The Prose Edda

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A valkyrie tends a dying hero, preparing to take his soul to the mystical afterlife hall of Valhalla

Viking heroes

The heroes of legend are mythical, although their tales try to tie together ancient gods and real-life kings

ridging the gap between the mythical

Bgods of the early tales and the historical kings of the later sagas are the heroes of Norse legend. Presented as genuine figures from history, their superhuman feats of combat, often against supernatural creatures, have more in common with fairy stories than fact.

They are often larger-than-life archetypes, bearers of mystical swords and magical rings. Yet their behaviour often has more in common with what would become the chivalrous ideals of medieval warrior Christians than it does with the bloody pagan traditions of the northern past. Christianity was introduced to Scandinavia by both sword and subterfuge, and once it took root, it changed the shape of the sagas forever.

The now predominantly Christian authors, anxious to preserve their cultural heritage without it conflicting with their new faith, and influenced by stories the well-travelled Vikings brought back to Scandinavia, now transformed the old gods into semi-classical heroes. Odin is reimagined as a Trojan princeling: a powerful warrior and wily sorcerer.

It takes a few verbal leaps of faith, including the explanation that the old term for the gods, aesir, in fact translates as ‘men of Asia’, but soon this new genealogy for the old gods is accepted into the stories as if it had always been the gospel truth. The great skald Snorri Sturluson even goes as far as claiming that the trickster Loki is in fact the Homeric Greek hero Odysseus, explaining that this is why the

‘Trojan’ aesir hate him despite his resourcefulness.

Even Odin’s role as the Allfather is kept intact, though modified. The now-Trojan prince, inspired by a prophecy that tells him “his name should be exalted in the northern part of the world and glorified above the fame of all other kings”, sets off for the Scandinavian homelands. In Saxland (Germany), some of his sons found the Frankish dynasty of the Völsungs. In Jutland, another son founds the Scylding dynasty, from which the kings of Denmark reputedly descend. In Sweden, yet another son becomes king, founding the Yngling dynasty. The same happens in Norway. Odin is now no longer the father of the gods, but rather an ancient Nordic Queen Victoria, the grandfather of all of the Scandinavian royal lines. It’s from these legendary houses that the great heroes and heroines of Norse myth descend. Setting out on journeys to distant lands, they come face-to-face with dragons and dwarves, win and lose riddle games, fight deadly battles and acquire magical artefacts.

There’s a very good reason why these tales have resonated down the centuries. When these stories were first created, it was an adventurous and wealthy people that made them. They lived in climates that encouraged long winter evenings by the fireside, but had travelled extensively and become familiar with new stories from much further afield. Worldly, often more comfortably off than their homelands suggested, and raised amid a tradition of oral storytelling, the audience for these tales of heroes demanded exciting stories of action and adventure, packed with the machinations of gods, ghosts and the natural world itself.