I'm a list-maker, so I wanted to gather together all that I know and ask you guys to add to what I don't. So, the aliases of all the gods, from what I've gleaned:

Shadow--Baldur, Odin's son
Wednesday--Odin
Mr. Nancy (or Aunt Nancy)--Anansi
Mad Sweeney--a leprechaun (anyone specific?)
Mama-ji--??
Sam--the shaman who crossed the ice bridge
Easter--??
Bilquis--??
Low Key Lyesmith--Loki Lie-smith
Hinzelmann--a kobold of German legend
The fat kid--the god of the internet (or else just of technology in general)

If anything there's wrong, or if I forgot about anyone important, please let me know.

--T.C.

http://thecavebelow.blogspot.com

Hi all--

I just found a site that lists ALL the gods in AG; way more than I even thought were in the book and much more thoroughly than I could ever do.

So go to http://www.frowl.org/gods/gods.html

--T.C.

http://thecavebelow.blogspot.com

Mama-ji is Kali.
Bilquis is Ishtar, methinks.
Easter is Oestre, a female deity predating most religions, methinks deuce.

I know that Neil Gaiman has said that Shadow is Baldur, but I'm having a hard time with it. It feels more interesting to think that Shadow is a demi-god, part Norse and part Native American. But that's a personal opinion here.

i don't think Shadow can possibly be Balder. He's just a normal human being, coincidently having a god for a father. He's 'just' Shadow for me. Nothing else.


I don't remember Balder being 'big and dumb'. He was a very handsome, nice guy.

And Odin is the father of all gods, so that doesn't matter either.

Actually, gloomy, the book reveals early on that Shadow is a nickname, but it never gives his birth name. After being asked, Neil has confirmed that Baldur is his birth name. How tightly connected to the Norse god he actually is open to quetion.

quote:

I don't remember Balder being 'big and dumb'. He was a very handsome, nice guy.

wow, you remember Baldur? Every time I hang out with the gods, I wake up with a Mead hangover and can only remeber the fuzziest details.

How about the god's that are only described in the big battle? I haven't really seen any mention of trying to figure out who any of them are aside from the kitsune.

Anyway, allow me to get rid of three in one fell swoop.

On page 518 of the paperback addition the "pig", "monkey", and "sharped-toothed ghoul" are Pigsy, Stone Monkey, and Sandy respectively from the Chinese folk tale "Journey to the West".

These characters weren't gods initially themselves but later were able to attain that status by bringing buddhist scriptures to China from India.

Thats a start.

yOU aRe On ThE rIgHt TrAcK.

Hey... did that list have the buffalo god? The one Shadow would see in dreams? I figured out who he was anyway... I'm watching into the west, and they were talking about the Lokata and their connection with the buffalo. I guess the big god has a buffalo head and he lived deep within the earth and created man. The buffalo guy Shadow saw lived in the earth. I thought that was cool... But ah, I really wish I had an idea of how to spell the name... Watonka... something like that...

Edit: OK, I checked and it's Wakan Tanka... or something very close anyway

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Nyssa: annoyed by aardvarks,

Mr. Isis is Thoth
Mr. Jaquel is Anubis
Bast is Bast.

i've killed many a kobold in Baldur's Gate through the magic of technology before finding out i was the kid of a God of Murder... but i don't think this connects to this at all

Just a unrelated thought on Kobolds, I was surprised by the Kobold in American Gods, since I already discovered at least 4 types of through myths and fantasy literature, but Gaiman's was the most interesting...

what were they originally? video games based on D&D have made me think of them as, basically, EXP on legs

In the forgotten realms gaming system they are originally reptilians, something like the yan ti just the size of goblins and very dexterious, but I also read of Kobold originating from the canine species, the same size as the other ones, just with fur and canine origin, whereas the other one are scaley. Thats why I was so fascinated by Gaimans portrayal of a Kobold...it so different, and the fourth version I heard about was Kobolds being some sort of a wood sprite but I never got too much info on this...

Kobalds... Particularly Hinzelmann was a House spirit in Germany. Here is quite a bit of info from the sacred texts archive...

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/tfm/tfm087.htm

Kobolds, now? Hmm, from the archives in my head, Germanic subterranean, cave/mine dwelling, wicked sprites - not the dog-headed entities from D&D - somehing closer to goblins, maybe even troglodytes. Perhaps in this vein, Kolbitar, from Old Norse (lit: coal biters) were hunched old men who leaned close to the fire when they told tales - Tolkien drew on them, I think even created a literary society with the name. Now, knowing Mr Gaiman's encyclopediac knowledge of myths and legends, I reckon he's drawing on these two veins - Icelandic and Germanic - to create the 'kobold' in American Gods. Was there not something about Hinzelmann always sitting hunched up by the fire - or is my addled mind playing tricks on me again?