Prologue to Prose Edda

I thought, as I'm sure everyone noted, that it was very interesting that the history of creation begins with a retelling of the Christian Genesis. When the prolouge continued to the story of Noah's Ark I began to wonder what the Icelanders pre-Christianity truely thought about creation, because this was too obvious of a post-Christian influence.

It was intruiguing to see where their telling strays from the Christian scripture, and I believe that is when the text says "Thus it happened that they lost the name of God; and throughout the wideness of the world the man was not found who could distinguish in aught the trace of his Creator. But not the less did God bestow upon them the gifts of the earth: wealth and happiness, for their enjoyment in the world." To me, this was a clearly a way that Christian converters could explain away the pagan tendencies of the Icelanders from the ancient time of Noah, to the conversion back to "God" in 1000.

I liked that this is the second time that we've seen the Nordic Gods being born as humans, and eventually ascending into their power and worship because they were so great. Although this mirrors the thinking of Jesus Christ, there are notable differences. Thor is described as being great for, who would have guessed, beging good looking and being able to kill the most powerful forces around. The story of his travels reminded me of the epic heroes from Greek mythology. Another link to the Greeks was the location of many of the characters discussed in the Prolouge, Troy--the scene of the battle of Troy from Greek mythology. I'm interested in the link between the two? How often did these cultures mesh back in ancient times, or did their history and cultural stories just blend together centuries after, when they were finally being recorded?