The Search for the Norse God of Fire 

Well this was Surtaintly interesting. 😁

I think Braggi is the god of fire. Have you heard his mix tapes?

I always views Sif as a goddess representing golden wheat, and personally interpret Loki taking her hair as burning a wheat field so that after the fire, the land is more fertile and the gold wheat grows better.

I think you've hit something here. Fire is the most complicated of the four basic elements. Anyone who watched avatar can tell you about that. It has a stark duality. If controlled, it can warm, guide, and create. If not, it is one of the most destructive, and terrifying forces on Earth. And once you lose control its almost impossible to regain it. I feel like this duality takes place in deity as well. In Greek mythos, you have Apollo; god of the sun (but also of archery, medicine, and poetry), Hephaestus; god of the forge and volcanoes, and Hestia; goddess of the hearth and home. All three of these are gods of fire in one way or another. Its almost like the powers of fire are so great that even a god can't control all of it alone. disclaimer that I am just a curious mind who likes learning but am not myself a pagan so if my ideas/ comments are off base, let me know. BTW: congrats on the nearly 20K subs Ocean!!

Surt might be the worshiped as a god of fire in sence of „raging Fire“ while Frigg or Sif may be goddesses of the worm fire that awaits those who come home after a cold day.

Volundr, creator of the first "What's in the box?!?!" moment.

I always looked at Loki as a trickster Fire Spirit like the spirit of the hearth fire.

Unless there's another story in which Logi takes on "human" form, it was my impression from that story that Logi was an illusion and not a real being, like how the old crone was the personification of old age, or the cat was an illusion superimposed on Jormungandr.

Gotta love how pretty much every problem is norse myths is because Loki did something he thought was funny... He's the physical incarnation of the phrase *It's just a prank bruh!*

I always saw Loki as a god of fire. Since he's the offspring of a spark and dry brush. To me he is the brush fire, not quite a wildfire. But Surt would be an even greater fire than a wildfire. To me he is the giant solar flare and Muspelheim the sun. I think the Jotun are stronger than the gods in their respective fields, but the gods power and knowledge encompass more than just one area unlike the Jotun.

I do personally consider the Jotnar to be a kind of " god" themselves, a third tribe of deity that compliments the Aesir and Vanir.

Your description of the heath at the centre of the home moved me. We have lost so much in our modern age.

In my understanding, a god is a powerful, magical being, that has some kind of contract with humans. Surt or udgårdsloke does not have such a contract, so they are not gods- just powerful, magical beings. And as I see it, the Norse gods are not gods OF anything, in the sense that they are responsible for it, or is a manifestation of it. Instead they have some kind of connection to this aspect of life, so if you as a human have some kind of problem with, lets say war, you pray to the god, that has a relation to war- or more specific a certain peception of war. So if you are planning war you pray to Tyr, associated with calculated, planned war. If you are leading people into war as a king, you pray to Odin, god of kingship and warfare... The Norse gods are in essence just a clan of Jotunns, that prefers order, and protects humans against other clans of Jotunns that prefers chaos and attacks humans.

I've heard a theory about Heimdall having a possible association with sacrificial fire as one of his titles Gullintani means "golden teeth", and the Vedic god Agni is also said to have golden teeth, the gold teeth representing the consuming tongues of flame. Both these deities are guardians and intermediaries at the gate between worlds. Heimdall is called "whitest of the gods", white being a radiance of bright light.

This was an awesome look into the idea of a 'God of Fire', what that title can mean, and how it could apply to the Norse faith. Well done, ocean.

As a patron of Logi/Hálogi as some call him, I really appreciate this video. Also there's like 7+ words in Old Norse that are just another word for fire

as an engineer sif and brok are surprisingly very important to me. brok being a master of metal I see him as an important part of my work, a sort of guardian, while his original form was for the forge alone I believe in the modern era he encompasses all forms of metalwork. sif on the other hand is a little less important since shes not directly involved but is still important, she shows temperament and careful care, for doing any work with machinery is dangerous without care which her fire represents to me, the careful maintenance of a flame/ machine keeps you and your work safe.

