Talk:Norse mythology in popular culture

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Articles for deletion This article was nominated for deletion on July 1, 2007. The result of the discussion was keep, no consensus to delete.

[edit] Purge

I'm removing some entries that seem to be insufficiently motivated or beyond the proper bounds of this article. Hopefully the decruftifying will help keep this article from being deleted. RandomCritic 13:30, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

  • The Germanic gods have left many traces in modern vocabulary. An example of this is some of the names of the days of the week: modelled after the names of the days of the week in Latin (named after Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn), the names for Tuesday through to Friday were replaced with Germanic equivalents of the Roman gods. In English and Dutch, Saturn was not replaced, while Saturday is named after the sabbath in German, and is called "washing day" in Scandinavia.
This doesn't relate particularly to Norse mythology; these names were in use in English (with reference to parallel Anglo-Saxon gods) long before they had contact with the Norse or Danes.
  • J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings was admitted by its author to be heavily influenced by the myths of the Northern Europeans. As that work became popular, elements of its fantasy world moved steadily into popular perceptions of the fantasy genre. In nearly any modern fantasy novel today can be found such Norse creatures as elves, dwarves, and frost giants.
Actually, there is no such "admission". Direct influence is pretty much limited to dwarf-names in The Hobbit; there are some vague allusions to other incidents, such as Sigurd and Fafnir, but these are too remote to qualify as references to "Norse mythology".
  • In The Fire emblem game the sacred stones, the legendary weapons acquired throughout the course of the game are named after Norse objects or creatures (e.g.: Nidhogg, Vidofnir)
  • Capcom's Mega Man series, Mega Man Zero, makes many references to Norse mythology and has characters and objects named after some Norse beasts and Gods.
  • Namco's Tales of Symphonia game features a number of Norse Mythology references, including the name of the main antagonist, Mithos Yggdrasill.
If these are just uses of the names, but don't actually refer to Norse gods and heroes or episodes in the mythology as such (that is, just the name but not the character is borrowed), the connection is probably too remote.
Here it's clear that only the names are being used, not the mythology itself.
  • The video game series Final Fantasy, particularly Final Fantasy VII use a number of references to Norse Mythology, primarily alternatively spelled versions of figures from the pantheon and related myths. These include the cities Midgar and Nibelheim, names of monsters such as Skoll, Nidhogg or Midgar Zolom, or the airship Ragnarok from Final Fantasy VIII. Also, in Final Fantasy V, you learn 18 spells for Black, White, and Time magic, as Odin learned 18 spells.
  • The Breath of Fire video game series contains a few references to Norse mythology, most notably Yggdrasil in Breath of Fire III.
  • The Creatures series of computer games borrows several names from Norse mythology. The most prominent are the three kinds of creatures you can raise, the Norns, Grendels and Ettins.
  • The Zerg Broods in StarCraft are named after various Norse mythological monsters.
  • The Boktai series uses names of Norse Gods for the names of the Immortals; the main enemy of the series.
  • Namco's Ace Combat series has many aircraft and objects named after Norse mythology. Ace Combat 5 has two submarines named the Hrimfaxi and Scinfaxi. Ace Combat X has two aircraft named the Gliepnir and Fenrir plus a medal called the Mark of Voairr.
  • The PlayStation 2 game Odin Sphere has some themes of Norse mythology apparent in the game, such as the god Odin and valkyries.
Again, the associations are too remote to meet the criteria implied by the article name.
These references are so vague they couldn't even be included under the broadest possible criteria for this list.
There are some minimal references to Norse mythology in the Conan works (e.g. calling human realms "Asgard" and "Vanaheim") but these are more in the nature of borrowing specific names than elements from the mythology.
Addressed above.
Too vague for inclusion.
But the werewolf is not supposed to be the same as the mythological wolf, is he?
Too vague an association, depending upon a sense of "resemblance"

A.S. Byatt's Possession: A Romance includes passages form the ficticious R. H. Ash's poetry which includes an epic poem title Ragnarok.

Just the use of a name.
Unsuitable unless specific references are adduced.
  • The new Battlestar Galactica series, as part of the polytheistic religion of the human characters, the Colonials, combine Olympian and Roman mythology with several Norse references, such as a ship named Valkyrie and a last stand for its Colonial Fleet at the planet of Ragnar, a reference to Ragnarok.
Too remote a connection.
  • The TV series Stargate SG-1 borrows parts of Norse mythology for the Asgard aliens, a benevolent race who protected humanity. To hide their alien existence, the Asgard seeded the Norse mythology into human culture, giving god and demi-god roles to many of their prominent figures. Thor, a member of the Asgard High Council, is a regularly returning character on the show.
Just name-borrowing.
Not at all, the entire religion is implemented, with a society that follows it, and a priestess of Thor who is in several episodes. It's just "revealed" that the religion was created by aliens.
  • The anime series Soukyuu no Fafner has many references to Nordic/Germanic mythology.
This is a generic giant robot anime, no real connection to the mythology.
  • The classic anime, Saint Seiya, devoted an entire arc to Norse mythologies. New characters were created based on the folklore of Norse mythologies, such as the Valkyrie Hilda, the giant Thor, and Siegfried himself.
The characters and their traits or myths don't seem to be borrowed, just the names.
  • An anime called Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok, also has many Norse influences. The main character happens to be Loki. Most of the Norse gods appear in each episode.
This is a duplicate of another included entry.
  • In the 20th episode of the first season of the show Metalocalypse, Skwisgaar Skwigelf referred to the name of Odin with the sentence "What in the fucking names of Odin?!". Skwigelf also references Valhalla in the sentence "I will sees you in Valhalska."
Too remote a connection.

What are you talking about man? they are all still reference's to norse mythology! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.192.38.130 (talk) 22:38, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. One person's opinion has reduced this article to nearly a stub, and a lot of the "reasons" given are based on not knowing the show/comic/cartoon/etc in question, and as such not knowing how wide the reference is. I'd suggest restoring it and possibly pruning the list a bit, but not ripping it apart. Tales 17:37, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

The purge was ridiculous, especially removing the Tolkien sections. 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of The Rings' are two of the most famous works of literature that take inspiration from, and indead reference Norse Mythology. We have the names of the names of the Dwarves, some 'powers' from the world such as Yngwe (obviously derived from the Norse 'Ingve' also known as Frey). The plot of the wyrm (Smaug)leaving his home and rampaging through Lake Town was inspired by the Anglo-Saxon poem 'Beowulf' which is strongly connected to Norse Mythology in itself and is from the common Teutonic Faith of old. Tolkien did in fact admit that his works drew inspiration from amongst other things Norse Mythology...RandomCritic obviously knows little of the subjects here and thus removed them. Some of the other removed bits should be put back forewith! I shall add some back into the article! - Sigurd —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.154.188.201 (talk) 15:43, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

I definitely believe that the "Tales" series of games should be mentioned, especially since a piece of armour in Halo in mentioned.. I mean come on. I could name many things from the Tales series that relate to Norse Mythology. Yggdrasil (character + location), Midgar, Asgard, Thor, Heimdall, Niflheim, all appear as locations (and more I'm sure). As well as Valkyries and references to Odin. SuperLink9 (talk) 13:27, 1 May 2008 (UTC)