Heroes

"Okay," Don said, and glanced at the family trees that were still on the whiteboard like a jump scare. "Let's talk about our major players." He pointed with his walking stick at the first name on his list. "Odin. The Allfather. Head of the pantheon, king of the gods. His wife, Frigg--not to be confused with Freya. These are two different goddesses. His son, Thor. I think we're all at least somewhat familiar with him, right?" he joked. "His other son, Baldr, and his other other son, Tyr." Felt weird to just acknowledge them as Odin's sons out loud like that. "Tyr, Odin, Thor, and Frigg remain significant in our day to day lives, because they are the source of the names of four of the English days of the week: Tuesday is Tyr's day, Wednesday is Odin's day, Friday is Frigg's day, and today, Thursday, is Thor's day. Don't let him get a big head about it," he joked.

"Then, of course, we have--" Don tapped the second family tree. "Loki. A trickster god. God of mischief, technically, and thus the troublemaker in many tales and general all-around pain in the ass. Among his children we have Fenris--sorry, Fenrir, it's spelled different here--the wolf that will devour the sun at Ragnarok--more on that to come--and Jörmungandr, the serpent that encircles the world biting its own tail, and also Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse ridden by Odin. And I did promise to explain that and I will. Just...not this week." You could continue to suffer from curiosity.

"Now, of course there are a lot more gods, some of whom will come up in this class and some of whom may not. If you have any questions about anyone I just talked about, or anyone else on the board, please feel free to ask."