Peeling back the layers of history in order to form a properly detailed and accurate picture of the myths, beliefs, and customs as they actually were in the Viking Age is no mean feat, especially for an overwhelmingly oral society, as Scandinavia mostly was at the time. As such, we only have the "tips of the narrative icebergs" (Schjødt, 219) when it comes to the Norse gods.
On the one hand, we do have some genuine pre-Christian sources that preserve elements of Scandinavian ; most importantly Eddic poetry (poetry from the Poetic compiled in c. 1270 CE, but probably dating back to the pre-Christian era before the 10th century) and skaldic poetry (Viking Age, pre-Christian poetry mainly heard at courts by kings and their retinues), preserved in later Icelandic manuscripts. The Codex Regius found in the Poetic Edda contains an anonymous collection of older Eddic poems, including ten about gods and nineteen about heroes, and although some of these tell complete myths, most of them assume – unfortunately for us – that their audience was familiar with the mythical context. The same goes for skaldic poetry; with knowledge of the myths taken for granted, for us, using these sources to create a full picture of Norse mythology is a bit like filling in a rather difficult Sudoku puzzle.
THE INTEGRATED NATURE OF NORSE MYTHOLOGY IN THE ' DAILY LIVES IS BETRAYED BY THE WORD SÍÐ, MEANING 'CUSTOM' – THEIR CLOSEST CONCEPT TO .
On the other hand, later medieval sources, such as Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda (c. 1220 CE) and Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorumcomposed a few decades earlier, reworked the changeable, enigmatic, but slightly tangled early Viking sources into much more structured accounts. Snorri's work is the main reason we have an inkling of Norse mythology and myths as a whole, but should also be read critically, as he wrote from a Christian context. However, the older Eddic and skaldic poems clearly do more justice to the dynamic and integrated role mythology actually played in Viking Age societies.
YOU ARE READING
Norse Mythology
Historical FictionNorse mythology refers to the Scandinavian mythological framework that was upheld during and around the time of the Viking Age (c. 790- c. 1100 CE). Complete with a creation myth that has the first gods slaying a giant and turning his body parts int...
