Question

The Prose Edda's Creation Stories

-What would it feel like to live as a believer in the stories Snorri tells?

Answer 1

Curiosity is in the human nature and it is only natural for us to wonder about what we do not know, the most common type of myth in the human culture is the creation myth. Almost every known civilization has some sort of creation myth among its sacred texts. Most of them are either cosmological or anthropogenic myths, which mean that they describe the creation of the cosmos or the man. The creation myths usually have a lot in common. They report about an unspecific time in the past and include supernatural elements such as deities, talking animals, transformations etc.

The Prose Edda is Scandinavia's best known work of literature and the most extensive source for Norse mythology. In straightforward prose interspersed with ancient verse, the Edda recounts the Norse creation epic and the subsequent struggles of the gods, giants, dwarves and elves in that universe. Woven throughout is the gods' tragic realisation that the future holds one final cataclysmic battle, Ragnarok when the world will be destroyed. The Edda also tells heroic stories about legendary warriors and their kin, stories which incorporate shards of ancient memory.

We live in a time of unprecedented access to scientific knowledge, which some see as being at odds with religious belief. One of the most interesting aspects of the exploration of this specific creation myth is the connections that can be made between this particular creation myth and other creation myths along with the natural sciences. The major linkage will be between the Norse Mythology and Christianity, but other parallels can be observed in relation to the Indian, Iranian and other Indo-European mythologies.

While going through The prose edda creation story I feel it is characterized as paratactic because one version o a story often follows directly upon another without much logical connection. It feels that that religion is important supernatural beings, including gods and ghosts, angels and demons, souls and spirits – can be found throughout history and in every culture. It feels that explanations for our natural predisposition to believe, and for the powerful role religion seems to play in our emotional and social lives.