Sacred Stories
The stories of the Nordic mythology, when read together, tell a in depth narrative that starts at the creation of the cosmos, ends with the downfall of the cosmos at Ragnarok, and then resumes again with the creation.
The Story of the creation-
Mother Earth (Gaea) and Father Heaven (Ouranos) gave birth to the first generation of life on earth. Some of their children were monsters, with huge powers, but without a distinct character like normal humans. Three of these monsters have one hundred hands and fifty heads. Three others have only one eye in the middle of their foreheads and are known as the Cyclopses. Earth and Heaven give birth to a race of Titans, who are large, powerful, and not necessarily evil. Father Heaven is malicious and mean, and treated his children horribly, even locking them all up in a cave. Horrified by this behavior, Mother Earth begs her children to rebel against him. Only one does, a Titan named Cronus (Saturn). After that, Cronus became ruler of the universe with his sister, Rhea, as queen. It was destined that Cronus would be taken over by his own son, so every time they have a child, Cronus swallows him or her. But Rhea succeeds in sending her sixth child secretly to Crete. In order to do so, Rhea wraps a rock in swaddling clothes, which the king swallows instead of the child. |
Eventually when there son, named Zeus, grows up, he rebels against Cronus and forces him to kill his five brothers and sisters. A war breaks out with the Titans, led by Cronus, against Zeus and his siblings. Zeus partially wins the war after releasing all the monsters from the cave in the earth, and also because one Titan, Prometheus, joins his side.
When Zeus takes his power, he punishes all the Titans and monsters who fought against him. He punishes a Titan named Atlas (brother of Prometheus) by forcing him “to bear on his back forever the cruel strength of the crushing world.” Although some people want to continue attempting to remove Zeus and his siblings from power, the gods see themselves as the new rulers of the universe. This story: the Creation, answers some of the enduring questions of life about were we came from and how the world began. |