The Nordic countries consist of five main places - Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland. The Nordic Countries are linked geographically and culturally and share a diverse history. They are not separate from Europe although they do have an official Nordic Council. This was established after World War 2 and acts as an Inter-parliamentary forum to govern relations between the five main Nordic Countries.
The focus of my essay will be to look at the History of the Nordic Countries and the mythology that they believed in. This Mythology has had recent resurgence in popularity due to films and books but what truth is there in these stories? Like most countries, our history is based on the things its people believed in. I am going to look at the stories and folklore that have been passed down through the centuries from parents to children. I am also going to look at the artwork
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There are many accounts of runes being used to worship certain Gods or to ask for help. Some of these examples have survived the centuries and are now in museums. The peoples love and worship of the Gods was a strong religion and got them through some extremely tough times.
The most important and powerful God was Odin, sometimes spelled Woden. Odin was considered to be all powerful and the ‘King’ of the Gods. Norse people believed that Odin created the runic alphabet as a way for the people to communicate with the Gods. It was believed that he hung from the tree Yggdrasil to learn the runic knowledge as self sacrifice. He then passed this knowledge on to human kind. These days Odin is remembered by modern humans as the father of Thor, the thunder God, but in Norse times he was so much more.
In this picture drawn in 1895 Odin is shown hanging from the tree and carving the runes into a branch. The was called the Sacrafice of Odin drawn by Lorenz Frolich.
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