Welcome to Make Ours Marvel, the weekly show where Michael Kaiser and Jon M. Wilson read chronologically through Marvel Comics’ spandex adventures and discuss their thoughts with little to no authority.
In this episode…
- Amazing Spider-Man King Size #3 (Nov 1966)
- Fantastic Four King Size #4 (Nov 1966)
- Tales to Astonish #85 (Nov 1966)
- Thor #133 (Oct 1966)
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A question. Since before your sun burned hot in space and before your race was born, I have awaited a question.
OK, so maybe it hasn’t been quite that long, but Mike asked a question about the Norse afterlife and I’m here to answer.
There are 4 destinations for Norse worshipers. The first is Valhalla, which is Odin’s hall of the dead. Half of the warriors slain in battle go here and wait for Ragnarok, where they will fight the enemies of the gods. While they wait, they fight all day and at night their wounds are healed and they feast.
The second destination, where the other half of those slain in battle go, is Fólkvangr (pronounced Folk-Van-Geer), Freya’s hall of the dead. This is a much more laid back hall, where there is still combat and feasting, but there are also more scholarly pursuits. Not every warrior wants to fight all the time. Also, Freya accepts women into her hall, which Odin does not.
The 3rd destination is Nastrond (literally Corpse Shore), where murderers and oath-breakers go to be eternally eaten by the dragon Nidhog. I should point out that, as far as the Norse are concerned, murder isn’t killing someone but killing someone in secret. If the family doesn’t know who to go after for revenge of wergild, then that’s murder.
The last destination is Hel which, unlike the Christian place that took it’s name and added a hockey stick, isn’t necessarily bad. The main thing that souls in Hel do is look after their living family and try to aid them when they can. It’s the destination of most of us who have this belief system, so it’s pretty much neutral.