Ulf
01-02-2009, 03:08 AM
The RELIGION of the ancient Norsemen is one of the most difficult to
describe, indeed far more so than are the older religions of Rome, Greece,
Egypt, Israel, Persia or India. Reasons for this are not hard to appreciate. The
followers of these southern religions could express their own thoughts in
writing, and left hymns, myths and legends, but the pagan Norsemen knew
little of writing.
In its obscurity, the Norse religion has much in common with that of the
neighbouring Celts. Both of them have to be studied chiefly from poems and
traditions written down generations after the pagan religion had been
abandoned. The Celtic traditions were enshrined largely in the literature of
medieval Ireland, and the Norse ones mainly in texts written in Iceland in the
twelfth and especially in the thirteenth century. As Ireland was the storehouse
of Celtic tradition, Iceland preserved that of the north. In other words, tradition
survived longest on the periphery.
describe, indeed far more so than are the older religions of Rome, Greece,
Egypt, Israel, Persia or India. Reasons for this are not hard to appreciate. The
followers of these southern religions could express their own thoughts in
writing, and left hymns, myths and legends, but the pagan Norsemen knew
little of writing.
In its obscurity, the Norse religion has much in common with that of the
neighbouring Celts. Both of them have to be studied chiefly from poems and
traditions written down generations after the pagan religion had been
abandoned. The Celtic traditions were enshrined largely in the literature of
medieval Ireland, and the Norse ones mainly in texts written in Iceland in the
twelfth and especially in the thirteenth century. As Ireland was the storehouse
of Celtic tradition, Iceland preserved that of the north. In other words, tradition
survived longest on the periphery.