Question: Isn't listing Heimdall as Odin's and Frigg's son on the Aesir family tree sort of wrong? I know the myths claim he is the son of nine sisters, who created him through some sort of ritual (in short, he has nine mothers).
Oh, we've actually had this one before! Check out our discussion of Heimdall's parentage over here, and roll with whatever interpretation suits you best.
I'm not sure where you're sourcing from, but there's no mention anywhere of any kind of weird ritual associated with Heimdall's birth; the passages referring to the nine sisters merely call him their son and don't suggest any particular explanation for what that means or how it happened.
When it comes to the lineage of the Aesir, they're as confusing as any long-running pantheon. Culture shapes stories, and thus those stories can change over time. There is historical proof that offers the theory that Tyr was once the King God of the Aesir, but the cult of Odin took the lead and so switched their places.
ReplyDeleteYep. The Tyr theory is out there, although like all others it's also open to debate (depending on whether you consider Tyr the same as Tiwaz the same as Tuisco, and how much you want to trust Tacitus with. But theories are awesome, so everybody can interpret!).
DeleteYeah, I heard a theory that says Odin was coming out of favor and Thor was going to be taking over as the chief god of the Aesir. Had the culture been left alone long enough this was supposed to have happened, but they got interrupted.
DeleteYeah, that one's totally probably true! Not that Odin was necessarily getting unpopular or anything, but Thor's popularity was skyrocketing, so given enough time he probably would have become the new preeminent god among the Norse. But Christianity rolled in, so it never made it to that point.
DeleteOne version I've heard of Heimdall's mothers is that Odin made them all cum so hard that they merged into one person and that's how he was born.
ReplyDeleteThat's one messy Hard Sell!
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