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46-600: In Norse mythology , Ask and Embla ( Old Norse : Askr ok Embla )—man and woman respectively—were the first two humans, created by the gods. The pair are attested in both the Poetic Edda , compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda , composed in the 13th century. In both sources, three gods, one of whom is Odin , find Ask and Embla and bestow upon them various corporeal and spiritual gifts. A number of theories have been proposed to explain

92-512: A peat bog at Braak in Schleswig , Germany . The figures depict a nude man and a nude woman. Hilda Ellis Davidson comments that these figures may represent a "Lord and Lady" of the Vanir , a group of Norse gods, and that "another memory of [these wooden deities] may survive in the tradition of the creation of Ask and Embla, the man and woman who founded the human race, created by the gods from trees on

138-427: A central sacred tree , Yggdrasil . Units of time and elements of the cosmology are personified as deities or beings. Various forms of a creation myth are recounted, where the world is created from the flesh of the primordial being Ymir , and the first two humans are Ask and Embla . These worlds are foretold to be reborn after the events of Ragnarök when an immense battle occurs between the gods and their enemies, and

184-455: A female being of the same name , may be ferried away by valkyries to Odin's martial hall Valhalla , or may be chosen by the goddess Freyja to dwell in her field Fólkvangr . The goddess Rán may claim those that die at sea, and the goddess Gefjon is said to be attended by virgins upon their death. Texts also make reference to reincarnation . Time itself is presented between cyclic and linear, and some scholars have argued that cyclic time

230-454: A pair of Ancient Dragons; with Askr being male and Embla female. In the videogame Valheim , the developers named an armor set after Embla, as stated in their development blog entry on November 21, 2023: "we have named this set after one of the two first humans in Norse mythology: Embla". Norse mythology Norse , Nordic , or Scandinavian mythology , is the body of myths belonging to

276-599: A poem, parts of which are quoted, by R. H. Ash, one of the protagonists in A. S. Byatt 's novel Possession: A Romance , which won the Booker prize in 1990. In the video game Fire Emblem Heroes , the two main warring kingdoms are Askr and Embla, which is where the Summoner, the player, finds themselves in, as the kingdom has been at war with the Emblian Empire when the game starts. It is later revealed both kingdoms are named after

322-463: A region in the center of the cosmos. Outside of the gods, humanity, and the jötnar, these Nine Worlds are inhabited by beings, such as elves and dwarfs . Travel between the worlds is frequently recounted in the myths, where the gods and other beings may interact directly with humanity. Numerous creatures live on Yggdrasil, such as the insulting messenger squirrel Ratatoskr and the perching hawk Veðrfölnir . The tree itself has three major roots, and at

368-449: Is Njörðr's unnamed sister (her name is unprovided in the source material). However, there is more information about his pairing with the skiing and hunting goddess Skaði . Their relationship is ill-fated, as Skaði cannot stand to be away from her beloved mountains, nor Njörðr from the seashore. Together, Freyja, Freyr, and Njörðr form a portion of gods known as the Vanir . While the Aesir and

414-477: Is mar , mr , "to die". The causative mâr means "to kill". Its derivatives merethyu / mrtyu means "death"; mareta and maretan means "mortal", and then "man, human being" mashya . For more on the etymology of the aša and arta variants of these terms, see Avestan phonology . According to the creation myth as described in the Bundahishn , Ohrmuzd 's sixth creation is the primeval beast Gayomart , who

460-447: Is " vine ", which is reached through *Ambilō , which may be related to the Greek term ἄμπελος ( ámpelos ), itself meaning "vine, liana ". The latter etymology has resulted in a number of theories. Linguist Gunlög Josefsson claims that the name Embla comes from the roots eim + la which would mean 'firemaker' or 'smokebringer' inflected for either gender. She connects this to

506-533: Is derived from the drilling of fire and sexual intercourse . Vines were used as a flammable wood, where they were placed beneath a drill made of harder wood, resulting in fire. Further evidence of ritual making of fire in Scandinavia has been theorized from a depiction on a stone plate on a Bronze Age grave in Kivik , Scania , Sweden . Jaan Puhvel comments that "ancient myths teem with trite 'first couples' similar to

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552-523: Is engineered by Loki , and Baldr thereafter resides in Hel , a realm ruled over by an entity of the same name . Odin must share half of his share of the dead with a powerful goddess, Freyja . She is beautiful, sensual, wears a feathered cloak, and practices seiðr . She rides to battle to choose among the slain and brings her chosen to her afterlife field Fólkvangr . Freyja weeps for her missing husband Óðr and seeks after him in faraway lands. Freyja's brother,

