I once read a line of thinking by some of the r/AskHistorians scholars, proposing that what we commonly believe about Norse deities (Odin/Wotan & crew) in fact only represented a small percentage of known, written material. The idea being that these were only a set of local or regional beliefs, with others across the ‘Nordisphere’ potentially varying wildly, but much of those being lost due to being only orally-transmitted in nature. But… I did not happen to follow up on all that. :S
Super painting!
Sagas were written down, a lot of them. A self-respecting family would care about storing a “common biography” like that. A center of all that was (surprise!) Iceland - people there specializing on writing stuff down, archiving, etc, for most of Scandinavia
What about when it comes to the idea of an ‘overall Norse mythology?’
Oh, speaking of the idea that the “well known gods” were some local stuff - I don’t really know, I’m not a hostorian, I just read some stuff on sagas and found out it was a big genre. But feels weird - the whole pantheon is and was known by a large part of population, if not by everyone, and for centuries. So it feels like conspiracy theory stuff
the whole pantheon is and was known by a large part of population, if not by everyone, and for centuries.
That could also very well be a case of later populations coming to normalize and accept what was originally only a smaller belief-set.
For example, the early Christian interpretations no doubt varied a lot, such as with the Essene sect, and others. And yet if you look at how people commonly view Christianity today, it’s hugely dominated by the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church, going back ~1700yrs, and by Protestantism, going back ~500yrs. Most such people still don’t have a clue about all the other ancient texts and oral traditions which were decided not to be included in the major bible line, such as the other gospels.
See the other comment here for more, in which a book focuses on this…
DuBois also shows how Norse religion was never a monolithic or static phenomenon. Central elements of the cultic traditions of one town might have been strikingly alien to the town in the next valley, not to mention another settlement hundreds of miles away across the ocean. Differences across time might have been even more marked. All of this makes it a bit imprecise to even speak of a unified “Norse religion.”
https://norse-mythology.org/book-review-nordic-religions-viking-age-thomas-dubois/
I read this book, quite a long time ago.
Interesting, thank you!
I wonder how much this POV became more mainstream, assuming it wasn’t already.
