Jalen Tsang, Period 7, 1/6/2023

Literacy & Learning

I found learning about Norse mythology very interesting. Norse mythology is vastly different from the other myths that I have studied which are Egyptian and Greek mythology. Norse mythology’s ideas of the nine realms, Ragnarok, and Valhalla are some of the ways I found them different. While both Egyptian and Greek mythology there are different realms neither have as many as the Norse did. Each of the nine realms had different species and some of the realms were vastly different. For example, Niflheim and Muspelheim are complete opposites. One is a place of frost while the other is a place of fire. Ragnarok is different because many of the Norse gods die. The idea of gods being able to die surprised me. I never even considered gods being able to die since I only grew up reading Greek and Egyptian myth where the gods can’t die. I found Valhalla to be different because of the conditions to be chosen and what happened to the warriors in the end. While the way to enter heaven in other myths is to live as a good person, the way to enter Valhalla is to die as a warrior and be chosen. The Norse may have believed that being a warrior and dying as one was being a good person. In other cultures, heaven is the end. Nothing happens after you reach heaven, but in Valhalla you prepare for battle. The warriors of Valhalla after dying and reaching Valhalla have to prepare for Ragnarok just to die again. While I found many differences, I did find a similarity between Norse and Greek Mythology. The idea of trying to avoid fate and failing. In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus attempts to avoid his fate of killing his father and marry his mother, but in doing so he causes these events to happen. Similarly, Odin takes action to try and avoid Ragnarok. He separates Loki’s three children and chains Fenrir. In doing so, Odin turns the three children against him and causes Ragnarok.

When I learned about Ragnarok and Valhalla I was surprised. I couldn’t imagine gods dying and having to battle after dying. I realized I had been narrow minded. I only thought about gods as invincible due to growing up learning about Greek gods. I didn’t even consider other possibilities. I realize I tend to do this with other things too. When I am working on math and I am confident that the way I am doing it is correct I don’t even think about trying other methods until I have failed multiple times. I have also realized that it is the opposite for the things that I don’t know much about. In science classes when I don’t know much about the topic I tend to just blindly believe the people I think are smart and trustworthy, even if they are wrong. From now on I will try to be more open minded. I also will try to learn more so I have more knowledge to build my perspective on.