598-583: Is primarily attested in dialects of Old Norse , a North Germanic language spoken by the Scandinavian people during the European Middle Ages and the ancestor of modern Scandinavian languages . The majority of these Old Norse texts were created in Iceland , where the oral tradition stemming from the pre-Christian inhabitants of the island was collected and recorded in manuscripts. This occurred primarily in

644-709: The North Germanic peoples , stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The northernmost extension of Germanic mythology and stemming from Proto-Germanic folklore , Norse mythology consists of tales of various deities, beings, and heroes derived from numerous sources from both before and after the pagan period, including medieval manuscripts, archaeological representations, and folk tradition. The source texts mention numerous gods such as

690-612: The 13th century by Snorri and Gesta Danorum , composed in Latin by Saxo Grammaticus in Denmark in the 12th century, are the results of heavy amounts of euhemerization. Numerous additional texts, such as the sagas , provide further information. The saga corpus consists of thousands of tales recorded in Old Norse ranging from Icelandic family histories ( Sagas of Icelanders ) to Migration period tales mentioning historic figures such as Attila

736-693: The 13th century. These texts include the Prose Edda , composed in the 13th century by the Icelandic scholar, lawspeaker , and historian Snorri Sturluson , and the Poetic Edda , a collection of poems from earlier traditional material anonymously compiled in the 13th century. The Prose Edda was composed as a prose manual for producing skaldic poetry—traditional Old Norse poetry composed by skalds . Originally composed and transmitted orally, skaldic poetry utilizes alliterative verse , kennings , and several metrical forms. The Prose Edda presents numerous examples of works by various skalds from before and after

782-740: The Christianization process and also frequently refers back to the poems found in the Poetic Edda . The Poetic Edda consists almost entirely of poems, with some prose narrative added, and this poetry— Eddic poetry—utilizes fewer kennings . In comparison to skaldic poetry, Eddic poetry is relatively unadorned. The Prose Edda features layers of euhemerization , a process in which deities and supernatural beings are presented as having been either actual, magic-wielding human beings who have been deified in time or beings demonized by way of Christian mythology . Texts such as Heimskringla , composed in

828-601: The Hun ( legendary sagas ). Objects and monuments such as the Rök runestone and the Kvinneby amulet feature runic inscriptions —texts written in the runic alphabet , the indigenous alphabet of the Germanic peoples —that mention figures and events from Norse mythology. Objects from the archaeological record may also be interpreted as depictions of subjects from Norse mythology, such as amulets of

874-647: The Norwegian woman Ragnhild Tregagås —convicted of witchcraft in Norway in the 14th century—and spells found in the 17th century Icelandic Galdrabók grimoire also sometimes make references to Norse mythology. Other traces, such as place names bearing the names of gods may provide further information about deities, such as a potential association between deities based on the placement of locations bearing their names, their local popularity, and associations with geological features. Central to accounts of Norse mythology are

920-542: The Vanir retain distinct identification, they came together as the result of the Aesir–Vanir War . While they receive less mention, numerous other gods and goddesses appear in the source material. (For a list of these deities, see List of Germanic deities .) Some of the gods heard less of include the apple-bearing goddess Iðunn and her husband, the skaldic god Bragi ; the gold-toothed god Heimdallr , born of nine mothers ;

966-712: The ancient god Týr , who lost his right hand while binding the great wolf Fenrir ; and the goddess Gefjon , who formed modern-day Zealand , Denmark . Various beings outside of the gods are mentioned. Elves and dwarfs are commonly mentioned and appear to be connected, but their attributes are vague and the relation between the two is ambiguous. Elves are described as radiant and beautiful, whereas dwarfs often act as earthen smiths. A group of beings variously described as jötnar , thursar , and trolls (in English these are all often glossed as " giants ") frequently appear. These beings may either aid, deter, or take their place among

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1012-502: The ancient practice of creating fire through a fire plough which was considered a magical and holy way of fire making in folk belief in Scandinavia long into modern times. She identifies the emergence of fire through the plowing symbolically to the moment of orgasm and hence fertilization and reproduction. According to Benjamin Thorpe , " Grimm says the word embla, emla, signifies a busy woman, from amr, ambr, aml, ambl, assiduous labour;

1058-567: The base of one of these roots live the Norns , female entities associated with fate. Elements of the cosmos are personified, such as the Sun ( Sól , a goddess), the Moon ( Máni , a god), and Earth ( Jörð , a goddess), as well as units of time, such as day ( Dagr , a god) and night ( Nótt , a jötunn). The afterlife is a complex matter in Norse mythology. The dead may go to the murky realm of Hel —a realm ruled over by

