This is a collection of both mythological and heroic poems the most famous, the Völuspá, relates the past creation of the world, the future death of the gods and burning of the world, and the beginning of the world to come. Even ignoring this, another problem arises: since Norse myth has no definitive canon, the myths differ considerably from place to place, according to the time they were written and the purpose they were written for.įor most researchers the main source of canon is the Poetic Edda, also known as the Elder Edda or Codex Regius (as it was originally known). Consequently it's nearly impossible to tell which stories are Hijacked by Jesus, or how much they are, although academic theories abound. Many texts describing Norse beliefs have come down to us, but, aside from a few runic inscriptions and similar fragments, all were written hundreds of years after the turn to Christianity. It has been speculated that only chieftains and other wealthy people held faith in the Aesir, while the common farmers believed in land-spirits such as trolls and giants. Like most traditional polytheistic systems, it has no set canon and in some ways resembles a body of customary beliefs more than a set religion. It is a branch of the Proto-Indo-European mythological tradition, which also spawned the Celtic, Greek, and Vedic pantheons it's distinguished from those myths, however, by the fact that its gods are not only fallible but also all mortal.
At its height, the mythology covered most of northern Europe, much of modern Germany and Austria, and parts of the British Isles it lasted longest in Scandinavia and Iceland, however, which produced most of its surviving texts. The Norse Mythology is a collection of stories derived from Germanic roots, following the lives of the Norse gods-the Æsir and the Vanir-and the men whose lives they directly affected.