Research source

The religious beliefs of the North are not mirrored with any exactitude in the Elder Edda

Date of account: Ancient and medieval traditions presented in 1909
Source: Myths of the Norsemen: From the Eddas and Sagas
Reference: Myths of the Norsemen: From the Eddas and Sagas · selected passage 4
Rights: public_domain
Language: English retelling from Eddic and saga sources
Translation: H. A. Guerber
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

The religious beliefs of the North are not mirrored with any exactitude in the Elder Edda. Indeed only a travesty of the faith of our ancestors has been preserved in Norse literature. The early poet loved allegory, and his imagination rioted among the conceptions of his fertile muse. "His eye was fixed on the mountains till the snowy peaks assumed human features and the giant of the rock or the ice descended with heavy tread; or he would gaze at the splendour of the spring, or of the summer fields, till Freya with the gleaming necklace stepped forth, or Sif with the flowing locks of gold." [4]

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This is a passage from a historical religious or interpretive text. Its genre, manuscript history, translation and place within its own tradition are part of the evidence and must remain visible.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

Lattice can compare the passage's descriptive features with later reports, but resemblance does not turn a vision, angel, mythic creature or sacred narrative into a modern incident report.

Investigate related details with Anomaly Graph’s account-based search, or read how matching and provenance work.