Why Norse?

Why would I chose to do a blog about Norse mythology? I wanted to learn more about it, but I'm warning you, try to find a book in the library! We know a lot about Roman and Greek Mythology, but not much about Norse Mythology. That is because not much was written down. Stories were passed down by word of mouth from over 1000 years ago.

First let's look at what part of the world we are talking about. Norse, or Scandinavian Mythology is from the northern part of Europe and evidence of this worship dates back to 1600-450 B.C. I say worship because this was this people's religion up until the 10th or 11th century when Christianity made it's way up north. These were not only stories to the Norse people, but their gods. Scandinavia includes Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Finland and Germany. When we think of this area, we think of the Vikings, however evidence of artifacts from the Bronze Age show that these gods were being worshiped well before Viking times. This was a very dominant male time period with love for battle and little fear of death. Not only did I want to find out about the gods of this time, but more about the goddesses. I figure the girls had to be pretty tough too.

Back in November, I was watching a movie with my sons, who are 8 and 10. We were watching The Avengers. There was Thor and Loki fighting on the screen. Thor and Loki being of course, Norse gods. I explained to my sons where the characters came from and of course scored some cool points. It was then that I decided to do my project on Norse gods and goddesses.

Thor and Loki from the movie, The Avengers.
 The Avengers (2012). [DVD] Hollywood: Fox Studios