Beyond a Darkened Shore(108)
Sluagh: A term for the “restless dead” who hunt for souls in a flock of shadows. They were said to appear when someone was on their deathbed, waiting to steal their soul.
Tuatha Dé Danann: Translates as the “tribe/people of the goddess Danu” (the mother goddess of Ireland) or as the “tribe of the gods.” These were an immortal race of people with supernatural power who lived in another realm—the otherworld—in pre-Christian Ireland. The Morrigan, Flidais, and Brigid were all examples of such goddesses.
Wild Hunt: A folklore known all over Europe, where a powerful god would lead a hunt through the woods, riding a horse as black as midnight, with ghostly hounds racing ahead. The old myths never really say what they’re hunting, but the implication (and fear) is generally that they’re hunting living people or souls.
Norse Mythology
Einherjar: Warriors who have died in battle and are brought to Valhalla by the Valkyrie.
Fenrir: The third son of Loki by the female j?tunn Angrboda. He was a giant, terrifying wolf that was kept bound (the legends never really specify where) by an enchanted fetter created by the dwarves because he would eventually bring about the end of the world and the gods (see Ragnar?k below).
Huginn and Muninn: Translates to “thought” and “memory” from Old Norse; these are the names of Odin’s ravens that fly all over the world and bring him information.
J?tunn/J?tnar: A race of giants who were banished from Asgard (the realm of the gods) to live in J?tunheimr, one of the nine worlds of Norse mythology. As Leif mentions, they have a complicated relationship with the Norse gods—sometimes antagonistic, sometimes friendly or neutral. Many of the gods, including Odin, descended from the j?tnar, and some of the gods even intermarried with them.
Midgard: One of the nine realms, or worlds, in Norse mythology, where mortals reside.
Odin: I could spend a page on all the many beliefs about Odin in Norse (and Germanic) mythology, but a simplified version is that he was one of the principal gods, a warrior god who was also talented in magic and runes. He is usually portrayed as an old man with a long beard and only one eye because he traded the other for wisdom.
Ragnar?k: The Norse version of the apocalypse. When the wolf Fenrir escapes, a great battle takes place and many of the gods are killed.
Seidr: This belief is as complicated as Leif and the seer make it seem, but a very simplified way of defining it is that it was shamanism that could alter fate.
Valhalla: Heaven, Viking-style, where warriors who died in combat can eat and drink and fight for eternity.
Valkyrie: Usually portrayed as winged female figures, these warrior goddesses chose who lived or died on the battlefield.