Asgard = mount olympus?

Isis

Member
Is Asgard pretty comparable to Mount Olympus in Greek mythology? It seems to be from the brief descriptions I've read, but if not, what differences exist?
 

Myrddin

Well-Known Member
Mt Olympus is usually, but not always, perceived as a mountain.
Asgard is more of a plain that exists over Midgard, the realm of humans.
True. About the only similarity I know of between them is that they serve as a home to the gods, and is where the leader/king god rules from.
 

Isis

Member
You know, when I asked the question, I was thinking more in terms of function than I was geography, but it is interesting to get ideas of what Asgard looks like as well.
 

LegendofJoe

Active Member
You know, when I asked the question, I was thinking more in terms of function than I was geography, but it is interesting to get ideas of what Asgard looks like as well.
Can't say much about Olympus, but Asgard is very interesting in that there are these beautiful halls that the gods live in.
Thor lives in Thrudheim (mighty place), and the heroes that die in battle go to Valhalla.
They spend their time feasting and fighting in preparation for the big fight at Ragnarok.
Odin has a high seat called Hlidskialf. Here he could observe the nine worlds.
The god Frey once snuck into this high seat because he was curious.
Way off into Giantland he spotted the beautiful giantess called Gerd.
He started pining away for love of her (a punishment for having the hubris of sitting in Odin's seat?)
With the help of his trusty man servant Skirnir, he did manage to marry Gerd, but he lost his valued sword in
the process.
Big mistake!!!
 

Alejandro

Active Member
Is Asgard pretty comparable to Mount Olympus in Greek mythology? It seems to be from the brief descriptions I've read, but if not, what differences exist?
The most striking difference I can think of is that Ásgarð was the immediate destination of mortals who were slain in battle, who appeared as the Einherjar, "Lone Fighters," in Óðinn's great "Hall of the Slain," the mansion Valhalla, whereas on Mt Olympos the only mortals who ever dwelt there did so because they had been admitted into the community of the gods as deities themselves.

The most interesting similarity I can think of is that either one at least once came under the physical threat of the Giants. Mt Olympus was attacked by Typhoeus and tens of other Gigantes but with the help of the hero Heracles (Hercules) the gods defeated them, killing most in the process. Some time before this, Poseidon's giant sons Otus and Ephialtes had also threatened some terrible violence against the town of the gods but they likewise were felled. The city wall of Ásgarð, on the other hand, at least according to Snorri Sturluson, was actually constructed by a Giant (who approached the gods in disguise [as a mere human, or as the member of another race gods from faraway such as the Vanir had been?]). The Æsir made a deal with this unknown dude, to give him the goddess Freyja and the sun and the moon if he could finish building in three seasons with the help of no man, which they didn't believe that he could. Much to their chagrin, however, only with the help of his stallion Svaðilfari, who appears to have been a magic horse, it seemed that he might actually attain his objective. Blaming Loki, who seems to have been the broker of the deal, the Æsir sent him to somehow detain Svaðilfari, which Loki achieved by disguising himself as a mare and inadvertently becoming by him the mother of Óðinn's famous eight-legged horse Sleipnir. At length, when the gods discovered that the builder of their wall was actually a Giant, Thórr was deployed to dispatch him, which job he swiftly executed using his infamous hammer Mjöllnir.
 
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