Norse Mythology

Explore Norse mythology — from Ymir and the first giants to Odin, Thor, Loki and the gods of Asgard — mapped as a living family tree of births, marriages and migrations across the Nine Worlds on RootsLore.

People in this family tree

• Búri · ? — The first god, licked free from the salty primordial ice by the cow Auðumbla at the dawn of time. From him descended the whole Aesir line — he was father of Borr and grandfather of Odin himself. (Prose Edda)
• Borr · ? — Son of the primordial god Búri and, with the giantess Bestla, father of Odin and his brothers Vili and Vé. He stands at the hinge of creation, between the first god and the three brothers who would shape the world.
• Bestla · ? — A giantess, daughter of the giant Bölþorn, who married Borr and bore the three creator-gods Odin, Vili and Vé. Through her the blood of the giants runs in the Aesir from their very first generation.
• Odin · ? — Allfather and chief of the Aesir, god of wisdom, war, poetry and the dead. He gave an eye at Mímir’s well and hanged himself nine nights on the world-tree Yggdrasil to win the runes, and gathers slain heroes in Valhalla — yet is fated to be devoured by the wolf Fenrir at Ragnarök.
• Vili · ? — One of the three brother-gods who, with Odin and Vé, slew the primordial giant Ymir and fashioned the world from his body. He is said to have given the first humans will and motion — the spark of movement and feeling.
• Vé · ? — The third of the creator-brothers who, with Odin and Vili, raised the world from the slain giant Ymir. To the first humans, shaped from driftwood on the shore, he gave speech, hearing and sight — the senses that made them alive.
• Frigg · ? — Queen of the Aesir and goddess of foresight, marriage and motherhood, wife of Odin. Knowing all fates yet revealing none, she drew oaths from every thing in the world to spare her son Baldr — overlooking only the mistletoe that would kill him.
• Jörð · ? — The personified Earth, a giantess and a consort of Odin, who bore him the thunder-god Thor. She embodies the raw land itself — the giant-blooded mother of the Aesir’s mightiest defender.
• Rindr · ? — A giantess and reluctant consort of Odin, who bore him the avenger Váli. Won by Odin only through guile, she became mother to the god born for one purpose alone — to avenge the murdered Baldr.
• Gríðr · ? — A friendly giantess and a consort of Odin, mother of the silent god Víðarr. She lent Thor her staff, iron gloves and belt of strength for his journey to the hall of the giant Geirröd, helping him survive a deadly trap.
• Thor · ? — God of thunder, storm and strength, son of Odin and the earth-giantess Jörð, and the tireless defender of gods and men. Wielding the hammer Mjölnir he wages endless war on the giants — and at Ragnarök slays the Midgard Serpent, only to fall after nine steps from its venom.
• Baldr · ? — The radiant god of light, purity and goodness, beloved son of Odin and Frigg. His mother warded him from all harm but mistletoe, with which the blind Höðr — guided by Loki — unwittingly slew him; his death and failed return begin the doom of the gods.
• Höðr · ? — The blind god, a son of Odin, who became the unwitting instrument of tragedy. Tricked by Loki into hurling a dart of mistletoe — the one thing that could harm his brother Baldr — he killed him, and was slain in turn by the newborn avenger Váli.
• Týr · ? — God of war, law and sworn oaths, a son of Odin in the Prose Edda. Bravest of the gods, he alone dared lay his hand in the jaws of the wolf Fenrir so the gods could bind it — losing the hand when the trick was revealed; he and the hound Garmr slay each other at Ragnarök.
• Bragi · ? — God of poetry and eloquence, a son of Odin renowned for his wisdom and his skill with words. Husband of Idunn, keeper of the apples of youth, he greets the honoured dead in Valhalla with verse.
• Váli · ? — Son of Odin and the giantess Rindr, conceived and born for a single purpose: to avenge the murdered Baldr. By myth he grew to manhood in a single day and slew the blind Höðr — and is among the few gods fated to survive Ragnarök.
• Víðarr · ? — The silent god of vengeance, son of Odin and the giantess Gríðr, second in strength only to Thor. At Ragnarök he avenges his father by tearing apart the wolf Fenrir that devours Odin, and lives on into the renewed world that follows.
• Sif · ? — Golden-haired goddess linked to the harvest and the earth, wife of Thor. When the trickster Loki shore off her famous hair, he was forced to have the dwarves forge her a new head of living gold — and, in the same bargain, Thor’s hammer Mjölnir.
