Parallels Between Norse and Indic Creation Myths

by Michèle P. Rousseau

        Since the beginning of time, humans have sought to understand their world. They have often asked, "When did the world begin? How was it created? Who is the world's creator?" These questions have been answered many times, and those answers can be found in creation myths from around the world. Every culture, it seems, has come up with its own story of where it came from and who its creator is. These stories not only help to answer a culture's questions about its origins, but the themes and motifs of the stories also reveal the values a particular culture holds sacred. Further, myths do not need to be taken literally to be of value. In fact, there are many people in modern western society who may not believe that the first man was a man named Adam who was formed "from the soil of the ground" (Gen. 2:7). As the story goes, Adam and Eve ate from the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Gen. 2:17). They were then punished for trying to become like God. Whether this story is factual or not, it has importance in its culture because it teaches the values of humility and obedience. So, it is easy to see that even people who are not religious can be affected by the myths of their culture.
        Creation myths from around the world and from different ages often share motifs. In many myths there are the creation of humans from elements of the earth, or humans that are created from a piece of their creator. The gods themselves are often created either by hatching from an egg or by the birth from another being. Many gods have actually even created themselves. In creation myths, there is often a symbol for wisdom or knowledge, such as a tree. There are both mother figures and father figures. Magic and magical beings are common. Major themes include knowledge seeking, life after death, and the force of good against the force of evil.
        Surprisingly, we can make connections between even the most dissimilar of cultures by looking at their earliest myths. There is at least one connection between the far separated lands of Northern Europe and southern Asia. This connection is made by the similarities between motifs found in each of these cultures' creation myths: the motifs of non-existence (or the void), the dismembered giant, the tree of life, eternal youth, and immortality.
        In order to compare the ancient creation myths of the Norse culture and the Indic culture, I have focused my studies on several texts. I found that reading Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, written around 1220, gave me the clearest understanding of the Norse creation myth. Gylfaginning (The Deluding of Gylfi) is the primary story in the Prose Edda that tells of the Norse creation story. Sturluson had based this writing on much older, and sometimes conflicting, texts, which include Vafþrúðnismál (Lay of Vafþrúðnir), Grímnismál (Lay of Grímnir), and Voluspá (Prophecy of the Seeress). To further understand the Norse myth of divine eternal youth, I also looked at the story of "Iðun and Her Apples." In addition, while exploring ancient India's creation myths I again consulted several works. For the purpose of this paper, I have quoted the Rig-Veda and the Bhagavad-Gita. However, the Upanishads were valuable texts for the clarification of some information found in these texts. Because these creation myths are so important to their respective cultures, they, in a sense, have been reincarnated many times in the forms of other stories, histories, and religious texts. Just as modern day icons appear in many books, movies and songs, so too did similar stories of creation appear in many of the books, poems, and songs of the cultures they belong to. What I have tried to do was to study the most readable and reliable sources available to me in order to compare the creation myths of the Norse and Indic cultures.
        To begin with, both the Norse and Indic creation stories are presented in a question and answer format. In the Norse myth, Gylfi is seeking knowledge from three chieftain kings named High One, Just-as-High, and Third (Sturluson 31). As Gylfi asks them questions, they piece together the entire creation story for him and for readers of his story. In the Rig Veda, it is the poet who asks and answers the questions. But, within these poems, readers also learn the answers to the basic creation questions.
        Both the Norse and Indic creation myths begin with a great void. In the Norse myth, this void is called Ginnungagap. It was a time when "not anything existed, / there was no sand nor sea / nor cooling waves; / earth was unknown / and heaven above" (Sturluson 32). Similarly, in the Rig Veda (10.129) it is said that "there was neither non-existence nor existence then; there was neither the realm of space nor the sky which is beyond" (O'Flaherty 25).
