Hail ye givers! A guest is come!
Entry posted by Hoenir in Nordic Mythology ·
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Hello everyone, and welcome to my Nordic Mythology blog.
Nordic mythology is something near and dear to my heart, but it is also something that falls prey to a lot of misinformation, negative attention, and controversy especially now in 2022.
In these virtual pages, I am going to try to clear up some of this misinformation to the best of my ability, and to the best of my knowlege.
Now! With that said, you may be wondering, hey who is this guy, and what makes him so special as to be able to write on this subject? The answer to your question is quite simple, not a damn thing! I possess no degrees on the subject, nor have I written any scholarly articles. I am by no means an expert, nor do I claim to be. What I do have is nearly twenty years of experience in the subject, both on an academic level of trying to separate fact from fiction, as well as on a more personal basis, through my own personal beliefs and convictions.
Now, having gotten that out of the way, what is one thing that we know for certain about Nordic Mythology? That it existed, most notably from the years 793 C.E. through 1066 C.E. A turmutulous period in human history, better known today as the Viking age. That is about all we know for certain about it, and the reason for that? Nordic mythology was an oral tradition, as such the practices and beliefs of this Era were not recorded until hundreds of years later, most notably by Snorri Sturlesson. We will get back to him later.
So why am I writing about it? What makes it so interesting? And what bearing does it have on our life today? What bearing does the vicious group of barbarians known as vikings have on today's society?
Well, just to name one minor contribution of theirs; did you know that without the vikings invading the Kingdom of Northumbria in 793 C.E. it is possible that instead of having the England we know today, we would instead have the kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia (not to be confused with 'Merica), East Anglia, Wessex, and Wales? (Please note, there is no historical evidence to back up that this would, infact, be the case today; seeing as the viking raid on Lindisfarne did take place, King Aethelred of Wessex was killed by the Great Dane Army, and he was succeeded by Alfred the Great, any other future is only speculation, but there is no doubt nor contradictory evidence that the northmen were in fact the catalyst that caused Alfred to try to unite the kingdoms of Britain into Englaland *Source: Anglo Saxon Chronicle*)
Today, the Vikings have come into new light, having once again (for the third time) been brought back to the forefront of our mind and our imagination, most notably in the History Channel series Vikings, but also in the Marvel Cinamatic Universe in the onscreen adaptation of Stan Lee and Jack Kirbys comic book version of the nordic gods, in the book and television series Last Kingom, by author Bernard Cornwell, and even by legendary author J.R.R. Tolkein in his Lord of the Rings series.
There are aspects of 8th century Scandinavian life that are still present in our lives to this day, even after the mass exodus from paganism to the jewdeo-christian-muslim faiths. Even without knowing it, you call out to the Nordic gods five days our of every week! Every time you name off Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Everytime you put that wireless headphone in your ear to listen to your favorite song you press on a Nordic bind rune to access the Bluetooth menu.
The world of Nordic mythology is vast, and we have barely even scratched the surface, so feel free to follow along, ask questions, and get to learn about one of the oldest and least understood religions, cultures, and time periods in our incredible human history.
(IMAGE INFORMATION: Odin, in his guise as wanderer, Georg Von Rosen, 1886)
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