The 6 Monsters That Killed the GODS and Broke the World - Norse Mythology
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Hey everyone, Welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss five monsters in Norse mythology that killed gods and /or contributed to destroying the world. Anything humanoid, such as Surtr, the chief of the fire giants, won't be discussed in this video. Let's get into it.Starting off our list are Skoll and Hati.Skoll and Hati are two wolves, and their story revolves around the sun and moon. In the deep past, there was a man named Mundilfari. He had two children, and he thought them so perfect that he named them Mani, "Moon", and Sol, "Sun". The giving of these names, high and mighty as they were, angered the gods, who punished Mundilfari for his hubris by setting his children in the sky amongst the very heavenly objects they were named after. Sol was made to drive the horses that pulled the chariot of the sun. Arvak and Alsvinn, the two celestial steeds drawing the chariot, would have perished in flames, but the gods took precautions and set bellows beneath their shoulders to keep them cool. Mani, henceforth, guided the moon in its arc across the sky and controlled its waxing and waning. Here is where Skoll and Hati come in. The sun and moon journeyed so swiftly across the sky because they were in constant flight. Skoll was the wolf chasing the sun, and Hati the moon. Tirelessly they pursued their quarry, relentlessly hunting. Their mother was an ogress that dwelt to the East of Midgard in a fell forest called the Jarnvid, the "Iron Wood". The frightening women that dwell within that dark forest were called the Jarnvidjur, "the Iron Wood Dwellers". It was said that from this ogress came many giant sons, all of them wolves. When the cataclysm of Ragnarok breaks the world and ends the current age in the mythic future, the long hunt will finally come to an end. The sun and the moon will be caught, and without them, the sky will go dark. Coming up next is the NidhoggA swarm of serpents lived amongst the roots of aYggdrasil, the World Tree. Indeed, so many serpents seethed in the deep places of the universe that it was said no tongue could count them. They constantly gnawed and clawed the tree's roots, maiming its subterranean sprawl, and in so doing, trying to destroy the tree itself - root, stem, and branch - which, if they succeeded, would have apocalyptic consequences. The greatest of these serpents was the Nidhogg. And as there were creatures that dwelt amongst the tree's roots, so were there creatures that dwelt amongst its branches.