The Norse family tree links the Æsir, the Vanir and the jötnar through descent, marriage and mythic alliances. In Snorri Sturluson’s account, Odin and his brothers belong to a line descended from the first gods, while the Vanir Njörðr is father of Freyr and Freyja; the giantess Jörð is mother of Thor, and the giantess Angrboða is mother of Loki’s monstrous children.
The surviving myths do not set out one consistent genealogy for every figure. Snorri’s Prose Edda gives many of the clearest relationships, while the Poetic Edda offers related stories and names without always explaining family connections. The outline below distinguishes reported parentage from marriage and other ties.
How the family tree is organized
The Æsir and Vanir are groups of gods, not single nuclear families. The Æsir include Odin, Frigg, Thor and Baldr; Njörðr, Freyr and Freyja are associated with the Vanir. The jötnar, often translated as giants, are a diverse group of beings. They are not simply a separate family opposed to the gods: some are ancestors, parents or spouses of gods.
Mythic genealogies also serve different purposes. A story may name a god’s parent to explain an alliance, a birth or a later conflict, while leaving other relatives unmentioned. A shared parent does not always mean that every text presents the same household, and a spouse is not necessarily the parent of every figure associated with that god.
Early divine ancestry
In the Prose Edda, Búri is the first god. The cow Auðhumla frees him from the ice by licking it, and Búri has a son named Borr. Borr marries Bestla, a daughter of the giant Bölþorn, and their sons are Odin, Vili and Vé. This makes Odin’s ancestry a meeting of divine and giant lines.
Odin and his brothers are not described as descendants of the primordial giant Ymir. In Snorri’s account, they kill Ymir and use his body to make the world. The creation story therefore places the gods and a primordial giant in the same beginning, but does not make Ymir their father.
Odin’s brothers Vili and Vé are important in this origin story, but the surviving accounts give them few family details beyond their relationship to Odin. Odin’s later descendants are more prominent in the myths, although the texts do not provide one exhaustive list of his children.
Odin, Frigg and their family
Odin is married to Frigg, and Baldr is their son in Snorri’s account. The Prose Edda also names Thor, Víðarr and Váli among Odin’s sons. Their mothers are not all the same: Thor’s mother is Jörð, Víðarr’s is the giantess Gríðr, and Váli’s is Rindr. The texts thus connect Odin’s family to both the Æsir and the giant lineages.
Baldr marries Nanna. Their son Forseti is described in the Prose Edda as a god associated with judgment and settlement. Nanna dies after Baldr’s death in Snorri’s narrative, and the story brings her to the realm of the dead. The accounts do not establish every detail of Nanna’s ancestry consistently, so her parentage is not needed to trace this line.
Höðr is Baldr’s blind brother in Snorri’s account. Loki tricks him into striking Baldr with mistletoe, causing Baldr’s death. This episode is central to the family’s story, but the myths do not give all of Odin’s sons equal prominence or provide a single settled catalogue of their roles.
Thor and the descendants of Jörð
Thor is the son of Odin and Jörð, the personification of Earth. His marriage to Sif is reported in the Prose Edda. Snorri names Thor’s sons Magni and Móði, and also names his daughter Þrúðr. These children belong to the younger generation of the Æsir, though the myths give them less narrative space than their father.
Thor’s descent from Odin and Jörð illustrates the connections between divine groups and the jötnar. Jörð is counted among the female beings associated with the giant world in the Prose Edda, while also being treated as a goddess and as Earth. The sources do not use modern categories of species or family in a uniform way.
Odin’s other sons Víðarr and Váli belong to separate branches of this generation. Víðarr survives the final battle in Snorri’s account; Váli is born to Rindr and grows quickly in the story of vengeance for Baldr. Their roles show how family ties in the myths often connect directly to conflicts and their aftermath.
The Vanir: Njörðr, Freyr and Freyja
Njörðr is a Vanir god and the father of Freyr and Freyja. In the Prose Edda, their mother is Njörðr’s unnamed sister. Snorri notes that brother-sister marriage was permitted among the Vanir, unlike among the Æsir. The siblings Freyr and Freyja are therefore both children of Njörðr and his sister in this account.
After the conflict between the Æsir and Vanir, Njörðr and his children are associated with the settlement between the groups. Snorri describes Njörðr, Freyr and Freyja as coming to live among the Æsir. The story makes their household a key connection between the two divine communities.
Freyr marries Gerðr, a giantess, in the story told in the poem Skírnismál and in Snorri’s account. Freyja is married to Óðr; Snorri names their daughter Hnoss. These marriages extend the Vanir family into other divine and giant lineages, though the myths do not detail every branch equally.
Giants, Loki and the sea family
Loki’s parents are the giant Fárbauti and Laufey, also called Nál in Snorri’s Prose Edda. Loki is married to Sigyn. His children with the giantess Angrboða are Hel, the wolf Fenrir and the serpent Jörmungandr. These offspring stand at the center of prophecies and conflicts involving the gods.
Hel’s parentage is sometimes confused with Loki’s marriage to Sigyn, but Snorri assigns Hel and the other two monstrous children to Loki and Angrboða. The distinction matters: a family tree based on the stories must keep Loki’s spouse separate from the mother named for these children.
Ægir and Rán form another giant-associated household. They are linked to the sea, and Snorri names their daughters as waves, including Kólga. This is a mythic personification rather than a human-style genealogy, but it shows how Norse myth uses family relationships to explain features of the natural world.
Frequently asked questions
Who are Odin’s parents?
In Snorri’s Prose Edda, Odin is the son of Borr and Bestla, and the grandson of Búri through Borr.
Are the Æsir and Vanir related?
They are distinct groups of gods, but the myths connect them through the settlement after their conflict. Njörðr, Freyr and Freyja are associated with the Vanir and come to live among the Æsir in Snorri’s account.
Is Loki Odin’s son?
In the Prose Edda, Loki’s parents are the giant Fárbauti and Laufey or Nál. The sources do not identify him as Odin’s son.
Sources
- Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda (Gylfaginning)
- Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda (Skáldskaparmál)
- Poetic Edda (Völuspá, Lokasenna and Skírnismál)
- Wikidata (CC0) records for the figures named above
How pages are sourced and corrected: Sources and editorial policy.