Pre-Christian Religion, Belief And Cosmology

Question 1

What is the original conception of the Viking gods?

Answer 1

Unknown.

Question 2

Did Vikings ever worship one God?

Answer 2

Literary sources suggest people may have had devotion to a particular God. Personal piety varied.

Question 3

Where is the creation myth described?

Answer 3

Eddie poems

Question 4

What form does the world take?

Answer 4

A cosmic tree

Question 5

What practice may have Vikings undertaken to worship gods?

Answer 5

Sacrificial feasts

Question 6

Where did most gods live?

Answer 6

The upper world ‘Asgard’

Question 7

How many sets of gods existed, and thus how many beliefs?

Answer 7

Two sets of gods, two sets of beliefs.

Question 8

What is Thor popularly associated with?

Answer 8

Farming, fishing, weather. Ultimately God of the middle classes.

Question 9

What is an alternative view of Thor, and why?

Answer 9

God of fertility due to popularity of pendants in female graves

Question 10

What did the female God ‘Freyja’ practice?

Answer 10

Sefe - witchcraft

Question 11

What is the popular view of Odin?

Answer 11

Father of the gods.

Question 12

What did Odin practice and how was it considered?

Answer 12

Seer, knowledge of the future. It was considered inhuman.

Question 13

What seemed to play a major role in Viking religion?

Answer 13

Animalism

Question 14

What suggests brutality in Viking religion?

Answer 14

Valhalla and the view that murder of an animal is the same as murder of a person.

Question 15

What is the ‘Doom of the Gods’ called?

Answer 15

Ragnorok

Question 16

How is Ragnarok often viewed?

Answer 16

As a battle.

Question 17

Did the Vikings believe in continuation after Ragnarok? And what were the implications?

Answer 17

No, this was the ultimate end, no after life etc. Potential psychological implications.