Norse Mythology

Stories 1-4

Reading Check

1. Ragnarok (Story 1)

2. An enormous hornless cow (Story 1)

3. Ash (Story 2)

4. A drink from Mimir’s well (Story 3)

5. Her hair (Story 4)

Short Answer

1. They kill Ymir to create the universe from his being. (Story 1)

2. Asgard is the home of the Aesir gods and is where they hold their daily council. (Story 2)

3. During Ragnarok, Heimdall is to blow the horn to wake the gods. (Story 3)

4. He intends to get them to create hair from gold to replace Sif’s stolen locks. (Story 4)

5. Brokk can cut off Loki’s head, but only if he can accomplish this without harming Loki’s neck. (Story 4)

Stories 5-8

Reading Check

1. Loki (Story 5)

2. A serpent (Story 6)

3. His hammer/ Mjolnir (Story 7)

4. The way Thor eats (Story 7)

5. Saliva (Story 8)

Short Answer

1. He wants to marry Freya and own the moon and sun. (Story 5)

2. Loki appears as a mare to tempt the man’s horse away, and since the stranger cannot move the building materials he needs without the horse’s help, he has to stop working on the wall. (Story 5)

3. Odin has had a prophetic dream in which Fenrir is the last thing he sees before “the end of everything.” (Story 6)

4. Once again, the gods—in this case, Loki and Thor—are trying to use Freya as a bargaining chip, as if they can trade her away in marriage to get something they want. (Story 7)

5. He drinks the mead, changes into an eagle, and flies back to Asgard. Once there, he spits up all of the mead into the vats he asked the gods to prepare for him. (Story 8)

Stories 9-12

Reading Check

1. One of Skrymir’s mittens (Story 9)

2. A housecat (Story 9)

3. Idunn (Story 10)

4. A golden boar (Story 11)

5. A cauldron (Story 12)

Short Answer

1. Loki is aware that Thialfi does not have much food, and when Thor kills and cooks his goats, Loki deliberately tells Thialfi that their marrow is the best thing he could ever eat. This tempts Thialfi to split open a bone to eat the marrow surreptitiously. (Story 9)

2. They offer her a husband, promise to make her laugh again, and say they will find a way to ensure her father is never forgotten. (Story 10)

3. Valhalla is an enormous hall with hundreds of immense doorways. The deceased warriors spend their time fighting and feasting on the meat of the magically regenerating boar Saerimnir and drinking mead from a goat that eats from the leaves of the world tree, Yggdrasil. (Story 11)

4. He goes to sit on Odin’s throne, where he can see all nine worlds and search for what is missing from his life. (Story 11)

5. She suggests that her husband’s head is hard enough to smash the cup against, and when Thor takes this suggestion, and the cup shatters, his life is saved. (Story 12)

Stories 13-15

Reading Check

1. Angrboda/ the giantess mother of Loki’s children (Story 13)

2. Mistletoe (Story 13)

3. A salmon (Story 14)

4. A net (Story 14)

5. The fingernails of the dead (Story 15)

Short Answer

1. He frequently has disturbing dreams about the end of the world. (Story 13)

2. She will send Balder back if every single creature weeps for his death. (Story 13)

3. After Loki is bound, Skadi places a serpent above him, and its poison drips into Loki’s eyes, causing him to thrash around in pain, which is the source of earthquakes. (Story 14)

4. Odin and Thor will lead an army of those who died virtuous deaths in battle, and Loki will oppose them with an army of those who died shameful deaths. (Story 15)

5. Thor will finally vanquish the serpent Jormungandr, but as the serpent dies, it will release venom that will poison Thor. (Story 15)