Iceland, Finland and the myths dear to Tolkien

Thingvellir: behind the black basalt buttress, in front the immense lawn covered with lichen where the Althing, the open-air parliament of Icelanders, was held. In the cold, sulfur-smelling air, in this land of asphalt-colored lava, between pumice dunes and puffs of geysers, it is necessary to classify memories and mental associations that pile up confusedly in our heads.

Let’s start with the Edda.

The term Edda, in the plural Eddur, refers to two Old Norse texts both written in Iceland during the 13th century. The poetic…