What are some cool things about the Norse/Scandinavian facts?

Question

They have such an expansive history and mythology it just amazes me and I want to learn more.

Answer 1

Here are some interesting things:

1. They believed that other giants were created out of a giant's armpits, his foot getting it on with his other foot, and sweat.

2. The original stories about the gods are filled with perverse sexual imagery (one of the gods is taunted by another who claims that he gets excited when pee on him).

3. The Norse gods are destined to die at the end of the world (but a new better world with better gods will be produced from the end of the current one).

4. Those vicious Viking also founded the world's oldest democracy when they settled Iceland.

5. Viking women were likely some of the most liberated in medieval Europe.

6. There are a lot of English words that are borrowed from the language of the Vikings who settled the north of England in the early medieval period, such as bylaw, geyser, haggle, hell, husband, mistake, oaf, ransack, slaughter, ugly, and window.

Answer 2

_Sit now at the symbel, and let loose your thoughts,
[speak of the] glory of men, as your spirit encourages._

489-90 _Beowulf_

The sumbel (_sumbl_ in Old Norse) is a solemn ritual in which the
participants sit together and participate in drinking, speech-making and
gift-giving, in many ways similar to the toast in a very formal dinner
today. Paul Bauschatz, in _The Well and the Tree_, briefly describes the
ritual in the context of the Norse and Germanic cosmology:

"The act of drinking takes place in the presence of the act of speech,
each partaking of the fact of the other; in such activity, the power of
all other actions is brought to bear upon the ritual moment and fixes it
within the ever-evolving interrelation of all present actions with the
past. This combination of words, their denoted actions, and the semantic
elements of the drink and cup repeat the whole act of the continual
speaking of the orlog and the nurturing of the tree Yggdrasil, the central
activities of the Norns. If this action is indicative of the power and
presence of the past in the world of men, then here also the ritual words
spoken become part of this past. They disappear into the drink; as it is
drunk, the speaker of the speech, his actions, and the drink become one,
assuring that all now have become part of the strata laid within the
well." [1]

A cup of an intoxicating drink is passed, the intoxicating nature of which
is important to the symbolism of the rite as it is the result of
transformation of the natural ingredients to a drink that is clearly
outside of ordinary reality. The cup represents the well. In the sumbel
in _Beowulf_, Wealtheow's careful passing of the cup and speech parallels
that of the norns, who pour the holy liquid over the roots of the tree to
nourish them and keep it growing.

The words that are spoken in sumble are important, and must be considered
carefully as they become a part of the orlog, blending into the past as
well as setting the course for the future. But beyond boasting,
commemoration, or honoring others with gifts, song and speech there is
also an element of prayer and a uniting with the gods who likewise sit in
sumbel in their halls. It is from the gods that the gifts of brewing, the
runes or secrets that blend magically to create mighty spells, as well as
the inspiration of mead and the resulting poetry come from.

Try putting Asatru into a search. The above is just a mote of the entirety.

Answer 3

http://www.pantheon.org/areas/mythology/europe/norse/
have fun

Answer 4

Check with google.