Norse Mythology Research Paper

Having the tendency to focus mainly, on Greek mythology, Norse mythology, the set of religious stories the Vikings told to one another, can sometimes be forgotten. Normally, when hearing of Norse mythology, most people refer to Marvel’s Thor and Loki, however, there's more to the story than what is presented. Norse mythology is the set of religious stories the Vikings told to one another and is sometimes referred to as cosmology, the theory of the origin of the universe. Norse mythology has its own story on how the universe was created, leading to the creation of the famous world tree and the Doom of the Gods. Eventually, the famous tree of Norse Mythology, Yggdrasil, connects to Ragnarok through time, worlds, and fate. The universe was once …show more content…
“So much blood flowed from his wounds that all the frost-giants were drowned but one... Bor's sons dragged Ymir's immense body to the center of Ginnungagap, and from him, they made the earth. Ymir's blood became the sea, his bones became the rocks and crags, and his hair became the trees. Bor's sons took Ymir's skull and with it made the sky. In it, they fixed sparks and molten slag from Muspell to make the stars, and other sparks they set to move in paths just below the sky. They threw Ymir's brains into the sky and made the clouds. The earth is a disk, and they set up Ymir's eyelashes to keep the Giants at the edges of that disk. On the sea shore, Bor's sons found two logs and made people out of them” (Snorri Sturluson's Edda, translated by Anthony Faulkes). In other words, Ymir’s blood, drowned the currently living giants, with the exception of one, and created the seas of Earth, his bones became rocks and crags, his hair became trees, his skull made up the sky, his brains became the clouds, and his eyelashes became fences to keep giants away from Earth. Leading to the creation of Earth, Ymir’s body ends up in the location of Ginnungagap where he becomes the extension of the bottomless abyss. Thus, Ymir’s kind, the Giants, are constantly attempting to drag the cosmos back toward the chaotic nothingness of Ginnungagap; they succeed during …show more content…
The end of the world will be because of the actions of Loki who currently is locked up. Eventually, Loki broke free from his chains at Ragnarok to assist the Giants in destroying the cosmos. Ragnarok starts with three winters leading up to each other with no summers in between, followed by, the wolf, Skoll, devouring the sun and his brother, Hati, eating the moon, thus plunging the Earth into darkness. Leading up to the end, the nine worlds will burn, people will perish, and the Earth will sink into the sea. After the destruction, however, a new world will arise from the sea and the descendants of Lif and Lifthrasir will inhabit the new