Hi Amy
I'm glad you liked the Prose Edda.
Maybe you can start on the Poetic Edda someday.
I'm glad you asked about the story of Otter and whther or not the many characters mentioned
were real or not.
There is much literature in Iceland that feature real historical kings, but much of the stories are embellished
and expanded until they become legends.
The story that features Otter is part of the story of the Volsungs, which is the great central legend of the North.
It is like what the Trojan war is to the Greeks.
Snorri gives a brief version of it and it is also featured in the poems of the Poetic Edda
as well as the Volsungasaga. It is also the basis of the Song of the Nibelungs. All of this stuff is what Wagner used when composing his
Ring cycle. (I sat through all fifteen hours when it aired on TV. UUgghh!)
The character of Sigurd may have been a Visigothic king that was murdered in the 6th century. His wife was Brynhilda.
Gunnar is believed to be King Gundarhar, or Gunderharius. He was defeated in a battle against Atilla the Hun in the the late 4th or early 5th century.
After that battle the city of Worms in modern day Germany was destroyed and the Burgundians (Giukings, Nibelungs), moved to
what is today France.
Atli, who Gudrun marries after Sigurd is murdered, is another name for Atilla the Hun.
So historical events did play a key role in the development of these stories after centuries of oral tradition.
Pretty cool stuff don't you think?
