I’m fond of Tyr (alternate spelling of Tiw) for much the same reason as Yue Han, and Loki.
The Norns (‘Fates’) probably don’t count, not being godesses per se, but I have a soft spot for them.
You might like Mickey Zucker Reichert’s Renshai series (it starts with The Last of The Renshai).
My favourite would be Freya - her love of battle and powers at witchcraft set her above the mere “love & fertility” role, assigned to many goddesses (such as Sif, who also got fertility & got grain).
Heimdall. Neat horn, cool telescopic vision, plus he gets to wander the earth impregnating farmers’ wives. Plus, he gets to kill Loki at the end.
Well, I’ve always had a fondness for Freyr (and some fascinating discussions with him).
After an all-night party Thor woke up just as some Goddess he didn’t recognize came out of his bathroom.
“I am Mighty Thor”, he introduced himself.
“You’re thor!”, she said. “I’m tho thor I can hardly pith!”
He’s not a god, exactly, but I’ve always been fond of Utgard-Loki.
Favorite Deity: Odin
Favority Myth: Odin, Thor & Loki’s visit to the palace of Utgard-Loki
Because I mentioned him as my favorite…
That was only Thor and Loki…well, and Thafli and his sister, but I’m pretty sure they weren’t gods.
Another vote for Odin. It’s rare in mythology to see a ruling god who would sacrifice himself to improve the lot of mankind.
The Speech of the High One
*I know I hung on that windswept tree,
Swung there for nine long nights,
Wounded by my own blade,
Bloodied for Odin,
Myself an offering to myself
Bound to the tree
That no man knows
Whither the roots of it run.
None gave me bread,
None gave me drink.
Down to the deepest depths I peered
Until I spied the Runes
With a roaring cry I seized them up,
Then dizzy and fainting, I fell.*
Naw, Thjalfi and Roskva were humans. See, Thor and Loki stopped at their parents’ cottage one night while traveling. Thor killed his goats (the ones who pulled his chariot) and cooked them, but warned everone not to break any bones. Well, in the morning Thor took all the bones, wrapped them up in the goat’s skin and whirled his hammer around a few times and BAM, the goats come back to life.
Small problem, one of the goats is limping! Somebody broke one of the bones to get out the marrow, and Thor was pissed. He gripped his hammer so hard his knuckles turned white. Well, the family begged and pleaded for mercy and Thor got a little soft hearted. In compensation for the broken bone, he took Thjalfi and Roskva as bondservants.
I always thought the figure of Odin was very interesting. Trust the Vikings to have a god of war who would give you victory…but if you were a brave warrior he would always betray you. See, he needed every warrior to die in battle because he needed to build his army for Ragnarok. So Odin would help you, but you couldn’t trust him…he would eventually cause a strap to break somewhere and you’d get killed. In fact, the tougher you were the more likely it was that Odin would take you down.
The Vikings used to sacrifice animals to Odin by hanging them from a tree, for the gift of knowledge. But how did Odin get that knowledge? He sacrificed himself to himself for the knowledge of runes…
I’d invite people to watch the 1939 classic Beau Geste, which includes a Viking funeral. (It might have been in both previous and subsequent versions, but I haven’t seen those, nor have I read the book.)
But to say more would be spoiling. . . .
Aren’t they just the most bizarre set of myths anywhere? There’s another one where Loki changed himself into a mare and did the nasty with Odin’s horse Sleipnir. Many of them are even stranger than that.
But strangest of all, I think is that most of the gods weren’t immortal, and Ragnarok would spell the doom of them and their universe. Has that concept existed anywhere else in the world?
Aaaaactually, Loki turned himself into a mare to seduce the horse that a giant who was doing a building job for the gods was using in order to make the giant fail to get the job done too fast so that the gods wouldn’t have to pay.
Sleipnir was the result of that union.