men lived was much harsher than that of the Greeks. Life was difficult compared to the gentler climate of Greece and its more abundant sources of food. With a milder climate, agriculture was not as tenuous, from one year to the next, as it would have been in northern Scandinavia. It would seem that the Norse myths reflect this harshness, with characters and tales that embody this arduous life.There are not the same nuances about music and many of the arts in the Norse legends, as people would have had a lot less leisure time to develop these pursuits, being consumed with sustenance. Most of the Norse gods were war-like in nature; while the Greeks had deities who affected war, it was certainly not to the same extent as the Norse. Again this was because the Greek culture had developed somewhat beyond that of the Vikings, where accomplishments in war were not the only things to be pursued and admired.The Greeks definitely gave more importance to females than did the Norse. Although the Poetic Edda states that goddesses are of the same importance as gods, this is not borne out by a review of the Norse myths.In this treatment, I have not been able to research in great detail the societies which developed these mythologies; a thorough study of them would, I believe, lead to more evidence that the differences in the societies resulted in the variances in the mythologies. By the same token, it would be interesting to determine, in greater detail, to what extent the similarities in the societies led to the parallels in the myths, or what evidence there is that the stories and characters in Norse mythology were "borrowed" from the Greeks and/or Romans. ...
