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Cosmic Creation Myths

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Cosmic Creation Myths

Michelle Faunce-Carroll

HUM/105 – WORLD MYTHOLOGY
BSDC1K2PN1

CHARLES OSBORNE

April 11, 2016

Comparing and Contrasting Creation Myths
There are many creations myths from different cultures. Two such myths are the Old Testament creation of the Christian culture and the Norse culture of Iceland. These creation myths are both similar in the sense that they start with an emptiness and darkness in which life eventually develops. The Old Testament creation starts with nothingness and complete emptiness. The Norse creation begins with a darkness, emptiness combined with a fieriness of Muspell, where nothing can grow.
In Genesis the first book in the Holy bible, the earth was dark, empty, formless matter. It began when the Spirit of God covered the waters to prepare and perform his most creative work. God spoke and his creation was formed. (Genesis 1979) On the first day, "God created the light and separated the light from the darkness, calling light "day" and darkness "night". On the second day, "God created an expanse to separate the waters and called it "sky". On the third day, "God created the dry ground and gathered the waters, calling the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters, "seas”. God also created the plants, flowers, trees, and grasses on day three. On the fourth day, "God created the sun, moon, and the stars to give light to the earth and to govern and separate the day and the night". These also serve to mark the years, days, and seasons. On the fifth day, "God created every living creature of the seas and every winged bird, blessing them to multiply and fill the waters and the sky with life". On the sixth day, "God created the animals on the earth”. Then God created man in his own image, both male and female, and instructed them to multiply and replenish the earth (Genesis 1: 27-28). He made them rulers over the earth to care for it, and all living things on the earth (Genesis 1: 28). On day seven, God’s work was done, so he blessed this day making it a day of rest and worship.
Within this myth, God is identified as the creator of the earth, all living things, the sun, moon, stars, heaven, and hell. (Genesis 1:26), God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..." In the creation of the world, this is the only time God refers to himself in the plural form. The man Adam, and the woman Eve, were placed in the Garden of Eden to take care of it, God told them to be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth (Genesis 1: 28). God commanded Adam and Eve saying, "Of every tree of the garden thou may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:16-17). This continues with the devil, or better known as the serpent, deceiving Eve and getting her to eat from this forbidden tree in which she then convinced Adam to also eat. As a result of them disobeying Gods command they were expelled from the Garden of Eden, and forced to labor over the earth. Causing all people to experience pain and suffering and eventually death.

The Norse creation myths shows the combination of many different things such as secretion, sacrifice, and accretion/conjunction ideas. It combines fire and ice as a mixture of elements. The myth begins when Muspells warm breath meets with Nieflheim, the frost of the arctic, which causes the ice to melt. The results of the ice melting produces water droplets that come to life, creating Ymir, the evil giant. While this giant is sleeping he sweats and the sweat from his armpits creates the first man and woman. The Norse culture had 14 major gods. They perceive that the cosmos is divided into three individual levels, Aesir, is the first or upper-level where the top gods, such as Odin, the fertility gods, and the light elves lived. Midgard is the second or middle level where dwarves, giants, men, and the dark elves lived. Niflheim is the third or lower-level, otherwise known as the underworld. Niflheim is where the evil dead died a second death in the fortress city of Hel.
This creation myth does not have a single maker of good, but many events and elements that emerge from a single evil giant. This myth tell of a cow slowly licking away mountains of ice from two beings, creating the god Buri and his goddess wife (Distant Train, Inc., 2011). "They had a son named Bor, and his son was named Odin, who became the king of all the gods" (Distant Train, Inc., 2011, para. 6). Ymir was an evil, brutal, and cruel giant. One day Odin and the other gods plotted to kill Ymir in an attempt to no longer follow his evil ways. Ymir's body became the earth, his flesh became the land, his blood became the sea, his hair became the trees, and his bones became the mountains (Distant Train, Inc., 2011). Odin and the other gods created the sky from Ymirs' skull, which was held up by four pillars (Distant Train, Inc., 2011). The moon and the sun were created when Odin collected sparks from the fiery depths of Muspell, and then placed them in the sky. The ice began to melt in the new world of Ginnungagap because of the heat from the sun’s rays, and now trees and plants were able to grow. The largest tree, Yggdrasil, which later became known as the “Tree of Life”, grew in the center of the world. "Its roots penetrated into the bottom of creation and its leaves reached the very top of the sky" (Distant Train, Inc., 2011, para. 10). Odin named the new world Midgard, which means "The Middle Land.” One-day Odin found two fallen trees, an ash and an elm, which he took from the mud and created the first man and woman. He breathed into them life, gave them feelings, reasoning, hearing, and sight (Distant Train, Inc., 2011). Odin named the woman Embla, and the man he named Ask, and from them came the human race (Distant Train, Inc., 2011). This Norse story is similar to the Genesis story of Adam and Eve as they two are thought to be the beginning people to start humanity within the two different myths.

References

Distant Train, Inc. (2011). Norse creation. Retrieved from http://bigmyth.com/download/NORSE_CREATION.pdf

Genesis. (1979). The Holy Bible. King James Version. The Old Testament. The Book of Genesis, chapter 1 and 2.

Leonard, S., & McClure, M. (2004). Myth & knowing: An introduction to world mythology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

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