1. A Tale of Two Serpents
The Bible refers frequently to the ancient serpent, the Devil. He appears in the Garden of Eden in the beginning and reappears at the end, waiting to devour the child of the Virgin Queen in the Book of Revelation. There is also a great serpent in Norse mythology. It is called the Midgard Serpent or Jörmungandr.
Jörmungandr simply means "huge monster" in Old Norse. Jörmungandr is the child of Loki by Angrboda, a giantess of Jotunheim, and it is the sibling of the Fenris-wolf, and Hel, who presides over a realm of the same name. As told in the Younger Edda or Prose Edda, Odin took the serpent and dropped it into the sea. Odin cast Hel into Niflheim, where she was to apportion men dead of sickness or of old age. Hel also had "great possessions" according to the paragraph XXXIV of Edda:
[H]er walls are exceeding high and her gates great. Her hall is called Sleet-Cold; her dish, Hunger; Famine is her knife; Idler, her thrall; Sloven, her maidservant; Pit of Stumbling, her threshold, by which one enters; Disease, her bed; Gleaming Bale, her bed-hangings. She is half blue-black and half flesh-color (by which she is easily recognized), and very lowering and fierce.The serpent Jörmungandr
grew so large in the sea that, after encircling the world, it was able to bite its own tail. Jörmungandr is, therefore, an example of an ouroboros, a snake biting its own tail, which also occur in Egyptian and Greek mythology.
2. Ragnarök & Armageddon
Ragnarök is basically the Armageddon of Norse mythology. These are the final battles between good and evil. The final battle between good and evil in the Book of Revelation occurs in the plains of Megiddo, hence the name "Armageddon". Christ's passion, death, and resurrection occur in the Gospels, but they also reoccur allegorically in the Book of Revelation.
The children of Angrboda and Loki reappear elsewhere in Norse mythology. Jörmungandr and Fenris-wolf are both significant figures at Ragnarök. At Ragnarök, it is prophesied that Fenris-wolf will be pitted against Odin, the Father-god. It is further prophesied that Thor, Odin's son, will battle Jörmungandr.
Check out these parallels: 1) Thor is the son of the father-god, Odin. Similarly, Jesus is the Son of God, the Father. 2) The final battle between good and evil in Norse myth is at Ragnarök and between Thor and the serpent, Jörmungandr. The final battle between good and evil in Christianity is at the Cross between Jesus and the serpent, Satan.In the Poetic Edda poem Völuspá, Ragnarök begins with the crowing of three roosters. In the 42nd stanza, the crimson rooster Fjalar (Old Norse for "hider" or "deceiver") crows in the forests of Jotunheim, then the golden rooster Gullinkambi crows to the Aesir gods in Valhalla, and finally the unnamed soot-red rooster crows in Hel.
Another parallel: The final battle in Norse myth begins with the crowing of three roosters. Similarly, the rooster crows at the beginning of Christ's Passion. See, for example, at Matthew 26:34, Jesus tells Peter, "this very night, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times."Next at Ragnarök, according to the Völuspá account, the Norse god Heimdall blows his horn, similar to the trumpet blasts of Revelation, cf. Revelation 8:7. Yggdrasil, the World Tree, then shudders and groans, similar to the hammering of nails into the tree on which Christ is crucified.
The serpent Jörmungandr begins writhing in the sea, creating massive waves like tsunamis. The ship Naglfar breaks free of its moorings due to the thrashing of the serpent in the deep. The ship, made entirely of the fingernails and toenails of the dead, sets sail from the east.
According to the Gylfaginning account of Ragnarök, the Fenris-wolf charges on Odin. The wolf's eyes and nostrils spray flames, and its mouth is wide open. Its upper jaw scrapes the heavens while its lower jaw drags against the earth. At the same time and even beside the Fenris-wolf, Jörmungandr also charges and fills the air and the sea will a spray of venom. The sky is rent in two and the "sons of Muspell" ride forth across the Bifrost wreathed in flames, similar to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse at Rev 6:1-8.
