Further evidence for elves in Norse mythology comes from Skaldic poetry, the Poetic Edda and legendary sagas.

Gangleri is then challenged to show his wisdom by asking questions, as is the custom in many Norse sagas.

Heimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings ' sagas.

The historians of mid-19th century put great trust in the factual truth of Snorri's narrative, as well as other old Norse sagas.

The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied.

The Battle on the Ice of Lake Vänern was a 6th century battle recorded in the Norse sagas and referred to in the Old English epic Beowulf.

Archaeology has given support to the long-held theory that old Norse sagas show Vikings reached North America approximately five centuries prior to the voyages of Christopher Columbus.

The main sources of information about the Norse voyages to Vinland are two Icelandic sagas, the Saga of Eric the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders.

It is most likely this was the main settlement of the sagas, a " gateway " for the Norse Greenlanders to the rich lands farther south.

These travels explain as well how the vinviðir ( wine wood ) the Norse were cutting down in the sagas is actually referring to the vines of Vitis riparia a species of wild grape that grows on trees.

Our knowledge about arms and armour of the Viking age is based on relatively sparse archaeological finds, pictorial representation, and to some extent on the accounts in the Norse sagas and Norse laws recorded in the 13th century.

Norse mythology, sagas and literature tell of Scandinavian culture and religion through tales of heroic and mythological heroes.

Many of these sagas were written in Iceland, and most of them, even if they had no Icelandic provenance, were preserved there after the Middle Ages due to the Icelanders ' continued interest in Norse literature and law codes.

The new dictionaries of the Old Norse language enabled the Victorians to grapple with the primary Icelandic sagas.

* In Harry Harrison's The Technicolor Time Machine ( 1967 ), main characters go back in time to shoot a movie about founding a Viking colony in North America, only to discover to their surprise that the colony they founded turned out to be written into the history as the original Viking colony in North America — and some of them are even featured in Norse sagas.

Some historians, such as Lauritz Weibull, have argued that Sweyn's wife described in the sagas – Swedish dowager queen Sigrid the Haughty – is purely fictional, whereas others have accepted her existence on the evidence of the Norse sagas.

Since in the Norse sagas the king of Vindland is always Burislav, this is reconcilable with the assumption that her father was Mieszko ( not his son Bolesław ).

Malusha is described in the Norse sagas as a prophetess who lived to the age of 100 and was brought from her cave to the palace to predict the future.

In Norse sagas he frequently figures as Valdemar Holti ( that is, " the Nimble ").

The Norse sagas present Harald in a rather negative light.

Nestor's many sources included earlier ( now-lost ) Slavonic chronicles, the Byzantine annals of John Malalas and George Hamartolus, native legends and Norse sagas, several Greek religious texts, Rus '- Byzantine treaties, and oral accounts of Yan Vyshatich and other military leaders.

Ragnar Lodbrok ( Ragnar " Hairy-Breeks ", Old Norse: Ragnarr Loðbrók ) was a Norse legendary hero from the Viking Age who was thoroughly reshaped in Old Norse poetry and legendary sagas.

( from Icelandic for " Æsir faith ", pronounced, in Old Norse ) is a form of Germanic neopaganism which developed in the United States from the 1970s.

The " two-troll tradition " refers to " a Norse ' ecotype ' in which a hero enters a cave and kills two giants, usually of different sexes.

" He notes that the first element of Bilröst — bil ( meaning " a moment ")—" suggests the fleeting nature of the rainbow ," which he connects to the first element of Bifröst — the Old Norse verb bifa ( meaning " to shimmer " or " to shake ")— noting that the element provokes notions of the " lustrous sheen " of the bridge.

For example, the English words shirt and skirt are doublets ; the former derives from the Old English sċyrte, while the latter is loaned from Old Norse skyrta, both of which derive from the Proto-Germanic * skurtjōn -.

This language began to undergo new changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, which resulted in the appearance of two similar dialects, Old West Norse ( Norway and Iceland ) and Old East Norse ( Denmark and Sweden ).

Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark alphabet, Old Norse was written with the Younger Futhark alphabet, which only had 16 letters.

The Old English word is derived from the Proto-Germanic * albiz, which also resulted in Old Norse álfr and Middle High German elbe.

In Scandinavian folklore, which is a later blend of Norse mythology and elements of Christian mythology, an elf is called elver in Danish, alv in Norwegian, and alv or älva in Swedish ( the first is masculine, the second feminine ).

The Norwegian expressions seldom appear in genuine folklore, and when they do, they are always used synonymous to huldrefolk or vetter, a category of earth-dwelling beings generally held to be more related to Norse dwarves than elves which is comparable to the Icelandic huldufólk ( hidden people ).

The elf makes many appearances in ballads of English and Scottish origin, as well as folk tales, many involving trips to Elphame or Elfland ( the Álfheim of Norse mythology ), a mystical realm which is sometimes an eerie and unpleasant place.

The term Edda ( Old Norse Edda, plural Eddur ) applies to the Old Norse Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, both of which were written down in Iceland during the 13th century in Icelandic, although they contain material from earlier traditional sources, reaching into the Viking Age.

The Younger Futhark inscription on the stone bears a commonly seen memorial dedication, but is followed by an encoded runic sequence that has been described as " mysterious ," and " an interesting magic formula which is known from all over the ancient Norse world.

Frankish * forhist is attested by Old High German forst " forest ", Middle Low German vorst " forest ", Old English fyrhþ " forest, woodland, game preserve, hunting ground " ( English frith ), and Old Norse fýri " coniferous forest ", all of which derive from Proto-Germanic * furhísa -, * furhíþija-" a fir-wood, coniferous forest ", from Proto-Indo-European * perk < sup > w </ sup > u-" a coniferous or mountain forest, wooded height ".

In Norse mythology, Geri and Freki ( Old Norse, both meaning " the ravenous " or " greedy one ") are two wolves which are said to accompany the god Odin.

The name Geri can be traced back to the Proto-Germanic adjective * geraz, attested in Burgundian girs, Old Norse gerr and Old High German ger or giri, all of which mean " greedy ".

The Norse called the Great Auk geirfugl, which means " spearbird ".

Today, Swedish scholars identify this as a cultural movement called Gothicismus, which included an enthusiasm for things Old Norse.

The sixteen books, in prose with an occasional excursion into poetry, can be categorized into two parts: Books 1-9, which deal with Norse mythology, and Books 10-16, which deal with medieval history.

The word derives from the old Norse " gata ", meaning road or path, and originally referred to the gap in the wall or fence, rather than the barrier which closed it.

The title is a translation into German of the Old Norse phrase Ragnarök, which in Norse mythology refers to a prophesied war of the gods that brings about the end of the world.