Most of what we know of the Viking myths were collected and written down by Snorri Sturluson who lived a full and exciting life from 1179 to 1241. The sixty
-two years of his life were very full and exciting. At the age of three he found his fortune through an attempted act of violence. Thus he became the foster
son of Jon Loftsson who was one of the most powerful men in Iceland at the time and a member of the royal family of Norway. Snorri was a poet, historian,
and politician whose latter career cost him his life when his enemies assassinated him. They claimed to be working for the king of Norway.
First told as oral tales by bards and poets the Norse myths and legends were passed down to the new generations. Snorri collected many of them and they
were put into his book known as the "Prose Edda". Today the Prose Edda is one of the clearest and most appealing books of Norse mythology.
Officially Norway had only been a Christian country for about two hundred years when Snorri compiled his "Prose Edda". His willingness to preserve pagan
myths at such a time shows a remarkable faith and open mindedness. Norway still had a very large underground following of the Old Norse ways and religion
and this was probably still a real threat to the relativity new official religion of Christianity. In the prologue of his Prose Edda he makes a forceful statement
about the pagan nature of the myths as a warning to the Christian faithful. He did not believe that the Nordic pagans before the witness of Christianity were
doomed. He only saw them as sheep that had lost their way.
Perhaps his Christian faith influenced him to emphasize certain myths very strongly and barely hint at others. Balder and his twin brother Hod are hardly
mentioned until Balder begins to have nightmares about his death. His death, funeral, and afterlife are discussed in great detail and he and his brother Hod
come back to life after Ragnarok or the end of the Norse gods world. They then become the elder statesmen to the new world order. What went on before,
after, and in-between these events?
I believe he probably did not record a lot that he may have feared would keep the Pagan beliefs alive as well as such tales that did not whet his interest as a
man and a Christian of his time. Bards and scalds would tell epic tales at night after dinner just like we are entertained by our TV's. The women probably had
stories special to their hearts they shared among themselves when going about their duties. Such stories would have made much more bearable the long
winter nights and lonely times when their men had gone a Viking to bring back riches and plunder. As a busy man Snorri probably left out many stories these
women would have found very appealing, with the extremes of so many areas left bland and myths such as "The Death of Balder" told with such great detail
I can only imagine there were many more wonderful stories which were lost.