Odin and his son, Thor, together charge out to meet the wolf and the serpent along with the rest of the Æsir. The war god Tyr is also paired with the hound Garmr. Odin rides onto the plains of battle at the head of war party wearing a gold helmet and an intricate coat of mail and carrying his spear Gungnir. Odin advances against the Fenris-wolf. Thor moves to Odin's side, but is unable to assist his father because he engages the serpent in combat.
Odin dies fighting the Fenris-wolf and is swallowed whole. Another of Odin's sons, Víðarr, avenges his father by tearing the wolf's jaws apart and stabbing it in the heart with his spear.
Jörmungandr opens its giant mouth against the charging god of thunder. Thor kills Jörmungandr, but is poisoned by the serpent. Thor walks nine steps before falling to the earth dead. So ends Ragnarök.
3. The Serpent's Strike: The Last and Most Amazing Parallel
The last parallel between Thor and Jesus is the most significant, but it might take some explaining.
The passion, death, and victory of Christ are all foretold in the Book of Genesis. In just a couple short lines of Genesis, the entire Gospel is prophesied. This is called the Proto-evangelium, which translates as "The First Gospel". Here it is, Genesis 3:15:
I will put enmity between [the serpent] and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed;
he shall bruise your head,
and [the serpent] shall bruise his heel.
The Protoevangelium is packed with prophesies, but we will only address those that pertain to Satan, which is the serpent, and Christ, which is the seed of the woman.
It is prophesied that Christ will "bruise" the serpent's head, but Satan, the serpent, will "bruise" the heel of Christ. These bruises are wounds, mortal wounds at that. Jesus will crush the serpent's skull and defeat him. In so doing, however, the serpent will strike Jesus' heel, and Jesus will be poisoned by the serpent's venom. Are you starting to see the connection to Thor and his battle with the serpent???
Jesus literally strikes the serpent's skull. Sometimes, as in The Passion of the Christ, Jesus is depicted as crushing the serpent's skull with his heel in the Garden of Gethsemane. But there's still a more literal moment. Christ is crucified at Golgotha, which, in Hebrew, is called "the place of the skull." The Cross of Christ, therefore, is stabbed into the skull.
Lastly, Christ's defeat of Satan, the ancient serpent, on the Cross requires his own death, as the sacrificial Lamb of God. In this way, the prophesy of Christ being killed by the serpent is fulfilled. Christ's heels are actually pierced by nails, as well. Jesus dies on the cross and the serpent claims his victim.
The final parallel:
1) In the final battle, Thor kills the serpent, Jörmungandr, but is nevertheless killed by the serpent's venom.
2) In the final defeat of evil, Jesus kills the serpent, Satan, but is nevertheless killed by serpent striking his heel.
I'll leave you with this question: Since Norse mythology developed long after the Crucifixion, is it possible that the origins of Norse mythology were, in part, Christian?
22 Comments
Norse mythology was developed before the crucifixion but wasn't written till afterwards in the eddas and Ragnarok was written by missionaries to destroy the Norse faith and transition Scandinavia to Christianity. Ragnarok actually ends with Adam and eve hiding in a hollowed out tree and walking into the new world. also Fenris-wolf is not the name of the wolf his name is just fenrir or just fenris; calling him the fenris-wolf is like saying the Jesus-man.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment! The Messianic prophecy in the article, however, was written at least 1500 years before the Crucifixion and existed long before the writing of Genesis. Pretty amazing! That's interesting about Adam and Eve showing up at the end of Ragnarok.
DeleteIt all goes to show how at one time the apostles of Christ actually did perform the great commisssion and that the gospel was spread through out all corners of the Earth. It was up to the ears that recieved the gospel continue. So it became hidden among their pagan traditions. I’ll wager their are many cultures on the Earth with similar stories, just as their are simular Noah’s ark/ great flood stories among many cultures.
ReplyDeleteExactly, LoLo16! That's what I think happened, as well.
