The answer preceded by *** is the correct answer to the question.



176. Which of the following is NOT true about Frey’s boar Gullinbursti?

1. ***The name meant Golden Rays.
2. He was crafted in gold by the dwarves Brokkr and Eiti.
3. Frey could ride on the boar or hitch his wagon to it.
4. He could speed across the earth, sky or sea faster than any horse.
5. His golden rays made plants grow everywhere.
6. Warriors wore the image of him on helmets and shields as protection and good luck.

177. Which was NOT true about Odin’s golden ring?

1. Its name was Draupnir.
2. It was a symbol of fertility.
3. It was made by the dwarves Sindri and Brokkr.
4. ***It could create nine new rings every ninth night.
5. Odin laid it on Baldr’s pyre when Baldr’s corpse was burned.

178. Which was NOT true about Surtr?

1. He was a Fire Giant.
2. ***His eyes were ice crystals.
3. He dwelled in Muspelheim, a world of fire.
4. In Ragnarok, he kills Freyr, who had given away his sword.
5. He ended Ragnarok by setting all nine worlds on fire.

179. What was the name given to Thor’s pair of iron gauntlets?

1. Megingjörð
2. Mjolnir
3. ***Járngreipr
4. Brokkr
5. Sindri

180. Why was Thor’s hammer handle too short?

1. Loki presented the smith with a stout timber for the handle, but it was enchanted to shrink overnight.
2. The setting sun made Thor’s hands appear smaller than they actually were.
3. ***Loki became a gadfly and bit the smith’s bellows handler in the eye.
4. The handle was fitted to dwarven hands.
5. The smith’s fire was cooled by Loki’s breath.  

181. Which was NOT true about the goddess Iðunn?

1. She was the goddess of spring and rebirth.
2. She took care of the apples the gods ate to remain young and immortal.
3. Loki kidnapped her for the giant þjazi.
4. ***The gods grew old and gray in her absence and Brunr died forever.
5. The Aesir kill þjazi in the guise of an eagle.

182. Which of the following was NOT true about Bifröst?

1. Bifröst bridges the gap between Asgard and Midgard.
2. ***Bifröst will survive Ragnarok.
3. Bifröst was described in the Prose Edda as being made of three colors.
4. Bifröst is closely guarded by Heimdall, the watchman of the gods.
5. Bifröst terminated in Himinbjörg, the home of Heimdall.

183. Who wades through the boiling waters of the rivers Körmt and Örmt to reach Urðarbrunnr, a holy well where the gods hold court every day, while the rest of the gods ride their horses across Bifröst?

1. Loki
2. ***Thor
3. Höðr
4. Heimdall
5. Freya

184. What was NOT true about the creation of the world?

1. The giant Ymir was created from melting ice.
2. ***Audhumla was a cow who was slaughtered to provide food for Ymir.
3. Audhumla gained her nourishment from licking salty ice.
4. Audhumla’s incessant licking formed the god Buri whose son named Bor was the father of Odin, Vili, and Ve.
5. While Ymir slept his underarm sweat formed a male and female frost giants, while his two legs formed another male.
6. The sons of Bor decided to kill Ymir, whose blood caused a flood which killed all but two of the frost giants.
7. Odin, Vili, and Ve put Ymir's corpse into the middle of Ginnungagap and created the earth and sky from it.  

185. Ymir’s body became the raw materials to form all of creation. Which of the following is NOT true?

1. Ymir’s body became the earth itself.
2. Ymir’s flesh filled Ginnungagap.
3. Ymir’s blood created the lakes and seas.
4. Ymir’s unbroken bones became the mountains.
5. Ymir’s teeth and shattered bones became rocks and boulders and stones.
6. Ymir’s hair became trees.
7. ***Ymir’s thoughts became clouds.
8. Ymir’s skull became the sky.

186. Muspelheim was a glowing, hot land of fire guarded by Surtr that existed since the beginning of time. No one could survive there except a race of fire giants.

1. ***True
2. False

187. Which of the following is NOT associated with Niflheim, the dark gloomy land of primordial ice, fogs, mists and cold.

1. Those who died of sickness or old age went there.
2. Murderers, oath breakers and philanderers went there.
3. Hel, the daughter of Loki rules there.
4. The ever-churning spring Hvergelmir is the source of many rivers.
5. The dragon Niðhogg gnaws at the root of Ygdrassil from Niflheim.
   - or -
6. ***All can be found in the sagas.

