Fitzkee Research Paper: The Creation Myth Of Norse Culture

Pedro Velez Mrs. Fitzkee Research Paper Norse Myths.

The Norse creation myths reflect many different core facets of Norse culture, as well as the different aspects of the myth that influence the everyday life of Norse people. These include the many different gods that they worshiped, such as Odin, Freyja, and Hel. These gods served to explain many core concepts of life such as love, fertility, honor, and most importantly, death and the afterlife. The creation myth also highlights the importance of their belief in other worlds than ours, or realms. There are 9 of these realms total, some of which include Asgard, Midgard, Jotunheim, and Niflheim. These realms existed alongside the gods in concept, Asgard being the home of the gods, Midgard being earth, Jotunheim being the land of the gods, and

This led to the Norse being the dominant culture of their time. Another of these realms, and one of the most important to the creation of the world, is Jotunheim. Jotunheim is the land of the Giants or Jotnar. It is where the giant Bergelmir had adventured to after most of his kind had been killed by the Gods alongside Ymir (Jackson 4). Bergelmir had gone to Jotunheim so that he could create a better race of giants to continue the fight that Ymir had started. It surrounds Midgard and is described as a deep, dark forest that stretches on for miles (McCoy.) Jotunheim is so important to the culture of the Norse because it provides a common enemy of the Norse people, and also its concept is directly related to Valhalla, because the dead warriors in Valhalla are training for when all the giants leave Jotunheim and challenge the gods (Encyclopedia.com). This, along with other factors, helped to build the warrior spirit of the Norse warriors. Another factor that is important to Norse culture is the concept of dreams and premonitions. Dreams played a huge part in the everyday life of Norse people, as well as throughout the myths and