Old Norse Mythology in the Sources

Overview

This course is an introduction to the religion of the Vikings as it is recorded in Old Norse and Scandinavian literature from the medieval period. You will learn about the different written sources and what they can teach us about pre-Christian religion in northern Europe in the Viking Age. The course surveys the primary collection of Old Norse poetry about the pre-Christian Scandinavian gods, the Poetic Edda. We will also work with the main collections of stories about the Old Norse gods in prose: Snorri Sturluson's Edda and Saxo's History of the Danes.