! You had a good time cutting off my wife's hair last night, well, now I'm going to have a good time killing you, Father of Fenrir!!!
Thor grabbed Loki by the neck and started to shake him.
-Stop it! Please stop it! Loki cried out absolutely terrified. I am truly sorry and I will never do it again! I will go to the Dwarfs and they will make her hair of gold, even better than the hair that grew on her beautiful head! She is beautiful Thor, graceful! And I will make her even more beautiful, promise!
-Oooh noooo, groaned Loki. Listen, I will ask the Dwarfs to make a gift for Odin and one for Freya and one for you too, Thor!
He went to the sons of Ivaldi, a dwarf family, to ask them to make new hair for Sif.
As all dwarfs, they were very skillful craftsmen and it took them no time to make the finest hair of gold. They also made a spear for Odin, which never missed it's target once it had left the thrower's hand, and a ship for Frey, which always had tailwind when the sails were set and could be folded and put in a pocket when it wasn't needed.
They named the spear Gungnir and the ship Skidbladnir. Loki regained his oveweening confidence and got an idea. He went to the famous brothers Brokk and Eitre to make them a wager:
-You two are told to be unbeatable smiths, but I'll bet you my own head that you can't make three valuables as good as these!
Loki showed the Dwarfs the golden hair, Gungnir and Skidbladnir.
-It's a deal! said Brokk without hesitating one second. Let's get on with it then!
Brokk started to pump the bellows, while Eitre did the smithing. Eitre laid a hide from a swine on the live coal and said to his brother:
-Keep pump those bellows until I have returned. If you stop or even pause, the work will be ruined.
Brokk kept working as hard as he could in spite of a sudden pain on his hand, caused by a big gadfly. The gadfly was infact the sly Loki who had transformed, to cheat, without them noticing it. Eitre now came back.
-Very good, excellent, he said and pulled out a living boar with a bristle of gold. We will name him Gyllinborsti (GOLDEN BRISTLE).
For the next item, Eitre laid gold in the oven and told Brokk that he must keep pushing the bellows until he came back. This time a giant horsefly landed on his neck and bit him twice as hard as last time. Brokk tried to shake the fly off with his head but the fly, or Loki, kept biting and the dwarf kept pushing.
-Aahh! Splendid! Eitre said when he took an elegant ring out of the oven. This ring will be called Draupnir (THE DROPPER). For the third and last item Eitre took out iron. He laid it on the flames and told Brokk that even this time, it was important that he didn't stop pushing the bellows. As soon as Eitre had left a big wasp landed between Brokk's eyes, and stung his left eyelid do deep and painful, that the blood streamed in his left eye and the dwarf had to let go of the bellows and get rid of the wasp Loki.
-I hope our work isn't ruined because of you, Eitre said when he came back and found his brother away from his work.
Eitre took a hammer from the live coal.
-Hmm, well, it'll do. Now bring these three things to Asgard and guard them well.
-His name is Gyllinborsti. He will serve you better than any horse would, he can even travel through the air, and because his bristle is so shining you will be able to see in the night or in the darkest cave.
Brokk turned to Odin and gave him the ring.
-This ring is called Draupnir. It will drop eight new rings every nineth night, each and everyone as precious as this one.
Then he handed the hammer to Thor.
-I give you Mjolnir (THE PULVERIZER). With this you can beat or throw as hard as you like and it will always hit it's target, pulverize it and return to your hand. Then you can make it so small that you can carry it inside your shirt.
-Try to catch me then! Loki shouted and ran away, as quick as the lightening.
-Come back here, you're going to pay for your tricks this time, I'll see to that! Thor exclaimed, and caught him by the ankle with a thunderbolt.
This didn't mean that Loki wouldn't get away with it this time too, though. Just when Brokk took out his axe, Loki turned to Odin and said:
-This isn't fair. I bet my head, and only my head. Therefore, he has no right to hurt my neck!
Even though Loki's argument was very doubtful, the God's had to agree with him. Eventually, Loki did get a penalty after all, as Brokk could do practically whatever he wanted with Loki's head. Brokk therefore decided that the Sly One shouldn't be able to tell any more lies, so he simply stitched Loki's lips together with a strap, which later was called Vartir. No matter how hard Loki would pulled his mouth remained shut and it took him many days to untie Vartir, but his lips were so soar that he hardly dared to speak for months...
After having said goodbye to his family and arranged some things for his adventure, Thor left his stronghold Bilskirnir. He sailed over the sea to Jotunheim and put in at a beach near the Giant Hymir's farm.
Thor's plan was to spend the night in Hymir's house, as his guest, and then join Hymir the next day on his daily fishing. Thor had disguised himself as a young man and hid his hammer so that Hymir wouldn't recognize him. There would be absolutely no chance at all that the crusty Giant would accept Thor, The Giant Terminator, as his guest, and this was Thor very aware of.
He went up to the house and knocked on the door. Hesitated by pure stinginess the Giant let Thor in to be his guest over the night. They ate and drunk meed together and then it was time to sleep.
The following morning Thor asked Hymir if he could come and fish with him.
-Hmfgh. I want to fish alone and I don't want any passengers.
-But I can row for you and help you fish. I'll be your assistant, said Thor. What are you going to use as bait?
-Get it yourself said Hymir and pointed at the fold where he had his cattle.Plenty of bait there.
Thor misunderstood Hymir intentionally and went into the fold, took out a big knife, and cut an oxons head off! This will be a big enough bait for that big old serpent! Thor thought to himself.
Startled, without saying anything, Hymir just stood and watched it.
-Fishing isn't anything for sissies! It gets cold and rough out on the sea, and I won't return if you start whining kid, snotted Hymir.
- Don't you worry about that, you won't hear me complaining, answered Thor back a bit irritated. I'm going further out than you think. I ought to crush your head right here on the spot, but that's not my mission Thor thought.
They started rowing out and the Giant stunned when he discovered that the young man was faster and better than him at rowing. When they had come out to Hymir's usual fishing spot, he told Thor that they didn't have to go further out. Thor knew that he had to go to deeper water to get near the serpent and said:
-Don't be so lazy! Let's keep going!
And they did. After a while Hymir said that it definetly was far enough, but Thor kept on rowing. Finally Hymir shouted:
-Stop it!!! We have gone too far now! Out here we might irritate the Midgards-serpent, and I would not like to be his breakfast you idiote! It's dangerous to fish here!
-If this is good enough for the Midgards-serpent, then it's good enough for me! Thor called out. Let's start fishing!
Thor picked Hymir's largest rod and an enormous hook and baited it with the oxon head and started to fish. The Giant who didn't want to seem like a coward had to fish to but he picked a small hook with a tiny bait.
