It looks like Hel is serious about getting her lost wages.
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For those that hadn’t see it yet, we’re conducting a poll to see how many readers would be interested in a printed trade paperback collection of Brat-halla. I know we did one a couple years ago (and the numbers were promising then), but we have a lot more readers now and wanted to see where we stand while we finish up the work on it.
Yeah, I can see how the valkyries would be especially effective with Odin-eye. After all, he is part Odin, but wouldn’t they have a problem working for Hel? She is sort of the competition.
I shuddered over the name of the tavern, having lived with a windy dog-very handy the day after “chili night” – but still…
The tavern name comes from a wonderful D&D campaign my wife and I were part of. Our characters had an inn/tavern named after them after they saved a bunch of the patrons and help rebuild the place after a fire. Her character was a priestess of a wind god (the original Arazel) and my character was a barbarian named Greiwulff (pronouced “grey wolf”). The owner of the inn couldn’t spell so he put up a sign with drawings of “wind” and a “wolf”. The inn then became known as the “Inn of the Windy Dog”.
I thought Hel had like undead armies under her control or something.
Ah, well.
She does, but she’s also a smart girl. Think about where Odineye is currently staying and whether you’d march on the place with an army of undead or take a slightly stealthier approach.
LOL! on the name of the place.
I don’t think Hel and the Valkyries are in competition, the Valkyries just take the ones who died honorably in battle (most of them anyways) and Hel jiust takes the rest.
No wonder she is scaring the barkeep, she is afer all, the Norse version of the Grim Reaper.
Cool to see the ‘return’ of Azrael and Xarenia.
Didn’t we see the other two guys at the same table in the Pantheon Olympics?
Which two guys? The two in panel 2 or in panel 4 (sitting across from Arazel & Xarenia)?
The two sitting across from Arazael and Xarenia.
Interesting how the camera panned as the barkeep was describing the two types of muscle. Made it clear who’s who.
My internet has been down for a while and I missed so many comics! I have to say, after catching up, I’m really enjoying this arc!
I just have to say I so love this comic (say it again at least). I’ve been digging up my old books and surfing the net refreshing my memory on Norse (and Celtic) mythology. Now see what you’ve done. Instead of doing other time wasting things like play World of Warcrack (members of my guild have wondered if I fell into a black hole or something – I just tell them I fell into Brat-halla) or reading trashy mystery novels I’m actually edumacating myself.
I’ve even *gak* tried drawing again (I love the art style of this comic, although it’s vastly different from my own , but I found it inspiring).
See what you’re doing to me! Good grief! Next thing I’ll be writing poetry! (Ye gods! That would be something. I find it highly strange that I’m not exactly the poetic type. Although I love epic poetry, the navel gazing type does nothing for me, and yet I am most “in love” with the character in this comic who is the god of poetry!)
*headdesks*
If you’re busy now looking up mythology stuff… just wait until the next storyline. ^_^
Woo! Bring it on! I can’t wait.
Next story arc…. Dare I guess that we’ll finally have our Norse Gone Wild arc? Freyr, Freya, and their dad (can’t remember his name offhand).
Frey is the brother of Freya, and thus the uncle of Odin and Frey’s kids. (“Hey, Uncle Frey is here!” followed by a kid charge.
)
Frey and Freya’s father is Njord, God of the wind and sea, God of Chariots, and a Giving God.
And that makes Njord the kids’ Grandfather. (“Granddad’s here!!!” Super godling charge
)
http://www.aasd.k12.wi.us/staff/hermansenjoel/apmuseum/bbandn/freya_and_frey.htm
http://www.mayhemltd.com/tools-nord3.htm
That’s interesting because my sources make no mentuion of Njord being related to Odin or Frigg (or any of the other Aesir) at all. He was one of the Vanir (Odin and Frigg are Aesir) who fathered Frey and Freya by his sister (unnamed) or by Skadi. Neither Njord nor this unnamed sister were related by blood to Odin or Frigg, and if Skadi is their mother, she wasn’t either. Odin’s father is Bor, and his brothers are Ve and Villi. Frigg’s father is possiibly Fjorgynn (no one is 100% sure) but no siblings are mentioned in any of the source material.
