MorrisonsLament t1_j0bfxey wrote on December 15, 2022 at 12:59 PM

Reply to comment by banestyrelsen in How do countries that lack long, ancient histories and myths (or feel they lack it), or have lost all records of them, compensate for this loss or absence? Can these invented ancient myths become as "legitimate" as the truly old histories/myths of countries that have them? by raori921

Icelander here, and the situation has changed a bit here since Independence in 1944, after we split with Denmark there has been a concerted effort to create a uniquely Icelandic identity which is in many ways a Disney version of pre-Christian traditions. It helps that most of what is known about those traditions was written down here first, but most people lack understanding of the fact that there was a gap of many centuries from Christianization in 1000 until we wrote down the "ancient myths" so they are probably heavily Christianized, even the Eddas

banestyrelsen t1_j0bmiow wrote on December 15, 2022 at 1:55 PM

And in “continental” Scandinavia the problem is compounded because we have so few very few sources of our own that we rely heavily on Icelandic sources, but we can’t assume that what people believed in Iceland is the same as what they believed in Denmark or Sweden; there may have been significant regional differences.