Norse Mythology Quiz — 10 Free Questions

Question 1

Which god stood as the watchman of the Aesir at the end of the rainbow bridge, needing less sleep than a bird, able to see a hundred leagues by day or night and to hear wool grow on a sheep and grass grow in the ground?

Question 2

Which blind god was manipulated by Loki into throwing the fatal mistletoe dart that killed his own brother, the shining god, at the games where the other gods were amusing themselves by hurling harmless things at him?

Question 3

Which supremely wise being was created from the spittle of all the gods, mixed together in a jar to seal the truce that ended their war, and travelled the world answering every question put to him until two dwarves murdered him for his blood?

Question 4

Which goddess, promised as much land as she could plough in a day and a night by a Swedish king, turned her four sons by a giant into oxen and cut loose an island so large that its removal left a lake in Sweden shaped to match?

Question 5

What is the name for the second family of Norse gods, associated with fertility, prosperity, the sea and the practice of magic, whose members included the sea god and his twin children, the god and goddess of plenty?

Question 6

Which red-bearded god of thunder and storms was the strongest of the Aesir and the main defender of both gods and humans against the giants, riding a chariot drawn by two goats and swinging a short-handled hammer that returned to his hand when thrown?

Question 7

What is the name of the immense ash tree at the centre of the Norse cosmos, its branches spreading over all the worlds and its three great roots reaching to the well of fate, the spring of wisdom and the misty realm of cold?

Question 8

What is the name of Odin's spear, made by the dwarf sons of Ivaldi, so perfectly balanced that it always finds its mark, and over whose point oaths were sworn?

Question 9

Which son of Odin, born to a giantess for the sole purpose of vengeance, grew to full strength in a single day and night, refusing to wash his hands or comb his hair until he had killed the blind god who slew Baldr?

Question 10

Which god of war, law and sworn oaths lost his right hand when he alone was brave enough to place it in the jaws of the monstrous wolf as a pledge of good faith while the gods bound the beast, knowing the pledge was false?

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About Norse Mythology

The Norse myths come down to us mostly through two Icelandic books written after the conversion to Christianity: an anonymous collection of older poems, the Poetic Edda, and a poets' handbook by Snorri Sturluson around 1220, the Prose Edda, backed up by skaldic verse and the sagas. This quiz draws on all of them for eighty questions. Each describes a god, a giant, a creature, a place, an object or a source, and asks you to name it from four choices, then explains the story, the family connections and how the name still shows up today, not least in the days of our week. Where the two Eddas disagree, and they often do, the more widely told version is used and the difference is noted; names are given in the forms most familiar to English readers, with the accented spellings set aside. This is a mythology without a fixed scripture: it survived as poetry and story, kept changing, and was written down only after the culture that believed it had become Christian.

The first pack is the main gods and the frame of the cosmos: Odin, Thor, Loki, Frigg, Freyja and Frey, Baldr, Tyr, Heimdall, Njord and Idunn; the two divine families, the Aesir and the Vanir; the world tree Yggdrasil; Asgard, Midgard and Valhalla; the three Norns who spin fate; Odin's eight-legged horse Sleipnir; and Ragnarok, the end that is also a beginning.

The second pack fills in the rest of the pantheon and the wider cast. The monstrous children of Loki, the wolf Fenrir and the world serpent; the first giant Ymir, from whose body the world was made, and the fire giant Surtr, who will unmake it; Hel, who rules the ordinary dead. Lesser gods and goddesses, Sif, Skadi, Vidar, Vali, Bragi, Forseti, Ull, Gefjon, Sigyn. The great giants of the tales, Thrym who stole the hammer, Hrungnir of the stone heart, Utgard-Loki of the illusions, Thjazi who took Idunn. The treasures, Mjolnir, Gungnir, Draupnir, Gleipnir, and the mead of poetry, with the dwarf smiths who made them. And the heroic legend of Sigurd, Fafnir and the cursed ring, along with the valkyries.

The third pack is the nine realms and the sources: the fiery Muspelheim and icy Niflheim on either side of the primordial void Ginnungagap; the rainbow bridge Bifrost; Jotunheim, Alfheim, Svartalfheim, Vanaheim and Freyja's field Folkvangr; the Prose and Poetic Eddas and the key poems Voluspa and Havamal; the runes and how Odin won them; Fimbulwinter and the einherjar; the magic called seidr and the sacrifice called a blot; the war between the Aesir and the Vanir; and the four gods hiding in Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Because a captioned picture usually gives the answer away, images are used only where they do not, and everything has been checked against the standard editions of the sources.