Sunday, March 18, 2012

Sports!

In the TV show "The Almighty Johnsons", a show about the Norse Gods being reborn in New Zealand, they make Uller the god of games as well as winter and the hunt. I couldn't find anything making him god of games though. Do you know anything that connects Uller with games?

Strictly and classically speaking, no; Uller does not really have anything to do with games. He's one of the older of the Norse gods, which means he has even less to back him up than some of the more well-known ones, but there's nothing about game-playing in there (nor, indeed, about hunting, actually - Uller is attested as being a wicked awesome shot with the bow, but most information on him points to this being used in warfare, not hunting). He's known to be extremely swift, to be the greatest skiier in Asgard, to be a good warrior and to have been sworn by for oaths occasionally (and, depending on the translation, he may have some association with magic as well).

However, I suspect that The Almighty Johnsons is pulling from a much more recent source, what I'd call Uller's modern mythos. In the past several decades, Uller's gained surprising popularity, particularly in northern countries, as the patron god of skiiers; while most don't take him particularly seriously and he's more of a mascot than a true patron, he's nevertheless seen a surge in people who know his name and at least a little bit about him as a result. Some towns in snowy climes hold festivals in his name to encourage the snow to fall, and skiing competitions are occasionally held with him as the figurehead as well. It seems likely to me that The Almighty Johnsons is referring to Uller as a god of games in the sense that these kinds of festivals and competitions are something like mini-Olympics for winter sports; since Uller's the patron of skiing and various related things in some modern areas, they're probably extrapolating from that to make him a god of all winter games and competitive sports.

Uller's recent popularity is pretty cool, even if it's more emblematic than worshipful. Certainly gives you room to mess around with his modern role in Scion games!

No comments:

Post a Comment