I’m curious what your source is. I had a big discussion with a friend of mine who is extremely knowledgeable about Norse Mythology and were telling each other things neither one of us even knew and we’ve both been studying mythology for decades. I do know that there’s a lot of untapped material yet to see the light of day (meaning translated and published) and I do know there’s a lot of traditions surrounding the Norse gods that we don’t even know about this side of the big pond, meaning North America (I have Scandinavian friends from places like Sweden and Denmark and they’ve told me some of the stories/traditions in the areas they’re from – especially about Odin). It really does make it all very interesting.
Frey is a personal favourite (outside of this comic). I’m so looking forward to him eventually showing up in the comic!
Not quite yet. I’m still doing the research on them, but there might be a… nah, that could spoil things.
The next storyline is tentatively titled “Junior Pantheon Games”. Guess what it might be about?
Oh, you have just made my day! Junior Pantheon Games! Woo!
And looking up a bunch more gods and goddesses…I think I’m going to be gone for days! Days I tell you!
Reply to Teri,
I included my websites in my post. It mentioned that Freya is the wife of Odin in later traditions, and is sometimes called Frigg, especially in Teutonic mythology. Freya and Frigg in any case have strongly overlapping areas of control, which includes beauty and fertility.
More websites that mention that Freya married Odin:
http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_myth_gods_norse_freya.htm
http://www.valkyrietower.com/freyja.html
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/f/freya.html
It is not clear what the authors of this strip intend, however, until they unveil it.
Hey, Mark, thanks for posting more of the sites that you were using. The sites you gave in the original post didn’t mention much (if anything) about Freya and Odin. In most traditions I’ve come across she’s the lover of Odin, but many of my sources (most of which are not online sources), while indicating sometimes Freya and Frigg are mixed up by some, they are indeed believed to be wo different goddesses.
It is, however, interesting to see how traditions and stories change over time and in some of the idiosyncracies of mythology in general. There are some theories that Frigg’s father’s name might be the masculine form of Jord (earth goddess/giant) who was also Thor’s mother. o.O
Norse mythology is full of little things like that. The comic itself has poked some fun at them.
And I AM really looking forward to the take Jeffery and Seth take on Frey an Freya and Njord (if he appears) and the others, whatever it may be.
Oh and I see the whole wife of Odin thing, Freya was married to the god Od, which no one is exactly sure that he was indeed Odin – not much is said about him outside of this context. It’s very possible it was Odin, and gods and goddesses splitting up to go their separate ways or to remarry (as Skadi and Njord did and Skadi later married Ull) is not unheard of in Norse mythology, so it may very well be the case with Odin and Freya.
Personally I agree that Frigg and Freya are separate goddesses, since the differences between the two are big enough that it would warrant it.
I believe it’s pretty clear that Freyja and Frigg are individual persons, if you read Snorra Edda. Freyja also very much has it with magic and seidhr, which is not very Aesic and is actually the thing the war broke out over (well, Freyja’s good friend Gullveig actually, who was kind of a super witch and the Aesir didn’t like that/wanted control of magic for themselves). Freyja did teach Odin seidhr (herself probably learning it from Gullveig), and they may be “consorts”, but Od is not the same as Odin since it’s said that he’s practically always travelling, and Freyja cries golden tears for him. Some things also point to a relationship between Freyr and Freyja, after all they’re Vanir and supposedly historically “older” and more, well, “raw”.
The Vanir are NOT the little hippie gods. They actually bested the Aesir in battle (Poetic Edda, Voluspa), probably using magic.
Gullveig-Heid can be speculated to be identical with Angrboda (because how many super-witches were burned in Asgard and had their heart eaten by Loki? Exactly, only one) and thus the mother of Hel. Thus Freyja would be like an aunt or something for Hel. At least, the two would know each other.
Freyja has a death goddess aspect, too, because she gets half of the fallen warriors (Snorra Edda again, iirc) even before Odin gets his. Thus, she would have a natural relationship with both Hel, Odin, and the Valkyries.
I think I’m in love with Hel. She is just too cool…
And I’m really looking forward to that next Arc. But this one is neat cuz I love watching Odineye try SO hard and yet fail SO badly… or is that fail so well?? lol… I’ve been editing too long today…