I loved this!!!! I really liked how you put so many different "layers" to the one topic of fire. A nice and enjoyable way to wind down after a along day

I understood that early Loki legends made him fire god. A story of a journey Odin, Loki and a third god with them stop to rest and catch/cook/eat a bird, and Loki was refered to as a fire god, perhaps for creating the cooking fire.

Reminds me alot of my family's tradition of honoring Hestia when we move to a new home. We have Olive branches from a tree that is kept small to offer to her along with about 30% of our first meal at the home. its been passed down for generations

This is how you do a "who is the god of [blank]?" video. The association of gold with the hearth reminds me of the Roman play Aulularia by Plautus where an old rich man buries his gold under his hearth and asks his housespirit (Lar) to protect it and only reveal it to a worthy descendant.

2:14 Loki: I play both sides so I always come out on top 😂

I love the fact that in norse myth, if you think of a god as the carnation of an element, there are 7 gods of war but if you think of them as just another living being then the answer is just *YES*

The Manowar song about Loki refers to him as the god of fire. I didn't know question it or take it as fact.

Jotuns are personnifications ot the wilds forces of nature, destructive and untamable. That's why they are in conflict with the gods who are, before everything, deities of civilisations. I think Dwarves and Elves were seens of the same way that greeks saw Satyrs and Nymphs: Spirits or minor deities that have a good hand on the elements of their respectives fields but aren't quite as great or powerful as the gods. I thought Loki was the god of fire, he's always descripted as being a god of fire... but that could be because of Logi, i do'nt know. I thought Frigg was a goddess of earth and Sif a goddess of clouds and air, i remember she was said to weave clouds.

Logi = Låga, Låge, wich means flame in the scandinavian languages

Jackson Crawford often says that the gods of Norse mythology aren't really Gods of anything, but more personalities that are capable of various roles. Also, one interesting thing to note is that they believe they didn't actually use the fire in the middle of the home to cook, it was just used to heat.

Loved this one, It was brilliant. I could listen you to retell the stories from the Prose Edda all day long!

I'm actually kind of surprised you don't bring up Loki himself as a representative of fire, what with his "parents" Farbaute (Thunder/Storm) and Laufey (Tree/dry leaves). Arith Härger has an excellent discussion about it here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0sLCiKm2rJQ.html

Volundr has no chill

in Armanism, Surtr is the name given to Allfather. Thusly, in this tradition Surtr is beyond all beings by impossible degrees. On a different note, I loved Lords of Magic when I was growing up.

I absolutely love your channel and how you discuss the topics. Vary refreshing and enlightening. I found this channel when I started looking into researching wicca and while I'm vary new at this I've found the norse deities to be just as interesting and powerful as the popular Greek/roman gods if not more so especially in your discussion of them. Tons of kudos for your great work.

In love with the information your videos have. Thank you so much for sharing.

Overly Sarcastic Productions did a really good video on Utgarda-Loki. It's such a good story. Funny and terrifying!

I’ve interpreted Loki as the god of elemental fire due to fire’s dual nature. Just like when Loki is helpful, fire can be useful and beneficial, but when Loki betrays and tricks others, he “burns” them, just like fire does if it touches something or gets out of control. And he also is the first spark that lights the fuse to ragnarok through his manipulation of Hodr to kill Balder with an arrow made from mistletoe. I personally think this allegorical or metaphorical view could make Loki a good candidate for the Norse god of fire.

This is such an insightful video, I’d love it if you did an audiobook or a podcast of some kind going in depth with these storys

Just as I was working on my story involve the Norse mythology, I stumbled upon this video. Very educational and very well-made. I thoroughly enjoyed this video.

I always keep forgetting to comment. Don't forget that Thjalfi was part of the Utgarda-Loki tale that challenged Hugi (Thought)

You have showed me many things to further my knowledge for my spirit. Thank you.

You have a great way of doing comedy in the intros. Keep it up man!!!

Awesome!! Usually I am not a fan of labeling the gods as "god of this" or "god of that". But this approach provided me with some insight for my practice! Thank you.

Few months late here, but the discussion of Logi and wildfire got me thinking of the landscape the Norse lived in--the circumpolar boreal forest, where fire is one of the common great natural disturbances, sweeping through forests. Destructive and all-consuming but also necessary for the life of the forest and the land.

