Norse mythology is the ancient religion of the Nordic people. It focusses around a strict pantheon of gods and goddesses meaning that it is a polytheistic religion.
Norse people or 'Norsemen' were Scandinavian people who spread across different parts of Europe before Christianity took over.
Norse mythology is similar to Greek in the sense that there are loads of different gods and they kind of interchange between being physical beings and anthropomorphic representations of characteristics or emotions.
In the view of Norse Mythology, existence is comprised of nine worlds as follow:
- Midgard - The world of "Average human experience" so basically living on Earth
- Alfheimr - The world of Norse elves called Alfar
- Svartalfheim - The world of dark elves called Svartalfar
- Vanaheimr - The world of the Vanir
- Muspellheim - The world of fire
- Jotunheimr - The world of the Jotnar
- Niflheim - The world of Ice
- Asgard - The world of the Aesir
- Hel - The netherworld just like our Hell I think
There are also these kind of "clans" which beings belong to: The Aesir, the Vanir, the Jotnar, the Alfar and the Dvergar.
The Aesir are one group in the pantheon of Norse gods. The Aesir include Odin, Frigg, Thor, Baldr and Tyr.
Odin is basically the king of the gods, so the Aesir are a very important group.
The Vanir are the other group of gods. There was a war between the Aesir and the Vanir in which the Aesir won and the Vanir basically became a subgroup so they are sometime just referref to as Aesir themselves.
The Jotnar are Giants, the Alfar are Elves and the Dvergar are Dwarves.
You can already see some quite big similarities between this and Greek Mythology such as the power stuggles between gods, the various worlds or planes and the mythical creatures like Giants and elves (Elves are basically just Nymphs in Greek Mythology).
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