While modern retellings often claim that Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda identifies Odin as an escaped refugee from the Trojan War, a careful reading of the sources reveals that the text actually makes a very different claim.

The primary argument that Odin was not a Trojan War refugee is built on the following evidence from the sources:

1. The Generational Gap

Snorri does not place Odin at the beginning of the Trojan story alongside King Priam. Instead, the Prose Edda Prologue describes a long succession of descendants—roughly eighteen generations—between the royal house of Troy and the arrival of Vóden (Odin). The sequence begins with Priam and a figure named Trór (identified with Thor), then moves through names like Lóridi, Einridi, and others before reaching O ...