This Norse mythology quiz heads north to the stories Vikings told about their gods, giants and the end of the world. The questions draw on the original medieval Icelandic sources, the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, rather than comic books or movies. You'll meet powerful gods and goddesses, magical animals, famous halls and the cosmic tree that holds everything together.
Norse mythology is the set of stories once told by the peoples of Scandinavia, including the Vikings. Most of what we know comes from medieval Iceland, where the tales were written down a couple of centuries after the island adopted Christianity around the year 1000. The two big sources are the Poetic Edda, a collection of anonymous old poems, and the Prose Edda, a retelling in prose. Sagas, carved runestones and picture stones fill in more details.
Because the stories passed through so many hands, they don't always agree, and names are spelled several ways in English. It helps to sort the cast into families. The Aesir are the main tribe of gods, the Vanir are a second group linked with fertility and wealth, and the jotnar, or giants, are their frequent rivals. Picture the cosmos as nine worlds, with gods, humans, giants, elves, dwarves and the dead each having their own place.
These myths are still around us every week. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday all carry the names of Norse or related Germanic gods, and modern fantasy books, games and films borrow freely from the old tales. The original versions are often stranger and darker than the comic book ones, which is exactly what makes them so much fun to quiz on.