One of the best RU-vid channels out there is right here🤘

You go into depth. For sure. Thank you.

There is a plausible possible link that Brighid, Eostre and Freyja are all the dawn goddesses of the irish, anglo saxon and norse cultures. Brighid is associated with fire in the irish pagan culture. Eostre as a dawn goddess could arguably be the one who "kindles" the flame of the sun, and perhaps the hearth too. So potentially one could see Eostre and maybe Freyja as hearth/fire goddesses

This was straight fire 🔥 🔥 🔥

I am fully atheistic but learning about gods through the lens an actually spiritual person who worships them is very informative, I'm glad people keep these faiths alive even if it isn't me.

This is brilliant! So many gods seem to over lap as the god or God's of fire. But it seems to depend in what meaning your looking at! Such a thought provoking subject 😁

That "worships fire" clip was a bit of a shock! Not heard that in years, in fact completely forgot that game existed but it's come rushing back.. I LOVED it back in the day :D

I always thought Loki was considered the god of fire, as he represents change through chaos. His father, Farbaughti, has a name that translates to “Cruel Striker.” It’s my understanding that Farbaughti represents lightening, and lightening striking the ground causes fire.

That was beautifully explained, thank you

I've always wondered about this, especially after learning about the importance of fire deities pertaining to the hearth and sacrificial fires in other Indo-European religions and ritual. We only really have a single attestation of the presumably main Germanic fire deity in Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico when he mentions that the Germanic tribes worshipped "Vulcanus" in typical Interpretatio Romana fashion. A clue we could look at is that, in Old Norse, there existed the phrase "sǽvar niþr" which was used as a kenning for fire and means "grandson/descendent of the sea". This association of fire and water has been identified as a common motif amongst Indo-European religions, where the fire deity is raised amongst water spirits, a couple of examples being Greek Hephaestus and Vedic Agni. One of Agni's titles is even "Apām Napāt" meaning "child of the water" which is similar to the kenning. This makes me think there was some lost skaldic poem that explained the kenning and named the Norse fire deity. One theory I have is that maybe Heimdallr was the Norse fire god at some point, the importance of the fire deity as a guardian and Heimdallr's supposed genealogy making him literally the grandson of the sea (Ægir) like the fire kenning. There are also a number of eerie similarities to Agni. Both Heimdallr and Agni are described as having golden teeth and associated with the color white. Heimdallr was born to nine mothers thought to be the daughters of the water deities Ægir and Ran, Agni was born to seven mothers who were water deities. Heimdallr is described as being able to hear everything, Agni is described as being able to hear everything. I could go on and on with this. It makes me wish we could find a full copy of Heimdalargaldr and Húsdrápa so we could get a better understanding of Heimdallr, but, sadly, those seem to be lost to time. 😞

Brilliant video! Funny and educational!

I love the knowledge you pass along helps to view other mind sats

might be a bit late to the conversation, but what about Sol being a fire deity, since she lights up the sky.

Great presentation!

Excuse me, I have been under the impression that in the Sif hair matter, Loki first made an agreement with 'the Sons of Ivaldi', and after they had given their three treasures, made that bet with Brokkr, and Sindri/Eitri. Do we have evidence that it was the same Svartalfar all along?

I really like your insite on your take of Norse religion and your take on the gods . Looking forward to hearing more . Am not of this this religious but do love to hava at lest an understanding

I always thought of Loki as a fire of passion, hearth and chaos or purifying/ceremonial fire (since people who get involved with him might get mindfucked a bit but they usually turn out to be better than before), He's impulsive but creative, can be both good and bad. A fire in hearth where give one lots of benifits but also one of the more dangerous thing in the house as it can burn all if not handled well and when loki he turned from the rest of the gods in asgard all suffer the enternal winter with no warmth in their hearth. Also unlike logi, all food was cleaned off but nothing else was destroyed which makes me think of controlled fire. So for me, i view Loki as a god of fire and hearth who will also take that fire away to damn all in eternal winter during Ragnarok.

