How would norse paganism adapt if it had survived?

That was already happening in norse paganism...with Ođinn. Þor was the common man's god, and not associated with ruling. Theres a reason some of the anglo-saxon kings claim woden for an ancestor, but non claimed þunor
My bad, I got them mixed up.

Irregardless I think written language becoming more widespread and some kind of recognition of Kingship would speed this process up.
 
We do not know if Ragnarök only became a thing after Christianity intruded - if so, it might emerge ITTL, too, but it doesn't have to.

We're starting to believe Ragnarok was the 530 to early 540s period. The myths are suspected to basically be an account of how that period felt.
 
Thanks! Yeah, it makes sense that poetry like the Gylfaginning is less prone to open wholesale manipulation than prose, although I'm not so sure this is as clear-cut a boundary, for Snurri was undoubtedly a skilled poet himself, entirely able to compose and not just collect. Also, what this argument entails is that there were likely oral skaldic precursors from the 10th century. But I wasn't saying that Snurri Sturlesson in the 1220s had made it all up - I was implying that Christian influence is mirrored in the emerge of such eschatology from the beginning. And the 10th century is certainly a time in whch Norse pagan culture had absorbed a lot of Christian influence already.
We're starting to believe Ragnarok was the 530 to early 540s period. The myths are suspected to basically be an account of how that period felt.
That, too, is an interesting hypothesis. What makes you think so?
 
Maybe Loki would develop into a Satan-like figure.

For the "Dubia" ASB TL (CO2 doubles in the year 1000, sea levels rise 60 meters until the present) the religion eventually develops into something like Deism, "the belief in Fimbultyr, a god whom the Vikings believe makes the rules the other gods and humans have to obey. Practically a personification of the scientific laws."

We're starting to believe Ragnarok was the 530 to early 540s period. The myths are suspected to basically be an account of how that period felt.

Why that time? Rome had perished earlier.
 
In the 500s there were the Justinian plague that killed off lots of people, and the Fimbulwinter, three years without summer, that killed off lots of people, so what should people think, other than this being the end of the world.

There is a claim that Ragnarök was in part based on the stories of the Trojan war, perhaps considered by Snorri himself, due to the similarities of names - Aku-Thor/Hector, Frey/Paris and so on, and the as/aesir coming from Asgard/Asia/Troy.
 
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There is a claim that Ragnarök was in part based on the stories of the Trojan war, perhaps considered by Snorri himself, due to the similarities of names - Aku-Thor/Hector, Frey/Paris and so on, and the as/aesir coming from Asia/Troy.

Thats utterly ridiculous and isn't taken seriously by anyone. Literally everyone in medieval europe had someone imagining some bullcrap notion that they were related to ancient peoples like the sarmations or the trojans, all of them following in the footsteps of The Aeniad.

Take Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae, where he has Aeneas' banished grand son, Brutus, found Britain. Its complete codswallop, as was snorri's aesir=tojan connection.
 
Its complete codswallop, as was snorri's aesir=tojan connection.
He might have believed in it. It was the normal chronicler method (before source criticism), to take all known foreign stuff and combine with your local stuff and there you have it. Some people still believe in it.

Are you sure that nothing in the Ragnarök story has been taken from abroad?
 
Remember any sources?

I know there are some parallels in other European mythology. For example, in Irish Mythlogy, the Second battle of Mag Tuired verse 166 has the Morrigan reciting the fate of the world to the end in a way very similar to how the Voslpa tells Odin the Prophecy of Ragnarok.

This strongly suggests a probable common origin.
 
Why that time? Rome had perished earlier.

The cause is still debated. Its based on archeological evidence. Settlement patterns collapsing, farms inland being mostly abandoned, population collapsing to much lower levels and area based on number of sites. Recovery of forest and wilderness in places that had previously been agricultural land. Collapse of specialized industries.

No growth rings in trees for 3-4 years.

Interestingly, no trace of the plague found so far. I mean it could just be that its still to be found, but so far it looks like the plague just backed away slowly going "Nope!"

So you know those Norse raiders? Looks like they were actually post-apocalyptic warriors. I wonder how different the culture were before the Winter, and how much of the sagas and legends were changed or inspired by Ragnarokk.
 
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