CHAPTER II.
WHY CALL THIS MYTHOLOGY NORSE? OUGHT IT NOT RATHER TO BE CALLED GOTHIC OR TEUTONIC?
In its original form, the mythology, which is to be
presented in this volume, was common to all the Teutonic
nations; and it spread itself geographically over
England, the most of France and Germany, as well as
over Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland. But
when the Teutonic nations parted, took possession of
their respective countries, and began to differ one nation
from the other, in language, customs and social and
political institutions, and were influenced by the peculiar
features of the countries which they respectively
inhabited, then the germ of mythology which each nation
brought with it into its changed conditions of life,
would also be subject to changes and developments in
harmony and keeping with the various conditions of
climate, language, customs, social and political institutions,
and other influences that nourished it, while the
fundamental myths remained common to all the Teutonic
nations. Hence we might in one sense speak of
a Teutonic mythology. That would then be the mythology
of the Teutonic peoples, as it was known to
them while they all lived together, some four or five
hundred years before the birth of Christ, in the south-eastern
part of Russia, without any of the peculiar features
that have been added later by any of the several