From what I see in the eating contest tale, Logi is the wild, untamed fire. Loki is the tamed fire, that's why it is associated with bringing craftsman gifts made fully or partially of metal like the hammer, the spear, ring, ship, also golden (cooked?) boar, (and sometimes getting out of hand burning Sif hair or wheat field as can be seen on other comment). While Utgarda Loki might be the magma of the earth, the liquid fire

Thank you, the idea of "context of fire" has help me with worldbuilding some gods.

This is vary interesting as a new follower as a wildland firefighter im always drawn to fighting the wildfires and I have seen what the can do I have done this for 5 years

I like to think surtr is a potential fire god. But more so a primordial one so I see him as more of a aspect of nature, everything must burn to create anew

I have always seen Loki as being a candidate for a god of fire as well. Fire can be helpful, it gives warmth, light, cooks food, and is used in the forge. But, if left to its own devices, it can go out of control and burn your house down. I have always seen Loki in that way. His antics do equal parts to both help and hinder the gods, until his ultimate prank kills Baldur. He is reaponsible for Mjolnir, but also is instrumental in the downfall of the gods in Ragnorok

I always thought Loki was the God of fire. Now I can tell Manowar didn't do much reaserch for most of the norse Gods

i like the point were a single manifest many conotation as fire signified both good and bad but balance as is indirectly teaching the old norse believers the importance of familial relations and piety might be similar to asian culture where family is placed paramount as basic unit to a community and as well as the nation itself. Dammmm what a good discussion and anaglogy right there.

I always thought that loki wasnt necessarily his name but a title and that's why there are others with the same name, something like trickster or illusionist or meaning like "more than one seems"

New to the channel. Learning and thinking alot.

thank you for the video

I love Surtr represintation of Magnus Chase The Sword of Summer and latter iterations.

I played lords of magic back in the 90s Ocean, awesome video.

The lords of magic footage was awesome addition

There is a reason why Loki and Heimdall hate each other.. One is fire used to protect the tribe or group at nights to keep the things in the night away..Loki is also know for fires..food for thought

Videos on gods of other elements and war would be interesting.

Norse gods were more of a poetic technique we call Personification. They were characters that represented real forces that were encountered in glimpses of experiences but hard to express in words. Poetry was a tool for expressing those complex ideas through symbols and relationships. Fire in norse mythology is a consuming force. It is related to the rune Nauthiz (Need) and there is a charm Odin knows against it, possibly Laguz (Water). Jotun are a consuming force. They are the foil or opposite of the civilized gods that build Asgard. They are the greedy outsiders who covet what the Ascended ones have.

Ocean, this is my first time commenting on one of your videos and I do enjoy your perspective and knowledge on the topic of Heathenry. I am however surprised that Loki was not part of your discussion. In several sources I have read he is often listed as a fire deity. He certainly does embody fire’s creative and destructive force which can be seen in several stories where he features. I personally have seen the story of Sif and her hair as being related to the destruction of a wheat field by fire. Of course I have long seen Sif as a goddess of the field and not the hearth, though after this video is a perspective that I will be reconsidering. There are of course are many more associations that one can make between fire and Loki. I do wonder why you didn’t mentioned him outside of the eating contest with Logi?

Hey, thanks for the amazing content once again. I'd love to hear more about your approach to the religion itself..you said something like hearth cult....could you at any video expand on that a bit? Thanks again

Thanking you for sharing your knowledge about your religion and it’s close to nature

Never heard of fire God thank you again so much

Lords of Magic - now that's a blast from the past!

Dwarfs and Jotuuns have god like abilities and spiritual connections like Gods. Jotunn is divided in different elements like ice and fire. Dwarfs is worshipped by craftsmen because they could create things with unnatural feart like what gods can do. There is also a dwarf name Fafnir who turned into a dragon because of his greed.

That game though 🥰🥰 I just subscribed too you

Loki is sometimes named, or titled the "god of fire" for example in the tale of the Baldur's death that was one of the reasons, why hi wanted to kill the bright god, or god of brightens because of envy that people loved Baldur mor than Loki and "his" fire. But overall grate video pointing out an important question, when you want talk about god of some element, you must ask what aspect of that element you want to talk about.

