Christopher Abram - Myths of the Pagan North: The Gods Of The Norsemen

The Norse myths make up one of the worlds great mythologies, and their popularity shows no sign of diminishing in the twenty-first century. The deeds and personalities of gods like Odin, Thor and Loki continue to fascinate readers and to inspire authors and artists in a wide range of genres and media. Many books about Norse mythology are already available ranging from retellings of the myths to comprehensive descriptive handbooks to detailed, painstaking academic works. This book is designed to introduce the myths to a non-specialist readership in a new way, and to encourage people who are already familiar with the Norse myths to think about them differently.

Myths of the Pagan North is a history of myth-making in medieval Scandinavia. My aim is to establish as far as possible when people created these powerful stories about the pagan gods of the North; why they did so what religious, social, or cultural impulses have shaped the myths; and how the myths came into being. I think it is important, if we are to understand these myths and what they meant to the people who made and used them, to understand the historical contexts that they come from. Accordingly, I concentrate on the actual forms of the myths that survive from the Middle Ages, and my analysis begins at the point where we start to find recorded versions of the myths in the Viking Age, sometime around 850 AD. The period of myth-making in medieval Scandinavia was an age of enormous change and transformation in Nordic societies: it encompasses the development of the nation state, particularly in Denmark and Norway, and the migration abroad of huge numbers of Norse men and women, who colonized new territories around the whole of the North Sea region and came into contact with other cultures as far apart as Ireland and Russia. The most important change during the late Viking Age, however, was a religious one: this is the age of conversion to Christianity. The coming of Christianity to the North did not, however, mean the end of pagan mythology, even though the Church tried its hardest to suppress the worship of the old gods. One of the main themes of this book is how the Norse myths were influenced by the threats or promises offered by the incoming religion, and how the myths survived the conversion to be told again by people who now identified themselves as Christians. It is remarkable not only that these pagan stories survived beyond the official demise of paganism, but that the two most fertile periods for the creation of new versions of the Norse myths occurred in Norway during the conversion period and in Christian thirteenth-century Iceland. One of the most interesting challenges that studying the Norse myths presents is the necessity to take account of religious and cultural change and its effects upon texts that at first sight seem to represent a static pagan worldview.

The main theme of this book, then, is the way that myths change in time and space; how they evolve to meet the needs and desires of the people who make them. Its structure is roughly chronological. To begin with, we will examine the different types of sources that contain Norse myths or which may help us to understand their origins. The second chapter provides a brief overview of Scandinavian pagan religion, since mythology always has connections to peoples beliefs, even if those connections are not always as straightforward as we might think. Then, we will trace the history of the myths themselves in the works of poets from the Viking Age through the era of conversion, and into the work of learned writers in the Christian period.

My book, therefore, is as much about myths about Norse paganism as it is about pagan myths the myths produced by those people whom we can identify as pagans, who lived in a primarily pagan society and exhibited a pagan world-view. It is about how the Norse myths changed over time, as religion and society developed, and as paganism co-existed with and then gave way to Christianity. But it is also about how medieval Christian attitudes towards pagan religion have shaped pagan myth. Norse mythology may deal with stories, themes, and subjects that are ancient, widespread, and eternal, but the Norse myths have never stood still. They form a dynamic network of belief and narrative, not a static monument to a lost civilization. Myth is eternal, but it never stops changing.

Although I try to introduce concepts, characters, and narratives fully and clearly when they first appear in this book, you might find one of the mythological dictionaries by John Lindow, Andy Orchard, or Rudolf Simek each of which is highly recommended a useful companion to this book: they are listed in the bibliography. The best book to read about Norse mythology, however, now as it ever was, is Snorra Edda, the great thirteenth-century compendium of mythic narratives, poetry, and mythographic scholarship. It is available in a fine English translation by Anthony Faulkes, and ought to be the first port of call for anybody interested in the subject.

Wherever possible, I have referred to published translations of the Norse sources, so that readers can gain access to the texts relatively easily; not all translations are of equal quality, however, and I have silently altered readings here and there, particularly when the only available translation is too old to reflect up-to-date research on the text.

In an attempt to minimize confusion, I have used the original Old Norse forms of personal names and place-names throughout this book, even though they can be hard to pronounce (a simplified pronunciation guide follows). The only exceptions I have made are Odin (instead of inn), Thor (instead of rr), and Valhalla (instead of Valhll): these names are so well known in their English versions that I think it would confuse matters to attempt to reintroduce their original spellings.

I am grateful to the following publishers for permission to reproduce extracts from copyright works: Oxford University Press, for The Poetic Edda, translated by Carolyne Larrington (1996); University of Texas Press, for Heimskringla, translated by Lee M. Hollander (1964); and Orion, for Snorri Sturluson, Edda, translated by Anthony Faulkes (1987).

I also wish to express my thanks to Michael Greenwood at Continuum, who commissioned this book and has been extremely supportive and patient throughout; to Emily Thornbury for her enthusiasm, encouragement and advice; and to Amy Mulligan, whose help in the final stages has been invaluable.

It is impossible to know precisely how people in the Viking period and Middle Ages pronounced Old Norse, although it seems likely that it sounded somewhat similar to modern Icelandic, which provides the basis for this guide.