96 stars
invincibility, great wealth, and great skill as a poet. Thor countered each positive gift with a negative consequence, causing Starkad to be seriously hurt in every battle, to never enjoy his wealth, and to never have anyone know of his poetry.
As a result of the conflicting favor and disfavor bestowed on him by the two gods, Starkad lived to be very old, but he committed notorious deeds, including killing the king whom he had earlier served with much honor.
Many sagas from Iceland tell of the adventures of Starkad. In them, he is portrayed as old, misshapen, and gray-haired. The Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus contains the most information on Starkad, though he is featured in sagas as well.
Stars After they had created the Earth and the sky, Odin and his brothers caught glowing embers and sparks from Muspellheim and threw them up into the sky to be stars( see“ The Sky,” under creation). As time went on, they created new stars.
See also Thjazzi.
Sudri( South) One of the four dwarfs named after the four cardinal compass directions. The others are Austri( east), Vestri( west), and Nordi( north). These four dwarfs are mentioned in early Norse poetry, but only Snorri Sturluson gave Sudri and his companions the job of holding up the four corners of the sky.
Sun The Sun is mentioned frequently in Norse mythology but only in one poem in the Poetic Edda. In Snorri Sturluson’ s Prose Edda, is it given the name Sol. Only Snorri tells the story of Sol’ s life, and in that story, she is a servant of the Sun.
The Sun disk, however, was a popular image in rock carvings and on brooches and ornaments from the Norse age. The disk was also carved into memorial stones. The Sun is often represented as a wheel, both in objects made during the Viking Age and in the surviving poetry from that time. The Sun is referred to as the“ wheel of heaven.”
Frey appears to be the god most closely connected to the Sun. Scholars often see his courtship of and marriage to the giantess Gerda as a legend of the Sun pursuing the frozen Earth( see creation).
Sun and Moon The children of Mundilfari, who named his daughter Sol, which means“ sun,” and his son Mani, which means“ moon.” Older Norse poems identify Mundilfari as the father of these children but do not discuss where he lived or what type of being he was. The 13th-century Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson in his Prose Edda described Mundilfari as a human father. According to Snorri, the gods grew angry with this presumptuous human, stealing his children and putting them to work in the sky.
Surt( Black) Surt was a giant and a central character in the story of Ragnarok, the great conflict that ends the worlds of the Norse gods.
Surt ruled over Muspellheim, the realm of fire near the roots of the World Tree, Yggdrasil. He was the watchman for the giants, as Heimdall was the watchman of the gods; both waited for the time they would announce the beginning of the final conflict between the two mighty forces.
At Ragnarok, Surt came forth from Muspellheim, leading a troop of warriors that included the great wolves that would devour the Sun and Moon. He carried a sword that flashed flames and with it he set fire to all of the worlds. While the gods fell around them, the giant Surt fought the god Frey in a long battle. Surt finally killed Frey. The fire Surt spread created one of the strongest images of this final battle and is referenced in the Eddic and skaldic poetry as“ the fires of Surt.”
The story of Surt and his central role in Ragnarok is described in the Voluspa, the first poem in the
Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda, and is also retold by Snorri Sturluson in Gylfaginning.
Surtsey An island south of and belonging to Iceland, named for the Norse fire god, Surt. It was formed by a volcanic eruption from an underwater volcano, Sutur. The eruption began in 1963 and ended in 1967. Surtsey, the newest island on Earth, is now a nature reserve.
Suttung( Heavy with Broth) A giant. Suttung was the son of Gilling, who was murdered by the dwarfs Fjalar( 2) and Galar, and the brother of Baugi. His daughter was Gunlod, the guardian of the mead of poetry( see under Odin). Suttung hid the three containers of the mead in an underground cave of the mountain Hnitbjorg, where he and Gunlod lived. He would share it with no one. Odin, using his magic, succeeded in getting into the cave and stealing the mead. Suttung was able to change himself into an eagle to chase Odin( who was also in eagle form), but Suttung fell into a fire that the gods had made at the walls of Asgard, their home, and perished.