Do the Norse gods exist in Star Trek?

Question

An episode of the original Star Trek, Who Mourns for Adonais, establishes that the Greek gods exist in the Star Trek universe. If the Greek gods exist, then that makes me wonder if the Norse gods do as well.

The pantheon of Norse gods has become somewhat of a SF trope as of late, being a central part of the mythos of Stargate and Marvel Comics as well as being present (though of a lesser importance) in DC Comics.

Are there any sources or indications that the Norse gods (Thor, Odin, Loki, etc.) exist in the Star Trek universe or that they specifically do not exist? Is Thor out there somewhere living on Asgard and swinging his hammer at passing starships?

To be clear, I'm not expecting the Norse gods (or any specific god) to appear in Star Trek exactly the way they appear in classical mythological sources. What I'm referencing here is the "gods were really aliens" lore that was popularized by Erich von Däniken and incorporated into many SF universes. The Norse gods of Stargate are ancient alien visitors to Earth. The pantheon in Marvel is the same idea but with different details (e.g Mjollnir being a literal hammer rather than a planetary defense system, a preference for wormhole tech over starships, etc.). The Star Trek Apollo is likewise a ancient alien "god". My question is whether the Star Trek universe includes ancient alien "gods" who represent or inspired the Norse pantheon.

Also to be clear, if the Norse gods are "already dead", then that counts as existing since they would exist in the timeline. In both Stargate and Marvel Comics, gods can and do die, so saying something like, "Well, Odin did at one time exist in the Star Trek universe, but this episode of Discovery [cite] establishes that he died sometime between the late 16th century and the US Civil War." would be a great answer.

Answer 1

In a word, yes. The Norse gods are (for the most part) assumed to be mythical in the series and EU novels, but in the ToS Novel Gods Above we encounter the "Old Father" a powerful godlike being that claims to have been a contemporary of Apollo. He evidently portrayed a bunch of different fatherly gods during his periodic visits to Earth.

“I have a variety of names,” he said at last. “Some called me Zeus. Others, Jupiter. The Norse called me Woden. They named days after me, planets after me. Very flattering, actually. The Egyptians dubbed me Amen-Re. Takami-Musubi is what the Japanese called me. Elegant language, Japanese. Elegant people. Always liked them. And so many more, big and small. From nations to tribes, they all knew me.”

One of his sons is Loki

I needed an ally ... and the only reasonable ally was someone whom the others felt antipathy for, and he for they. Someone who had no love lost between himself and his associates. Wisely or unwisely, I chose my son.”

“Let me guess: He has lots of names as well.”

The Old Father nodded. “Anubis, among the Egyptians. The Greeks called him Ares, the Norse knew him as Loki. Aborigine people called him the Coyote god. Ultimately, his forte was trickery, so really, who better?”

The other is Thor

The Old Father made a sour face. “I despise that name, I should make quite clear. His mother named him that. Hardly an appropriate name, particularly for one who so obviously took after his father. What with his storm-related abilities and such. Me ... I would have named him Thor.”

Answer 2

I think that there are no gods from any Earthly pantheons existing in Star Trek.

There are a few examples in canon of powerful aliens being considered gods by primitive Earth Humans.

In "Who Mourns for Adonais?" Kirk meets Apollo, one of a group of aliens who were the inspiration for the ancient Greek gods. Apollo mentions Zeus, Pan, Hera, Athenia, and Aphrodite, I think, so at least 6 of the Greek gods were based on members of that group of space travelers with powers that seemed godlike to Earth humans.

In the animated episode "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth",Kirk meets Kukulkan.

Kukulkan was the last of an ancient serpent species who visited Earth's distant past. There he was instrumental in the technological and architectural advances of the Egyptian, Mayan, Aztec and South Asian civilizations. He was identified with the lore of Quetzalcoatl, as well as the legend of the Chinese dragon.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Kukulkan

Outside of Star Trek and other science fiction, there is very little belief that advanced aliens were ever believed to be gods by primitive humans. Of course it coudl have happned, but there is very little evidence that it did.

But many people do believe that ancient humans observed many strange and awesome phenomena thy couldn't explain or understand. So they personified those phenomena and imagined that the phenomenoa of nature were superpowerful people, or were controlled by superpowerful people. And thus they gradually came to believe in gods, countless millennia before the first recorded gods.

I have an idea for a fictional character, a human child who is selected to become immortal and to travel though space and time.

If he meets humans at different stages of their life spans, they see that he doesn't age while they do age. And sometimes old people will tell their grandchildren that he doesn't look any older than when they were children. And sometimes he will visit again when the grandchildren are now old and tell their own grandchildren that he hasn't aged since thir own grandparent's were children.

And so over time he will be known as someone who has been young and unchanged for decades, generations, centuries, and millennia.

And most of his travels will be to civilized places in the historic eras of Earth and other planets, and to civilizations centuries, millennia, and even millions of years more advanced than 21st century Earth.

But occasionally he will visit primitive cultures in prehistoric eras on Earth and other planets.

And thus his appearances in prehistoric eras might become the basis for all Human beliefs in supernatural beings like elves and angels and even in gods. Thus he might be the ultimate basis for all the gods in every Human mythology and every Human religion. And also perhaps the ultimate basis of every god in the religions of a number of other planets.

He might be the basis for the gods of some nonHuman cultures, who might over time gradually depict gods as looking more and more like members of their species instead of like a human child, until eventually they depict their gods as looking totally like members of their species.

And if this character appears on a Federation starship in a Star Trek production, would that mean that every single god in every single Human religion is real in Star Trek?

No, the gods will not be real in any meaningful sense.

So in my opinion there are slight degrees of factual basis for some gods in Star Trek - just as there was a slight factual basis for the belief in gods by ancient peoples - but no real, divine, gods in Star Trek.