Nordic Mythology 1 Origin

Nordic mythology wasn't much of a religion, more a set of stories told around the bonfire in dark winter nights. The stories may have generated from what our ancestors saw and heard of their surroundings and their way to comprehend. It picked up elements from Azerbaijan-, German-, and Celtic tradition, some Christian-, as well as local shaman legends were added.

We don't have any direct info of their beliefs, except what we find in ornaments of wood carving and smithworks from ancient times. Some quotes may stem from rune writings though. We know that the Nordic population were a mixture of immigrants from east, south and west.

Thor Heyerdal, with his sometimes quite  inventive methods of research, theorized that Halfđan Black, father of Harald Fair Hair (first king of a united Norwegian kingdom) came from Azerbaijan, therefore his black hair and complexion. It is not impossible according to archeological findings and mitochondrial DNA from an old grave assumed to contain Halfđan Black's mother and sister or a slave girl they brought with them. This "Royal" grave had contents associated with wealth, and the genetic material correlating with modern people of Azerbaijan, not with modern Norwegians. According to Heyerdal the Gods of Thor and Odin had their origin there.

Nobody knows for certain, but the great Danish king, Waldemar Victory in 1200 +, possessed southern Sweden, the Baltic and maybe so far east as the land of fire, Azerbaijan. However, that was after White Christ was imposed upon the Vikings.

According to the sage Danebrog, the Danish banner, came down from heaven after a battle in Tallinn (Danish burg, Dana Linna in Finish-Ugrish group of language)

Long before King Waldemar Vikings had hauled their long boats up and down the rivers into Gardar Riket (Russia) as far as Byzantium or Constantinople.

The narrative and written stories dates back to the Christian era and was more or less attributed by the Christian conquers upon the losing part. It is hard to tell how much they can be trusted. The first conversions to White Christ was probably mostly out of convenience (read: save their lives) and not a heartfelt conviction.

Therefore the old myths may have slightly changed to parallel the new religion. There are reasons to believe that their conversions to White Christ never changed much in their lives and when the Christian hordes left, things settled back to normal, except for attribution of the name of the religion, not the content.

This is the veil behind the origin of Nordic mythology. It is not a religion, nor a formal belief, but stories and sages gathered from the lands where the Vikings sailed. They were as home in the countries along the shores and waterways as the modern Vikings of northern Europe are in Greece, Italy, Spain and the Canary Islands.

The Nordic Gods never stepped down when other religions were imposed. They still live as never ending fascinating stories. Christmas are remnants of the Nordic Midwinter Blot. Christ himself, if he was born, most likely was born in the autumn while the sheep still was herded in the mountains of Palestine.

White Christ was initially enforced upon the people much the same as Islam and Sharia are enforced upon people in some parts of the world. The true human spirit still love the stories and sages. Some do believe in stories, but the majority just love to tell them, and hear them. I guess that is what the Vikings did too.