ReplyDeleteWhat is known about the norse myths is writen down by Icelandic people who were by that time already Christians. Thor and Baldr were made to be Odins sons to make it look more Christian as Odin's title as all-father. Walhalla was made to resemble Heaven and Hel Hell. This was done to Christianize Iceland.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the first comment. However, I don't think it was written to destroy the Norse faith. Snorri Sturluson was a Christian priest, but wrote the Codex Regius in private. It was discovered a few centuries later, hidden in the foundation of Snorri's house. So I think he just wrote it down out of his own personal enjoyment of his cultural mythology. Being that it was written down a few centuries after the Christianization of Iceland/Northern Europe, and written by a Christian priest. It's safe to assume that he wrote it with some Christian influence, at least in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteRight, I think there is some common ground between my position and the last two comments: Norse mythology, as we now know it, is/was inspired by the Hebrew Scriptures and even Christ, Himself, through His missionaries.
ReplyDeleteNorse mythology evolved from the beliefs of the Germanic peoples, Odin from Wotan and before Wotan was Wōðanaz, to put it simply, The Germanic people fought the pagan Romans, if anything modern Christianity was inspired by Norse paganism
DeleteThe Norse myths cited originate mostly from the Icelandic Prose Edda attributed to Snorri Sturluson around 1220. Iceland was Christian before the arrival of the Norse Vikings and the Althing of 999 stipulated Christianity as the national faith. By the early 12th century, Thorgilsson chronicled that the entire population had been converted. One would expect the 13th Century myths to be largely based on Christianity rather than pre-Christian Norse beliefs or practices. The remarkable similarity most likely occurs because the text was authored by a Christian who also happened to be a lawyer, the Speaker of the Althing, and a political activist seeking to place Iceland under Norwegian rule. It turns out the Norwegians gave Sturluson a knighthood with the expectation of quid pro quo. The myths depicted as such would serve to justify political unification by Norwegian kings, as did Sturluson's other sagas.
ReplyDelete@52RH, Exactly! Thor, as we now understand the myth, is based on Jesus. Otherwise stated, this particular collection of Norse myths involving Ragnarok were heavily influenced by Christianity.
ReplyDeleteYou could not be more wrong it was Christianity that took all the mythology form norse and other pagan beliefs the norse gods have been a around a lot long than Christianity. Christianity was made up of all the worlds cultures to bring the people together to be one and brain washed into believing in a fals god in pagan mythology it tells u about everything u need to know and dates when it was first wrote for someone who is norse this is an insult to us as people
ReplyDeleteLol, that's crazy talk. The roots of Norse myth go back to 500 BC at most. The Protoevangelium was written 1,500 years before Christ - that's 1500 BC - and existed long before that. The prophesies of the Hebrew Messiah predate Scandinavian myth by thousands of years. Lastly and most importantly, the Hebrew religion and Christianity is based on truth and historical fact. Norse myth is ... myth.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteMyth for you Scott
DeleteI've felt the Old Gods
And Allfather Odin
Hail ODIN!!!🐺🤟⚡
Not true. Odin is the name of God and Jesus and Thor are one in the same. Jesus Christ is of the white Aryan race just like the Roman people. Israel was part of the Roman Empire. Today Russia is the standard bearer of the Roman Empire and of the Eastern Roman Empire-Constantinople. Putin is a far Right Christian Conservative bringing back Capitalism and Eastern Roman Christendom. He has brought back Czarist Russia of pre-1917. The Soviet Union is gone and Czarist Russia is back! Putin cherishes the Czars and their beliefs not Communism. Thank God Russia is back on the world stage standing up to the evil decadent West! Russia was founded by the Swedish Vikings in 859 A.D. The Ukraine and Russia have always been together under Viking Rule. Ukraine is the property of Russia and always has been. Russia comes from the Old Norse- Rus. The Vikings were the last to conquer England in 1066 A.D. We had a great Empire in Sweden as well. We had the whole Baltic at one time and we invented modern warfare and modern naval warfare to deal with our enemies. We are the East, the West and the North-Central! The days of the week are named after our Gods-none other! God's name is Odin and not some alien God of the Middle East! Don't ever worship alien Gods or alien people above your own people and God's!
