Wikipedia Trails: From Floods to Prose Edda

(Flood, NPS)

Flood Myth

I chose to start with floods after doing my extra reading this week over them. I think it is cool that themes go through different cultures and storylines, even if those people weren't alive at the same time or would have met. The flood myth is one of these because there are so many version by so many peoples. I grew up with the biblical Noah and the Ark so to read about the other versions is very cool. 

Outburst Floods
After reading an overview of the myths, I went and read about the historical accuracy of them. I always thought of them as strictly false, but reading about the great floods that have happened, I could see how people might think it was the end of the world, or that the flood was larger than it seemed because they had no way of knowing it did not cover the entire earth without today's technology.

Bergelmir
I went back to the flood myth page after outburst floods to stay in the mythology world and found one of the myths. This one is about a Norse frost giant who survived a flood of blood and became the start of a new people since him and his wife were the only ones who lived.

Prose Edda
Prose Edda is Norse literature that Bergelmir's story is within. I clicked on it because I thought Edda was a person's name. It turns out that no one really know the etymology of the word but there are some suggestions on the wikipedia. I have always thought etymology was interesting so it was cool to see the progression of a word so old.