One thing I can say is that it's a real job keeping names straight and attached to the right deity or being. I have some links that are good cheat sheets.
Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
It's not that difficult if you take the time to learn the languages. Once you've done that, you'll notice the separate pieces of the names and realize that they later went on to form modern words. For instance, the Continental Germanic for 'Thor' was Donar. In German today, "Donner" is "Lightning". This works with 99.9% of the names.One thing I can say is that it's a real job keeping names straight and attached to the right deity or being. I have some links that are good cheat sheets.
It's not that difficult if you take the time to learn the languages. Once you've done that, you'll notice the separate pieces of the names and realize that they later went on to form modern words. For instance, the Continental Germanic for 'Thor' was Donar. In German today, "Donner" is "Lightning". This works with 99.9% of the names.
Reading the various Runnic scripts isn't that difficult either.
Interesting thing about Runes;What I mean is keeping the names of the characters in stories straight. For example, the story Hrungnir is in; Thyrm (actually you can't forget that ); Grimnismal; Hymir. I've gotten them now, but in the beginning... hoo wee!!! boy howdy!!! They were hard to get a handle on and know who was who.
Going back to the linguistics of it, I find that what I'm seeing of Old Norse is not as difficult as one might think. When you parse out the words it's easy enough to get the meaning. Especially with similar namings, like ending with mál or ljóð you know it's a story, a tale or sayings.
I'm starting to get the runes, especially because I am drawing them, and reading their meanings. It doesn't take that long to learn them. I deciphered the runes that run around the bottom of my Thor statue. Granted, it's English written in futhark. It's what's in my sig.
I'm starting to get the runes, especially because I am drawing them, and reading their meanings.
Try and get Stephen Pollington's Rudiments of Runelore. It's probably the best intro out there. It sticks to what we know about the runes without being overly academic.
The Joker, especially Nolan's interpretation of him, is very much a Loki-like character. He's not just a terrorist, he's a force of nature, the essence of chaos.Excellent replies, thank you...
Can you share your visual interpretations of him?
I recently watched, "The Man who Laughs", (Batman soundtrack), learning it was the inspiration for Batman's Joker, strangely a character I knew was of the same archetype and effigy as Loki, although that is not his character in totality.
Conrad Veidt's quite phenomenal,
If you haven't seen, "The Man who Laughs" you're no occultist at all!
The "psychotic" part of his personality is a mere crescendo of his psyche, I think, he is also an unmatched warrior, which goes unsated - he is not often enough depicted much more masculine.
Rob Zombie's on point
Not really how I "see" Loki but I thought it was interesting.
Perkuns is what the Slavs called their Thunder God, who carried a double-headed axe. Interestingly, one interpretation of Thor is that one half Mjolnir is a hammer and the other is a blade.Trying to learn about Heimdallr is interesting but confusing.
You're left with the realm of your imagination with comparison and argument.
As far as Loki being the All Father, I do not think they are the same deity.
Although in my comprehension Loki does seem older than Odin, but, they are not the same deity, from my interpretation. Loki even seems far older than Odin. Tiwaz remains a mystery but I do not think he is exactly Jupiter or Zeus. - Nor is Donar or Thor, which may be separate deities as well. - Thor seeming to have multiple counterparts.
Interesting you mention genealogy. I've traced my lineage faaaar back and according to the practices of the era I am supposedly descended from Odin. If you go back far enough anyway.I do believe the bloodline of Thor is alive today in the living clan of Eric the Red - even though there are also the clans of Thor and Odin - Sons and Daughters today.
But the Clans of "Lok"i I have no idea - but they may be related.
Trying to avoid a realm of madness is a challenge as well.
Cheers!
I'll ask as soon as I come up with a question haha. I bought all three of those books this morning. I plugged one in to Amazon and the other 2 came up as suggestions lol.
Its just a little overwhelming to be diving head first in to without a solid starting foundation. I'm just kinda grasping at ideas and concepts at random.
Excellent replies, thank you...
Can you share your visual interpretations of him?
I recently watched, "The Man who Laughs", (Batman soundtrack), learning it was the inspiration for Batman's Joker,
Where Woden is brooding and solemn, Loki is happy and joyous. Loki is the Joker to Woden's Batman.
Interesting you mention genealogy. I've traced my lineage faaaar back and according to the practices of the era I am supposedly descended from Odin. If you go back far enough anyway.
