The Norse creation myth tells of the gods killing the giant Ymir and creating the world from his body. The Norse, also known as Vikings, were skilled sailors and their mythology has influenced literature and art, including works by Richard Wagner, JRR Tolkien, and Stan Lee.
The Norse creation myth is a legend about the origin of the Earth, told by the ancient tribal peoples of Scandinavia. The legend involves a primeval realm populated by a single giant called Ymir. The gods killed this giant and created the heavens and the earth from his body, later populating it with humans. This myth shares characteristics with many other creation myths from around the world. The Norse creation myth and other Scandinavian mythology have had a strong influence on later culture and literature, from medieval times to the present day.
The Norse were the Germanic tribes of Scandinavia, the northern European region that includes present-day Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland. These people are perhaps better known in modern times as the Vikings. Unlike popular portrayals of Vikings as crude barbarians, the Norse were quite sophisticated. They were skilled sailors who traveled extensively throughout the ancient world, as far east as Turkey and as far west as North America. Their legends and stories are preserved in a large body of folklore and literature, such as the famous Icelandic sagas.
A book entitled Poetic Edda, written in the 13th century, preserves many tales from Scandinavian folklore and mythology, including a detailed version of the Norse creation myth. According to this source, the universe began as a kind of cosmic hell occupied by the frost giant Ymir. Three brothers, the first gods, killed Ymir and dismembered his body, using it as material to create the main realms of the cosmos. These realms included Asgard, home of the gods; Midgard, or Earth, the realm of humanity; and the underworld Niflheim. The realms were connected by a vast cosmic tree called Yggdrasill.
One of the three brothers was Odin, who later became the leader of the gods, corresponding to the Greek deity Zeus. Examining their new realms, Odin and his brothers found two trees, or trunks, depending on the source, and brought them to life. These became the first humans, Ask and Embla, the parents of the human race. The Norse creation myth bears similarities to other creation myths, such as those of the Aztecs and ancient Babylon, in which the dismembered body of a deity provides material for building the world. Ask and Embla, of course, resemble Adam and Eve, as well as other proto-humans, such as Pandora from Greek mythology.
The Norse creation myth and other Scandinavian legends have had strong influences on subsequent literary and artistic works. Composer Richard Wagner drew on it for his 19th-century epic work The Ring of the Nibelung. JRR Tolkien, a Germanic literary scholar, borrowed elements of Norse mythology for his masterwork The Lord of the Rings, including the term “Middle-earth,” a translation of Midgard. Comic creator Stan Lee, intrigued by the discussion of superheroes as modern mythology, used Odin and other Norse gods in his comic The Mighty Thor. In the 1919s, Lee and artist Jack Kir offered their epic take on the Norse creation myth in a Thor backup feature called “Tales of Asgard.”
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