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In the Marvel universe, do we know how the Norse people discovered Thor, Odin, Asgard, etc


It's probably never really touched at all, but do we know how the Norse people knew so much about the Asgardians?


They know the names and exploits of dozens of Asgardians, their births, their relationships, their wars and ultimately Ragnarök.


At the very least, it seems like a massive breach in Asgardian security. Even with all this information, the Norse people would not really pose a threat to Asgard due to the vast technological superiority of the Asgardians, but still, any enemy of Asgard could grab a random Norse man or woman and learn pretty much everything there is to know about Odin, Thor and the rest of the lads.


How did they, and in turn we, learn so much detailed information about them?


I'm more than happy to accept an answer from any canon: comic, animated or MCU



Answer



In Thor, we hear an exchange between Thor and Fandral that includes the line;




This isn't like going to Earth, where you summon a little lightning and thunder and the mortals worship you as a god!



This would seem to imply that at some point in Earth's past, Asgardians (and maybe even Thor himself) visited Earth and used their extremely advanced technology to convince humans that they were gods, most likely telling tales of Asgard as well.


Additionally, Asgardian's do not take the duty of "Protector of the Nine Realms" lightly. In one of the early scenes of Thor we see Asgardians attempt to protect Earth from Frost Giants in 965AD, so we know for certain that there has been at least one major battle there.


A quote from the Agents of SHIELD season one episode "The Well" sums things up quite nicely;



Skye: You guys may think it's old news, but it's new... news to everybody else. So, Asgardians are aliens from another planet that visited us thousands years ago?
Phil Coulson: Or more.
Skye: And because we couldn't understand aliens, we thought they were gods?
Phil Coulson: That's where our Norse mythology comes from.




We also learn in that episode that there is at least one example of an Asgardian having been living on Earth as a human for centuries. He also could have been responsible for some of the knowledge that humans have of Asgard and the Asgardians - and we know for a fact that he is the source for at least one Norse legend in-universe.


I'm not sure about in the comics, but I would imagine that the same is true.


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