Different cultures globally have formulated peculiar myths that tend to explain the origin of the world and the life in it (Leonard & McClure, 2004). Despite the variations exhibited by each culture in terms of explaining how creation took place, their myths have some semblance as well as well as differences. This paper will focus on two myths namely the Genesis myth that originated from the Hebrews and the Eddas Myth that was initiated by the Norse culture. Despite the fact that both myths have one domain, they show variations on how they focus on the diverse aspects of creation. The two creation myths show similarities in that; they both have a supreme being who was the architect behind the creations.
The Eddas myth, for instance, takes into consideration many worlds that existed in the beginning. It states that before creation took place there were three worlds namely the Muspell, Niflheim, and Ginnungagap. The first world –Muspell- was made of fire while the second world –Niflheim- was made of ice. These two domains were separated by an empty sea called Ginnungagap. According to this myth, these three worlds were viewed as “pre-earth” (Leonard & McClure, 2004). This myth has two main creators namely Ymir and Audumla. According to this myth, Ymir was a gigantic frost evil male frost. While he was in slumber, he started sweating and in the process, he made two salt blocks that turned out to be the first man and woman (Leonard & McClure, 2004). Audumla, on the other hand, was a female cow. Notably, during the process of creation, she licked the salt blocks until the first man named Buri came out.
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Buri later created three other people namely Odin, Villi, and Ve. The trio collaborated to kill the frost giant and used his dead body parts to create the earth. His blood created the lakes, his flesh and bones were used to create the mountains, the rocks were made from his teeth and jaws while his skull was used to make the skies (Leonard & McClure, 2004). The sparks that Musell produced was used to make the sun, the moon, and the stars. In this myth, gender was only used to signify day and night. The giants daughter was called Night while the son was called day. Odin thus took them to the sky using a chariot so that they can move around the world to create days and nights (Leonard & McClure, 2004). This creation myth differs from the genesis creation theory.
According to the Genesis creation myth, there was a single male creator called God. Three realms are used in this theory namely, the heaven, hell, and the earth. God dwelled in heaven with his Angels while Satan –one of God’s angels who was cast away- dwelled in hell. The theory states that at first the earth had no features or elements in it and God took six restless days to mold the earth according to his liking. In His first day of creation, He created light to separate days and nights, in day two he separated heavens from waters. In day three, he separated land from water and He created vegetation. In day four, God created the stars to light the skies at night while on the fifth day he created birds and ocean creatures. In the sixth day, He created man in his own image (Leonard & McClure, 2004).
These two theories show similarities and differences. In the Eddas Myth, both genders were well represented to portray the creators unlike in the Genesis myth that has only one male creator. The Genesis Myth is monotheistic in the sense that only one god is to be served whereas the Norse Culture is polytheistic. The Eddas myth shows different creation phases plus the mechanisms that were used during the process of creation whereas the Genesis only states that the world was created in six days by word of the mouth (Leonard & McClure, 2004). Both theories, however, separated their pre-world into three prior to creating our present world.
Creation theories are very important in our societal cultures. They provide us with the norms that guide our routine activities in addition to making individuals be accountable for their actions. These theories also, provide a creative way of explaining how we came into existence and they try to address most of the doubts and worries that we might be having. In conclusion, many peculiar creation theories do exist globally with each one of them trying to explain the unknown. These myths may have similarities in terms of the nature of the creator, but they all deploy unique features when explaining the origin of the universe.
Reference
Leonard, S., & McClure, M. (2004). Myth & knowing: An introduction to world mythology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