ReplyDeletegod's! Computer messed up.
DeleteYou’re a troll. I believe those were common in the Viking Era too.
DeleteUnknown, true brother. Hail the Allfather/Allmother forever !
DeleteSo the answer is No Jesus is not directly mentioned in Norse mythology. Your argument is that some stories sound kinda the same "both have snakes, god has a son". Then vaguely connect the dots but even then you dont show a clear point. I.e. ragnorak could be the second coming of christ OR it coulda been the original crucifixion of christ. Both kinda fit so lets go with either/or. Weak reaching at best.
ReplyDeleteA little off subject but I think anyone with half a brain-cell can agree that Christianity itself was manmade control-tactic rubbish, adulterating pre-Christian Israel beliefs in order to establish "straight " men (gender, not species) as the superior beings and only ones justified to rule. For instance, why doesn't the Bible, used as the basis for everything Christians believe to be truth, mention once that God actually had a wife before men created the brainwashing rubbish that is Christianity and, in conjunction, the Bible? God, or Yahweh as he was known in pre-Christian Israel, had a wife (aka a GODDESS) named Asherah who actually did all of the birth and creation. That would mean God was not in fact the one and only creator as the Bible states and if that's all a lie, I'm willing to bet the rest is a bunch of hogwash as well. Furthermore, it is commonly accepted that there is a lot of the Bible that isn't even there. For instance, where's the whole middle part of Jesus's life from adolescence until we reconvene with him as a 30-something year old? Christians call the whole truth and nothing but the truth when the whole book isn't even there. And they know it isn't and still call it truth. And if God is this great being like the Bible says he is, why do we need some dusty old fairytale written by men who didn't even witness anything they wrote about to tell us about it? Why can't we all just hear it from God himself like everyone apparently did in the Bible? Hmmm. That's a mystery.
ReplyDeleteThe bible first of all isn't the only thing christians use to determine what has happened in history, and many of us inspect that which is laid into our hands, and they understand texts are manipulated, it's a game of clues, it's a mystery you know the answer to before you end up solving it. Eventually you start to just see the code, like operators in the matrix. Funny you mention asherah, because that's one large reason why Jesus came, the children of Israel were lost worshipping Babylonian serpent ancestor elohim gods through the elder rabbis who eventually had him killed for calling it out and accusing their high priest. They had to refer to him as a sorcerer in their own Talmud because he schooled them so hard and made such an uproar. He fulfilled ancient Israel prophecy, which became Norse myth with the lost tribes of Israel after the Assyrians invaded and kicked the elders out, when they heard about Jesus they figured he was thor and the Norse messiah, son of Odin the all father, in actuality being the true messiah of Israel and the lost tribes, seeking the lost sheep. Snorri based the myths we know of off of the revelation the Jesus Christ fulfilled Norse/lost tribes of Israel 1500 bc prophecy. Or am I way off?
DeleteThe bible first of all isn't the only thing christians use to determine what has happened in history, and many of us inspect that which is laid into our hands, and they understand texts are manipulated, it's a game of clues, it's a mystery you know the answer to before you end up solving it. Eventually you start to just see the code, like operators in the matrix. Funny you mention asherah, because that's one large reason why Jesus came, the children of Israel were lost worshipping Babylonian serpent ancestor elohim gods through the elder rabbis who eventually had him killed for calling it out and accusing their high priest. They had to refer to him as a sorcerer in their own Talmud because he schooled them so hard and made such an uproar. He fulfilled ancient Israel prophecy, which became Norse myth with the lost tribes of Israel after the Assyrians invaded and kicked the elders out, when they heard about Jesus they figured he was thor and the Norse messiah, son of Odin the all father, in actuality being the true messiah of Israel and the lost tribes, seeking the lost sheep. Snorri based the myths we know of off of the revelation the Jesus Christ fulfilled Norse/lost tribes of Israel 1500 bc prophecy. Or am I way off?
ReplyDelete