Literary “Pure” Ancestry: How Medieval Norse Writing Created Genealogies
Written by Marcus Lindenburg
Those familiar with the rise of white supremacy in popular culture, political imagery, and propaganda will be unsurprised to hear that Norse symbols have been misappropriated by extremists to sell the image of a “pure” white race. This phenomenon is not new, by any means. Neo-paganism (a contemporary practice of implementing pagan belief systems rather than organized religion, also commonly referred to as heathenry)—while present on both ends of the sociopolitical spectrum—has a long history in extremist groups. Most famously, perhaps, are its usages in Adolf Hitler’s iconography inspired by Norse runes.
Symbols hold great power, it’s often been said. But in the case of Norse (and Celtic) runes, their power seems to come in part from their perceived mystery and mythos. Even beyond runes, icons like the hammer of Thor (Mjöllnir) have been used by hate groups from the early twentieth century to the present day. They provide a sense of antiquity without requiring legitimate engagement with evidence that survives from the time period they invoke.
For white supremacist groups, this interest in mythical figures and pseudohistories is an interest in a racialized sense of ancestry. By making aesthetic or casual references to Norse mythology to further anchor their identity, white supremacists may broadcast a claim to a “pure” (yet fictitious) lineage. It’s certainly true that these symbols and myths have an ancient history with roots in what we now call Scandinavia. But how do we know about this mythology? How did we first connect runic symbols to the myths we know today?
Broadly speaking, our present-day understanding of Norse mythology comes from texts penned in Scandinavia from High (c.1000 to c.1300AD) and Late Medieval (1300 to c.1500AD) writing of mythology. These texts are given to us either by hostile Christians during the Viking Age, post-conversion Scandinavians, or in brief runic texts. These texts introduce contemporary readers to the same mythological references and symbols invoked by extremist groups. The writings of Snorri Sturluson (d. 1241) (principally the Eddas) have proved especially influential.
Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician, credited for the written transmission of Norse mythology (most famously in the form of the Eddas, essential guiding texts to Old Norse prose and poetics) that we still see in the modern day. As a thirteenth-century Icelander living in a Christian society, Sturluson’s writing on pagan materials came through the lens of one already removed from their practice. Yet his post-Christian preservation of the texts have become essential modern pagan readings.
While Sturluson’s dedication to Norse myths and histories came primarily through broad national writing practices and legends, his narrower studies drew equal attention. In his writing and other contemporary works, the placing of family histories stands out. Medieval Norse writing is deeply (and intentionally) tied to the preservation of ancestral history. Not only did writers like Sturluson preserve myths, legends, and poetic forms, they also trace the family histories of notable Scandinavian figures. It is not uncommon for a Norse Saga to begin by explaining every member of a subject’s extended family before even getting to the titular character.[1]
In modern editions, these have been helpfully adapted into family trees to assist contemporary readers in keeping track of the characters’ genealogies. Icelandic naming traditions help to trace the roots of one’s family by directly giving a paternal surname ([Father]-son, [Father]-dottir).
In this patronymic naming practice, the appeal for those invested in the genealogical concept of racial purity in the present is clear. There is one major issue, however. These pieces of medieval writing, despite being subjects of significant academic study, do not exist in a vacuum. We know Snorri’s date of death, we have a sense of his birth, we know his scholarly interests, and we know a great deal about him as a political figure who had his own intentions in portraying Norse mythology as a literary pseudohistory. With a notable role in the Icelandic government and considerable disagreements with the Norwegian crown that led to his untimely assassination, we can presume his own intentions in portraying Norse history as profoundly Icelandic. We know more, still, about the transmission of his manuscripts as they traded hands after his death, moving across Scandinavia and into continental Europe. Though the research and oral transmission of these stories prior to the Middle Ages is somewhat murky, they did not come out of nowhere.
Although writers of pseudohistories, like Sturluson, may have shared the present-day novelist’s desire to entertain, we must recognize that the cultural worldviews and authorial objectives of these two literary periods are distinct. Modern audiences acculturated to the conventions of contemporary fiction may invest in the plots and textual aesthetics of the Sagas or the myths while discarding the genealogical details that were so essential for Icelandic audiences during the Middle Ages.
From the white supremacist interpretation of these tales, mythology is made into a sort of legitimized genealogy. Extremists place historical figures in the same class as the mythical, with timelines blurred so that medieval retellings of ancient stories become equivalent with ancient times themselves. Take, for instance, Sturluson’s Ynglinga saga, a king’s saga that tells the story of the ancient Swedish royals by sharing their apparent relationships with the god Odin. Later, Hrólfs saga kraka (which is considered another telling of Beowulf) shows the same family in a story centered on shapeshifting and magic. In both cases, the blurred timeline and confused reality of the narrative make it unclear where the historical context of the stories can be cemented. The past is portrayed as both mystical and frank, and the high-ranking lineages are granted the ability to detach from any historical reality.
But for the rise of extremism, the concern is less so with the mixed chronology and more with its halt. By focusing so much of “White Power” on a false idea of the past, the present is presented as a disappointing departure from the perceived goal of racial purity. Norse mythology is never out of vogue for white supremacists, while Icelanders themselves are viewed as caricatures or dangerous deviations.
