Askr and Embla: The Creation of Man from Trees

Abstract

Sabine Heidi Walther discusses possible origins and medieval interpretations of the narrative of how humans are created from trees, as described in the eddicpoem Vǫluspá. Walther argues that this narrative should not necessarily be seen astransmitting part of a pre-Christian Nordic (or even Indo-European) cosmogony,since it also fits well with medieval Christian use of tree imagery. She points outparallels to the idea of the human being as arbor inversa (inverted tree) in medieval learned literature, as well as to Origo crucis (Legend of the Cross), both of which wereknown in medieval Iceland. Although not constituting direct models for Vǫluspá, such texts and motifs would, according to Walther, have allowed an interpretation ofthe first humans Askr and Embla as Adam and Eve, as well as of them symbolizing the Holy Cross and Christ. Walther concludes that an interpretatio Christiana of thenarrative of humans’ creation from trees does not make it more anthropocentricthan if it is understood as a pagan ‘environmental’ myth, but that it puts it into aneschatological perspective.