1104-504: The branches of which grew Mashya and Mashyana. They promised to aid Ohrmuzd in his battle with Ahriman, and gave birth to fifteen sets of twins which scattered around the Earth and became the races of mankind. Indo-European connections to Ask and Embla have been proposed. In Norse mythology , Ask and Embla were the first man and woman, created from trees and given various gifts of life by three gods. According to Benjamin Thorpe " Grimm says

1150-486: The cosmological tree Yggdrasil to gain knowledge of the runic alphabet, which he passed on to humanity, and is associated closely with death, wisdom, and poetry. Odin is portrayed as the ruler of Asgard , and leader of the Aesir . Odin's wife is the powerful goddess Frigg who can see the future but tells no one, and together they have a beloved son, Baldr . After a series of dreams had by Baldr of his impending death, his death

1196-826: The form of three gifts. After the cataclysm of Ragnarok, this process is mirrored in the survival of two humans from a wood; Líf and Lífþrasir . From these two humankind is foretold to repopulate the new and green earth. Mashya and Mashyana The names are from Avestan , nominally transliterated as mašyā and mašyānē , but like other Avestan words also, spellings (and hence transliterations) vary from manuscript to manuscript. Mašyā may thus also appear as maṣ̌iiā or maš́iiā or mašiiāi (and variants). Originally and etymologically, Mašyā means "mortal being" as Old Persian martya , Persian mard and even Sanskrit martya also mean "mortal" and therefore "man". The root in Avesta and Sanskrit for death

1242-486: The god Freyr , is also frequently mentioned in surviving texts, and in his association with the weather, royalty, human sexuality, and agriculture brings peace and pleasure to humanity. Deeply lovesick after catching sight of the beautiful jötunn Gerðr , Freyr seeks and wins her love, yet at the price of his future doom. Their father is the powerful god Njörðr . Njörðr is strongly associated with ships and seafaring, and so also wealth and prosperity. Freyja and Freyr's mother

1288-488: The god Thor's hammer Mjölnir found among pagan burials and small silver female figures interpreted as valkyries or dísir , beings associated with war, fate or ancestor cults. By way of historical linguistics and comparative mythology , comparisons to other attested branches of Germanic mythology (such as the Old High German Merseburg Incantations ) may also lend insight. Wider comparisons to

1334-453: The gods. The Norns , dísir , and aforementioned valkyries also receive frequent mention. While their functions and roles may overlap and differ, all are collective female beings associated with fate. In Norse cosmology , all beings live in Nine Worlds that center around the cosmological tree Yggdrasil . The gods inhabit the heavenly realm of Asgard whereas humanity inhabits Midgard ,

1380-603: The modern period, the Romanticist Viking revival re-awoke an interest in the subject matter, and references to Norse mythology may now be found throughout modern popular culture . The myths have further been revived in a religious context among adherents of Germanic Neopaganism . The historical religion of the Norse people is commonly referred to as Norse mythology . Other terms are Scandinavian mythology , North Germanic mythology or Nordic mythology . Norse mythology

1426-457: The mythology of other Indo-European peoples by scholars has resulted in the potential reconstruction of far earlier myths. Only a tiny amount of poems and tales survive of the many mythical tales and poems that are presumed to have existed during the Middle Ages, Viking Age, Migration Period, and before. Later sources reaching into the modern period, such as a medieval charm recorded as used by

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1472-436: The mythology, Thor lays waste to numerous jötnar who are foes to the gods or humanity, and is wed to the beautiful, golden-haired goddess Sif . The god Odin is also frequently mentioned in surviving texts. One-eyed, wolf - and raven -flanked, with a spear in hand, Odin pursues knowledge throughout the nine realms. In an act of self-sacrifice, Odin is described as having hanged himself upside-down for nine days and nights on

1518-508: The origin of humankind stemming from trees; Ask and Embla. Ask and Embla have been the subject of a number of references and artistic depictions. A sculpture depicting the two, created by Stig Blomberg in 1948, stands in Sölvesborg in southern Sweden. Ask and Embla are depicted on two of the sixteen wooden panels by Dagfin Werenskiold on Oslo City Hall . Ask to Embla is the title of

1564-560: The origin of mankind from trees or wood seem to be particularly connected with ancient Europe and Indo-Europe and Indo-European-speaking peoples of Asia Minor and Iran. By contrast the cultures of the Near East show almost exclusively the type of anthropogonic stories that derive man's origin from clay, earth or blood by means of a divine creation act". Two wooden figures—the Braak Bog Figures —of "more than human height" were unearthed from

