In this paper I will compare and contrast two myths from different cultures. The two myths chosen for this paper are the Genesis creation (Hebrew origin) of the Christian culture, and the Norse culture of Iceland (the Vikings). Both of these creation myths start with an emptiness where conflict and chaos eventually develop. The Genesis conflict is between God, nothing, blackness, emptiness, loneliness, and the need to create something. The Norse conflict is between the dark cold realm of Niflheim, within the emptiness of ginnungagap, and the fiery realm of Muspell, where nothing can grow.…
The Norse Myths by Kevin Crossley-Holland is a novel written towards students who have interests in the Norse Gods. The book is a compilation of stories told in Norse mythology. The stories range from Ragnarok to creation. This particular method of storytelling approaches to those who want to understand north mythology without reading lecture notes. Kevin Crossley-Holland appeals to his intended audience superbly. It flows more as a pleasure read than an assigned reading. As a student, I can say as part of the targeted audience that it is written well for students. Kevin Crossley-Holland himself obviously has a strong understanding of these myths. His notes in the book make the stories easy to understand the myths if you need clarification.…
As we were told when we were young children, too much of a good thing is not a good thing. The same phrase can apply to aspects in lives now. Literature shows how pride can be a good thing, but too much of it is not. In fact, the opposite of pride, humility, is an extremely important value. The Bible and Edith Hamilton’s Mythology both show how a lack of the value humility will result in consequence through characterization and plot.…
He used the term “mythology” to compare similarities in cultures by giving an example of the Greeks. We perceive Greek mythology as just some stories or tales and nothing else. Had we asked a Greek person during Homeric Greece about the mythological tales they told their children to explain where we come from, they’d probably say they don’t now what we are talking about because, to them, the mythological stories were fact.…
Gill, N. S. (2012, April 13). Creation of the World - Norse Mythology on the Creation of the World. About.com Ancient / Classical History. Retrieved from http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/creationmyths/a/11083199Norse.htm…
The Cosmogony, or the beginning of the birth of the gods, begins with one primeval entity, Chaos. Chaos literally represents the void or the gaping yawn. He also represents symbolically the womb from which all primordial beings originate. Chaos is also described as a mist or air. When Gaia emerges as earth, it creates a symbiosis of the elements of air and earth coming together. Nothing on earth can survive without air, and there are many scientific theories explaining the creation of earth from the void of space. Out of this void in the Hesiod’s Theogeny, comes Gaia, Tartaros/Erebus and Eros.…
A myth is a story that is told by people from an earlier time period. They explain what they think to be happening or how they view the world at that point in time. Many of them focus on gods, goddesses, or a mythical creature in order to explain the events that define their culture. The most common myths are within Greek mythology that help to explain culture and gave the world around them a meaning. These were an important part of their everyday life and help to explain religious practices and help influence art and literature years after its…
The Norse creation myth begins with a void that is called Ginnungagap that means “beginning gap”. To the south of Ginnungagap was a fiery realm of Muspell that had really hot rivers full of poison and lakes of fire. To the north there was a dark and cold realm of Niflheim, with freezing rivers and the mountains were blocks of solid ice. Over numerous years the heat from Muspell began to melt the icy mountains of Niflheim began a giant Ymir and a cow. Ymir was the first being of the Ginnungagap. As the cow licked the salt from the ice mountains, Ymir drank the cow’s milk and grew larger every day. Eventually, she licked away enough ice that two more beings appeared, Buri and his goddess wife. Together they had a son named Bor and his son was named Odin. In time Odin became the king of all gods.…
According to Barthes (2015), a myth is identified as a classification of stories in narrative form that seek to explain the foundation of values and beliefs adopted by different cultures. Myths often present such stories in an imaginative format as they are based on the supernatural aspect as an attempt to explain natural phenomena and humanity. Therefore, a statement like ‘it’s a myth’ may imply that the subject in question is founded on unjustifiable basis and often adopting an imaginary angle to the story, as an attempt to explain the phenomenon in question.…
The motif Chaos is involved in basically every myth because in the beginning there was nothing except chaos. From most of the myths with chaos, some of the creators came from it. The creators that came from chaos created the world and the people. For example, the Babylonians used chaos in their myth when there was nothing, then two gods appeared and made people and a place for them to live.…
There are many stories in Norse Mythology, many of them have different characteristics, yet are very similar. The play, Building a Wall, and the story, Odin’s Eight- Legged Steed follow the same pattern. Although they are in different formats, they are the same story.. My favorite version was the play because I am more familiar with plays than stories.…
Thor: Ragnarok (2017) is the third movie telling the story of Thor but also Ragnarok. The movie and Gaiman in his book Norse Mythology picture Ragnarok very differently. Ragnarok, according to Norse Mythology, is a great battle accompanied by various natural disasters and subsequent submersion of the world in water between the Gods and resulting in the death of a number of major figures (including Odin, Thor and Loki). After Ragnarok the world was supposed to resurface back again. Let me begin with how it is depicted in the book and then compare it to the movie.…
Are the great myths and legends of old nothing more than superstition and wives tales, or do some of them actually provide great insight into the way that our world works? This is a question that many people who have studied these myths ask themselves. In some cases these myths may allude to things that are actually going on in the world around us, however in other cases they are nothing more than nonsensical stories that were made up due to the hopeless desire to understand the world that humans always seem to suffer from. One example of a story made to explain the works of nature is the Norse myth about the end of days.…
Originating from the same hearth, Russian mythology and Greek mythology have so many similarities caused by being in the same cultural tree. The few differences are from the branches splitting off. Although ancient Russia and ancient Greece are thousand years apart from each other, Russian mythology and Greek mythology almost mirror reflect each other in the values the gods represent, the traits the heroes possess, and the notions the myths contribute to modern times, just like a pair of “fraternal twins.” Starting from the tip of the pyramid, the gods and goddesses portrayed parallel values. The main purpose of the ancients creating myths is to explain the existence of natural phenomena and the deities are put in charge of these mystical domains.…
It wasn’t easy though. They said that they wanted to see if he was the strongest, there ever was. And being part giant and god, he couldn’t resist the urge to boast. They tried to chain him up with three of the strongest ropes in the universe, three different times, but they all snapped in half. They had the dwarves make an invincible chain. Realizing what they were trying to do, he made one of the gods put his hand into his mouth when they chained him up. And the brave Tyr, volunteered and when Fenrir couldn’t get free he bit off Tyr’s hand.…