• Járnsaxa · ? — A giantess and a lover of Thor, her name meaning “iron cutlass”. She bore the thunder-god his son Magni, the prodigiously strong child destined to inherit the hammer Mjölnir after Ragnarök.
• Þrúðr · ? — Daughter of Thor and the golden goddess Sif, her name meaning “strength”. A maiden of the Aesir, she was once promised to a dwarf who was outwitted by Thor and caught by the rising sun, which turned him to stone.
• Móði · ? — Son of Thor whose name means “courage”. With his brother Magni he is fated to inherit their father’s hammer Mjölnir and to live on in the new world that rises after the gods fall at Ragnarök.
• Magni · ? — Son of Thor and the giantess Járnsaxa, of such prodigious strength that as a three-day-old child he alone lifted a fallen giant’s leg off his trapped father. With his brother Móði he survives Ragnarök to wield Mjölnir.
• Nanna · ? — A goddess and the devoted wife of the bright god Baldr. So great was her grief at his funeral pyre that her heart broke and she died, to be burned beside him and journey with him into the realm of Hel.
• Forseti · ? — God of justice, law and reconciliation, son of Baldr and Nanna. From his shining hall Glitnir, its pillars of gold and roof of silver, he settles every dispute brought before him — the calmest judge among the gods.
• Idunn · ? — Goddess who guards the apples of youth that keep the gods from ageing, wife of the poet-god Bragi. When Loki let the giant Þjazi carry her off, the Aesir began to wither with age until he was forced to win her back.
• Njörðr · ? — Vanir god of the sea, seafaring, wind and wealth, given to the Aesir as a hostage after their war with the Vanir. Father of Freyr and Freyja, his ill-matched marriage to the mountain-giantess Skaði — she longing for the peaks, he for the shore — could not last.
• Freyr · ? — Vanir god of fertility, sunshine, rain and the harvest, among the most beloved of all the gods and ruler of the elf-world Álfheim. So smitten with the giantess Gerðr that he gave away his magic sword to win her, he must face Ragnarök with an antler and fall to the fire-giant Surtr.
• Freyja · ? — Vanir goddess of love, beauty, fertility, gold and war, who rides a chariot drawn by cats and wears the gleaming necklace Brísingamen. Foremost of the goddesses, she receives half of the battle-slain in her hall Fólkvangr, the other half going to Odin.
• Gerðr · ? — A radiant giantess whose beauty lit the sky and sea, wooed by the god Freyr. After his messenger won her with charms and threats, she became his wife — the union of a god and a giantess that cost Freyr his fateful sword.
• Fárbauti · ? — A giant whose name means “cruel striker”, often read as the lightning-bolt that kindles fire. With Laufey he fathered the trickster Loki, giving him his giant blood.
• Laufey · ? — Also called Nál (“needle”), the mother of Loki — who is named Loki Laufeyjarson after her rather than his giant father, an unusual matronymic among the gods.
• Loki · ? — The cunning trickster, giant-born yet blood-brother to Odin and counted among the Aesir. His schemes both aid and doom the gods: he engineers the death of Baldr and is chained beneath a venom-dripping serpent, until he breaks free to lead the giants against the gods at Ragnarök.
• Sigyn · ? — A loyal goddess, the faithful wife of Loki. After the gods bound her husband beneath a serpent whose venom drips upon him, she stands by him holding a bowl to catch the poison — flinching only to empty it, when his writhing shakes the earth.
• Angrboða · ? — A giantess of Jötunheim whose name means “she who brings grief”, mother by Loki of his three monstrous children — the wolf Fenrir, the world-serpent Jörmungandr and Hel, ruler of the dead.
• Narfi · ? — A son of Loki and his faithful wife Sigyn. In the gods’ vengeance for Baldr, his own brother — transformed into a wolf — tore him apart, and his entrails were used to bind their father Loki to the rocks.
• Fenrir · ? — The monstrous wolf, eldest child of Loki and the giantess Angrboða, who grew so fearsome the gods bound him with a magical fetter at the cost of Týr’s hand. At Ragnarök he breaks loose, swallows Odin whole, and is slain in turn by Odin’s son Víðarr.
• Jörmungandr · ? — The vast Midgard Serpent, child of Loki and Angrboða, cast into the ocean by Odin where it grew to encircle the whole world and bite its own tail. The eternal foe of Thor, at Ragnarök it kills the thunder-god with its venom even as he strikes it dead.
• Hel · ? — Grim ruler of the realm of the dead that bears her name, daughter of Loki and Angrboða, her body half living flesh and half corpse-blue. Odin cast her down to reign over those who die of sickness and old age — and her refusal to release Baldr seals his death forever.