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Wanes The English form of the Old Norse word Vanir. Used in early translations of the Icelandic manuscripts, particularly of the Poetic Edda.
Watchman of the Gods The title and task assigned to Heimdall, one of the Aesir gods. According to Norse beliefs, the post of guardian was considered very important. As watchman, Heimdall sat at the edge of Heaven and protected the Aesir from the giants. He also watched for events marking the beginning of the end of time, known as Ragnarok, the battle between the gods and the giants. Heimdall warned the gods when the battle was about to begin.
whetstone A stone used for sharpening tools. The stone is often quartz because of the hardness and sharpness of its broken grains. In Norse mythology, whetstones were made from the pieces of the giant Hrungnir’ s club, which shattered when it was hit by Thor’ s hammer. In the story“ Thor’ s Duel with Hrungnir,” some pieces of whetstone lodged in Thor’ s head, giving him a headache whenever whetstones were carelessly moved or dropped near him.
In the story of how the great god Odin obtained the mead of poetry, Odin uses a whetstone to sharpen the workers’ tools. The workers are so eager to have the whetstone that they kill each other with their sharpened weapons in a wild scramble.
At the Sutton Hoo ship burial in England, an impressive whetstone, thought to be a scepter, was found in a seventh-century grave( see ships and ship burials). wolf Wolves were both friends and enemies of the gods in Norse mythology. They were companions of the great god Odin, for example, who fed Geri and Freki table scraps at Valhalla. These wolves roamed throughout the great hall, walking among the souls of human warriors. Humans in battle, therefore, considered wolves to be signs of Odin’ s presence. A gray wolf on the battlefield was a positive sign to warriors, for they believed it would guide their spirits to Valhalla if they died in the battle.
More often, however, wolves were vicious enemies of the gods. Wolves chased the Sun and Moon across the sky, threatening with growls and gnashing teeth to devour both, which they finally did at Ragnarok, the ultimate conflict between the gods and the giants. The gods turned Vali( 1), a son of the trickster god, Loki, into a wolf that then tore to pieces his brother Narfi. The gods then converted Narfi’ s entrails to iron and used them to bind Loki.
The most powerful wolf, the giant Fenrir, also a son of Loki, threatened the very existence of the gods. They eventually succeeded in chaining him as a captive, but at Ragnarok he broke free. Scholars see the binding of Fenrir as a symbolic attempt to protect humankind from this enemy of nature.
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