How were Scandinavian Myths Born?
Scandinavian mythology comprises the indigenous Pre-Christian religion. It is derived mostly from the legends and tales of the Nordic peoples, not only limited to the Scandinavian Peninsula in fact. It is also worth mentioning that the majority of these legends are thought to have originated from Iceland.
Norse mythology is the best-preserved version of the older common Germanic paganism, which also includes the very closely related Anglo-Saxon mythology. Suffice it to say that Norse mythology has been observed on many occasions to have resemblances to Germanic and Anglo-Saxon myths.
​
​
The Norse Gods are the mythological characters from stories shared by Northern Germanic tribes of the 9th century AD. These legends had been carried over generation to generation through the medium of poetry until the 11th – 18th centuries which was when when the Eddas and other such texts were written. The majority of the content that carries credibility in terms of preserving the original legends are these Eddas that are texts depicting legends, written in the form of poetry. The most prominent of these would be The Elder Edda (a.k.a. Poetic Edda) along with The Prose Edda.
The Poetic Edda
How have these myths evolved over time?
It is easy to see that especially in modern times these myths and legends have almost been mellowed out to either make more friendly and at times more approachable especially in terms of Children's Tales and other forms of popular media. In truth the Nordic deities and important figures were commonly depicted as selfish, self indulgent and even capricious which we definitely see less of in this day and age.
​
We also see that House Tales that were used to scare children into behaving such as those about Grila The Witch and The Yule Lads have been watered down so as to not affect the children in a negative way. As we learn more about the human psyche and behavior our parenting and even story telling methods have evolved thus leading to changes in our tales.
​
In addition, with the permeation of Norse mythology into pop culture brought more changes. The modern depictions of these characters deviate heavily from their previous era counterparts. Their designs become more modern and the characters are designed to look much more easy on the eye. Take Loki on the right for example and try to compare that to his more recent depictions on screen.
Depiction of Loki