Iroquois Creation Story Essay

Every civilization has some sort of creation story, usually grounded in a mythology or religion, of how the world originated, for example, Genesis from Christianity, or Pangu from China. These stories show how the world came to be, and usually show values, morals, and the reasons for some traditions. The Iroquois creation story “The World on the Turtle's Back” and the Norse story “Odin and Ymir” both serve as narratives to communicate the beliefs of their people and the values of their culture. Both stories show aspects of family and the involvement of human-like gods; however, the stories differ in the content of their explanations in terms of what is valued and how things are created.
Both creation stories display the polytheistic nature of the two peoples. The gods of both stories have brothers, sisters, parents, and other family members. In the Norse creation story, two gods have “three sons” who are all gods (1). In the Iroquois myth, there are “gods who were like people” who lived in a Sky World, similar to the Norse Niflheim (1). These show how both cultures are polytheistic and have an
The Iroquois’s value of nature is not present in the Norse creation story as it is in the Iroquois myth. The Iroquois express their idea that animals are meant to serve them in the creation story in the fact that the muskrat and other animals risked their lives to try to get dirt for the woman. In “Odin and Ymir,” only a cow is mentioned, while in “The World on the Turtle’s Back” many animals are mentioned such as “turtles,” “muskrats],” “birds” and more (1). Another variation between the two creation myths is the explanation of the passage of the sun and moon. The Norse creation story says there is a “chariot that carries the sun across the skies,” but in the Iroquois myth, the sun moves from the woman who fell’s walking around the earth