Essay on week 2

Submitted By Candicewoodall1262
Words: 901
Pages: 4

Cosmic Creation Myths Across Cultures
There are several creation myths across different cultures. Every different culture has its own unique creation myth that explains how the world and life came to be (Leonard & McClure, 2004). Although each culture has a different way of explaining the creation story, there are similarities and differences among them. Two of the myths that are more divergent in content are the Eddas creation myth from Norse culture and the Genesis creation myth from Hebrew culture. Although both creation stories have more than one realm, they differ in how they break each area down. Both creation myths also have a god or gods as the beginning creators. All cultures have their own creation myths and it is interesting to see the similarities and differences between them.
There are many worlds or realms to take into consideration when discussing the Norse creation myth. In the beginning there was a realm called Muspell which was made of fire, and a realm called Niflheim which was made of ice (Leonard & McClure, 2004). Between both of these realms was a sea of emptiness called Ginnungagap (Leonard & McClure, 2004). All three of the realms were not considered to be part of the heavens or the earth but rather before earth. These realms were the beginning or pre-worlds of the Norse creation myths.
According to Norse mythology there were two main creators, Ymir and Audumla (Leonard & McClure, 2004). Ymir was a male frost giant that was evil (Leonard & McClure, 2004). He began to sweat while sleeping and created the first man and woman (Leonard & McClure, 2004). Audumla was a female cow who licked the salt off of blocks and eventually licked until a man (Buri) was revealed (Leonard & McClure, 2003). Buri’s lineage ultimately created Odin, Vili, and Ve (Leonard & McClure, 2004). Odin, Villi, and Ve killed Ymir the frost giant and took the body parts of the dead frost giant to create Earth (Leonard & McClure, 2004). Ymir’s blood was used for lakes, his flesh and bones made mountains, his teeth and jaws made rocks, and his skull made the skies. The sparks from Muspell made the sun, moon and stars. (Leonard & McClure, 2004). In this creation myth, gender did not have any significance because humans were not created in the image of their gods.
The most apparent reference to a cosmic occurrence is the story of the creation of day and night. One of the giants daughter’s was called Night and her son was Day (Leonard & McClure, 2004). Odin took both of them and sent them into the sky via chariot to circle the world, thus creating day time and night time (Leonard & McClure, 2004). This creation myth is very different than the one presented in Genesis.
In the Genesis myth there was one single world created. God who was male was the only god in this myth. This world was separated by heaven, hell and earth. Heaven was in the sky containing God, who was male, and his angels. Satan was one of Gods angels that were cast out of heaven for going against God (Leonard & McClure, 2004). In the beginning earth had no features or elements. It took God six days to mold the earth into what he wanted it to be. On the first day God created light to separate from the darkness (Leonard & McClure, 2004). On the second day God separated our bodies of waters and heaven (Leonard & McClure, 2004). On the third day land was separated from water and plants, trees, and foliage was created (Leonard & McClure, 2004). On the fourth day God created