Great piece! Thanks for writing this and helping to fill in the gaps in our knowledge.
I'd be very interested to learn more about the differences in what we are told by Snorri and Saxo and why they exist. Sources? Motives? Location? Saxo always sounds so fabulous but maybe it reflects genuine traditions that lost out over time?
A great topic for future posts! At the moment, I just have an older video explaining Snorri's approach. It's generally about the different narratives they had access to or same ones with variance, and their ideological biases (Saxo was commissioned to write a history of the ancient "Danes") but they are both part of the medieval learned tradition seeking to rationalise pagan myths.
I will admit that I am disappointed that Tyr did not make this list.
While he literally has a day of the week named after him, I am fairly certain that everyone else on this list has at least a story or two more told about them.
I have read that as an initially Germanic sky god, the rise of Wotan in his stead might be seen as a political movement, or the two ideas combined into one. Insert new sky god, continue as appropriate.
However, his importance in the Fenrir debacle mostly led to, " he did the right thing, lost a hand, and then died later and nobody paid attention."
This saddens me for some truly fundamental reasons.
Great piece! Thanks for writing this and helping to fill in the gaps in our knowledge.
I'd be very interested to learn more about the differences in what we are told by Snorri and Saxo and why they exist. Sources? Motives? Location? Saxo always sounds so fabulous but maybe it reflects genuine traditions that lost out over time?
A great topic for future posts! At the moment, I just have an older video explaining Snorri's approach. It's generally about the different narratives they had access to or same ones with variance, and their ideological biases (Saxo was commissioned to write a history of the ancient "Danes") but they are both part of the medieval learned tradition seeking to rationalise pagan myths.
I will admit that I am disappointed that Tyr did not make this list.
While he literally has a day of the week named after him, I am fairly certain that everyone else on this list has at least a story or two more told about them.
I have read that as an initially Germanic sky god, the rise of Wotan in his stead might be seen as a political movement, or the two ideas combined into one. Insert new sky god, continue as appropriate.
However, his importance in the Fenrir debacle mostly led to, " he did the right thing, lost a hand, and then died later and nobody paid attention."
This saddens me for some truly fundamental reasons.
Forseti doesn’t get no respect!