My family is from a formerly noble house in Silesia/Schlesien, so yes.If you're related to any of the Royal Families of Europe, that is to say, if you're blood-related to what I (based on Beowulf) call the Aetheling Tribe, then according to what I know of the Lore, you're related to Odin.
I, myself, have some relationship to the English noble house Houk (apparently native to Devonshire, which for fellow USfolk is in the Southern part of England... and one of these days I'll know the rough geography of England's areas as well as I roughly know the US's). Not sure if that makes me Aetheling, though. I, myself, don't really care much about blood-genealogy except as a fun little pastime. You're a member of a Tribe if the Tribesmen accept you as one, regardless of whether you're blood-related. As Odin and Loki were Blood-Brothers, despite not being blood-related.
My family is from a formerly noble house in Silesia/Schlesien, so yes.
And it wasn't just Loki & Odin. A good half or more of the Aesir & Vanir were flat-out Jotunns or half-Jotunn.
And despite all this, you've got National Socialists who say that Odin and the Aesir are about "racial purity" and ****. I'm pretty sure Aesir-Aesir marriage is the exception rather than the rule in these myths!According to one of the sites I have bookmarked, even Thor is 3/4 Jotunn. Bestla was Jotunn, making Odin 1/2 Jotunn. Jord is Jotunn, hence Thor being 3/4 Jotunn. Magni and Modi are in turn something like 7/8 Jotunn, which [I think] is probably why Magni is even stronger than his father. There's a certain irony in Odin complaining that Thor gave Hrungnir's horse to Magni, the son of a giantess.
And despite all this, you've got National Socialists who say that Odin and the Aesir are about "racial purity" and ****. I'm pretty sure Aesir-Aesir marriage is the exception rather than the rule in these myths!
Btw, not to derail the thread but I have extremely circumstantial evidence to believe that my family is indeed of Norman descent, grandparents and their predecessors being from southern Italy and Sicily notwithstanding. I know physical features are probably the worst gauge of ethnicity, but we have the blond(e), reddish, auburn hair, blue eyes in the family line. Something more telling is that our surname seems to have originated during the Norman invasion of England. It is an occupational title given to a knight in William the Conqueror's inner circle. It's cognate with a very common English name (aw hell... cognate with Princess Diana's maiden name). It made its way to Sicily, perhaps along with Norman settlers, in virtually its original form. I'm trying to scrounge up the $100 for the spit-in-a-vial DNA test. My brothers and sisters don't care enough to pony up to help defray the cost. Maybe I won't tell them who they really are when I get the results, just out of spite (hey, maybe I am Sicilian after all ).
Something I personally like to do when confronted with the Folkists and Supremacists;Anglic US folks probably all got a degree of Norman in us. And Viking. And Saxon. And British/Welsh. Lots of Irish from the past century. Our ancestors are both invader and invaded. It's a big reason why I don't regard genetic lineage as anywhere approaching important as a lot of people in the Heathen community (even those who aren't as bad as the white supremacists) seem to think it is.
Luckily this topic is fairly easy to relate back to the OP; most refutations of ancestry-exclusive forms of Heathenry (whether folkism or white supremacism) cite Loki and Odin. ^_^ An article I once read asked the incredibly telling question: who is more "true to the Aesir": the European who spends a lot of time and energy in the advocacy of racial purity, or the African who argues about the nature of Loki?
Anglic US folks probably all got a degree of Norman in us. And Viking. And Saxon. And British/Welsh. Lots of Irish from the past century. Our ancestors are both invader and invaded. It's a big reason why I don't regard genetic lineage as anywhere approaching important as a lot of people in the Heathen community (even those who aren't as bad as the white supremacists) seem to think it is.
Luckily this topic is fairly easy to relate back to the OP; most refutations of ancestry-exclusive forms of Heathenry (whether folkism or white supremacism) cite Loki and Odin. ^_^ An article I once read asked the incredibly telling question: who is more "true to the Aesir": the European who spends a lot of time and energy in the advocacy of racial purity, or the African who argues about the nature of Loki?
And that, I think, is a major part of Loki's ultimate role: he challenges and breaks down the assumed status quo, and brings to light the truths that we don't want to admit(Lokasenna). This may at first cause a degree of depression (death of Balder), but as the old assumptions eventually just crumble away altogether (Ragnarok), we become even stronger and more secure (rebirth of Balder).