Prologue to Prose Edda

Except for modern Western civilization, most cultures have a creation story followed by the story of a flood and human dispersal. The Norsemen are no different. I found it fascinating that the first portion of the prologue closely resembled the Bible in it's perception; however, quickly deviated from what the Jews and Christians believe to be true. Another interesting thing about this writing is the portryal of the "gods" as humans with no reference to their deity. I cannot tell if this is becuase the writer assumes everyone reading it knows who Thor and Odin are, or if they orginally were legendary (or perhaps actual) people of this earth.

This is a telling of the story of ancient Scandanavian history as much as it is of the creation of the world as a whole which ties the Vikings to their history and gives them a legend upon which to base their society. The length of their history is extraordinary to me because here in the western hemisphere, a good portion of our "history" is speculation, and the part that we do know is very short. Also, there is no way to directly connect any creation story to our land...at least as thouroughly as the Norsemen, without at least a gap of thousands of years.