Writing through ancestral history is common practice across the world, and Iceland continues to be influenced by this mythology. As a matter of fact, Iceland boasts an average of 1 in 10 citizens who are published authors, many of whom are poets utilizing medieval and earlier forms. Though Iceland is a largely racially homogenous nation, not all Icelanders trace their roots to Norwegian or Danish “Vikings”. Even those without any European heritage who have immigrated to Iceland are still Icelanders who are part of the country’s modern culture.
Not only has Iceland escaped colonization from Denmark in the recent past, it is a modern nation that is constantly adapting, just like the rest of the world. By choosing to see the “true Vikings” as those with a certain blood quantum rather than the people whose country of residence have continued to produce this history, the rise in white supremacist thinking is inevitable. In indigenous communities in North America, the validity of blood quantum is frequently regarded as lesser to the maintenance of cultural ties, an idea which has struck disdain in white nationalist extremists who see biological ties as the ultimate ruling force.
The question of indigeneity and sustained cultural roots is a modern conversation, though its roots may be found in the Middle Ages. By turning to archaic symbols and aesthetics, culture is diluted and trapped in the past. Terms like “postcolonial” and “critical race theory” are deemed dangerous by white supremacists, though their relevance can be seen in the question of Icelandic and Norse history. Iceland, beyond Sturluson’s time, has a considerable history as a colonized country. Though not commonly known to United States Americans, it occasionally returns to the forefront through popular culture that pushes past shallow symbolism and seeks to humanize medieval history through the modern.
This colonial history of Iceland was recently mentioned in a statement by popular Icelandic musician Björk. In an Instagram post discussing the present question of Greenland’s independence, she shared her country’s experience with Danish colonization and the many attempts to suffocate Icelandic culture before 1944’s independence, stating, “the chance that my fellow Greenlanders might go from one cruel colonizer to another is too brutal to even imagine.” A great portion of this stifling of Icelandic nationality came from the intentional choice to separate manuscripts, myths, stories and symbols through a process of generalizing them as Norse. With the Danish governmental role in this process, the understanding between Iceland and Greenland in their shared impact of colonization is not surprising.
Greenland’s longstanding fight for independence from Denmark and its present objection to capital and political takeover from the Trump administration is not incidental to the question herein. Grænlendinga saga (The Saga of the Greenlanders) and other tales of Norse exploration of North America are not just fiction or just history. They are a blend of mythology, historically attested figures and facts, and preference of the author written in. Importantly, the American President does not approach this issue with any sympathy for Danish rule. On the contrary, the proposed American control of Greenland would come as a removal from Danish hands, harming Danish and American relations even in its suggestions. Therefore, there is no intention for American extremism to follow the lead of modern Danes. Instead, it seems more parallel to the intentions of those medieval “Viking” travelers, recreating the mythology by an ancestral right of supposed white purity.
By viewing Norse mythology and medieval retellings as truthful tales of ancestral power, these modern-day consequences may be seen as insignificant. Worse, they can be seen as righteous. North American white supremacists who use Norse stories to power their hatred by donning runic symbols, investing heavily in pseudohistories, and seeing themselves as the new conquerors are rewriting history through their perceived genes. Viewing writing as owned by their family line, they take inspiration to move further in their colonial undertakings. And seeing themselves as direct descendants of Erik the Red[2], a new wave of colonization is not a shock: it’s a biological right.
Further reading:
Bergsdóttir, Arndís, and Eyrún Eyþórsdóttir. "Heritage and Hate in Iceland: Speculations about White Supremacy, Viking Imagery, Museums, and Care in a Changing World." Social Identities 30.3 (2024): 226-240.
Cederlund, Carl Olof. “The Modern Myth of the Viking.” Journal of Maritime Archaeology 6, no. 1 (2011): 5–35. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43551359.
Christensen, Else. Interview by Mattias Gardell. Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998.
Hálfdanarson, Guðmundur. "Interpreting the Nordic Past: Icelandic Medieval Manuscripts and the Construction of a Modern Nation." In The Uses of the Middle Ages in Modern European States: History, Nationhood and the Search for Origins, pp. 52-71. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2011.
Hermann, Pernille. "Saga Literature, Cultural Memory, and Storage." Scandinavian Studies 85, no. 3 (2013): 332-354.
Loftsdóttir, Kristín. "White Supremacy in the Nordic Countries: Erasing Racism and Indigenous Voices." Genealogy 10.1 (2026): 18.
McMaster, Geoff. “Scandinavian Studies Professor Debunks Idea of ‘Racial Purity.’” The Norwegian American, February 8, 2024. https://www.norwegianamerican.com/vikingracial-purity-van-deusen/.
Melton, Zachary J. "Race, Religion and the Medieval Norse Discovery of America." Religions 15.9 (2024): 1084.
[1] Notably, Egils Saga takes an entire 1/3 to mention Egill himself.
[2] A May 2025 article form 23AndMe advertises their premium services by offering to prove a direct relation to the Norwegian-Icelandic explorer. https://blog.23andme.com/articles/new-historical-matches-connect-to-erik-the-reds-home