Myths

Posted by Winnie Melda on December 13th, 2017

The myths that will be discussed in this paper include the Norse culture of Ice Vikings and the Genesis creation of Hebrew origin of Christian culture. The Norse myth usually narrates a conflict between dark, cold realm of Niflheim and the fiery realm of muspell in an emptiness known as ginnungagap (Distant Train 2011). The genesis myth explains a conflict between God and loneliness, nothing, and the need of creating something beautiful.

Nordic creation myth combines conjunction, sacrifice, and secretion motifs. Nordic is a myth that features unification of ice and fire in a joining of elements. When the breath of muspell meets the frost of arctic Nieflheim, ice tends to melt that results to water drops coming into life; thus, creating an evil giant Ymir. When the giant sleeps, sweat being generated from his armpits tends to create the first woman and man, and these giants grow to despite Ymir and the process continues with mutilation and slay of the evil giant.

In the Genesis creation, it applies dues faber and Ex nihilo motifs. The story is considered as ex nihilo myth that means out of nothing which is based in the first book of the Old Testament, the book of Genesis (Hendel 2013). In the book, God created six days through speaking in existence darkness and night, stars and earth, moon and sun, animals and plants, and fish and birds. Adam was created in the image of God from dust, and God breathe life in him, and the Eve come from one of Adam’s ribs; thus, combining dues faber with ex nihilo motifs.

Worlds in the myths

The elements and worlds that are represented in the Norse culture is that it is made of Vikings. They did have a pantheon of fourteen major gods, and the cosmos as divided into 3 levels. The first level is the Aesir, which is the land of major gods, fertility gods, and also light elves live her. The middle level is Midgard where giants, dwarves, and men lived (Distant Train 2011). The lower level is Niflheim also known as the underworld where the evil dead died. The genesis myth is based on the idea that the earth was void and formless with nothing in the world, but darkness. According to the authors of the bible, they viewed the centre of the earth as flat and disc-shaped, heaven above, and the underworld for the dead below (Hendel 2013). Under the earth was water, and chaos and this was home for mythic monsters slain and defeated by God.

Creators

The creation of Genesis myth is by God where God's spirit moved over the waters as it prepared to perform the creative word of God. In the first day of creation, god created light, and it was separated from dark, and this was named as day and night. The second day involved the creation of the sky that was separated from water. Day three involved the creation of dry ground known as the land and the gathering of water referred to as the sea. The fourth day involved the creation of the moon, stars, and seas so that to give light to the earth. Day five was the creation of every creature on the seas and skies. Animals were created on day 6 so as to fill the earth, and the first human beings were created, Adam and Eve. The final day of creation was day seven and God completed his creation and rested and made this day holy (Hendel 2013).

Norse myth did not have one creator, but several elements and events that occurred from one evil giant. In this myth, the cow did lick away the entire mountains of ice, and licked the ice from two other beings including the God of Buri and his goddess wife (Distant Train 2011). They had a son Odin, who was the king of all Gods. Odin and other gods forced the sky using his skull, and he held up four pillars. He created the moon and sun from sparks from Muspell and then placed them on the sky.

Comparison

In the genesis myth, God is the creator, and the cycles that are presented in this myth can only be understood and examined from the point of faith. When God placed human in the garden of Adam, he allowed man to eat from any tree in Eden, but not from the tree of knowledge and evil. However, when Even was tricked into eating from the forbidden tree, God expelled Adam and Eve from the garden and man were subjected to labor over the earth and women would endure excruciating pain when bearing children. The Norse creation myth is also a reflection of the violent lives of Vikings as their culture depended on the success in the battle. The difference in the two myths is that in Genesis creation, there were no violence, but in North’s creation there was violence involved. The similarity is that in both creation myths, the creations were from nothing.

Reference

Distant Train, Inc. (2011). Norse Creation The big Myth Retrieved from http://bigmyth.com/download/NORSE_CREATION.pdf    

Hendel. R (2013). The book of Genesis Princeton University Press

Winnie Melda is the Managing Director of MeldaResearch.Com a globally competitive cheap essay writing service which is the premiere provider of Essay Writing Services, Research Paper Writing Services at Term Paper Writing Services at very affordable cost. For 9 years, she has helped a number of students in different academic subjects.