Iceland, Finland and the Myths cherished by Tolkien

Thingvellir: I am behind the black basalt spur, in front of the immense lichen-covered lawn where the Althing was held, the open-air parliament of the Icelanders. In the cold, sulfur-smelling air, in this asphalt-colored lava land, among pumice dunes and geyser puffs, it is necessary to make a classification of memories and mental associations that pile up confused in my head.

Let’s start with the Edda.

The term Edda, in the plural Eddur, refers to two Norse texts both written in Iceland during the thirteenth…