Why Teach Norse Mythology Now?
Many a parent, or a teacher taking a class for the first time, has reached a new milestone in the curriculum and asked: why should this topic be brought just now? One hallmark of the Steiner Waldorf curriculum is the precise nature of the subject matter for each year of children’s growth. Every teacher is expected to research for him/ herself why this is so. Answers often come from the children as a new topic unfolds. The wealth of humanity’s collective imagination lives in the many mythologies which have been handed down through the ages. Steiner recommended Norse myths specifically for Class Four. Apart from their drama, humour, high literary quality – all of which give them universal appeal – why are they received so enthusiastically by successive classes of nine-and-ten-year-olds? The children are touched deeply by the battle between light and darkness, extremes of cold and heat which threaten Asgard, the preserve of the good and the beautiful. Over all hangs the question: will it
