Prologue (Prose Edda)

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The Prologue is the first section of four books of the Prose Edda, and consists of a euhemerized account of the origins of Norse mythology. According to the Prologue, the Norse gods originate from the Trojans described in Homer's poetry, and are King Priam's descendants. Priam's grandson Thor traveled throughout the world after leaving Thrace, fighting monsters and a dragon; he eventually came far north where he married a local named Sif. From them descended both the Norse gods as well as royal lines of various kingdoms.

Regarding the euhemerization in the Prologue, Anthony Faulkes wrote that "undoubtedly one of the motives for including the prologue, and maybe the chief reason for the use of the frame device itself, was to avoid the criticism that his stories were dangerous to [Christian] orthodoxy".^[1] Rather than pagan gods, the figures of Norse legend are refashioned as human figures, if noble and powerful ones.