        The more obvious similarities that are found between the creation myths of India and the Norse were the combined motifs of the primal man and dismemberment. Ymir is the Norse giant who was killed in order that his body parts could be used in the creation of the universe. "From Ymir's flesh / the earth was made / and from his blood the seas, / crags from his bones, / trees from his hair, / and from his skull the sky. / From his eyebrows / the blessed gods / made Miðgarð for the sons of men, / and from his brains / were created / all storm-threatening clouds" (Sturluson 36). Purusha is the primal Indic giant whose story parallels Ymir's. He also was killed and was ceremoniously dismembered for the sake of creation. "His mouth became the Brahmin; his arms were made into the Warrior, his thighs the People, and from his feet the Servants were born. The moon was born from his mind; from his eye the sun was born. Indra and Agni came from his mouth, and from his vital breath the Wind was born. From his navel the middle realm of space arose; from his head the sky evolved. From his two feet came the earth, and the quarters of the sky from his ear" (O'Flaherty 31). Both Ymir and Purusha's bodies were partitioned so that they would become the raw material from which the rest of the world would be made.
        Auðhumla is the cow that, with her milk, sustained the giant, Ymir, in life. So the cow, in Norse mythology, is a symbol of nurturing. Auðhumla, herself, was sustained by licking "the ice-blocks which were salty, and by the evening of the first day of the block-licking appeared a man's hair, on the second day a man's head, and on the third day the whole man was there. He was called Buri" (Sturluson 34). Buri, therefore, is associated with the motif of the "self-born" of Hindu tradition. The cow, of course, is symbolic in many ways in the Hindu tradition. First, in the Rig Veda, the release of cows from a cave symbolizes "birth out of the womb, the releasing of the waters pent up by the demons of drought, the finding of the dawn rays of the sun, and the poet's discovery and release of his own inspirations" (O'Flaherty 151-2). Cows also symbolize nourishment and drought.
Parjanya is a cow whose utter is the cloud that gives rain. Cows that are sterile, and therefore do not give milk, are symbolized as those clouds that do not give rain. (O'Flaherty 174). Also, in the Rig Veda (10.101), the cow is symbolized as "understanding" and "divine thought." It is written, "Let the great cow give us milk in thousands of streams of milk, as if she were walking in a meadow" (O'Flaherty 67).
        Another similarity between the Norse and Indic primal myths is the tree-of-life.
"In India, the sacred fig tree, or Aswattha, according to the Bhagavad-Gita is "rooted in heaven, / its branches earthward: / Each of its leaves / Is a song of the Vedas, / And he who knows it / Knows all the Vedas . . . Roots it has also / Reaching downward / Into this world, / The roots of man's actions" (Prabhavananda 110-1). This tree not only connects heaven and earth by its life-sustaining roots, but it is also capable of sharing wisdom. Likewise, the ash tree Yggdrasil, the Norse cosmic tree of life, sustains life and offers wisdom. Yggdrasil's roots spread into the three worlds. "One is among the Æsir [the gods and goddesses], the second among the frost ogres where once was Ginnungagap, and the third extends over Niflheim [in the sky]" (Sturluson 43). This tree is not only a symbol of life, but also of decay. "The ash Yggdrasil / endures more pain / than men perceive, / the hart devours it from above / and the sides of it decay, Niðhögg [a serpent] is gnawing from below" (Sturluson 45). This tree shows the balance in nature between opposing forces such as life and death, good and evil. Also, wisdom can be obtained from the tree because the spring of Mímer, "in which is hidden wisdom and understanding," runs under the root of the tree (Sturluson 43). Yggdrasil is also a symbol of sacrifice. In order to gain wisdom, the god Oðin went to the spring of Mímer, agreed to sacrifice his right eye before drinking its waters, and in this way he gains knowledge. It is also said that he hung on the Yggdrasil, pierced by a spear, for nine days. In this way, Oðin gained the knowledge of runes and the power over life and death. (Fitzhugh 58, 67). As Snorri Sturluson's Poetic Edda describes, Oðin made himself an offering to himself. This further corresponds with the sacrifice of Purusha in the creation of the world. The theme of sacrifice is also seen in the Indic tree of life, Aswattha. In order to gain immortality, and avoid continual reincarnation, "man should contemplate Brahman until he has sharpened the axe of his non-attachment. With this axe, he must cut through the firmly-rooted Aswattha tree. Then he must try to realize that state from which there is no return to future births. Let him take refuge in that Primal Being, from whom all this seeming activity streams forth for ever" (Prabhavananda 111). In a sense, the tree of life must be destroyed in order to gain immortality: another sacrifice of self for the self.
