Daily Deities: Boreas

     We've been experiencing some very cold weather where I live. So I decided to talk about Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind and the god of winter.

    Boreas is one of the Anemoi (roman Venti), who are the four gods of the four winds: north, east, south, west. They are the sons of Eos and Astraeus, dawn and dusk respectively. They're one of the historically oldest Greek gods to exist, proving the importance or significance of the wind to the Greeks. Have you ever looked at an old-fashioned map and seen men in the four directions made of wind and blowing wind? Those are the Anemoi.

    Boreas, aside from being the Northwind, was also the god of winter. He was said to have a quick temper. Sometimes he was said to have wings, and sometimes he was said to have a snake tail. He once fell in love with a princess named Orithyia, who was the daughter of Erechtheus, the mythical founder of Athens. He attempted to woo her but failed. So, he abducted her and made her his wife. She turned into the goddess of cold mountains winds. They had two sons, Calais and Zetes, who both had wings and became heroes. They also had a daughter, Khione, who became the goddess of snow.

    Due to having married into the Athenian royal family, Athens always considered Boreas to be a relative of sorts. They would pray to Boreas and Orithyia to give them good winds, or to deflect enemies with bad winds.

    That's basically it for Boreas. Is winter bad where you are too? What do you think of the Anemoi? Comment below! (Please comment responsibly. Constructive criticism is welcome.)

Daily Deities: Skadi

    With all the snow and cold weather, I decided to talk about Skadi, the Norse goddess of winter and skiing.

    Skadi is a bit different from the other Norse gods. She is neither Aesir nor Vanir but is a Jotunn/giantess. Skadi's story starts off with her dad, Thjazi, who pisses off Loki and begins carrying him in the form of an eagle. Loki begs to be put down and Thjazi agrees, on the condition that Loki should lead Idunn, the goddess of youth, out of Asgard. Loki agrees, leads Idunn out of Asgard (as well as her apples of youth), and Thjazi kidnaps her and carries her to Jotunheim (the realm of the dwarves). Without her apples, the gods began to grow old and they had last seen her with Loki, so they confronted him and threatened him to rescue her. So, Loki borrowed Freya's falcon jacket/cloak, became a falcon, and flew to Jotunheim. He rescues Idunn, and Thjazi turns into an eagle to chase them. The other gods see Loki coming with Thjazi at his tail and so they kill him.

    To celebrate, The gods have a party, but Skadi crashes the party because she wants revenge for her father's death. But before she does something drastic, the gods calm her down, apologize, and say that they'll make her a goddess just like them. They also say that they'll let her choose a god to be her husband. But, she has to choose them by looking at their feet. So, she looks at all their feet and sees a pair of beautiful feet. Assuming they belong to Baldr, she chooses the man with the beautiful feet. But it isn't Baldr. It's Njord, the god of the sea and fishing. So they get married and seem to have had a good relationship, but for some reason, they split later on. Skadi doesn't really have many stories outside of that, but she was the one who placed a snake overtop Loki to drip poison on him for all eternity until Ragnarok. That's really it.

    What do you really think about Njord and Skadi? Any thoughts? Comment below! (Please comment responsibly. Constructive criticism is welcome.)

Daily Deities: Hel

    I've recently learnt about a lot of "dark-themed" things. I recently learnt about Goth and Punk fashion and philosophy. I wanted to know where they came from and why they're different. I also learnt about Gothic literature. I also learnt about Noir fiction and what defines it. I've also been listening to Gothic and Noir music to help me relax recently, and overall, I've been experiencing a very morbid vibe. So I decided to talk about one of my favourite topics: Chthonic gods! Specifically Hel.

    Now, Hel is spelled with one "L", but it's pronounced like "hell". Hel is the Norse goddess of death and the ruler of Helheim, the Nordic realm of the dead. She is the only daughter of Loki and is described as being half-woman, half-corpse; split down the middle. She is also one of those misunderstood gods in mythology and so I want to talk about her today.

    Loki was the trickster god of Norse mythology and he had three children with the jotunn/giantess Angrboda. His three children consisted of Jormungandr (a snake), Fenrir (a wolf), and Hel (a goddess). Well, Hel is technically half a goddess. She's also half a giantess/jotunn. Loki tried to hide his kids from the other Aesir gods, but they found out eventually. But, unfortunately for Loki and his children, there was a bad prophecy about them. Odin has many magic advisers and seers who spoke of a prophecy in which Loki's children will be the cause of Ragnarok (the Norse apocalypse). Not wanting Ragnarok to happen, Odin decides to deal with Loki's children. The gods throw Jormungandr in the Midgard ocean, turning Jormungandr into the giant World Serpent that he's known to be. The Aesir tricked Fenrir and tied him to a rock, losing Tyr's hand in the process.

