Norse Mythology Intro

My impression of Nordic Mythology from my readings is that it seems similar to other mythology. I found it interesting that words from the Viking Age were translated using Germanic and Latin languages and Indo-European roots. Also, it was kind of odd that early Scandinavians trading with Christians would either convert to Christianity or be "prime-signed"(accepting the sign of the cross), so that they were able to do business with the Christians. In the intro it also stated that people could switch households only at certain times of the year called "moving days," which I was unaware of before this reading. I also learned that the Nordic "gods" were actually living people at some point and then worshipped after their death, and each might represent social classes of that time. It was interesting to learn that the days of the week (Tue-Fri) were named after these gods as well. Last I think that the nonwritten source of archeological findings was crucial to our understanding of the Viking Age, with not only mythological objects but Christian ones as well. Unlike "virtually every text of Scandinavian mythology," we do not have to use the extreme caution that the earliest findings may have been influenced by a later Christian.

I decided to right about Valholl, known also as Odin's Hall. In the poem Grimnismal, a few stanzas describe and support (by the speaker Odin) the notion that Valholl was indeed a hall. It is described as having 540 doors and endless mead, which is kept full by the female goat Heidrun who also provides feasts of boar meat. This hall may have also been lined with gold shields according to Snorri Sturluson's Edda. Since Valholl was also present in other poems from the tenth century, it has been noted an important mythological place in our written records.

To discuss Heidrun more thoroughly, since it has the root of my name (Heid), this root is little known but can only be thought to mean "sacrificial mead" or "bright." The story of Heidrun, a goat, is that she stands at Valholl and gnaws foliage from the famous tree called Laerad. The mead is said to run from her teats, filling a barrel a day, which is more than sufficient to dunken its consumers, the "einherjar." Heidrun is found also in stanzas of Hyundluljod of the eddic poetry, which only further supports the notion that her mead is extremely intoxicating, opposing an older notion that she might have a connection with fertility rituals.