Norse Mythology Quotes

“Well, that's history for you, folks. Unfair, untrue and for the most part written by folk who weren't even there.”
― Joanne Harris, The Gospel of Loki

“Guilt is a heavy thing, Mother Witch, she said. It's best left behind if you want to move forward.”
― Genevieve Gornichec, The Witch's Heart

“The old witch bears many giants for sons, and all in the shape of wolves; and from this source are those wolves sprung. The saying runs thus: from this race shall come one that shall be mightiest of all; he that is named Moon-Hound; he shall be filled with the flesh of all those men that die, and he shall swallow the moon, and sprinkle with blood the heavens and all the air; thereof shall the sun lose her shining, and the winds in that day shall be unquiet and roar on every side.”
― Snorri Sturluson

“Does Yggdrasil drink from it because it is the Well of Wisdom, or is it the Well of Wisdom because Yggdrasil drinks from it?”
― J. Aleksandr Wootton, Her Unwelcome Inheritance

“... he slipped in and out of himself, testing which disguise to use. He knew it had to be his most clever. The Sisters were too astute for his usual chicanery.
He flapped his wings, then soared. The shape of an eagle, useful for fast travel across worlds, but only temporary. Not convincing enough to hide his true identity.
... He pushed out of the eagle skin and leaped away from the horde of birds, springing into the sky. Into nothingness.
Instead of transforming into another creature, he hovered in between. Dangling on the mouth of wind. He rumbled with pleasure, at his own cleverness, born out of accident and indecision: he had become pure air.
Without effort, he whooshed past the threshold into the cave, into the bark of the Great Tree, winding cleverly under and over and through a maze of roots and rough stone, past every trick and trap the Sisters had set. He delighted at the speed at which he travelled, catching himself just in time, before his enthusiasm revealed the disguise. Slowing impulse to a mere draft, sucking into himself, he reached the very heart of the Norns’ lair. The Great Hall of Time.”
― Michelle Grierson, Becoming Leidah

“A stupid man stays awake all night pondering his problems; he's worn out when morning comes and whatever was, still is.”
― Poems of the Elder Edda

“I can’t believe,” he went on, “that you would besmirch my good name by implying that I’m an oath-breaker-”

“I would have to know your name in order to besmirch it, would I not?”

“You’re besmirching the idea of my good name.”

“The idea of your name itself, or the idea that it’s a good name?”

He blinked at her and mouthed the word Oh.”
― Genevieve Gornichec, The Witch's Heart

“Fight Loki with Loki.”
― Rick Riordan, The Hammer of Thor

“You think yourself better than me because you smile and pretend the world is filled with good men? Because you believe everything will work out for the best? Your optimism is shallow and false, and one day, Sunshine, it will get you killed.”
― Demi Winters, The Road of Bones

“An ash I know, Yggdrasil its name,
With water white is the great tree wet;
Thence come the dews that fall in the dales,
Green by Urth's well does it ever grow.

Thence come the maidens mighty in wisdom,
Three from the dwelling down 'neath the tree;
Urth is one named, Verthandi the next,--
On the wood they scored,-- and Skuld the third.
Laws they made there, and life allotted
To the sons of men, and set their fates.”
― Anonymous, The Poetic Edda: The Mythological Poems

“The road to Asgard is paved with head injuries.”
― Gregory Amato, Burden to Bear

“This first act of the new gods took place in three colours, the first that humans see and name, black, white and red. The Gap was black, many shades of black, thick and fine, glossy and tenebrous. The great snowman was white, except where his own parts cast white-violet shadows, in the pits of his arms, in his monstrous nostrils, under his knees. The new gods hacked and laughed. Blood spurted from the wounds they made, poured from his neck over his shoulders, slid like a hot garment over his chest and flanks, flowed, flowed, filled the glass ball with running crimson, and drowned the world. It was unquenchable, it was the life that had been in him, under the clay and ice, it drained away into death.”
― A.S. Byatt, Ragnarok

“The sound of wings flapping pulled me from my moment of relieved euphoria, and I looked up to see a massive black raven standing at the end of the alley. It was roughly the size of a bobcat, larger than any raven I’d ever seen before, and its beady eyes were locked right on me.
Even though the purple light from Sigrún had all but gone out, the light somehow seemed to linger on the bird’s black feathers. It titled its head as it watched me, squawking once.
“What do you want?” I demanded, but the raven had no reply. It just flapped its wings and disappeared into the night sky.”
― Amanda Hocking, Between the Blade and the Heart

“When I met you, I just knew,” he said as his fingers trailed down my temple. “I knew you were good, and I knew you were who I was looking for.”
― Amanda Hocking, Between the Blade and the Heart

“Può non essere sempre evidente ed esplicito nella forma del nome il nesso necessario con la sua ragione prima, ma ciò è dovuto soltanto all'ignoranza degli uomini, alla fuga del tempo, ed i sapienti, i saggi, i maghi e gli dèi sono tali in ragione delle loro maggiore o assoluta conoscenza di questi nessi. In origine ogni nome è una kenning. Ora essa, qual è praticata dagli scaldi, ci appare nel suo aspetto intellettualistico e concettoso di indovinello, nel riferimento ad una sapienza esclusiva ed esoterica, ma nostro è l'abbaglio nel percepirla così: nella struttura e nel senso suo più genuino essa è il modello originario del nome nel mito, un modello che può riflettersi in sé, nei suoi elementi costitutivi, all'infinito; primo e ultimo frutto dello sforzo di appropriazione del passato e del presente, di fare il mito.”
― Giorgio Dolfini, The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology

