Hæimdalaggir

The religion known to its practitioners as Hæimdallaggir (“The Faith of Many Realms”) [PLACEHOLDER] is one of the oldest in the world still in practice by a large population. It is endemic to Hadorstadir and the Vörðr and has remained much the same for thousands of years, though regional variation is abound.

Mythology & Lore

According to Hæimdallaggir, as so often is told, there was nothing in the beginning: there was only two voids, Gjoloversk ("Cold Fury"), composed of ice, and Logaginnung ("Firey Sea"), composed of fire. At some point, these opposite voids combined their essences (fire and ice) in two beings: the droplets from the ice created Aemir, a giant whose heart was made of burning ice, and the steam from the fire created Agjatol, a cow whom Aemir subsisted off the milk of. The sweat from Aemir's pits froze into the Jötdalar* (sing. Jötdalr "Valley Eaters"**), beings named for their great appetites who are rivals of the gods, and mating with himself*** produced Burr. Aemir favors the Jötdalar over Burr, even though they are gluttonous and greedy, and so Burr denounces his father and swears he will love only one of the Jötdalar: Thursja ("Different One"), his beautiful and generous wife. She would bare him Vöi, Vaili, and Othyr, the latter of whom is one of the first and king of the gods.
The Sons of Burr's resented their grandfather as much as their father did, and so they tricked Aemir into eating Agjatol, whose milk he lived on. Aemir refused to eat the Jötdalar and so he went to Burr, who fought him in the first dual. While Aemir was killed, Burr died of his injuries and his blood created more gods, who united under Othyr as the Asatyr. Aemir's blood came in a flood that drowned all but two the Jötdalar, whom all of the Jötdalar can trace their ancestry to. Othyr, assisted by the Asatyr, than used Aemir's body to create Migiaðdr \Meeg-IATH-dr\, the realm of Man.
*The word referring to a child of a Jötdalr with a human is Jötunn, the singular of Jötnar.
**This does not mean they eat valleys, but rather that their stomachs are like valleys.
***While he is referred to as male, Aemir in most traditions is a hermaphrodite.

Divine Origins

Heimdallaggir is among the most common and ancestral faith of the Vörðr and Hadorstadir.

Type

Religious, Other

Location

Hadorstadir

Related Ethnicities

• Vörðr