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Recently I started watching that new Starz TV show American Gods. If you haven't heard about it, I strongly recommend to give it a try, the show is amazing. Great cast, great acting, great visuals, and the story is as trippy as they get.

Not to spoil too much, but it is based on Neil Gaiman`s novel of the same name. It has gods from all old religions, mysticism, and a cool idea on what gods of our time would be like. The show is hard to explain and not spoil a lot of things, so the best thing is to watch one or two episodes and see it for yourself.

As you can see from the name of the show, the gods play a big role in it. And not just any gods, but ones from old Egyptian, Norse, Celtic, and other religions. I knew all of these gods as a kid and since this show sparked my interest, I wanted to refresh my memory. So I thought that Norse mythology is a good starting point. Also, Norse mythology is cool on its own, so even if you are not a fan of the show, I think that you will appreciate this infographic.

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Norse God Family Tree - As Accurate as It Gets [Infographic] | Daily Infographic

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Recently I started watching that new Starz TV show American Gods. If you haven't heard about it, I strongly recommend to give it a try, the show is amazing. Great cast, great acting, great visuals, and the story is as trippy as they get.

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VIKINGS: Norse Mythology - II: Norse Gods & Goddesses [Thor, Loki, Odin and more]

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The creation within Norse mythology of the Gods, Giants and Midgård is very fascinating. This is the first episode in a new series about Norse Mythology.

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There was widespread belief in creatures such as elves, dwarves, and artifacts. Animals in Norse mythology all had names, and were of such significance that their owners would resurrect them after death through various means. Of these, undoubtedly the greatest and most important was a lil' ol' squirrel named Ratatosk.

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Norse Mythology - New World Encyclopedia

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In Scandinavian folklore, Norse mythology has long held cultural currency, and some traditions have been maintained until the present day. This rich mythological tradition also remains as an inspiration in modern literature, as well as for other forms of artwork (including visual representations, films, comic books and stage productions).

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Norse Mythology for Smart People provides reliable, well-documented information on the enthralling mythology and religion of the Norse and other Germanic peoples. If that's what you're looking for, you've come to the right place.
What Is Norse mythology?
Before the Norse (a.k.a. the Vikings) converted to Christianity during the Middle Ages, they had their own vibrant native pagan religion that was as harshly beautiful as the Nordic landscape to which it was intimately connected. The centerpiece of that religion was what we today call "Norse mythology:" the set of religious stories that gave meaning to the Vikings' lives. These myths revolved around gods and goddesses with fascinating and highly complex characters, such as Odin, Thor, Freya, and Loki.

The Norse religion that contained these myths never had a true name - those who practiced it just called it "tradition." However, people who continued to follow the old ways after the arrival of Christianity were sometimes called "heathens," which originally meant simply "people who live on the heaths" or elsewhere in the countryside, and the name has stuck.

Religions are attempts by mankind to reach the numinous, and the Norse religion was of course no exception. It provided a means of doing this that was fitting for the Vikings' time and place. Even though some aspects of it may strike the modern reader as bizarre, if we approach it with the open mind it deserves, we can recognize within it the common human quest to live life in the presence of the transcendent majesty and joy of the sacred. And even though it's been a thousand years since the last Vikings laid down their swords, people today continue to be inspired by the vitality and wonder of the Norse myths and the gods who inhabit them.

For the Vikings, the world as they found it was - that is, they didn't feel the need to seek salvation from the world, but instead delighted in, and marveled at, "the way things are," including what we today would call both "nature" and "culture." Their religion and myths didn't sugarcoat the sordidness, strife, and unfairness of earthly life, but instead acknowledged it and praised the attempt to master it through the accomplishment of great deeds for the benefit of oneself and one's people. A life full of such deeds was what "the good life" was for the Vikings.
Who Were the Vikings?
The Vikings were seafaring raiders, conquerors, explorers, settlers, and traders from modern-day Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland who ventured throughout much of the world during the Viking Age (roughly 793-1066 CE). They traveled as far east as Baghdad and as far west as North America, which they discovered some five hundred years before Christopher Columbus. They spoke the Old Norse language, wrote in runes, and practiced their ancestral religion.

The Vikings were motivated to sail from their homelands by timeless, universal human desires: wealth, prestige, and power. As in most human societies, those aims were intertwined for the Vikings; those who had more wealth typically had more prestige and power, and vice versa. The Vikings sought wealth in both its portable form - gold, silver, gemstones, and the like - and in the form of land.

We have the Vikings to thank for our present understanding not only of their own pre-Christian religion and mythology, but of that of the other Germanic peoples as well. Thanks to the Old Norse poems, treatises, and sagas that were written during or relatively soon after the Viking Age, we have a much, much fuller picture of what the Vikings' religion was like (despite the many unfortunate holes that nevertheless remain in that picture) than we do for the religions of any of the other pre-Christian Germanic peoples. But from the little that we do know about those religions directly, they seem to have been variations on common themes that were also shared by the Norse, so we can use the Norse sources to help us reconstruct those hoary religions, too.
Who Are the Germanic peoples?
The Germanic peoples are one of the indigenous peoples of northern Europe, along with the Celts, Sami, Finns, and others. Historically, they've occupied much of Scandinavia, Iceland, the British Isles, and continental Europe north of the Alps. Their best-known representatives are the Vikings, the Anglo-Saxons, and the continental Germanic tribes, but they included many other groups as well. In the modern era, they - we - are spread out across the world.

While there were certainly regional and temporal variations in the pre-Christian religion of the Germanic peoples, there was nevertheless a common core worldview, cosmology, and, to a large extent, a common pantheon as well.

If you're a person of northern European descent (including English, Scottish, German, and northern French descent), it's a safe bet that you've got some Germanic blood in you. That means, in turn, that it's a safe bet that some of your ancestors practiced something very close to the religion represented by Norse mythology.

Of course, you very well may still find Norse/Germanic mythology to be fascinating and illuminating if you don't have any Germanic in your ancestry. Mythologies are certainly expressions of a particular person or people, but they're far from only that; there tends to be a spark of something more timeless and universal in them as well.

Til árs ok friðar,
Daniel McCoy

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Norse Mythology for Smart People - The Ultimate Online Guide to Norse Mythology and Religion

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Norse Mythology for Smart People provides an accessible, entertaining, and reliable introduction to the Vikings' mythology and religion, with scholarly sources cited for everything. Come on in to learn all you've ever wanted to know about the Norse gods, stories, beliefs, way of life, and more!