Thank goodness for obsessive Icelandic historians! Another one, Snorri Sturluson, is responsible for writing down much of the Norse mythology that we know of today. He is cited a bunch in The Norse Myths (a great book, in my humble opinion. Though I may be biased based on my fealty to my Norwegian heritage).

Edit: spelling

Unfortunately, Snorri Sturlson was no historian. What he wrote down was a Christian reframing of Norse mythology as political and religious propaganda, leaving almost no trace of the original, native mythology for the historical record.

Is that fair? Since we have no pre-Christian sources to compare to, it is hard to say how fairly Snorri represent the tradition. (Obviously the bit where he explains the Norse gods as descendants of princes of Troy is of dubious authenticity.)

That's exactly the problem - we don't know. There are many elements that look suspiciously like attempts at Christian syncretism, like Baldr's death and resurrection, and Ragnarok (a fiery apocalypse survived by one man and one woman, where one God reigns supreme.)

All we know is that there was Christian influence, because Snorri was a Christian, living and writing in Christianized Scandinavia to a Christian audience.

what's your basis for saying that?

Icelandic sagas are fun reading and great literature. You get to peek into another time period where law and morals where quite different and savage hero's rage with both sharp tongues and swords

Njal's Saga deserves to be regarded as a classic of world literature. It's full of compelling scenes, and dramatizes the how the desire for revenge just leads to an endless cycle of revenge.

The description of the Copenhagen fire is both hilarious and tragic. So much lost.

Off topic, but I'm reminded of this recent comment [0] on how obsessive seems to have become a compliment.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27121281

I think when bad things have good qualities, people still admire those good qualities while being wary of the bad ones.

In this case, obsessive means that they put in effort that others wouldn't. It could lead to ruin, or it could reward them greatly.

The bad part is the lack of detachment that lets them think about it logically, instead of being forced to just do it. Reward or ruin, they're going to do it either way.

I wish governments of the past had taken efforts to copy manuscripts and put them in multiple failure domains.