What's your favorite Germanic or Norse myth? Tell me all about it

>What's your favorite Germanic or Norse myth?
Being of consequence.

>All that materialistic bullshit is civilization

Right on the letters, tho

Odin giving his eye into the well of mimir

That Odin man was a weird fellow.

I think the juxtaposition is to let the whole "black savage" and "red savage" thing go. Barbarians capable of civility is all any of us are.
The Greeks developed as they did because of their proximity to the ancient civilizations to their south and east, and to their own diversity of peoples. Geography plays a bigger role in civilization than genetics.

You must go back, young one.

The wisewolf of Yoitsu

I like the one where High, Just as High and Third troll King Gylfi in the hall.

Valhalla Rising

From plebbit:

(1/2)

An Interpretation of Odin's Sacrifice on the Tree (self.asatru)
submitted 1 month ago by IAheathen
Let it be known that this is just an interpretation; I’m not claiming that it’s the “right” one or that it negates other interpretations. This is just my take on it based on my own knowledge, experience, and study of other philosophy.
This interpretation is based on an idea from the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, which is notoriously difficult and convoluted. The idea I want to reference, however, is fairly straight forward. In Heidegger’s writings he discusses a concept called Ereignis, which is usually translated as “The Event”*. Basically, for many people there is a point in their life where they have a profound experience. An epiphany. An insight. A revelation. This experience completely changes the way in which they view the world, putting everything into a new perspective. The individual will spend the rest of their life pondering this event, trying to make sense of it, and the product of this pondering is art, poetry, and philosophy. Sometimes this event happens to a person unexpectedly, such as when Friedrich Nietzsche happened upon a goat being bashed to death by the rest of his own goatherd.
Oftentimes, however, the event is something that is sought after by an individual who is pursuing Truth. This concept is a part of many religions, both current and historical. This is why devout believers of all kinds of faiths practice fasts, pilgrimages, hallucinogenic drugs, meditation, flagellation, shamanic trance rituals or other means to make themselves susceptible to a spiritual awakening. These acts cause a person to get outside of themselves, so that they can see the world from a new perspective. This is what some people mean when say that meditation is about “becoming no one” or “thinking about nothing”- they cast aside their day to day thoughts and concerns and try to see everything in detachment. The idea is that by engaging in these activities, they will be given a glimpse of the great Truth of the universe, which will bring them closer to that Truth in life. For Christians, the Truth is God himself; I’m not sure what would be a Heathen equivalent, though the gifted “glimpse” could be equated to Odin’s gift of inspiration.

2/2

In the myth of Odin’s sacrifice on the tree, it is my interpretation that Odin is describing exactly this kind of experience. Odin hangs himself in the tree as a sacrifice, “myself to myself”- meaning that he has sacrificed his “day-to-day” self in order that he might have a spiritual insight. He is also sacrificing his former self, as the experience will change him and cannot be returned. By hanging himself on the World Tree and “looking down” into all the worlds, he’s viewing existence through a new perspective. One could interpret the act of hanging on the World Tree as symbolic of becoming “one with the universe” by means of detachment. As he suffers, he catches and takes up the Runes, and he stretches out his hand and seizes them, and falls shrieking out of the tree. In this interpretation, “taking up the Runes” is equivalent to “reading” or “divining” the runes. That is to say, he saw the Truth, and gained an understanding of it, like reading “the writing on the wall”. This Truth fills him with inspiration:
“Each verse led me on | to another verse, Each deed to another deed.”
Just like those who experience “The Event” in Heidegger’s thinking, Odin is overflowing with creative power and action due to his experience. He has seen the Truth- and this is what makes him so wise.
I think with this myth, Odin is telling us one of two things, or probably both at once. One possibility is that he is telling us, normal human beings searching for meaning and Truth in life, how we can pursue these revelations. We don’t have to hang ourselves on a tree (though that may have been a form of initiation in Odinic cults), but we can pursue this kind of enlightenment by stepping outside of ourselves, practicing rituals such as fasting etc, and gaining experience in the world. The second possibility is that Odin is relaying his unique, mythical experience to us, which we cannot replicate. He is a God, after all- what mere mortal has the ability to hang himself on the literal World Tree? Odin has seen the Truth in a way that mortals can never hope to. But Odin is a god with ability to give the gift of inspiration. His deep wisdom makes him a conduit for mortals to that deep Truth of the universe. Worshipers of Odin may hope for a chance to be given a bit of his precious Mead, so that they too might find inspiration. Or in the case of some people, he may surprise them with it.
** one translation writes it as “Con-cern”. As opposed to “Dis-cern” (to take apart), “Con-cern” means “to bring together”. *

>Let it be known that this is just an interpretation; I’m not claiming that it’s the “right” one or that it negates other interpretations. This is just my take on it based on my own knowledge, experience, and study of other philosophy.
yikes

the subaharan africans are truly enlightened then, they stay away from materialistic things

when Loki turns into a horse and fucks a mare

I thought that was the other way round.

maybe it was, idk lad, been a long time

Daily reminder that the sagas would have been in competition with the likes of Iliad and Odyssey in greatness, had they been written in a less obscure language.
>No great cities
Entire Scandinavia and Baltics combined had a lower population than Ancient Athens
>No great feats of engineering
Longships
>Zero development to the intellectual growth of humanity
We'll never know, Christcucks made sure of that.
>No writing
lel
>No professional armies
Neither did anyone else but the Romans

Norsemen was the main REASON Europe had to start having standing armies and/or feudalism. Beat that

The tale of Útgarða-Loki from the prose Edda.

>one of the main

Mein Kampf was a good one.

I don't know any

where do I start
inb4 the greeks xD

literally none of those are tenants needed for societies to be considered civilized

Siegfried

All that material bullshit IS civilisation, you braindead idiot.

I had that picture over my bed as a kid.
Very comfy to see it again.

Someone just got learnt some rocket appliances over here

Civilization is the quality of living in a city.

Neither.

#Kalevala

Where do you guys start with reading these myths, as far as primary sources are concerned? There seem to be a shit load of them.

Edda

>The black guy in the background

WE

this

Daily reminder: Finnic mythology > germanic fairytales

WAS

FRIENDS ONCE.

>Jorgumndr
It's Jörmungandr you fanatic ignorant

I like that one with the Apple and shit.
That one where three women are fighting over who gets the apple, and then it starts a war and shit.

völsunga saga

Ragnarok. I like the fact that everyone knows it's going to happen and exactly how it's going to happen and still can't do shit about it and I like the idea that a few gods will start over with a new world afterwards but we don't know what'll happen then.