Mythology Compartive Essay: Norse Vs. Greek

Norse and Greek myths have similarities and many differences between them. The Norse myths have powerful, but human-like Gods who fight many battles and die, but there's always new life and lessons being learned throughout their stories. Greek myths have Gods who seem more interested in power and self-pleasure, there seems to be no new life or lessons learned in these stories.

In the creation myths both cultures have the similarities of the beginning of the earth. The Norse myth of the creation of earth is really complicated. In the beginning an open void called Ginnungagap was here. In the Greek mythology there was Chaos, that was all. The Gods of both cultures form the earth after being born in the void/chaos, then after these two similarities, their differences come out. In the Norse tale of the earths' info structure in the beginning an open void called Ginnungagap was here. Then the first world, named Muspellheim, came into to be. It was covered in hot glowing embers and was located in the southern part of Ginnungagap. Then the second world, Niflheim, located in the northern part of Ginnungagap, covered in ice. Greek tales the Goddess Gaea created her son and soon to be husband, Uranus, to be the starry night sky. Then Gaea brought forth the mountains and Pontus, the sea.

The tale of the creation of man in both cultures starts with a god/gods choosing to create beings which reflect the gods in their form. In Norse its three gods who while walking along the sea find two trees, an ash and an elm. They made the first man out of the ash tree and named him Ask, and then they took the elm tree and named her, Embla. In the Grecian version, the titan Prometheus, using water and earth created man in the likeness of the immortal gods on mount Olympus. The differences in both tales are interesting, the Greek version the king of the gods, Zeus, did not want humans to be created in the first place and punishes Prometheus for giving man fire. The Norse believe that the great Odin along with two other gods, created man. That Odin himself gave man blood and the breath of life, with no objections to man living on earth.

The destruction of the earth is in both worlds. In both stories, the end comes from a set chain reaction of events that mortals and gods know about. In Norse it comes in the form of Ragnarok, starting with the death of the god Baldur. Bother will fight