“Una parola specifica in norreno che dica 'mito' propriamente non esiste, potrebbe essere 'accadimento' oppure 'storia' o 'saga': per Snorri, ci sembra, quella che più si avvicina all'essenza del mito è la parola per 'ricordo', 'ricordare'. È sorprendente come riappaia più volte nella narrazione il 'ricordo' degli dèi: gli dèi si adunano e parlano e rammemorano quanto è avvenuto o quanto essi hanno compiuto, e questo par costituire agli occhi del narratore l'atto più proprio del loro sacro consesso. Il memorare, quasi che il ricordo costituisca un atto di vera e propria creazione, o forse, più pianamente, l'unico mezzo di conferma della realtà o verità cui riferirsi nella sconcertante poliedricità delle apparenze. Il ricordo è così l'unica vera esperienza del mito, il tempo del mito e la prospettiva della memoria secolare dell'uomo fino alla sua origine divina.”
― Giorgio Dolfini, The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology

“We call that the story of the Volsungs, the most famous and most stupid family in the history of Midgard”
― Gregory Amato, Burden to Bear

“The gods do not help you forget things. That is what alcohol is for, and why it is so much more important than faith.”
― Gregory Amato

“Today is Jesus's birthday. Just pointing that out, brother, on account that some folks get a bit confused this time of year." He put a light hand on Santa's arm and grinned. "They think it's Santa Claus Day."
Santa met his eye and held it.
"Reverend," the lady said. "Don't you even start." She looked at Santa apologetically. "Just ignore him. He's a bit impractical when it comes to Christmas."
"Darn straight I am. Santa Claus and all his little presents get in the way of God's message."
"As can religion," Santa replied.”
― Brom, Krampus: The Yule Lord

“Round three?" she said half-jokingly.

He released her thumb, a wicked grin stretching his lips. "I thought you'd never ask." Apparently, being alive for more than a century had not tempered his stamina.

She was a very fortunate girl.”
― Asa Maria Bradley, A Wolf's Hunger

“With a good woman, if you wish to enjoy her words and her good will, pledge her fairly and be faithful to it: Enjoy the good you are given.”
― The Havamal

“I know that Sif said things to Loki that we’d have strung anyone else from the rafters for saying. If it weren’t for him, you wouldn’t have your hammer, or your spear, or your godsforsaken shiny boar. You talk about his morality, but the only person in this room with a clean conscience is Idunn. I know the lies of more than half of you, and each of you either smells like your secret lover or has blood under your nails.”
― Cat Rector, The Goddess of Nothing At All

“Mimameid wasn’t built to keep people out. It was built to keep people in. It was built to be a fortress, to keep our people safe behind our walls, but The Celts have changed that.”
― Katherine Kempf, The Mimameid Solution

“If you ever need help - if there is ever a time when you need me, come here. Meet me at the clootie well. Nothing can touch us here, meurgerys.”
― Katherine Kempf, The Mimameid Solution

“What she felt was the pull of home.
And it felt so raw, like the landscape of the North Country being pulled free from the receding ice. The frozen layers that protected her heart were melting away. The wild North was calling to her.”
― Katherine Kempf, The Mimameid Solution

“Siobhan called upon an even deeper part of her. She’d seen what Petra hadn’t even known until that moment. That her love was a far more powerful force than her hate. And far more destructive.”
― Katherine Kempf, The Mimameid Solution

“Brothers will fight and kill each other,
sisters' children will defile kinship.
It is harsh in the world, whoredom rife
—an axe age, a sword age
—shields are riven—
a wind age, a wolf age—
before the world goes headlong.
No man will have mercy on another.”
― Völuspá

“In any case, the expression ‘real life’ in this context seems to fall short of academic standards. The notion that motor-cars are more ‘alive’ than, say, centaurs or dragons is curious; that they are more ‘real’ than, say, horses is pathetically absurd. How real, how startingly alive is a factory chimney compared with an elm tree: poor obsolete thing, insubstantial dream of an escapist!

For my part, I cannot convince myself that the roof of Bletchley station is more ‘real’ than the clouds. And as an artefact I find it less inspiring than the legendary dome of heaven. The bridge to platform 4 is to me less interesting than Bifröst guarded by Heimdall with the Gjallarhorn. From the wildness of my heart I cannot exclude the question whether railway-engineers, if they had been brought up on more fantasy, might not have done better with all their abundant means than they commonly do.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays

“We men of the north are not an overly philosophical race; living in harsh, unforgiving lands does not typically afford the opportunity to recline on couches and debate the nature of the universe, as those in Kanayama are wont to do.”
― Toby R. Beeny, The Bjornlinga Saga #1

“If the child is gifted only avarice, her words will be curses, but if gifted altruism, what divine power she might make her own is a fate yet unwoven.' - A warrior, page 344”
― Danielle L. Jensen, A Fate Inked in Blood