I am not sure if Mjölner RETURNS to Thors hand, but that it says something along the line of "It will never fly so far as that it can't be retrieved", I may be wrong on this but I have heard various interpretations, the marvel Thors hammer being the more romantizied version of an already mythic legend.

Woah I remember that game! I was terrible at it, and for some reason, it screwed with my computer.

It’s obvious Utgard-Loki and Loki are different entities, but the way I see it, Utgard-Loki is literal wildfire personified, while Loki represents the fire of the hearth as a metaphor. First there’s the fact that jötnar are metaphors for the elements of nature; Farbauti (“cruel striker”) being lightning and Laufey (“needle?”) being that of the pine tree, and when they’re joined together you obviously get fire. Loki is a lot like fire in many ways; he is appealing, warm, but only to be admired from a distance. He is unpredictable, he changes shape, he can be charismatic, passionate, and he certainly stands out among Asgard (characteristics associated with fire) while also indiscriminate in which he lights ablaze. And of course, he creates as much as he is capable of destroying, like the heat under the blacksmith’s watch. Maybe I’m stretching it a bit, but perhaps his role in Ragnarök is somewhat of a message or at least reflect what happens when one misuses or tampers with fire carelessly. Does this mean Loki is the god of fire? Maybe not- but many accept him as the Fire, Wit, and Magic of Asgard. And don’t get me started on the dumpster fire that was Lokasenna. That madlad absolutely roasted his pantheon before Surtr did.

Freya for Fryday, when people are in the fire of last day of work before resting day

Eitr: A perfume women use. Sindri: Refering to Sindur, meaning the red powder married women put on their hair parting. Fire is a central part of many rituals. In weddings, the bride and groom walk around it. -Hinduism.

At 8:42 that's a prehistoric giant boar that existed in the ancient past. The giant boar is at the museum.

If you think: Hey that story about Utgarda-Loki would make a decent movie, it did. Look up the animated movie Valhalla. :3

A video about “evil gods” also good and evil in Norse Polytheism would be dope.

I've listened to enough Amon Amarth to know a thing or two about Norse mythology.

I think the story points to the magic or trolldom that the gods had to unknowingly fight the aspect of things rather then other gods or giants, jotun. That is the trickery in the tale.

loved the video its a very nice take once I Read in a blog that Loki was a fire gigant (probably put by the church to further demonize them) and as with caotic nature and intense feelings he could represent pasion but not intensity like in war (thats for odin right?) but in pasion for what you do and the person you love in a very sensual way. i dont know what do you think of this take? as a baby lokean i am very interested in this

Could enflame a hot debate... Nice video, thank you.

The role of gods aren't set and stone jobs but preferred hobbies of beings who otherwise can do a lot of things. Not necessarily strict but skillset

The cat thing was in the Thor comics at some point too

Interesting detail to note about the World Serpent and the Cat... if you look at a map of the world and *just* look at the outline of the oceans, you're seeing a snake winding around everything. If you look at the continents, on the other hand, you see a cat playing with a ball. Probably meaningless, to be honest, but I find stuff like that to be interesting. Also, why in the heck did I start crying at the mention of the Home and Hearth Goddesses? I don't understand.

I remember doing some research on Shinto and I remember being told that in Shinto there's a Japanese word that is used which translates to divine virtue which refers to the things that a specific Kami/diety would primarily reside over for example the Kami Amataratsu is primarily assiocated with the sun so therefore her divine virtue or the thing that she would primarily reside over would be the sun however in Shinto a Kami or god who might primarily reside over one thing such as the sun can also be prayed to in order to answer prayers that might not necessarily be related to that specific thing so therefore a Shinto practitioner who mainly worships one specific Kami such as Amataratsu the Kami of the sun does not necessarily have to pray to some other diety in order to have prayers that pertain to things which are not related the sun answered I know that Shinto does not really have much directly to do with the old Pagan religions of Europe but I just bring that up because I figured that this might have in someway reflected how Norse Pagans and other pagans typically thought about there gods.

As with all things "It can be as complicatedly simple as you want it to be, or just simply complicated"