Cristina Diaz, Period 8, 12/16/21

Cristina Diaz

Period 8

Blog- 12/16

Modern Mythology 2022

Literacy & Learning

 

​We began looking into our Norse Project, and the first thing that struck me is how brutal the stories are. At first, I thought it may just be Neil Gasman’s take on the stories, but after reading some sections of the Prose Edda, it seems that is just how they were written. It’s all very matter of fact, almost in an unfeeling way. The stories don’t feel like they are meant to entertain, rather, it reads not unlike a history textbook that is detailing the facts of an event. This is consistent with our discussions on the functions of these writings and their origin, as well as Norse attitudes and culture. They likely didn’t have much time for telling stories unless it was considered absolutely necessary. This also highlights the importance of these myths in the culture, even in a form that is different from the other cultures we’ve studied. 

 

​Just this week, Ms Fusaro asked if anyone knew why some of the worlds were called -heim, while others ended in -gard. We were all making guesses, and I guessed it might have had something to do with Asgard and Midgard being above the other worlds. She said that idea was actually a Christianization of the Norse myths, and how we don’t have any written records of the original stories since they were passed down through oral traditions. It upset me that the only remnant wasn’t untainted, but when I thought about it more, I realized how much sense that made. I grew up Catholic, so it seems natural that my first answer to an unknown question was the one that resembles my own culture. It was one of the first times I had a concrete example of how I am affected by how I grew up, in the same way we analyze the context of authors and characters based on their own views. 

 

​I should take care to not only remember how important it is to recognize what I don’t know, but to be able to recognize my own biases. Even though I try my best to be objective and to lose any prejudices I may have, my upbringing will always affect how I think about questions I don’t know the answer to. I assumed logic is universal, but what is considered logical is based entirely on the cultural context. I need to be more aware of that in the future.