The creation of the world (Norse Myth)

The creation of the world

Summary:
This story is about Ohin, chief of the  gods, aware of impending disaster and eager for knowledge, and called a wise-woman called "Volva" to explain the creation of the world.  First, she states that at the very beginning, giant is the only thing live on the world, and Ohin and his brothers kill the giant called Ymir and use it body to form the world.

Setting:
After the world is formed

Characters:
1. Ohin: The chief of the gods
2. Volva:  A female shaman  and seer
3.Ymir: The giant
4. Heimdall: Watchman of the gods

Theme
1.Feminism
It describe sun as female and moon as  male. maybe it is foreshadowing that we can't only have male in this world, sometimes, women are stronger than men, we should have a balance on these gender role.

Motif
The action "Creation of the world"

So creation story are common across all the cultures in the world, and it's interesting to find out that people nowadays still believe these stories. Every myth, no matter how ridiculous they sound, contain some sort of truth in it. This creation story simply tells us we need to respect nature, and appreciate this beautiful world gods gave us. One more thing about the comparison between woman and sun here, this is a clear indication of women being the source of life. Because sun is the power of life, so I think the message sent out here is that women's status needed to be respected, for without them, there won't be any of us.

The theme being feminism and the idea of women giving birth is interesting. Since it is women giving birth and women is the one that survived longer in the reality, the author might be suggesting that do not look down at women just because they take care of the house and educated their children. Instead of taking higher risks to hunt and fend for the family, female has a more stable life(at least in the ancient society). Besides what is analyzed in the post, in my personal opinion, does the fable suggested the sacrifice of people(maybe warriors or soldiers in ancient tribes) make the world or the land they live for that time? (using the sacrifice of the giant as an illustration)

The very interesting fact of different creation myths took place in different regions in the world is no matter how different the cultures are, their creation myths always looks quite the same. For example, this Norse Myth and Greek Myth, they both agree in the world was dominant by the Giant and the gods and goddess kill the Giant to become the dominator of the world. This phenomenon can be interpreted in two very different ways. The first one is maybe that is not only a myth but actually a fact, that’s why the human being live in different regions had same creation myths. But there is no evidence to support that, it could be wrong. And the second interpretation is much more reliable, which is these creation myths may not be the same at the beginning, but they changed by the time pass. This interpretation has some evidence to support because we know these myths are inherit by oral forms, and since human being has many major migrations, these myths could be the combination of what they originally be and the new ideas brought by the migrators.

We can easily see that both theme and motif are connected. The story itself wants to tell us about feminism. Females serve as a crucial factor as the continuity for mankind. Without female, mankind will be extinct a long time ago. The story talks about gods kill giants to create the world. Different parts of the body represent different locations. The central comparison between man and sun, woman and female. Simply the author trying to say that man represents the power of mankind, the sun. But the moon, represents woman. Saying, mankind can't live without woman. On the other hand, we as the creation of the gods need to be grateful to the things god have brought for us. Which means, mankind need to be faithful. We need to respect each other. The author tries to use the story to tell us that woman need to have a seat around the table. Foreshadowing woman lacks their value in societies.

I think the theme is interesting because its an unusual representation of the sun and moon. Usually, the sun is male and the moon is female. In this story, the sun is female and the moon is male. This presents a different view of what the sun and moon could represent. I think this is a more apt representation because the sun is usually seen as the force of life and the moon is usually seen as chaos.