    Once Hel was banished to Helheim, she was trapped. She became one of the most powerful goddesses in the Norse pantheon, but she couldn't leave her realm any better than the dead souls she welcomed. The road to Helheim was guarded by Hel's guard-dog Garmr. She was also the only goddess who could control the dragon Nidhogg. Helheim may sound like "hell", but there is no evidence to suggest that it was a terrible place. Dead warriors would go to either Valhalla or Folkvangr, while people who died of old age and sickness would go to Hel. Helheim isn't a place for sinners, it's just a place for all people who didn't die in battle. Why would it be a terrible place for them?

    The only story where Hel plays a small role is in is the death of Baldr. Baldr was the son of Odin and was the god of light, purity, happiness, love, forgiveness, and basically all good things. Everybody in the nine realms loved him. But then he started having nightmares about his coming death, and so his mother Frigg got everything in existence to swear not to hurt him. All except mistletoe (because mistletoe, am I right?). Because of this, Baldr was basically invulnerable. So, at parties, the Aesir would play games in which they threw all kinds of dangerous and non-dangerous things at him, which would all bounce off him and not harm him. Now, Loki (who likes nothing better than causing trouble) makes an arrow out of mistletoe and gives it to Hodr (Baldr's blind twin brother). Hodr may be blind, but he's actually a very good archer. He shoots Baldr and kills him. Odin then has a child with a giantess named Vidar, who avenges Baldr by killing Hodr. Baldr and Hodr both go to the underworld. Hel welcomes them very warmly with many festivities and wealth (further proof that Helheim wasn't THAT bad).

    Everyone was sad about Baldr's death, and so Hermod (the messenger of the gods), went to Hel to see if he can persuade her to return Baldr. Hel agreed to let Baldr go if everything in the nine realms wept for him. And everything did. Everything except for one giantess, Thokk. "Thokk" was actually Loki in disguise. So, Baldr had to stay in Helheim with Hodr and Hel. He would return after Ragnarok, to rule in the new world.

    Loki would be punished for what he did, but all of these events would lead up to Ragnarok. Loki, Fenrir, and Jormungandr would be free, and Loki would take Hel's army of the dead to attack Asgard. Hence, Loki's children would be the cause of Ragnarok. Strangely enough, this actually places Odin and Loki's children in the mythical motif of the "prophecy". This is a  motif in which a king hears about their doom at the hands of a relative, they try to stop it and in the process, they give the person in question EXACTLY what they need to fulfil the prophecy. Odin heard a prophecy about his doom, then tried to stop it, but ended up giving Loki's kids exactly what they needed to fulfil their role in the prophecy. Jormungandr never would have grown so big if he wasn't thrown into the Midgard ocean. Fenrir wouldn't have been so angry if he hadn't been tricked into being chained up. Hel would have never had an army of the dead if she hadn't been made the queen of the dead in the first place. In trying to stop Loki's children, he gave them EXACTLY what they needed to fulfil the prophecy of Ragnarok (in which Odin dies).

    Odin could make an easy antagonist since the Aesir gods aren't really GOOD PEOPLE. They always get drunk, cause problems, ask Loki to fix it, and if it goes wrong, they blame Loki for it. This bad representation could be because of Christian bias. The only primary source we have for Norse mythology (The Prose Edda) was written by Christian Icelandic mythographer Snorri Sturluson. He wrote it from a heavily biased perspective. We don't have any sources before that, so we don't know how much of Norse mythology is legit or not. But, on the topic of Hel, a lot of scholars have come to the conclusion that Hel probably didn't exist in Pre-Scandinavian-Mythology. They have theorized that Snorri very likely created her as the personification of the underworld that was also called Hel. But who knows?

    Thanks so much for reading! In my opinion, I think Hel is nice and I like her. I also hardcore ship Hel and Baldr. No regrets. :)

    What do you think of Hel? Good, bad or neutral? Do you think she existed pre-Snorri? Comment below! (Please comment responsibly. Constructive criticism is welcome.)