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Norse Mythology

Contributers: Greg Wheatley, Chad Orzel, Jonathan Vessey, Erica Sadun, Pam Korda

Mat and Odin:

Has anybody failed to notice that Mat is being set up as Odin, complete with wide brimmed hat, a spear with ravens drawn on it which are named "Thought" and "Memory", coincidentally enough the names of Odin's ravens and will in the future almost certainly lose an eye? Also, it seems to me there was a Norse myth involving Odin agreeing to be hung from Yggdrasil (or some other unpronounceable Norse thing like that) in order to gain wisdom or power or both (he really went in for this self-sacrifice thing...)- a definite parallel to Mat being hung from the Tree o' Life in Rhuidean.

The Midgard Serpent:

wound around the roots of above tree, often envisioned as a symbol of eternity--a large serpent swallowing its own tail. Sound like any famous Aes Sedai jewelry we know?

Heimdall's Horn:

Heimdall's job was to guard the Rainbow bridge into Asgard against the Giants. During the Last Battle (Ragnarok), he was to blow the horn to signal the arrayed gods and _dead heroes_ that it was time to fight. cf. Horn of Valere. Granted, there are differences - the Heroes are bound to the Horn and not to a specific cause,and they live in T'A'R rather than the afterlife as such (where they'd fight all day, cutting each other to pieces, then get healed at day's end. Always got a kick out of that - sounds like a real heavenly afterlife to me), but the concept of dead heroes waiting around for the final battle stays the same

Bad Guy under a mountain:

Here is the origin of the archetypical Evil Dude Imprisoned in a Mountain. Loki, the Norse "Evil God," (more properly the god of chaos, but he was the antagonist of the other gods) was chained up in a cave after he killed the god Baldur.The legend was that he would escape or be freed just before Ragnarok.

Perrin

Thor?? Is it just coincidence that Perrin is impressively muscled and has a big hammer, just like a certain Norse god of thunder?

Rand

TEW/Tyr: Tew was a Norse god of war and of justice. This is a parallel with Rand bringing strife to Randland, and with his concurrent attempts to rule justly and by the rule of law. Tew's arm was snarfled off by the monstrous wolf Fenri (Perrin?) when the gods chained him. (The gods thus defeated one of their greatest enemies, at the loss of one of their greatest assets, Tew's right (fighting) hand.) More evidence for Rand losing a hand.

RJ said at a signing in Atlanta that he deliberately made Mat like Odin and Rand like Tew/Chew.