Viking culture research

Our current knowledge of the Viking culture is mostly found in literary work in poems and stories written in the Old Norse language (Dougherty, 2016). As such, these poems and stories constitute what is known of the Viking culture together with the mythological stories of legends, gods, and such activities and beliefs as relationships, death, and afterlife as well as war (Elena Ruggerini, 2006). Since no one has lived to tell what the Viking culture looked like, we are informed by the Norse myths, and thus these myths informed the Viking culture which created the myths itself. Were it not for these myths; we would probably not have heard of the Viking culture leave alone its existence. Literature works well in observing the culture of a people for as long as eternity.

These stories tell of legends and the Vikings and how their spiritual beliefs in God shaped their activities (Clark & Phelpstead, 2009). Stories that fill these sagas, in particular, revolving around the Germania folk heroes, the famous Scandinavians, and kinds in the Scandinavian history. They were typically written during the 13th and the 14th centuries and serve an important role in introducing us to past experiences, heroic achievements and mythical stores of the Vikings. While the sagas and the poems like the prose sage account or historical manner, in ways one cannot help but image in these events, they are told in what that seems somewhat exaggerated from ordinary historical happenings and as such enter into the folklore world (Elena Ruggerini, 2006). Adding to their anonymity, one cannot be sure whether these events happened or they are old stories that were being told then.

There have been some prose Eddas, and one particular and most simple prose is the "Prose Edda” or which is also referred to as “Edda. ” This is written by Snorri Sturluson (Dougherty, 2016). Who were a great Politician and scholar in Iceland? He wrote this in the 13th century, long after the who areas was Christianized and the perception of the world on the religion before Christianity was in distinctive erased status. He used his learned skills to analyze the happening before and after examining the poems of the Eddas, who had written substantive information that came of interest to him. What makes this a reliable and important source of information is the use of the Poetic Edda, where he adds mounts of words considerably on information he deemed important.

Another place of the dead was one that the goddess Freya hosted and invited people into the field of the people or the field of varies (Redmond, 2012). This was referred in the Old Norse language as Folkvang. This place, however, lacks concrete evidence on how it re4alky looked like as there are variances between many sources. This is however expected in myths. Another common notion in the Norse mythology is that they believed that after death, life went somewhere underground, called Hel presided by a goddess also called Hel (Elena Ruggerini, 2006). As Norse mythology would have it, the sound of the thunderstorm was as a result of Thor's action of crushing the enemies of the stronghold of gods with his hammer (Dougherty, 2016).

According to this myth, many giants were always causing chaos seeing to destroy the gods and goddesses. Thor, on the other hand, was always on the task of preventing them. Thor’s harmer played a very central role in the Viking people. Over and above protecting the gods’ stronghold, the harmer was also used to bless formal gatherings like wedding, births and also funerals. The hammer becomes the determination or the worthiness to hold it and hold the task given by Oddi. Its rule is simple; whoever holds the hammer at any time is worth (Dougherty, 2016). In another instance, Thor lost his hammer during an adventure. It was either stolen or does not remember where he had kept it. When Thor regains his memories and remembers where he had placed the hammer, he traces back to get it and finds that two villains, Toth and Amnon found and were in possession of the harmer.

From the original Eddas written in the Old Norse language to the retold writings of the same, the knowledge of the Viking culture has been passed from generations to generations. These ideas that would have otherwise died long ago have been preserved by these myths and continue to influence the current knowledge of the culture of the Viking which has gone far into being incorporated into literature and films (Clark & Phelpstead, 2009). The myths have been very fundamental in informing generations after generation of the way the Viking culture was. The Eddas too relied on the myths and particularly the pose Eddas which retold stories of theoretic Eddas and employed mythological viewed to pass their information on what was. The Viking culture itself produced these myths (Dougherty, 2016).