The Poetic Edda on Norse Mythology

The > part in a few of the Eddic poems. > Notes

• attestation: The Norse poets used terms like 'Goth,' 'Hun,' 'Frank,' and 'Burgundian' without ethnic discrimination

  "The North was very much in the dark as to the differences between Germans, Burgundians, Franks, Goths, and Huns, and used the words without much discrimination."

• attestation: Burning or burying slaves and beasts to accompany their masters in death was a general northern custom

  "The burning or burying of slaves or beasts to accompany their masters in death was a general custom in the North."

• attestation: The punishment of drowning culprits in a bog was particularly reserved for women in Norse culture

  "The punishment of casting a culprit into a bog to be drowned was particularly reserved for women, and is not infrequently mentioned in the sagas."

• attestation: Oar-loops are thongs that fastened oars to thole-pins in Norse boats, serving as the equivalent of modern oarlocks

  "Oar-loops: the thongs by which the oars in a Norse boat were made fast to the thole-pins, the combination taking the place of the modern oarlock."