Right away,
the Norse creation begins with conflict. Ice and fire mingle together from the
realms of Nifleheim and Muspell. A river forms, and the ice melts to reveal
Ymir and a cow. Yes, a cow. The cow (by name of Audhumla) licked at the ice until
it uncovered three brothers: Vili, Ve, and Odin. The three of them killed Ymir,
and then . . . recycled him. It’s common in ancient cultures not to let
anything go to waste, especially in a creation myth. The three needed to create
the world, and, well, Ymir’s body was there, so they used it. This is similar
to how the Chinese myth used the giant Pangu to create the world (though these
cultures had no connection in ancient times to influence one another).
While Pangu
died of natural causes in the Chinese myth, Odin and his brothers killed Ymir.
This simultaneously ended the rule of the frost giants (similar to Zeus’s war
on the titans), and established the warlike conduct of the Norse culture.
Theirs is a culture of survival of the fittest. The land demands it. Those who
cannot survive the cold, perish. Anything and everything is on the table when
it comes to surviving. This is reinforced by the nature of creation itself, the
conflict of the elements. So, like the Chinese, they recycle, but they also
thrive on conflict. Conflict is the method of creation for the Norse, yet it is
not savage and barbaric (we’ll get to one that is, though). It’s a simple
reality that life is hard, and you must fight to survive.
When the
world is done, they create humanity using trees, specifically ash for the man,
elm for the woman. The use of trees in the Norse makes sense as Yggdrasil, the
world ash, connected the nine realms together. Moreover, the Norse had a great
reverence for trees because of their dependence on wood. Not only did they use
it to fuel their fires, but they built their homes and ships out of it. Without
wood, the Norse would have died in the cold.
The Norse
very deliberately give humanity will and souls, a point that is often implied
or skipped in other mythologies. But the Norse state it explicitly, emphasizing
that there is something to carry on after the flesh dies. The cosmology of the
nine worlds immediately allocates a place for those who die with honor (Valhalla)
and those who do not (Hel). The world tree provides a cosmological framework
that is not often seen so early in a culture’s mythology.
Like with
the trees, we can also examine the reverence for the cow, Audhumla. The cow is
sacred, producing rivers of milk to nourish the land. This is similar to the
Hindu reverence for cows because of milk. It is a staple of the diet. Whereas
the Hindus would not eat beef or kill a cow, the Norse, most likely due to
their recycling nature, use every piece of the cow, from the meat to the
leather. Again, this is about survival.
The drive
to survive is not just in humanity, then, but in the gods themselves. They have
power, yes, but they are not all powerful. They are above humans (not only
because they created them), but share much with them. These are gods that must
struggle and fight against the elements, against time, against their own
shortcomings, and against the inevitable end, but that’s another myth.