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spent the day drinking from golden goblets with
Odin. Some scholars suggest that Saga was another
name for Frigg, Odin’s wife, for Saga means “she who
knows all things” and this was a trait Frigg shared
with her husband.
S axo G rammaticus
Danish scholar of the
13th century who wrote in Latin G esta D anorum , a
multivolume, partly mythical history of the Danes. In
it Saxo recounts many myths of Denmark (including
that of Hamlet) and Norway. Saxo’s approach to the
myths and the people in them was rather harsh and
unsympathetic compared to that of the Icelandic
writer Snorri Sturluson.
S candinavia
A region in northwestern Europe.
Norway and Sweden form the great peninsula once
known as Scandia and now known as the Scandi-
navian peninsula. Denmark’s Jutland peninsula and
the islands that lie between it and the Scandinavian
peninsula, as well as the Faroe Islands and Iceland,
which lie in the Atlantic Ocean to the west and
northwest of Norway, are often considered part of
the region.
The people of Scandinavia share similar languages,
histories, and cultures. Norwegian, Swedish, Danish,
and Icelandic all share roots with the Germanic
languages. Their ancestors spoke Old Norse, a name
that has often been used to refer to the people of
Scandinavia as well as the ancient language. In 400
b.c., the Germanic peoples of north central Europe
began moving northward and building settlements
in Scandinavia, living next to or pushing aside the
native people of those lands. By a.d. 600, nation-
states had begun to take shape in these regions, and
language changes separated these immigrant peoples
from the cultures of their origins. Around this time
the Vikings, a powerful people, began centuries of
conquest across northern Europe, including Great
Britain, Finland, and parts of eastern Russia.
Much of the information of the mythology of the
Norse has survived in the records and manuscripts
of the Scandinavian nations and on the intricate
and complex stone carvings known as runestones
or picture stones found throughout the region.
Scholars have pieced together the stories of the gods,
goddesses, enemies, and kingdoms of this mythology
from scattered sources. From Iceland to the west
and Finland to the east, the Arctic Circle to the
north and the bogs of low-lying Denmark to the
south, archaeologists have for almost two centuries
uncovered the story of Scandinavia’s past, including
the spectacular finds of ships and ship burials near
Oseberg, Norway, in 1904 and at Sutton Hoo in East
Anglia, England, first excavated in 1939.
sea The sea was important to Norse mythology as
a threat, a danger, and an everyday part of life.
The sea represented a realm of passage between
the land of the living and the land of the dead. The
story of the death of Balder, the son of Odin, as well
as the many ship burials found across Scandinavia
show how important the sea was in the journey
beyond death. After his brother Hodur kills Balder,
the Aesir take Balder’s body to the sea and put him
in a great ship which a giantess then pushes into
the water. Archaeologists have found burial sites in
Norway, Sweden, and Great Britain that resemble
the scene described in this tale.
Though very dangerous, the sea was also a source
of food for the people of the Viking Age. Fishing trips
are frequent in the myths and the heroic legends. The
most famous fishing trip is Thor’s journey out to sea
with Hymir to fish for Jormungand, the Midgard
Serpent, who lived in the sea that surrounded the
world.
Snorri Sturluson included a long list of terms
for the sea in S kaldskaparmal , his work of advice
and instruction to poets.
Two sea kings are named in the surviving manu-
scripts of Norse mythology. Aegir was a giant who
lived by and ruled the sea. With his wife, Ran, he had
nine daughters, and each of them had a name that
represented a characteristic of the sea: Himinglaefa
means transparent, that through which one can see
Heaven; Dufa means wave or the pitching one; Blo-
dughadda means bloody hair or red sea foam; Hefring
means riser; Udr or Unn means frothing wave; Hronn
means welling wave; Bylgja means to billow; Drofn
(or Bara) means foam fleck or wave; Kolga means
cool wave. Snorri lists these daughters twice in
Skaldsaparmal. An older poem, H yndluljoth , gives
a different sent of names for these n