See any Ice Giants around?

[n2doc]

[sakabatou]

1. Hehehe

[rug]

2. 24 Themis, just last month.

http://io9.com/5529500/scientists-discover-giant-asteroid-covered-in-ice

[Cirque du So-What]

3. Yeah, but what has he done for us lately?

Get back to me when krakens no longer terrorize shipping lanes.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. That's not Odin.

One too many eyes, for one thing, and he's holding Mjølnir, not Gungnir.

"Course it's probly not Thor either, with that blond beard.

I'm confused.

[frogmarch]

6. Odin traded his eye for a drink from a magic fountain.

At least, that is how he lost his eye according to this short story:

HOW ODIN LOST HIS EYE

by: Abbie Farwell Brown (1881-1927)


http://www.shortstoryarchive.com/b/how_odin_lost_his_eye.html

(snip)

In one place at the roots of Yggdrasil was a fair fountain called the Urdar-well, where the three Norn maidens, who knew the past, present, and future, dwelt with their pets, the two white swans. This was magic water in the fountain, which the Norns sprinkled every day upon the giant tree to keep it green—water so sacred that everything which entered it became white as the film of an eggshell. Close beside this sacred well the Æsir had their council hall, to which they galloped every morning over the rainbow bridge.

But Father Odin, the king of all the Æsir, knew of another fountain more wonderful still; the two ravens whom he sent forth to bring him news had told him. This also was below the roots of Yggdrasil, in the spot where the sky and ocean met. Here for centuries and centuries the giant Mimer had sat keeping guard over his hidden well, in the bottom of which lay such a treasure of wisdom as was to be found nowhere else in the world. Every morning Mimer dipped his glittering horn Giöll into the fountain and drew out a draught of the wondrous water, which he drank to make him wise. Every day he grew wiser and wiser; and as this had been going on ever since the beginning of things, you can scarcely imagine how wise Mimer was.

Now it did not seem right to Father Odin that a giant should have all this wisdom to himself; for the giants were the enemies of the Æsir, and the wisdom which they had been hoarding for ages before the gods were made was generally used for evil purposes. Moreover, Odin longed and longed to become the wisest being in the world. So he resolved to win a draught from Mimer's well, if in any way that could be done.

~~


If the story is true, the picture could be of Odin before he traded his eye for a drink from Mimer’s fountain. It's true that in the picture he’s not holding Gungnir, but Thor’s weapon Mjolnir was a comic book creation, wasn’t it? The real Mjolnir may very well have been Odin’s. :-)

[skepticscott]

7. No, Mjolnir was Thor's all along

and is part of actual Norse mythology, not just Stan Lee's later recreation of it. It was made by the dwarf Brokk as part of a wager with Loki, and was the Asgardian gods' principal weapon against the frost giants.

[frogmarch]

8. Thanks for the information. I did not know

that Thor's hammer is based on actual Norse mythology. Was it called Mjolnir there?

[skepticscott]

10. Yep, here's the whole story

http://www.vaidilute.com/books/munch/munch-01.html#treasures

[frogmarch]

12. Thanks!

I bookmarked it. This is fascinating information. :thumbsup:

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

11. Yes.

The reason it has a short handle is due to Loki. He turned himself into a biting insect and as the dwarf was smithing the hammer, he kept stinging him in the face. Loki bet his head that the dwarf and his sibling could not best the gifts made for the gods by the sons of Ivaldi (also dwarves). The Ivaldi siblings made Gundir and Frey's foldable boat.

I don't recall the dwarves' names, but I believe they made Odin's ring, the one that made nine copies of itself, a gold boar (I don't recall for who or what it did) and Mjolnir. Loki was worried that the gifts would in fact be better and so he did everything he could to mess them up by biting the dwarf at the forge.

They won the bet, but can't take Loki's head since they would also take his neck, and that was not part of the deal.
I'll have to go look up what they did do to him in exchange for his head.

edit: I should have looked for a link versus trying to flip through my books.

[frogmarch]

13. Love it. This mythology is far

more interesting to me than Christianity is.

Thanks.

[Jack Rabbit]

5. That can't be Thor

Thor is a young, blond beardless muscle man

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

9. I saw that image elsewhere, with a different caption:

"Your god was nailed to a wooden cross. My god has a hammer. You do the math."

[struggle4progress]

14. I can't feel much nostalgia for the culture of northern Europe in the Dark Ages

[LAGC]

15. Likewise, I can't feel much nostalgia for the culture of the Middle East in the Bronze/Iron Age.

Guess we all have our favorite periods of history, some ideas which persist longer than others...