Taking a book off of Tolkien’s bookshelf, I read The Poetic Edda. This rendition was first published in 1908 and edited and translated by Olive Bray. Some nice illustrations from W. G. Collingwood grace the pages. It covered some of the same ground as Kevin Crossley-Holland’s The Norse Myths which I read recently.
The Poetic Edda is a collection of myths, legends and sayings related to Germanic/Norse mythology. I won’t go into much detail here as the material is probably familiar to most of you. Olive Bray’s edition reads well and I can recommend it to anyone. My brother got a different edition which tried to be evocative by using old English. The result was barely readable.
For fantasy roleplaying this book is a great source of ideas. What we know as the Norse gods may be an amalgamation of gods from earlier and disparate religions. That might explain why the Aesir and the Vanir, two separate groups of gods, make up the Norse pantheon. Commentators believe this is why some gods are barely mentioned, others have a multitude of names and several have a variety of divine responsibilities. For example Odin is known by many names, nicknames and disguises. He is the god of war, the winds, the sky, poetry and bards, death and even other things. Thor is a storm god but also a protector of humankind. Ancient people didn’t think of storms as being helpful so the connection seems odd. Why go into such detail about Norse gods? Because this book can not only be a grab bag of ideas for deities in your own campaign but also help shake up your thinking about how a pantheon should be structured. It’s too easy to remember the Greek myths from our school days and make your pantheon one family where each god has a neatly defined area of influence.
The legends in the Poetic Edda are a great read for roleplayers. They help the reader make the mental shift to see things from an ancient point of view. Honor and reputation were of paramount importance to fighting men of the ancient world. Quests and perilous journeys were started over rumors of cowardice. Arguments about one’s lineage weren’t quaint puffery but of vital concern. Freyja’s human lover Ottar is transformed into a boar and visits a giantess witch to learn ancient lore just to settle a dispute about family descent with another nobleman.
Everyone knows about Thor’s hammer in battle against giants but it was also used to bless brides at weddings. Freyja’s necklace was an equally important magic item although its abilities were less defined. One of the gods had a ship that could fold up and become transportable on land.
I plan to use details about daily life in my campaigns. The stories mention people’s clothing, homes, methods of travel and superstitions. It’s no wonder we’re seeing more viking-inspired settings appear for D&D and its OSR clones now.
Also enjoyable was the weaker boundaries between different worlds. The lands of men, the gods, the giants, the dwarfs and the dead seemed porous and at times ill-defined. Use these ideas and more to breath some life into your next campaign.
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