Norse Mythology Quiz — 7 Free Questions

Question 1

Which one-eyed god ruled the Aesir as the Allfather and presided over war, wisdom, poetry, sorcery and the dead, riding an eight-legged horse, carrying a spear that never missed, and sending out two ravens each morning to bring him news of the world?

Question 2

Which goddess, promised as much land as she could plough in a day and a night by a Swedish king, turned her four sons by a giant into oxen and cut loose an island so large that its removal left a lake in Sweden shaped to match?

Question 3

Which god was the divine patron of poetry and eloquence, renowned for wisdom and fluent, well-turned speech, and pictured with runes carved on his tongue and a long beard?

Question 4

What is the name for the angular characters of the writing system used by Germanic peoples, including the Norse, before and alongside the Latin alphabet, carved on stone, wood, metal and bone and also used for casting lots and working magic?

Question 5

Which god of the sea, seafaring, wind and wealth was originally one of the Vanir, sent to live among the Aesir as a hostage after the war between the two families of gods, and became the father of the twin fertility deities?

Question 6

Which everyday English set of names preserves four Norse and Germanic gods, with Tiw's day, Woden's day, Thunor's day and Frigg's day falling between the Roman Moon-day and Saturn-day?

Question 7

Which giantess, whose name means 'the one who brings grief', was Loki's mistress in Jotunheim and bore him the three beings the gods most feared: the wolf that will kill Odin, the serpent that circles the world, and the woman who rules the dead?

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About Norse Mythology

The Norse myths come down to us mostly through two Icelandic books written after the conversion to Christianity: an anonymous collection of older poems, the Poetic Edda, and a poets' handbook by Snorri Sturluson around 1220, the Prose Edda, backed up by skaldic verse and the sagas. This quiz draws on all of them for eighty questions. Each describes a god, a giant, a creature, a place, an object or a source, and asks you to name it from four choices, then explains the story, the family connections and how the name still shows up today, not least in the days of our week. Where the two Eddas disagree, and they often do, the more widely told version is used and the difference is noted; names are given in the forms most familiar to English readers, with the accented spellings set aside. This is a mythology without a fixed scripture: it survived as poetry and story, kept changing, and was written down only after the culture that believed it had become Christian.

The first pack is the main gods and the frame of the cosmos: Odin, Thor, Loki, Frigg, Freyja and Frey, Baldr, Tyr, Heimdall, Njord and Idunn; the two divine families, the Aesir and the Vanir; the world tree Yggdrasil; Asgard, Midgard and Valhalla; the three Norns who spin fate; Odin's eight-legged horse Sleipnir; and Ragnarok, the end that is also a beginning.

The second pack fills in the rest of the pantheon and the wider cast. The monstrous children of Loki, the wolf Fenrir and the world serpent; the first giant Ymir, from whose body the world was made, and the fire giant Surtr, who will unmake it; Hel, who rules the ordinary dead. Lesser gods and goddesses, Sif, Skadi, Vidar, Vali, Bragi, Forseti, Ull, Gefjon, Sigyn. The great giants of the tales, Thrym who stole the hammer, Hrungnir of the stone heart, Utgard-Loki of the illusions, Thjazi who took Idunn. The treasures, Mjolnir, Gungnir, Draupnir, Gleipnir, and the mead of poetry, with the dwarf smiths who made them. And the heroic legend of Sigurd, Fafnir and the cursed ring, along with the valkyries.

The third pack is the nine realms and the sources: the fiery Muspelheim and icy Niflheim on either side of the primordial void Ginnungagap; the rainbow bridge Bifrost; Jotunheim, Alfheim, Svartalfheim, Vanaheim and Freyja's field Folkvangr; the Prose and Poetic Eddas and the key poems Voluspa and Havamal; the runes and how Odin won them; Fimbulwinter and the einherjar; the magic called seidr and the sacrifice called a blot; the war between the Aesir and the Vanir; and the four gods hiding in Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Because a captioned picture usually gives the answer away, images are used only where they do not, and everything has been checked against the standard editions of the sources.