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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TheCosmicKid" data-source="post: 7750157" data-attributes="member: 6683613">Complication the first: Regin in Vǫlsungasaga says that "he" seized the three gods, but in Reginsmál he says that "we" did it. So unclear on the "single-handedly" part. Complication the second: All this happened in Hreidmar's house, the gods complicit in killing Hreidmar's son. It's never even stated that they resisted him. Their lives may have been forfeit due to guilt and the unwitting violation of hospitality code, irrespective of their power.Consider a comparable story, that in Gylfaginning of the builder who offered to build the walls of Asgard. The gods strike a bargain with him, and at first try to stay within the terms of the bargain even as they wriggle out of paying him. But in the end, they realize he's a giant in disguise, and Thor kills him without any apparent difficulty. In short, it does not seem to have been any equivalence in power that compelled the gods to try to behave justly towards the builder. He never presents a physical threat to them. Rather, just conduct seems to have been valued in its own right, even though they could have solved their problem through violence at any time.So by this reading, Odin, Loki, and Thor in Hreidmar's hall could not have simply fought back and killed their host, not because they lacked the power, but because justice demanded that they provide recompense for Otter's death instead.Remember, too, that Ragnarok itself is implicitly recompense for Odin's murder of Ymir. The theme of cosmic justice is strong in the Norse tradition. And I will give you this: it is very interesting that gods and mortals and giants and dwarves all seem to stand as equals under this justice. But it's quite a jump from there to "the gods aren't gods". After all, they aren't the only example of a god bound to mortals by an oath or contract or, shall we say, "Covenant"...</blockquote>

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