Norse Mythology itself originates from the northern areas of Western Europe such as Iceland and Norway and was loved by the Vikings. In my opinion, they had pretty good ideas. I make no secret of me not being religious, and a lot of the things they believed in are very unbelievable in terms of science, but it’s pretty amazing. I don’t know if this area is recognised as a religion, as when 1,000 people put it down it is nationally recognised.. Hence Jedi being a legitimate option now.. And just to clarify, I am not against religion; it’s just not for me.
I feel like this type of mythology will have come into the public eye more recently with the creation of the movie series Thor and of course the Avengers which features Thor, who is one of the Gods. Looking through this information now, I am quite surprised as to how much is actually relevant; I guess they just applied pre-existing stories to the Marvel universe. Now the question for me is where to start?..
Creation
One thing I really like is as this is in their language, the names etc. are awesome – and really hard to pronounce so luckily I can just type thing and see them as a spelling mistake rather than sputtering over my words.. Their creation story is very interesting to say the least. It all started with two regions, one of fire called Muspelheim and another of ice called Nilfheim. These areas met in the middle which was a great void, called Ginnungagap. Where the fire and ice met, the ice would melt – these drops would then form Ymir who was the first of the Jotun who are ice giants. His sweat then created another two Jotun, who paired to create a son. They were all fed by a cow which was created by the melting ice – slightly confusing as first this made a Jotun then a giant cow.. Called Audhumla..
So the next logical question is – who fed the cow? The cow actually fed from a piece of salty ice, which over three days created the God Buri in some way. Buri then had a son called Borr who had relations with one of the ice giants, married them and had three sons, Odin, Vili and Ve. See I like doing these posts because we can learn together sort of.. I knew about Odin but not about the other two, who I believe are referred to as Aesir. I am slightly confused though as from what I understand Buri isn’t a giant and.. His wife was.. It’s like the whole ‘how did it happen?’ debate sparked by the existence of Hagrid in Harry Potter. People may not get this straight away but.. When it clicks, it’ll click.
So the three brothers, Odin and his party, decided there were too many Jotun in comparison to Aesir, who were being conceived by Ymir, the first giant. So, they attacked him in his sleep to destroy him to stop more from being created, and upon his death, his blood flooded the lands killing all but one couple of Jotun who found refuge in Nilfheim, all further Jotun were descendants of the two escapees. Now, you may be wondering what all of this is conspiring to but – the creation of the world is about to begin. Feels like I am beating around the bush a little bit but this is how it happened – for them. Of course. Ah.
So, the remains of the giant Ymir according to this version of creation, then became the World as depicted in the mythology. They created the World in the great void, using his flesh as land, his blood as the seas and oceans, his bones as mountains, his teeth as rocks, his hair as vegetation and his eyelashes as Midgard – the domain of men which was in the middle. His brains became clouds and his skull the sky which was scattered with sparks from Muspelheim to be the stars. During this creation, worms appeared from the body who became dwarves, four of which were tasked with holding up the sky – North, South, East and West.
Man and Woman were made by the three brothers when an Ash tree and Elm tree log washed up on a beach. The man was made from the Ash tree and was called Ask, the other, and then a female called Embla. They were then placed on Midgard to live.
I really like this next bit.
So according to Norse Mythology, the moon and sun are children of a human who thought they were so shiny – shiny – that they should be named Mani (a boy) and Sol (a girl). The world Sol you will probably recognise as it is used a lot and means Sun where as Mani is moon. The Gods were annoyed with the fact that he gave them these names and placed them in the sky in chariots pulled by horses. A Jotun called Nat – Night – had a Son called Dag – Day – and also had chariots in the sky which explained the changes we experience. They were both chased by two Jotun children who took the form of wolves and every month took a bite out of the Moon who would then get away and regenerate. I think this would be their explanation for why the Moon was never the same.
Reading back over this, I find it strange how every religion or creation theory has a completely different take on how the world we know today came to be – but how they all seem to have the same focuses. For example, they explain how the world came to be, and how different parts of the world came to be, including the first man and woman. Day and night, the sun and the moon have always been a strange thing to ask but I guess in their times, these things were very obvious and asked about.
See now I have noticed that this post is super duper long already.. So I as thinking of making this a couple of days because.. With my previous folklore post it was aimed around one thing and this - this is much bigger than I anticipated. If I went on with all the other stuff I wanted to right.. I don't think I would be able to fit it in! So tomorrow, I will do a mix of this with just general bloggy stuff that I usually chat about - you know.. Like me?
Just a little add in here.. I.. Had a very strange dream. In that I dreamed that I removed my pillow from its casing and shoved both my arms in it at the same time and pulled them wide open, as far as they could go to the stretch the case out so it was like a flag? Then I ran around here waving it around which in all fairness wouldn't be the weirdest dream that you have ever heard of. The only thing is, when it came to this morning and we noticed that my pillow case was off.. And thrown down the end of the bed.. It makes me really wonder if that actually happened. We would have no way of knowing, we were both asleep! What if I was running around with the clubbers of the area - if there are any on a Sunday? - with a pillow case flag. We'll see this trending on Twitter soon, just you wait. How about.. #pillowflag?
A little bonus for you.. In terms of an extra image..
Another dip into our stock of American goodies! Amy recently opened this up and it is really strange looking into it and seeing all the sweeties waiting to be eaten.. Especially because the size of the bags you can get in England, compared to this, are nothing. Like. You could make about 50 or more bags out the ones available here out of this one! There is also some jam there because I have been pestering for a Victoria sponge as I have been craving one.. Ahem.
Hopefully my Loot crate should be received tomorrow which means I can do another unboxing type post like they do on the YouTubes just I have to express my original reactions in word form and make you feel it.. Do you feel it?
Blog you later, and by the way, these pics above, days 634, 635 and 636.
Email me also at matttalkslife@gmail.com and also - if anyone totes wants to just give me a PS4 and Bloodborne, I wouldn't say no because.. IT LOOKS SO GOOD!
Sources:
Information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_mythology
http://www.viking-mythology.com/theNineWorlds.php
Pictures in order of appearance
http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/mythology/images/2/2f/Muspelheim.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120813192251
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Ymir_gets_killed_by_Froelich.jpg
http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/18400000/Sol-and-Mani-norse-mythology-18484221-537-377.jpg
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