--- In cybalist@..., Håkan Lindgren <h5@...> wrote:
> ... Anyway, if this is what Snorre says, given the distance in time
and space (Snorre died in the 13th century), how much can we use him
as a reliable historical source?]
It's a bit like using the Aeneid (Snorri's literary model, complete
with a hero coming from Troy) as a reliable historical source. I'm
referring not to Snorri's accounts of Scandinavian affairs, which are
of course more reliable, but to the Prose Edda, and especially to the
Prologue, where he rationalises Germanic gods as ancient heroes (and,
being a Christian writer, justifies his preoccupation with them by
pretending to write history). Unfortunately, lots of people nowadays
read Snorri uncritically.
Piotr