In his work, the author studies the Scandinavian mythology of the early medieval period. That task demanded a deep analysis of the basic question — what is the mythology, in general, thus, the first chapter provides a specter of various theories of myth. The author notes that it is impossible to answer a question ‘What is myth?’ without defining the place of myth in the history of human mentality. What comes first: the myth itself or its characters? On the opinion of S.-K., it is another version of the question ‘What comes first: myth or religion?’. The author makes a hypothesis that the myth should be studied from the point of view of the mythological type of thinking reflected in the myth.

That idea was realized by the author in the following chapters, where he interpreted some aspects of such mentality: concepts of space and time, concept of person, their reflection in certain myths; the samples were taken from Old Icelandic, exactly Eddic narrations. Talking about the space in those myths, S.-K. noted its discontinuity, i.e. the fact that the place in myth was connected with a certain action, but did not compile a wholesome picture. Many myths were oriented neither at the sides of the world, nor at the earth and heavens. The author made a conclusion about the absence of clear contradistinction of the real and the other worlds in myth.

Considering about the primary origin of myth and religion through the prism of mythological characters, thee author came to conclusion, that myth was primary. He shaped an idea of some stages of development of personality in myth, i.e. mythic and epic heroes. In the final part, S.-K. set a general question about the place of myth in the history of human mentality, and mentions the problem of authorship. He classified five conditional types of authorship: in literature, skaldic poesy, in epos, in fairy tales, and in myths.