All mythology is the flesh of the people who created it. It reflects, as in a mirror, the character of the parent people, the values that they extoll and cherish, and the anti-values that they also condemn and deny mythology, or rather its very spirit, is in direct connection with the environment of the myth-making people. And it is very curious to compare the mythological systems of different peoples, finding in the latter the correspondences and contrasts mentioned above. Especially rich material for comparisons of this kind gives Europe - because of its compactness in comparison with other continents. The farther north from the cradle of civilization - the Mediterranean - the more severe the spirit of mythology becomes, the more cruel the gods are made, the bloodier the battle, the more tragic the conflicts and the more hopeless the fate. And this "growth of drama" reaches its apogee in the mythology of the extreme European North - in the mythology of the Scandinavians.