The Vikings did not express their views on the divine through abstract theological or philosophical language. Instead, they conveyed their understanding of divinity through concrete imagery and narratives found in their myths. While these myths are powerful and unique, they primarily depict what specific gods do and have done, leaving us to wonder about the Vikings' concept of divinity itself – what it means to be a god, beyond the actions of individual deities.
Fortunately, we can gain some insight into this question by examining the implicit theology present within the Norse myths. Formulating a Norse theology involves teasing out the theological implications of how the gods are depicted in these stories.
The Numinous
To better understand the concept of the divine, it's essential to establish what is meant by it. While defining the divine is challenging, the German philosopher of religion Rudolf Otto, in his 1917 work "The Idea of the Holy," provides a profound description. Otto refers to the divine as the "numinous," an experience that appears fundamentally distinct from the ordinary, mundane aspects of our lives. It seems to emanate from an entirely different plane of existence. In its presence, individuals feel themselves to be utterly insignificant and inconsequential in the face of something immeasurably greater. This experience carries a majestic, daunting, and even terrifying aspect known as the "mysterium tremendum" (awe-inspiring mystery), as well as a blissful, comforting aspect referred to as the "mysterium fascinosum" (alluring mystery) or simply "fascinans."
The Norse gods, alongside their other attributes, embodied this universal and inscrutable force. They drew their imagery from the specifics of the Viking world, making them potent conduits for connecting with the divine during that era.
Certain deities represented particular facets of the numinous more prominently than others. For instance, Odin, the cunning and powerful chieftain who ruled through arcane wisdom and magic, naturally evoked the sublime yet intimidating side of the divine. In contrast, deities like Tyr or Freya were more straightforwardly benevolent, communal, and comforting, making them effective symbols of the "lighter" aspect of the numinous.
The Pillars of the Cosmos
The most commonly used Old Norse term for "god" was "áss" (pronounced "OWS"), or in the plural, "æsir" (pronounced "EYE-seer," meaning "gods"). The corresponding feminine forms for "goddess" were "ásynja" (pronounced "ow-SIN-ya") and "ásynjur" (pronounced "ow-SIN-yur," meaning "goddesses"). When referring to a collective that included both gods and goddesses, the masculine plural "æsir" was employed. These words trace their origins to either of two Proto-Germanic roots: *ansaz, meaning "pole, beam, rafter," or *ansuz, meaning "life, vitality."
This strongly suggests that the Vikings perceived their gods as the "poles" or "vital forces" that upheld and sustained the cosmos and its order.
Indeed, their myths support this view. The gods were integral to the cosmos rather than external beings manipulating it. They emerged alongside the cosmos during its creation and would also fall with it when the time of Ragnarok, the Norse apocalypse, arrived.
Although the gods were part of the cosmos, they were not ordinary members. The cosmic structure mirrored the Norse social hierarchy, with the gods and goddesses as rulers (also referred to as "regin") who established and maintained the order of the entire cosmic system, to which all other inhabitants of the cosmos were subject.
While the gods reigned over other beings, they were also duty-bound to protect the cosmos from the chaotic forces of the giants, who sought to destroy it. This concept was deeply interwoven with language, myth, and social practices, indicating its central role in the implicit Norse theology.
There Was No Norse “Supreme Being”
While the power of the Norse gods was extreme, it wasn’t total. There was no “supreme being” in the Norse religion. Instead, even the gods were subject to limitations. These limitations basically fell into two categories.
First, since the Vikings worshiped many gods, each of which had a personality and role distinct from the others, no one deity possessed all of the powers that were attributed to the gods as a whole. Some gods were better warriors than others; some were wiser than others; some were more skilled than others at blessing lands, crops, livestock, and people with prosperity and fertility; and so forth.
Perhaps the most telling example of this is Odin, who was famed for his almost unmatched knowledge and wisdom. Yet even he had to go on numerous trying quests to learn that lore; it wasn’t simply innate within him. (See, for example, the tales of Odin’s Discovery of the Runes, Why Odin Is One-Eyed, and The Mead of Poetry.)
The second way in which the gods’ power was limited was that even they couldn’t escape being subject to fate. They, too, were doomed to have various misfortunes befall them, to suffer, and ultimately, at Ragnarok – Old Norse Ragnarök, “Final Fate of the Gods” – to die.