Calliope articles from January 2003

Calliope archives from January 2003

The world of the Norse people: no one is so good that he has no faults. No one is so wicked that he is completely worthless. (Musings).
January 1, 2003... THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE ANCIENT SCANDINAVIANS--BETTER KNOWN AS THE NORSEMEN--CERTAINLY MAKES FOR EXCITING READING. There are tales of adventure, trickery, love, and fantastic creatures. But that's not all. The myths serve as a window to the...

Glossary.(Glossary)
January 1, 2003... Aesir--the collective name for the main gods and goddesses Amulet--small object worn to protect the owner from sickness and danger (two favorite amulet shapes were the hammer and the axe) Asgard--home of the Aesir (Norse gods and...

Welcome to Valhalla!
January 1, 2003... Very long ago, in the ancient times of the Norse gods, the world wrapped itself around a great ash tree, a tree as large as the universe, and older. The topmost branches served as the home of the gods, a place called Asgard. Below this realm...

Who were the Norse people?
January 1, 2003... The Norse people trace their ancestry to a number of Germanic tribes. The Angles and Saxons, for example, called home the base of the Jutland peninsula--present-day Denmark. The Suevi lived on the Baltic coast; the Goths, along the Vistula...

The Eddas: Iceland's books of lore.
January 1, 2003... HOW DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE ANCIENT MYTHS OF THE NORSE PEOPLE? RUNE STONES CARVINGS, AND OTHER ARCHEOLOGICAL REMAINS FROM PAGAN TIMES PRESERVE SOME INFORMATION, BUT THE RICHEST SOURCES ARE TWO BOOKS FROM MEDIEVAL ICELAND THAT WERE COMPILED IN THE...

Skaldic poetry.
January 1, 2003... The term "skald" was first used to describe highly respected court poets of ninth-century Norwegian kings. Many skalds were from Iceland. Their poetry preserved old traditions and was recited by them in courts and assemblies. Skalds told...

Runes: secrets, magic, and understanding.
January 1, 2003... RUNES, THE ALPHABET USED BY THE NORSE, GERMANIC, AND ANGLO-SAXON PEOPLES, date back to the first century B.C. The word means "secret" or "mystery." According to Norse legend, Odin sacrificed himself to get the runes. For nine days and nine...

Norse language puzzle. (Activity).(Old Norse)
January 1, 2003... Old Norse is the language spoken by the medieval Scandinavians (modern Icelanders still speak a very similar language). It is a complicated language, but many Old Norse and English words are related to each other and sound similar, even if the...

Make a Mjollnir pendant. (Activity).
January 1, 2003... Depictions of Thor's hammer, the mighty Mjollnir, are popular themes in Norse art. The stylized hammerhead is embellished with simple engravings or elaborate decorations in many 10th-century amulets and pendants. You can make a pendant inspired...

The treasures of the dwarfs.(Play)
January 1, 2003... Characters NARRATOR ODIN, chief of the Norse gods FREYR, a god THOR, red-bearded god SIF, golden-haired wife of THOR LOKI, god of mischief, a shape-shifter SERVANT to sir DWARF ONE and DWARF TWO, brothers...

Balder's dream.
January 1, 2003... OF ALL THE NORSE GODS, THE KINDEST, MOST HANDSOME, AND BEST LOVED WAS BALDER. LOKI, THE TRICKSYER, WHO WAS NEITHER HANDSOME NOR KIND, WAS TERRIBLY JEALOUS OF HIM. EVERY TIME LOKI DID SOMETHING THAT CAUSED ODIN DISPLEASURE, BALDER DID SOMETHING...

Ragnarok.
January 1, 2003... WITH THE PUNISHMENT OF LOKI AND THE DEATH OF BALDER, TERRIBLE TROUBLES BEGAN on Midgard. The descendants of the ash tree, humans, giants, dwarves, and gods found themselves in a dreadful series of battles. Ragnarok--the Day of Doom--had come....

The end of Valhalla.(coming of Christianity)
January 1, 2003... The fall of Valhalla was not the huge, destructive fire described in Ragnarok, but rather a gradual process that lasted two centuries, as Christianity slowly replaced the old pagan beliefs. It began during the Viking Age, when Scandinavian...

Yggdrasil, the sacred ash tree.
January 1, 2003... Yggdrasil (IG-drah-sil) stood at the center of the earth, where Odin discovered that its falling twigs formed the runic alphabet. The top of the tree touched the sky, and its roots reached down into the earth. A bright-eyed eagle with a hawk on...

Identify the Norse gods. (Activity).
January 1, 2003... Norse gods con be identified by physical attributes that represent who they are. Many of these characteristics are power symbols as well. Draw a line from each of the 13 symbols illustrated on this page to the Norse god it represents. NOTE: The...

How the days of the week got their names. (Fun With Words).
January 1, 2003... Check the dictionary for the names of the days of the week, and you will find that six of them include the abbreviation "ON" before the definition. ON stands for Old Norse, the ancient Scandinavian language, and it gives us a clue to the origin...

Ask Calliope.(Spartan women, Up-Helly-Aa, Red Sea)
January 1, 2003... ? What were the roles of Spartan women? --Jennifer, 10, Lincoln, Nebraska ! This is a very interesting question! As it turns out, Spartan women had much more freedom than their Athenian counterparts. Athenian women had very few rights,...

Books. (Off the Shelf).(Norse mythology, Vikings)(Bibliography)
January 1, 2003... D'Aulaires' Norse Gods and Giants, a memorable retelling of the myths by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire (Doubleday & Company, 1967) The Illustrated Book of Myths, a vivid retelling of tales and legends of the world by Nell Philip (Dorling...

Cobblestone resources. (Off the Shelf).
January 1, 2003... The following issue of CALLIOPE provides a good cross-reference for this issue on "The Norse Gods": The Vikings (November/December 1992)

On the net. (Off the Shelf).(Norse mythology Web sites)
January 1, 2003... For two terrific sites on Norse mythology with links to a great variety of related topics, try: www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~cherryne/mythology.html and www.luth.se/luth/present/sweden/history/viking_level For two additional sites that...

Lords of the Rings: Tolkien, Wagner, and Norse mythology. (From Past to Present).(J.R.R. Tolkien, Richard Wagner)
January 1, 2003... The German composer Richard Wagner and the English novelist J. R. R. Tolkien both tapped into Norse themes more remarkably than any other artists. In 1876, Wagner completed his Norse-inspired opera cycle, The Ring of the Nibelung, which...

Yuletide and Christmas. (From Past to Present).
January 1, 2003... The word "yule" comes from the Old Norse jol (pronounced yole), the name of the winter festivities associated with the Norse gods. As Christianity spread, many Norse practices were incorporated into the Christmas holiday. For example, evergreen...