Norse Mythology Study Guide

Covers pre-Christian Norse/Germanic mythology as preserved almost entirely through 13th-century Icelandic Christian sources (Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, ~1220 CE, and the anonymous Poetic Edda, compiled ~1270 CE). Centers Yggdrasil and the nine worlds, the Ymir creation myth, the major Aesir/Vanir deities (Odin, Thor, Loki, Freya, Tyr), the great myths (the Mead of Poetry, the Binding of Fenrir, the Death of Baldr), Ragnarok as a foreknown and unavoidable doom for the gods, and the Hávamál wisdom literature. Framed as the library's most distinctive tradition for offering no cosmic guarantee that good prevails — its central ethical teaching is courage and dignity in the face of known, inevitable defeat.