Postcards from Asgard- Creation Part 3

in #writing7 years ago (edited)

When we left off Midgard was finally created By Odin and his brothers but there remains much work to do in the nine realms. After being given the idea by the brilliant @wisewoof your humble author has added some music to enjoy if you wish.

Read PART1 PART2

The gods were not yet satisfied with their creation, as the world remained a dark and gloomy place despite the great expansive skies and the gods were obliged to create the sun and the moon. This would make a less dreary place for man to live. They would also create day and night to make his time on earth more comfortable and productive. By day he could work and farm or hunt and fish, by night he could rest and regain his energy for the next day.

Though the gods were creating this world for man, the giants would be called upon for this task. Night was a beautiful giantess the daughter of Norvi with long flowing black hair shiny like the ravens wing. Her first husband was a giant called darkness, and the had a baby they named space. Her second husband was shrouded in mystery, known simply as The Other. Although there are many theories to his true Identity. To him Night would bare a daughter whom they would call Earth. After her birth The Other soon vanished. Night was left alone but would in time take a third husband, Named Dawn. He was blonde haired and beautiful. They would also have a son the would call day, and the gods decided to divide each turning of the earth into 24 hours and divide that equally by two giving half to Night And half to Day, giving them each a chariot and a pair of horses. The horses were so fast that when they ran the chariots would lift off into the sky.

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Credit-Nordic Wiccan

Night and Day are joined in their endless gallop, as the gods decided to create the sun and moon to ease their loneliness. At first Sun and moon did not move in the sky and could be seen together whether it was night or day. Then one day A giant's descendant named Mundilfary, which means world turner, had two children who were incredibly beautiful and he named them Sol and Mani, after the sun and moon. Mundilfary claimed they shined more brilliantly than all other things in creation except those two celestial beings. The gods took offense to this and punished Mundilfary, as the gods were often inclined to do in these situations. They took his children from him and sent them to work in the heavens.

The girl Sol was given the task of steering the horses that pulled the chariot of day. The gods placed a A man to shield Sol and the horses from the chariot of the sun so that they would not be burned. This Man was called Svalinn or cold. The boy Mani’s job was harder, as the moon would have to wax and wane so the moon snatched two children, Bil and Yuki from a mountaintop, where they were fetching water from a well sacred to the gods to help him in his tasks. As Sol and Mani soar free and happy in their punishment. Each day they are relentlessly persued by two wolves Skoll meaning “Treachery” and Hati meaning “Hate”. They are the spawn of Fenri the great wolf of Ragnorok And when the twilight of the gods comes the wolves will swallow them whole.

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Credit-Norse Mythology for Smart People

Ragnarok is inevitable, And even the gods must accept it, as not even they are immune to the tappestry woven by the Norns. The three strange sisters of destiny. Man was born from this fear of Ragnorok, Odin would create men as warriors to serve his great army to fight the giants and monsters when this day comes.

One day when the earth was still young Odin and his brothers Ville and Ve were walking along the beach when they happened to find to tree trunks on the beach. As the sun began to set they had an Idea, Ville lifted up one of the logs, it was an ash. He placed it on end and began to fill it with golden sand from the beach. Ve did the same with the other one, it was an elm. Odin then began to carve and shape them. One into the shape of a man and the other a shape of a woman. Upon finishing he breathed into them the breath of spirit. And they came to life, The man he would call Ask, the woman Embla. And from them all of mankind eould be born, unto them were given Midgard.

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Credit-COE – ÁSATRÚ - WordPress.com

At the same time As Midgard and Jotunheim were being created Odin and his brothers also created homes for themselves. Odins home would be called Asgard which means “Home of the Aesir”. There would live Odin and his wife Frig, their children would be called the Aesir. It was built seperate from Midgard and Jotunheim But would be connected to them by the magical rainbow bridge called Bifrost. Only the gods could traverse the Bifrost as a mortal would surely burn. Ville and Ve lived in asgard for a time and their children were called the Vanir. Until there came a long and bloody war between the Aesir and the Vanir Not much is known about this war but in the end Ville and Ve left Asgard and made there home in Vanaheim to the east of Asgard. Only three of the Vanir remained in Odins realm.

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There is a world right next to Asgard, it is called Aflheim Home of the Light Elves, they would be considered the guardian angels. They are ruled by the god Freyer, minor gods in themselves with dominion over nature and fertility. And the final of the nine realms, Helheim, the realm of the dead, where the dead go who have not died valiantly in battle. Here rules the goddess Hel, where she builds her army and great ship for the final battle of good and evil… Ragnorok the twilight of the gods.

That's it for the creation Myth Now I will move on to the stories of the gods. Thanks for reading!

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Hehe thankyou for the honorable mention. The music is an excellent touch! Love the artwork towards the end, interesting how the final fantasy series uses some of these names for characters, summons and such. Had to search up ratatosk, found some cool art searching it.

You are most welcome, it was a great idea! One of the things I found interesting when I started diving into the mythology is how much is still used in our culture today. From the days of the week to books like Lord Of The Rings, Harry potter had a Werewolf called Fenrir, video games, and religion it's woven through everywhere. The sad part is most of the history was passed orally until after the Christians had already converted most of the Norse and Celtic lands, so a lot of it had already kind of been melded together. For instance Dante's Inferno, which is kind of the modern archetype of Christian hell, painted it as a place for punishment of the wicked as where the Helheim of the nine realms was a place for anyone who wasn't chosen by the Valkyrie for dying courageously in battle and taken to Valhalla. Anyway I could bore you forever but I won't! haha. I am very excited to be finished with creation! it's kind of piece meal put together from different Eddas, the god's myths have a much stronger narrative. and good old Ratatoskr will get himself a quick appearance in here soon, when I go into Odin and Yggdrasil. I can't thank you enough for following along, and commenting as well. it would be very hard to keep doing this with no one reading it! Looks like you're my muse on this one. lol Happy Steeming!

Yes Fenrir is also a wolf summoning in Final Fantasy 9. Ratatosk is a character in tales of symphonia. There is even a video game called Dante's Inferno. Nothing boring about it my friend! I have Celtic heritage and find this very intriguing, I've always intended to learn more about these topics. Tis my pleasure! @skycae is super into mythology and posts about it a lot on her blog too. I think she lead me to your blog actually. Keep up the great work I'm sure more mythology enthusiasts will find their way here soon enough ^_^ I also might suggest engaging with others who write mythology to help them find your posts. Happy Steeming! :D

yes mythology is my favorite haha, I havent finished reading part 2 of this series yet lol I have like 10 posts to read right now >.<

I totally understand, I can barely keep up with it now and I'm still a plankton! Looks like you will have some catch up time I hit a bandwidth limit so I guess I'm in Steemit jail for a few days lol.

Not sure if you've heard of @ginabot but she tells you when people post in certain topics like mythology, I use it to find more homesteading/offgrid posts. Very helpful

I will check her out for sure!

I will do that and Skycae Is awesome as well! She is actually the first upvote and comment I ever had on the platform, so she is very dear to my heart. Hopefully they will, I'm gonna try to mix it up and write about different subjects like philosophy, maybe some poems also ounce I get a rhythm going. A minnows gots ta grind.

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