There’s a reasonable chance that all efforts to situate the Book of Mormon over the last 180 years, geographically, culturally, and chronologically, are based on the Nephite version of the Donation of Constantine. But first, let’s talk about Odin.<\/p>\n
In thirteenth-century Iceland, Snorri Sturlason compiled Heimskringla<\/em><\/a>, an account of known history, and also his Edda<\/em><\/a>, a collection of mythological lore and lyric conventions that every poet needed to know. In the first chapters of Heimskringla<\/em> and in the preface to the Edda<\/em>, Snorri addressed the question of where Odin and the other gods came from. Snorri knew the answer: they came from Troy. Connecting a noble family to Trojan ancestors had been a widespread European fashion since the Aeneid<\/em>, and Snorri regarded Odin, ancestor of the Scandinavian royal houses, as an immigrant<\/a>: <\/p>\n Near the earth’s centre was made that goodliest of homes and haunts that ever have been, which is called Troy, even that which we call Turkland….Odin had second sight, and his wife also; and from their foreknowledge he found that his name should be exalted in the northern part of the world and glorified above the fame of all other kings. Therefore, he made ready to journey out of Turkland, and was accompanied by a great multitude of people, young folk and old, men and women; and they had with them much goods of great price. And wherever they went over the lands of the earth, many glorious things were spoken of them, so that they were held more like gods than men. They made no end to their journeying till they were come north into the land that is now called Saxland; there Odin tarried for a long space, and took the land into his own hand, far and wide. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n Even if there weren’t a mountain of historical evidence telling us otherwise, there would be good reason to be skeptical about the earliest sections of Snorri’s story, however earnestly he meant them at the time. Norway is a long way from the Aegean, and the thirteenth century a long time after the fall of Troy, and origin stories tend to serve contemporary ends. Scholarship on the settlement of Scandinavia does not often look to the Aeneid<\/em> or Iliad<\/em> for answers.<\/p>\n Which brings us to Lehi and the story of Nephite origins. Have you ever noticed that the historical thread of the Book of Mormon goes just a bit hazy for the four centuries between Jacob and Mosiah? Enos, Jarom, Omni, Amaron, Chemish, Abinadom, and Amaleki barely make an effort to fill in the gap.<\/p>\n