Journey into Utgard

It was summertime in Asgard and all was surprisingly peaceful: there were no squabbles to be settled between the gods and goddesses; no issues to be resolved via a quest; the visiting Light Elves were all very well behaved; the dwarves were too busy working in their forges to attempt more scams; but worst of all – at least it was in Thor's opinion -no giants were attacking and had not done so for some time. It left Thor feeling very restless. What was a thunder god to do?

He went to moan to his dad.

'Try reading a book,' Odin suggested. 'You'd learn much.'

But reading was not exactly Thor's thing, so instead he went to Freyr, god of fertility. He was busy brushing the golden bristles on his boar, Gullinborsti.

'I'd love to go fishing with you, Thor, but I've got make sure that Gully here is all bright and shining otherwise he'll be a grumpy, messy hog. Isn't that right, Gully? Who's a pretty piggy? You are! Yes, you are!' He suddenly remembered Thor was watching and looked up with a blush to say, 'Why don't you spend some time with that lovely wife of yours?'

'Sif has a spa weekend in Vanaheim. Along with your sister and the others.'

Freyr nodded as he plucked the golden hairs out of the brush. 'Ah, yes. That explains why it's so quiet around here. Do me a favour, don't let Freja know that I forgot. She won't forgive it. Now if you don't mind, someone needs their trotters polishing, isn't that right, Gully Wully?'

With no one else left to bother Thor cut across the fields to Loki's hall. Not being one for knocking he let himself in and found the trickster sitting by the hearth, drinking a glass of wine.

'Don't worry about barging in unannounced, Thor. Why should the son of Odin bother with good manners?'

'Since when do you care about manners?' Thor threw himself into the chair opposite. 'Loki, I have a great idea!'

'Really? Then do sit down – oh, you already have. So, you have a great idea, do you? Tell me, how was this miracle achieved?'

'It just popped into my head.'

'It was probably just a head louse.'

Thor was not in the least put off by Loki's insults; he was far too used to them.

He flexed his biceps as he cried, 'Lets journey to Utgard and so that I can face off against the giants there and show off my magnificence strength!'

Loki narrowed his eyes, eyes that changed from amber to green as he thought quickly.

'And you asked me because...?'

'It's always more fun to have a companion. And a witness to my feats. Don't tell me that you haven't been bored lately, everything has been far too peaceful.'

Loki drained his glass. 'And I thought it was because you valued my wits.'

'So, you'll come?' Thor asked hopefully with a smile.

'Sorry, but no. I have the boys to keep an eye on. Sigyn will never forgive me if something were to happen to them.'

Right on cue, Nari came bounding into the room, swathed in a rich blue material that it shimmered in the light. It was so long that it trailed across the floor and had evidently travelled some way, going by the tears in the material and the brown stains around the hem.

The young boy twirled like a dancer, humming to himself.

'Very nice,' Loki commented indifferently.

'Isn't that Freja's favourite dress?' said Thor.

Loki took a second a look at his son, who was now rolling back and forth across the dusty flagstones.

'She'll kill me!' he moaned loudly. 'How did you get a hold of that, Nari?'

The boy giggled loudly, and sensing trouble, charged out of the room, ruined dress dragging after him.

Loki looked to Thor. 'So, when do we leave?'

'First thing tomorrow.'

They bumped fists.

Reader: Oh, wow, that was a really great opening chapter! I can't wait to read more...Uh, Author, why are you staring at me like that?

Author: (Chuckles) Aren't you going to ask me?

Reader: Ask you what?

Author: You know.

Reader: Ugh, fine. What does Utgard mean? We really want to know.

Author: Glad you asked! Utgard is another name for Jotunheim, the world of giants.

Reader: Great! Glad to have that cleared up. See you at the next chapter.

Author: Slow down! I'm done yet. Okay, so in the old Norse religion a physical place – or society- could be defined as being innagard or utangard. Innagard means "within the enclosure" and refers to orderly, law abiding places. Whereas utangard means "beyond the enclosure", so is the name for choatic, wild places.

This is why Asgard, Midgard, and Utgard all have the suffix – gard in them, because they're characterised as being either places of order or of chaos. Broadly speaking, the gods represented Order and the giants Chaos, although it's not always that black and white in the myths.

People themselves could also be described as either being innagard or utangard, depending on if you were law abiding or not. If you committed a serious crime you could be outlawed, meaning you were stripped of you civil rights. The process of being outlawed was known as "going into the forest" and being an outlaw meant "being a man of the forest". Skóggangr and skógarmaðr respectively.

In other words, "going into the forest" meant moving beyond the protection of the law, or innagard, and into the utangard, the unlawful and the wild.

Anyone else thinking of Robin Hood? Does mean it was supposed to be some kind of joke that Robin the Outlaw, Robin the "man of the forest" went to live in a forest?

Okay, now I'm done. At least until I want to explain that giant doesn't always mean giant in the way that we think it does.

All this info came from a website, Norse Mythology for Smart People, and has been really useful!