1610-592: The plights of the gods and their interaction with various other beings, such as with the jötnar , who may be friends, lovers, foes, or family members of the gods. Numerous gods are mentioned in the source texts. As evidenced by records of personal names and place names, the most popular god among the Scandinavians during the Viking Age was Thor the thunder god , who is portrayed as unrelentingly pursuing his foes, his mountain-crushing, thunderous hammer Mjölnir in hand. In

1656-425: The same relation as Meshia and Meshiane , the ancient Persian names of the first man and woman, who were also formed from trees." In stanza 17 of the Poetic Edda poem Völuspá , the seeress reciting the poem states that Hœnir , Lóðurr and Odin once found Ask and Embla on land. The seeress says that the two were capable of very little, lacking in ørlög and says that they were given three gifts by

1702-657: The seashore". A figure named Æsc ( Old English "ash tree") appears as the son of Hengest in the Anglo-Saxon genealogy for the kings of Kent . This has resulted in a number of theories that the figures may have had an earlier basis in pre-Norse Germanic mythology . Connections have been proposed between Ask and Embla and the Vandal kings Assi and Ambri, attested in Paul the Deacon 's 7th century AD work Origo Gentis Langobardorum . There,

1748-466: The three gave them the breath of life, the second gave them movement and intelligence, and the third gave them shape, speech, hearing and sight. Further, the three gods gave them clothing and names. Ask and Embla go on to become the progenitors of all humanity and were given a home within the walls of Midgard . A Proto-Indo-European basis has been theorized for the duo based on the etymology of embla meaning "vine." In Indo-European societies, an analogy

1794-487: The three gods: The meaning of these gifts has been a matter of scholarly disagreement and translations therefore vary. According to chapter 9 of the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning , the three brothers Vili, Vé , and Odin, are the creators of the first man and woman. The brothers were once walking along a beach and found two trees there. They took the wood and from it created the first human beings; Ask and Embla. One of

1840-401: The thunder-god Thor , the raven -flanked god Odin , the goddess Freyja , and numerous other deities . Most of the surviving mythology centers on the plights of the gods and their interaction with several other beings, such as humanity and the jötnar , beings who may be friends, lovers, foes, or family members of the gods. The cosmos in Norse mythology consists of Nine Worlds that flank

1886-639: The two ask the god Godan (Odin) for victory. The name Ambri , like Embla, likely derives from *Ambilō . A stanza preceding the account of the creation of Ask and Embla in Völuspá provides a catalog of dwarfs , and stanza 10 has been considered as describing the creation of human forms from the earth. This may potentially mean that dwarfs formed humans, and that the three gods gave them life. Carolyne Larrington theorizes that humans are metaphorically designated as trees in Old Norse works (examples include "trees of jewellery" for women and "trees of battle" for men) due to

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1932-413: The two figures, and there are occasional references to them in popular culture. Old Norse askr literally means " ash tree " but the etymology of embla is uncertain, and two possibilities of the meaning of embla are generally proposed. The first meaning, " elm tree ", is problematic, and is reached by deriving *Elm-la from *Almilōn and subsequently to almr ('elm'). The second suggestion

1978-682: The type of Adam and his by-product Eve . In Indo-European tradition, these range from the Vedic Yama and Yamī and the Iranian Mašya and Mašyānag to the Icelandic Askr and Embla, with trees or rocks as preferred raw material, and dragon 's teeth or other bony substance occasionally thrown in for good measure". In his study of the comparative evidence for an origin of mankind from trees in Indo-European society, Anders Hultgård observes that "myths of

2024-524: The world is enveloped in flames, only to be reborn anew. There the surviving gods will meet, and the land will be fertile and green, and two humans will repopulate the world. Norse mythology has been the subject of scholarly discourse since the 17th century when key texts attracted the attention of the intellectual circles of Europe. By way of comparative mythology and historical linguistics , scholars have identified elements of Germanic mythology reaching as far back as Proto-Indo-European mythology . During

2070-526: Was neither male nor female. Ahriman , the Spirit of Evil that dwelt in the Absolute Darkness, sought to destroy all that Ohrmuzd had created, and sent the demoness Jeh to kill Gayomard. In this she was successful, but Mah , the moon, captured his seed before the animal died, from which all animal life then grew. From Gayomard's corpse grew a tree, the seeds of which were the origin of all plant life, and from

2116-425: Was the original format for the mythology. Various forms of a cosmological creation story are provided in Icelandic sources, and references to a future destruction and rebirth of the world— Ragnarok —are frequently mentioned in some texts. According to the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda poem, Völuspá , the first human couple consisted of Ask and Embla ; driftwood found by a trio of gods and imbued with life in

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