188. Who were Dain, Duneyr, Durathor and Dvalin?

1. ***Four deer that roamed among the branches of Ygdrassil
2. Four dwarves who upheld the sky
3. Four mountains marking the four corners of Jotunheim
4. The first four Ice Giants  

189. Which of the following was NOT true about Hel, the goddess of death?

1. ***Loki, her father, sent her to live in Niflheim because she loved the dead above all others.
2. She has dominion over those who died of disease, accidents, old age or pregnancy
3. Part of her appeared as a rotting corpse
4. She ate with a knife called Famine and a bowl named Hunger
5. In January 2017, the Icelandic Naming Committee ruled that parents could not name their child Hel "on the grounds that the name would cause the child significant distress and trouble as it grows up".

190. Which of the following is TRUE about Alfheim?

1. It is the home of the Dark Elves.
2. The elves descended from maggots infesting the body of Ymir.
3. ***The Vanir god Freyr is the ruler of Alfheim.
4. It lies to the west of the nine worlds of Ygdrassil.
5. It lies in the middle level of Ygdrassil with Vanaheim and Midgard.

191. Which was NOT true about Fenris the wolf?

1. Fenris was brought to Asgard by Odin.
2. Fenris broke strong chains named Laeding and Droma.
3. Dwarfs made a slender chain named Gleipnir to bind him.
4. Gleipnir was made out of the sound of a cat’s footfall and the voice of a fish.
5. ***Freyr lost his hand while the Aesir attempted to bind Fenris.

192. Which was NOT true about the wall around Asgard?

1. A builder, secretly a giant, agreed to build the wall over the winter and complete it by the first day of summer.
2. The horse named Svadilfari dragged 20 huge boulders a day to help build the wall.
3. A mare tempted the horse away from its work on the last day.
4. The wall was ten blocks short of being completed on time.
5. ***Odin killed the builder, who felt he had been cheated.
6. Loki disappeared for months and reappeared with the colt Sleipnir, giving the eight-legged horse to Odin.  

193. What was probably the most significant event in the unification of Norway?

1. ***Harald Finehair’s victory in the Battle of Hafrsfjord around 872
2. Swein Forkbeard’s revolt against his father Harald Bluetooth around 986.
3. The defeat of King Olaf Tryggvason in the Battle of Svolder around 999
4. Harald Hardrada’s defeat of King Sveinn Estridson’s Danish fleet in 1063 at Nisa

194. What was a hirð?

1. An amount of cattle equal to four homestead’s value
2. A formal agreement between two households to end warfare
3. A formation of warships bound together in a line
4. ***A group of warriors who guarded a Scandinavian king or noble

195. Which was NOT true about Hermoð?

1. He was the son of Odin.
2. He rode Sleipnir to Hel to bring back Baldur.
3. ***He carried a branch of mistletoe in contrition.
4. He failed to bring back Baldur.
5. He brought back Odin’s ring Draupnir, which had been placed on Baldur’s funeral pyre.

196. The Aesir were associated with fertility and sensual pleasure while the Vanir were associated with the sky and war.

1. True
2. ***False

197. Which was NOT true about Heimdall?

1. He guarded Bifröst, the rainbow bridge.
2. ***He was farsighted during day and nearsighted at night.
3. His hearing was so acute he could hear grass growing.
4. In the event of sudden attack he would sound his horn Gjallarhorn.
5. At Ragnarok, he and Loki would kill each other.
   – or –
6. They are all true.  

198. What was Niðhögg?

1. The second battle between Henrik II and Swein Forkbeard
2. The third hour after sunset
3. The boar who, with Gullinbursti, pulled Freyr’s chariot
4. The Norse god associated with doorways and firepits
5. ***A dragon who gnaws on a root of Yggdrasil, the world tree

199. Who was Harald Klak?

1. ***The King of Denmark from 812-813 and 819-827, who once served Charlemagne
2. The King of England from 1040-1042, who imposed an unpopular tax to build a navy from 16 to 62 ships
3. A Viking leader who raided Algeciras in Spain, Luna in Italy and Mazimma in Morocco, among many other Mediterranean locations
4. The King of England from 1035-1040, whose body was thrown into the river Thames  

200. Which term best describes this helmet?

1. Pioneer
2. ***Valsgarde
3. Sutton Hoo
4. Gjermundbu
5. Coppergate
6. Wenceslaus

Want to see the test without the answers? Click here.

Sources (among many others):

• Dr. Jackson Crawford, YouTube Lecture Series
• Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology
• John Grant, An Introduction to Viking Mythology
• John Haywood, Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age
• Judith Jesch, Women in the Viking Age
• lifeinnorway.net/norwegian-trolls
• Niels Lund,ed., Two Voyagers at the Court of King Alfred -
  The ventures of Ohthere and Wulfstan
  together with the Description of Northern Europe From the Old English Orosius
• Fiona Macdonald, 100 Facts - Vikings
• norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/
• NOVA, multiple episodes
• Neil Price, Children of Ash and Elm - A History of the Vikings
• Wikipedia.com

  © For information contact Jack Garrett at info@vikingsofbjornstad.com