I
8
I celand
Very little archaeological evidence of the beliefs
in the Aesir and Vanir gods remains in Iceland, for it
was settled late in the age of the Nordic people. While
rock carvings and burial sites in Norway, Sweden, and
Denmark from the Bronze Age (3500–1000 b.c.)
and more recently provide scientists with additional
evidence of the beliefs of these people, very few such
carvings exist in Iceland.
An island nation in the Arctic and
North Atlantic oceans, about 570 miles west of Nor-
way. Iceland is considered part of Scandinavia and
the Nordic nations, and as such it shares language
and cultural histories with Norway, Sweden, and
Denmark. Norwegians settled this volcanic island
in the middle of the ninth century a.d. The settlers
took with them their old religion and the stories of
the gods and goddesses of the Norse. In their isola-
tion, the peoples of this rugged land maintained their
beliefs in the old gods longer than their relatives in
Europe, who converted to Christianity in the 10th
century. Iceland became a Christian land during the
11th century. However, for some reason unclear to
modern historians and literary experts, the stories of
the old Norse gods thrived in Iceland until well into
the 13th century, long after they had faded from the
cultures of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
Most of the surviving manuscripts about the
mythology of the Norse were created by artists living
in the ninth and 10th centuries and recorded by
scribes living in Iceland in the 13th, 14th, and later
centuries. The great stories in the P oetic E dda were
composed by anonymous poets and later written
down by people skilled in the new art of writing and
manuscript creation. These poems are part of the
C odex R egius , a manuscript written in the late 13th
century and found in a farmhouse in Iceland in the
17th century. Snorri Sturluson, the author of the
P rose E dda , was a scholar, historian, and chieftain in
Iceland who wrote his works in the early 1200s in an
effort to preserve the stories for later generations. He
based his work on old poems and prose sagas, stories
of heroes from Scandinavia that provide clues and
details concerning the beliefs of these people.
The language of these manuscripts, known as
Old Norse or Old Icelandic, is closely related to
the modern languages of Scandinavia, particularly
modern Icelandic.
I davoll
The plain or field in Asgard where the
shining palaces of the Aesir gods stood. It was here
that the young gods played games such as chess, and
it was here that the god Balder was slain by his blind
brother, Hodur. After Ragnarok (the end of the
world), Idavoll became green again at the Regenera-
tion. New halls were built by the surviving gods. It is
said that they found the golden chess pieces of their
slaughtered friends and looked at them in wonder as
they remembered the past.
I di One of the rime-giants, or frost giants. Idi
was the brother of Thjazzi and Gang and the son of
Olvaldi, who left piles of gold to be divided among
his sons. The brothers, in choosing how to divide the
treasure, decided that each should take as much as
his mouth would hold. Idi is said to have given fine
speeches.
Idi is mentioned only in S kaldskaparmal , by the
poet and historian Snorri Sturluson, most notably
in G rottasong , a poem Sturluson quotes in full. (See
also “Skade and Njord” under skade.)
I dunn (I duna )
The golden-haired goddess
who supplied the Aesir gods with apples that gave
them eternal youth. Idunn was the wife of Bragi, the
god of poetry.
She was probably an important goddess, but the
only myth that survives about Idunn is the one in
which she is kidnapped by the giant Thjazzi. In the
55