Quote Originally Posted by Gurkhal
I'll take that as a joke, didn't see that you were from Norway untill I wrote my respons.
It was, brother...
It means that even if you're a slave or a farmer means that you shouldn't just sitt down and refuse to do anything since you destined to live a hard life anyway and there isn't any need to care since it won't improve.

No one knows who was marked for fortune or a bad life.
I see what you mean.
It took it as if you explained that fate was part of the Norse religion. If you weren't then it was a matter of missunderstanding.
It is. That was my point. It does however not belong in Christianity and I believe that Karl XII's soliders were Christians. The history is full of soldiers turning to non-Christian beliefs in the time of need. You have rabbit feet, lucky charms and Christian kings praying to Thor on a very bad day at sea.
Don't forget Alfheim, the realm of the elves where also Balder had his hall as well as Njords hall on the bottom of the sea and several mores. There are four main worlds, but there are also a number of others who don't appere as often as the four big.
Quote Originally Posted by NeonGod
Whoa, whoa. Not that I'm a viking myself, but there a nine worlds.

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Sigurd, you seem a little bitter, and Franconicus too. Sure, I may be stabbing in the dark, but my curiosity has been piqued.
I am not bitter; I just had a bad day yesterday. You would probably notice that my posting style seldom get worse than my reply to Gurkhal. If I have a bad day I will only omit emoticons…
To the core of the issue:
I am aware of the nine worlds, but there are discrepancies there. The popular belief of the north countries is that the major worlds in fact were somewhere in Midgard.
Helheim and Niflheim is the same as Hel built her kingdom in Niflheim. Vanaheim where destroyed by the Asir (the gods of Aasgard).
The realms of the elfs, dwarfs and the trolls were intertwined with the realm of men and were at some point combined to Utgard(the far places = Alfheim, Jotunheim, Nidavellir, SvartAlfaheim).
Muspelheim and Niflheim was the two worlds that combined created all-that-is in the void between them.
Muspelheim was the place of heat and Niflheim was the place of cold.
But you seldom hear about them after the creation. That is until the gods threw out Hel, the daughter of Loke and a Jotne(troll). They threw her out to the place in the cold north, to Niflheim.
Ok, you may ask, so Niflheim is either in Midgard or Aasgard?
The Vikings believed that Aasgard was a kingdom in the middle of Midgard somewhere to the east of Scandinavia. Many went to search for it. In fact in the younger Edda(the source of the nine worlds) a Swedish king (Gylve) went and searched for Aasgard and found it. There he met Odin in the form of Hár, Jafnhár and Þriði. They tell him the story of the gods, the creation story if you want, just as the prophets got the creation story of their deity of old Judaism.
This story is however called Gylvaginning (the deception of Gylve) indicating that Odin tricked Gylve. If you start reading about this you soon realise that there are discrepancies.

I have formed the opinion that the mythology is rooted in factual events. That Aasgard was a place to the east; the place where Óðinn and his blotgoder came from, that Vanaland was a neighbouring nation that Aasgard had several wars with. The Lore tells that Njord was a Vanir, a captive from the war.
Then it was a simple missunderstanding.
no problem m8...