        Near, Yggdrasil, the Norse tree of life, is the apple tree that is tended by Iðun. The apples are fed to the gods to keep the gods eternally youthful. In the story of "Iðun and Her Apples," the apples are a symbol of renewal. The apples, of course, are most valuable. The god Loki, to pay his own ransom, ends up luring Iðun outside of Asgarð so that Thiassi, in the form of an eagle, can steal her apples. In the Rig Veda, soma is the potion that brings immortality to the gods (O'Flaherty 173). Similar to Loki, the god Indra, in the Rig Veda, stole soma with the aid of an eagle from heaven (4:26). "Stretching out in flight, holding the stem, the eagle brought the exhilarating and intoxicating drink from the distance. Accompanied by the gods, the bird clutched the Soma tightly after he took it from that highest heaven" (O'Flaherty 129).
        Soma is a dangerous substance. As the Rig Veda hymn (8.79) requests, "Be kind and merciful to us, Soma; be good to our heart, without confusing our powers in your whirlwind. King Soma, do not enrage us; do not terrify us; do not wound our heart with dazzling light" (O'Flaherty 121). Another hymn states, "Let me join closely with my compassionate friend [Soma] so that he will not injure me when I have drunk him" (O'Flaherty 135). In spite of the danger, the effects of Soma are desirable. First, it can promote a sense of power. In the Rig Veda (10.119.2,8,12) the effects are praised: "Like impetuous winds, the drinks have lifted me up. Have I not drunk Soma? . . . In my vastness, I surpassed the sky and this vast earth. Have I not drunk Soma? . . . I am huge, huge! flying to the cloud. Have I not drunk Soma?" (O'Flaherty 1311-2). Also, soma can offer immortality. The Rig Veda says, "Where the inextinguishable light shines, the world where the sun was placed, in that immortal, unfading world, O Purifier, place me" (O'Flaherty 133). Mead is another similar, magical drink that is found in Norse mythology. It does not confer immortality, however, it is powerful in that it inspires poetic speech. Odin spilled some in haste, and anyone who wanted some could help himself to it. This is how certain gods and humans received poetic abilities (Sturluson 102-3).
        There are many other cultural motifs that are shared between the Norse and Indic cultures, for example illusions and quests. The scope of this paper, however, is to demonstrate the similarities between these two cultures' creation myths. There are certainly many more stories whose themes and motifs could be compared similarly.
        Cultures are tied together in many ways: some by geographical proximity, some by the times in which they flourished. And others are linked inexplicably by their myths. How is it that people from distant lands and cultures think so much alike that, in spite of their religious differences, the beliefs regarding their own creation are so similar? Some may say that people travelling to distant places in the world had spread their stories to other cultures. However, this alone wouldn't ensure that an idea, important in one culture, would necessarily become important to another. Perhaps there is a psychological link between all humans - some common element, such as the Jungian archetypes of the collective unconscious. There is no definitive answer, as of yet, to these questions. These questions, perhaps, are much more difficult to solve than even the questions regarding our own creation.
 

References

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Goodall, Dominic. Hindu Scriptures. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.

The New Jerusalem Bible. Henry Wansbrough, gen. ed. New York: Doubleday, 1985.

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Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood. The Song of God: Bhagavad-Gita. New
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Sproul, Barbara C. Primal Myths: Creation Myths Around the World. San Francisco:
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Sturluson, Snorri. The Prose Edda. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.