u/JoyIsABitOverRated

Norse Myth is one of those great works that I find profoundly interesting because of how much we have to work with, and how much you can extrapolate from the linguistics, the traditions of the Norse and their habits, and the names of places and epithets of characters. It kind of opens up doors to lesser known characters and deities that people don't necessarily talk about.

To me, it's characters like Ullr or the "Mightest Aesir" mentioned exactly once in a stanza. I find them interesting, the two in different ways, because of how little we know about them. We can only speculate or work with what we know of them.

Do you guys have any favourites like that? Or lesser known details about the gods?

I'm not really trying to bait or just make a pity out of me. I'm just not feeling well and not really in the right mood to read the type of fantasy I usually read. Does anyone have recommendations that could cheer me up, or give me a new outlook on life?

After going through the first three Conan novels as part of my Howardian enrichment routine, I was thinking of drawing him. And from what I know of the character, and how he's always been depicted I realised...

Well, Conan is a celt. Or a proto-celt. And in every single depiction of him, he hardly ever looks like one. At best he looks like a strange amalgamation of Greek and Phoenician, or he is Norse-Ish. His clothes (or lack thereof), his equipment, fashion... Nothing really rings Celt to me! Everybody just took Frazetta's art for granted and ran with it. Even if his art is iconic and great, even he himself admitted that he never read any Conan novels.

So, if I were to make art of Conan— how should we do it from now on? How does he dress? What does he really look like? What weapons should he use?

I've found those very interesting videos on linguistics which discuss how some historical figures would've sounded like if they learned modern English. So they go deep into the details, the phonetics and the subtleties of *their* language before tackling what they would legit sound like. This usually covers difficulty to speak certain sounds, misnomers, or even verbal ticks. Like the sort of mistakes they'd make trying to translate their language in a literal manner into English.

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So far they've mostly tackled Old English figures or Roman emperors. Not sure if they'll do Old Norse people eventually. But I wonder, if a Jarl or a viking were to attempt to speak English, what would they sound like? What sorts of grammatical or orthographic mistakes would they do? With what sounds would they struggle the most?

The question might sound weird, but this is something that fascinates me. Today, our idea of what a god is has been largely influenced by the major monotheistic religions of today and the cultures they've shaped, with some slight Asian influences here and there. You know, Omnipotent, omniscient, sovereign, immutable, Yadda Yadda.

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However, that description doesn't really apply to the Greek gods of myth. No? Some of them get caught in fishing nets, some humans can be more talented than them, some can even get hurt! Others were nymphs on Tuesdays and goddesses on Fridays.

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So, what I'm asking is; how did the Ancient Greeks define godhood? What was a god? How did the idea of divinity change over time?

As a heads up, I am not a Neo-Pagan. I am not interested in promoting ideas related to it, or to get gotcha-moments against Christians, be they modern or historical. Neither am I a Christian trying to "own" the pagans by reminding them that the Norse converted.

What I am interested in is the discussion as to *why* people converted in the first place. And more specifically; what could've made Norse religion more if not just as appealing as Christianity at the time? As in, what did it need to garner more support from local kings and chieftains?

I've been told that most Norse people didn't really complain about changing gods— some historians even talk about a crisis of faith among the pagans. But other times, I hear that some pagan traditions lasted til way after the Iron Age.

But also, I'm writing a novel which focuses on characters converting to a new religion. I'd love to know what would've made this choice more Cornelian if it was an historical setting.