Divine Mortality

I've been reading a book called The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. It's a great read if you're interested in mythology and learning how myth and folklore across cultures relate to one another. How hero journeys follow a universal format, journeys of the soul into the afterlife, and the death and rebirth cycle of all things. Today I read a portion that touched upon Norse mythology with Odin/Othin, Thor, Loki, and more (the mythological gods, not the characters from the comics) which sparked my curiosity. It talked about how the Nordic gods die.

I read somewhere else that Norse mythology is unique from all others in that their gods are mortal. They actually die. None of this death of body spiritual reincarnation stuff. They really can die. Thor and his brethren are not immortal. In The Hero With a Thousand Faces the Nordic gods are the only ones mentioned with this quality (if you can call it a “quality”). Every other myth the book mentions involves some kind of life, death, rebirth cycle. But not the Nordic, they break the cycle. They go away and stay gone...along with everything else.

It made me wonder. What does it do to a person or a culture when your god is capable of dying?

At first I thought it must make for a grim and bleak world. I mean, if your god(s) can die what hope do you have? Which I guess makes sense considering the Nordic people (like the Vikings) lived a pretty rough life. Famine, weather, war, winter, wolves, and countless other things can kill you at any given moment. Why shouldn't the gods share the same mortality?

Then I got to thinking about the concept of “shared mortality.” Maybe mortal gods is a way to reflect the reality of the culture. The Nordic people were certainly familiar with death. Maybe it even goes further and that shared mortality brings them closer to divinity. Perhaps the Nordic people could feel more spiritually at peace or more godly because they shared a common end with their gods.

I don't know, just thinking. If you have any thoughts, please share.

Another thing, the passage I read made me think of the scene from The Lord of the Rings when the ring was destroyed and Frodo and Sam were hanging out on a rock while Mount Doom was erupting around them. Frodo tells Sam “I'm glad you're here with me at the end of all things.” The end of all things. Such finality. Reading about Norse mythology reminded me of that scene because when Odin and all the other gods die, that's it.