This week, we recount the tale of the Norse, who were also called Norsemen or Vikings, depending upon the era under discussion. The Germanic-speaking Norse people lived in Scandanavia and other parts of Northern Europe between 200 and 700 AD.

After 700 C.E., when they began raiding and settling in Britain, Iceland, Greenland, and elsewhere, they are generally referred to as Vikings, who came to prominence in the 9th and 10th centuries. Different versions and offshoots of their myths spread into the counties they inhabited, especially, for example, Britain and Germany. Many myths that we call Anglo-Saxon were influenced by Norse myths, as were the myths of Germany, contained in works such as the

Nibelungenlied. The primary source for the myths of the Norse people, including the creation myth, is Iceland, where the old Norse religion remained in force long after the rest of Europe had been Christianized. It was not until the year 1000 that the Icelandic Assembly voted to replace the old religion with Christianity.

The Norse myths that we know now are contained in the Icelandic text called the Younger Edda or the Prose Edda, compiled by the Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson in about 1220 A.D.. Snorri's work is based on much older works from the oral tradition and from the Elder Edda or Poetic Edda, which was written down between the ninth and twelfth centuries, and re-discovered in 1643. It is sometimes called the Edda of Saemund because it was wrongly attributed to Saemund Sigfusson, a writer of the 12th century.

The Norse creation myth retold by Snorri in the 10th-century Sddaic poem, the Voluspa, is an animistic myth centering on the Ice Giant, Ymir, from whose dismembered body the world was made.

Reference:

David A Leeming, "Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia."

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The music used for the episodes is either free to use or under creative commons license. Below are their links and attributions:

Canon in D Major by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100301

Artist: http://incompetech.com/