Warriors Vs. Civilians
So Valhalla is pretty much like Warrior Heaven and Helheim is Civilian Heaven?
(119.224.76.126 11:54, August 1, 2018 (UTC))
That’s the gist of it. Of course, even warriors can go to Helhiem if they aren’t selected by the Valkyrie. Per Ankh ED 16:12, August 1, 2018 (UTC)
Oh, I see. So it's pretty much like a huge pyramid scheme with Odin at the top. The Valkyries decide who gets to go to Valhalla and who doesn't. And Odin controls the Valkyries. So ultimately this all boils down to some form of elitism.
(119.224.76.126 07:36, August 2, 2018 (UTC))
Well, when you’re building an army of dead warriors, you want the best of the best. side note, in the original myths, Odin only got half the warriors. The other half went to Folkvangr and... oh. Freya got that. I guess he just gets all of them in this universe. Per Ankh ED 16:09, August 2, 2018 (UTC)
Does Folkvangr even exist in this universe? Seems kind of redundant in my opinion, especially since we know what happened to Freya. Sidenote: I was always kind of confused about why there was multiple versions of afterlives in Norse Mythology to be honest. At least the Greeks/Romans believed that they ended up in the same place.
(119.224.76.126 02:02, August 3, 2018 (UTC))
Even the Hellenistic (the proper term from Greco-Roman belief systems) Underworld is split in four pieces: Elysium, Asphodel, Tartarus and Punishment. And they aren't "versions" of the afterlife, they're three seperate ones. As stated earlier, Valhalla and Folkvangr are for the warriors, the combatants, the Honorable Dead. As a side note, there's another afterlife for those who die at sea: the abode of the goddess Ran. A raandom fact, Helhiem is actually comparable to Aaru/Duat in Egypt and the Underworld of Greece: In Aaru and Helhiem, people generally do what they did in life: eat, drink, practice magic, etc. and in both Helhiem and the Underworld people are punished for their misdeeds in life. Per Ankh ED 02:12, August 3, 2018 (UTC)