#i'm all for preserving tradition but there's gotta be a better way than

[dude-iloveu]

what you mean i gotta look for places to do internship :l

#selling my soul for a little bit of that sweet sweet course credit #after that? man i don't even wanna think about it #go marry some rich old guy who already has 2 wives and has kids that are the same age as me #use his money to fly over to australia #die by getting too close to a kangaroo #welp i thought about the future anyway. i don't like it #to do list before i turn 30: abolish the malaysian monarchy #i mean ngl i like the way that malaysian monarchy has a rotation system #Instead of following the bloodline. nine royal families use an electoral system to choose the next Malaysian monarch for a five-year term. #i'm all for preserving tradition but there's gotta be a better way than #letting some privileged folks live in wealth without concern for their own rakyat #ye saya tahu sultan penting untuk orang melayu and whatever all that #tapi perlu ke naikkan darjat melebih-lebih sampai nampak sangat beza kekayaan dan kemiskinannya #kononlah kan 'negara islam' tapi perangai kafir #cara dia amalkan islam tu jadi monolit. gabung dengan adat budaya pastu last2-nya terpesong ajaran :D #ah sudah. aku cakap banyak ni aku pon tak solat lagi #how'd it end like this i was just talking about being an unpaid intern lmao

[scroll-of-thought]

Ok this next question may be a super "baby witch" /newbie question, but why is anything norse shrouded in mystery? Like why is most of the rune information up to speculation? Why do we only have so much information?

What happened? Was it some kind of historical event that made any good sources disappear? We're books or other sources/writings burned or lost? Was it a war or something similar?

Or is it just the good ol too far back in the past for something to be recovered?

I'm sorry (sort of), but I like myself some mystery and it's just so interesting. My curiosity is getting the better of me.

No worries, I like answering these kinds of questions :D Sorry it’s taking me a bit to get back. I’m replying when I give myself a break. I got a lot of freelance work to do, but taking a minute to write about Norse stuff is helping my brain not melt :)

From what I understand, the majority of Norse mythology was an oral tradition. The poetry that survives are all spoken poems from the 900s to the 1100s, often told for entertainment, or as something a respectable man could recite from memory to show some value. Towards the end of this time all of the Scandinavian countries were Christianized, and the Eddas were written later around the 1200s. So all that survived of these spoken poems were recorded by Christians who had interest in preserving the poetry more than the beliefs. Snorri’s versions specifically paint the Norse gods as less gods and more heroes in the flavor of Greek heroes, and his reason for writing it down was to have a record of the old way Norse poetry worked grammatically. Norse poems use a specific style that values alliteration, correct meter, and clever kinnings over rhyme or anything like that, so it’s pretty unique.

So, lack of interest in the topic or fear of the church/God probably played a big role. Some speculate that Snorri’s writing about pagan stories contributed to his assassination in 1241, but others say it was mostly because he was involved in the legal system by trade and made some people pretty angry. And the fact that there simply were no original writings before the 1200s means there’s always been a lack of knowledge. Up to then, you literally had to find someone to tell you the poems if you wanted to know anything about them.

The reason Norse magic had so little surviving information is probably similar. About 1000 years of Christianity disallowing pagan practices, and the fact that the Norse Volva (seers/witches) weren’t common to begin with means that a lot of their practices were pretty secretive to anyone who wasn’t in the know. The only accounts of Norse magic in detail come from post Christian sources, so they don’t have a lot of details. The saga of Erik the Red has some information involving rituals observed by Erik as guests, but they were mystified of the whole thing and as Christians didn’t take part or inquire further. There’s little bits of folklore here and there of old spells and remedies, but it’s very hard to determine their validity and how old they are. Other than that, not much was generally recorded or proliferated through any traditions.

Runes are specifically secretive because they’re the secret spells of Odin, which he paid a price for. He typically personally will teach a single rune or two to a warrior he likes, but there’s no surviving stories where he teaches spells or the meanings of runes to the masses, or explains them to the listener/reader. So it’s likely Norse people didn’t know how Rune magic was meant to work. Many of the carved runes we find on artifacts are just people’s names, or documentation of events, memorials, and snippets of poetry.

To wrap this up, I’ll like a couple a couple of Dr.Crawford’s videos on the subject as well as some magic related stuff he went over.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_l33RAAjrg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHbD8ko-tU0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4WJK2vNy6E

https://youtu.be/pPPWde7SVk0

https://youtu.be/LZFkPaoafBo

Alright, now I gotta put away the chickens and get back to work :D Hopefully you found that all interesting and helpful. Let me know if there’s anything else you want to know or I can help with.