You know now that I think about it... maybe the people there were cast out by Odin as well.

Odin is basically the God of modern man and our enemies in many cases are from nature fighting back against "progress".

So the people there were basically the equivalent of viking hippies and survivalists.
"Save the Leviathans" and all those living off the grid folk. Nature sanctuary we suddenly invade and start getting attacked by all the tree huggers.