he evidence for Germanic and Scandinavian mythology is rich, but fragmentary and scattered. Most of the literature was produced in Christian monasteries. The prose tales known as the Icelandic sagas were composed long after conversion so Christianity but contain some memories of old beliefs and customs.

Some pre-Christian poems about gods survive, and in the 13th century, Snorri Sturluson wrote a book in Icelandic, the Prose Edda, in which he recorded all he could learn of the old myths for the benefit of young poets.


Timechart:
1st century BCGermanic people living east of the Rhine
3rd-6th centuries ADPeriod of Germanic expansion (Migration Period)
5th centurySettlement of Angles and Saxons in England
AD 597Cristianity brought to Kent, England
8th-11th centuriesExpansion of Scandinavians (Viking Age)
955 onwardChristianity encouraged in Denmark
AD 995Conversion of Norway begun by Olaf Tryggvason
AD 1000Christianity accepted in Iceland

Scandinavian deities of the Viking Age:
BalderSon of Odin, doomed to die
FreyjaGoddess of fertility, sister fo Freyr
FreyrGod of fertility and royal ancestors
FriggQueen of heaven and wife of Odin
HeimdallWatcher over Asgard, and known as father of mankind
LokiA trickster companion of the gods
OdinGod of magic, inspiration, battle and the dead, and ruler of the gods
ThorGod of sky and thunder, protector of law and the community
TyrRemembered as the binder of the wolf.