Viking Gods – 5 Interesting Facts about the Viking Gods

Fact Number One: The God Odin created the universe as a giant tree

Oden was called the all-father of the viking gods. He created the world which was part of a giant tree called the Yggdrasil. The Yggdrasil was called the world tree and held up all the nine realms of the universe.

The nine realms on the world tree included Earth, which the Viking Gods called Midgard, Asgard, the realm of the gods, and Hel, the underworld.

Fact Number Two: The realm of the viking gods was connected to Earth by a rainbow bridge

Asgard was the realm of the gods, where Odin, Thor, and the other gods lived. It was blessed with great soil for growing crops and lots of gold and jewels.

To get from Asgard to Earth and the other realms you had to use the Bifrost.

The Bifrost was a rainbow bridge that connected to all the realms on the world tree. The entrance to Asgard was guarded by the god Heimdall who watched over the Bifrost. Heimdall was the perfect guard as he could see for 300 miles and his hearing was so strong he could hear the grass growing.

Fact Number Three: Thursday is named after the Viking God Thor

The Viking Gods are responsible for the names of the days of the week. The Vikings named the days after their gods and we still use similar names today.

Thursday was Thor’s Day which is how we got the name.

The only day the Viking’s did not name after a god was Saturday. The name for Saturday comes from the Roman god Saturn. Vikings named Saturday ‘pool day’ because it was the day they all took a bath.

Fact Number Four: The trickster god Loki could turn himself into different animals

Loki was known for his tricks and pranks he played on the other gods. He sometimes even transformed himself into animals to help with his tricks.

In one story Loki annoyed the other gods with a prank and ran away. When the other gods tried to find him he turned himself into a salmon so he could hide in the river but he was caught by Thor.

Fact Number Five: Vikings would give their brides cats because of the God Freyja

The Viking Gods were known to help people in different times of their life. The God Freyja was the goddess of marriage so she would support you when you were getting married.

But Freyja was also the goddess of cats. So, the Vikings would buy their bride a cat for their wedding day as a present. This would please the goddess Freyja and cats were also seen as very useful pets and very important for running a household. Cats would hunt mice that would eat food so they were very helpful.

Do you want to learn more about the vikings? Check out our article to give you even more fun facts about the Vikings.