Reading Response #8

This reading was an interesting story of the beginning of the world. It’s apparent that Christianity is definitely the main religion at this point, as God is referenced as making the earth now instead of it sprouting from the body Ymir. It sounds like a summary of the Bible, even telling of a turning away from God by the people. This part reminds me of the Israelites’ rejection of God before the 10 Commandments are made, and makes me wonder if anything like this happened during Viking times. I can’t imagine it was a completely smooth transition from paganism to Christianity, and surely some Vikings wanted to turn back to their pagan gods just as the Israelites did.

This creation story also once again shows the importance of agriculture and farming to the Icelanders. The Christian Bible doesn’t really dwell on what the land looked like or what the people did with it, but this prologue really gets into the details of the earth and its special features that make it so significant. And the land not only has qualities that give the Icelanders their food and livelihoods, but also is credited with the re-discovery of God. I think this really shows the importance of earth and nature to the Vikings because it brought them back to their Christian God. It does strike me as odd, though, to have this description of God creating an earth that sounds normal to me in this modern day, with the same land and countries (like Africa and Europe), and then to have giants and dragons roaming over it.

One part of III kind of confused me. I found it strange that Thor would be fostered by this couple, who raised him to be a child of great stature, and then kill them in return for their good deed. Perhaps there is more to this story that I am not grasping.