Count: 0 — This page records zero Norse gods that start with Z in the Poetic Edda, Prose Edda, the sagas, skaldic verse, or in standard reference works such as Rudolf Simek’s Dictionary of Northern Mythology and Andy Orchard’s Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend. This absence reflects an interesting linguistic and textual fact: native Old Norse naming and the runic alphabets did not favour an initial Z sound or the letter Z, so no well-attested deity name in the corpus begins with that letter.

The strict criteria for this A–Z project require attestation in primary sources or reliable academic secondary sources. Under those rules, no entries appear for Z because Old Norse phonology and orthography largely eliminated or transformed Proto‑Germanic sibilants that could produce a /z/ initial. Rhotacism and other sound changes, plus the limited set of runic signs in Younger Futhark and medieval orthographic practices, mean that names that might once have carried a /z/ element do not survive in the sources as Z‑initial forms.

Related names and near‑matches exist in broader Germanic and later traditions but do not meet the Norse primary‑source standard. Examples include the Bavarian goddess Zisa (not Norse) and the Old High German form Ziu, a cognate of Týr, but neither is attested as a Norse deity name beginning with Z in the Eddas or sagas. Users searching for “Norse gods that start with Z” are often looking for foreign or modern fictional characters, Germanic cognates, or mistransliterated names; consult the A–Z index, the pages for adjacent letters, and standard references (Poetic/Prose Edda, Simek, Orchard) for reliable Norse entries.