Parallel Myths by J.F. Bierlein Read Free Book Online Page B

justifies everything) by the most fiendish means at our disposal. By idolatrously worshipping ourselvesas Ormazd, and by regarding the other fellow as Ahriman, the Principle of Evil, we of the twentieth century are doing our best to guarantee the triumph of diabolism in our time.
    —Aldous Huxley,
The Devils of Loudun
     

THE NORSE CREATION MYTH
     
    NOTE : The Germanic myths were held by peoples that included the ancestors of the modern Germans, Scandinavians, Dutch, and English. Since the Norse of Scandinavia were the last of these nations to be converted to Christianity, the Norse myths survived later than others. They survived latest of all in Iceland, whence comes this myth from the epic
The Elder Edda
.
     
    L ong ago there was no heaven above nor an earth beneath, only a vast bottomless deep shrouded in an atmosphere of mist. Somewhere in the middle of the abyss was a fountain from which twelve rivers flowed out like the spokes of a wheel. As the rivers traveled far from their source, they froze.
    South of the world of mist, there was a world of light. Once a warm breeze blew out from the south and began to melt the ice. The contact of the warm air and the cold created clouds. These clouds congealed to form the frost giant, Ymir, and his cow, Audhumbla, whose milk nourished the giant. As the ice melted, salt was exposed, which Audhumbla licked. As she licked and licked, she exposed a man buried in the ice. On the first day, his hair was exposed; on the second day, one could see his whole head and shoulders. By the third day, his whole body was free of the ice. This was the first god, the father of Odin, Vili, and Ve.
    These three young gods slew Ymir and his salty blood flowed out to make the seas (you will remember that Ymir had been nourished by the cow, who had licked salt out of the ice). The bones of Ymir formed the mountains and his flesh formed the earth. From his hairsprang up all manner of plants. Among these were Aske, the ash tree, and Embla, the elm. From the ash tree, Odin fashioned a man and from the elm, a woman. From Odin himself, the humans received life and a soul. Vili gave them reason and motion, while Ve gave them speech and motion.
    Odin organized the world, separating the darkness from the light, creating night and day. Odin fashioned Midgard, or Middle Earth, * for mankind to dwell in. He also fashioned Asgard, home of the gods. The universe is supported by Yggdrasil, a mighty ash tree. One of her roots touches Asgard, another Midgard, and a third lies underground, where the souls of the dead dwell under the eye of Odin’s sister, Hel.
    Ymir the giant was not completely killed, part of his body is still alive and sleeps at the foot of the great ash tree Yggdrasil. When his body stirs, the earth quakes.
    The Norse Myth of the Creation of Man from an Ash Tree and Its American Indian Parallel
    The Norse story of the creation of human beings from an ash tree is often linked to similar stories in North America. Many writers have sought to find Viking influences in the myths of the Algonquin Indians.
    Lewis Spencer (1874-1955) writes in
The Myths of the North American Indians
about Norse-like spirits:
    But although Malsum [in the Algonquin myth] was slain he subsequently appears in Algonquin myth as Lox, or Loki, the chief of the wolves, a mischievous and restless spirit. In his account of the Algonquin mythology Charles Godfrey Leland appears to think that the entire [North American] system has been sophisticated by Norse mythology filtering through the Eskimo. Although the probabilities are against such a theory, there are many points in common between the two systems, as we shall see later, and among them few more striking than the fact thatthe Scandinavian and Algonquin evil influences possess one and the same name [Loki].
    When Glooskap had completed the world he made man and formed the smaller human beings, such as fairies and dwarfs. He formed man from the trunk of an ash-tree, and the elves