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I have always been very interested in human behaviour, and regardless of religious zeal or lack thereof, we must acknowledge the great impact myth and religion has had - and still has - on human life.

Whereas I view the organised exclusive monotheistic religions as destructive, especielly when associated with social and political issues, a vast variety of so called "nature religions" (viewed as "primitive" by the monotheists) holds much more of functional and less of imperialistic values. Many native mythologies are also quite interesting to study.

Two of my personal favorite myths comes from the Himalayas and East Greenland respectively.

Shangri-La

Although the name Shangri-La was introduced and made popular by the British novel The Lost Horizonas late as 1933, a number of similar legends about a hidden, paradisic valley somewhere beneath the icy peaks of the Himalayas, exist in Tibet, Nepal and China. The local legends call such places Beyul, Shambala, Pemoko or other names depending on language. In Tibet, Beyul is a mythical hidden valley of splendid beuaty. It is said that elder Buddist monks enchanted these places in ancient times, and they are places where peace and spiritual development are facilitated.

I have liked this myth since I was a child, and now when I've visited Tibet and seen several increadibly beautiful small valleys hidden between the huge snowy peaks, it is easy to understand how such myths could spread among the nomadic and semi-nomadic people.

The Tupilaak

Traditionally, people at East Greenland lived in small hunting communities. Each village had a shaman. When the shaman wanted to transfer his powers to a younger adept, he made a tupilaak, a figurine of bone, fur and skin, and enchanted it. This he gave to his adept. However, the tupilaak could also be used as a voodoo doll. If the young adept later came into conflict with the older shaman, the youngster could throw the tupilaak in the sea in order to kill the shaman. One shaman could also make a tupilaak especially for the purpose of terminating an enemy. Killing others by throwing a tupilaak in the sea was a risky business, though. If your enemy was stronger than you, the power of the tupilaak would be reversed and kill you instead.

The Aboriginal Dreamtime also deserves a honourable mention. To my knowledge, the Aborigines have the longest continous culture of all people on earth. What a loss it would have been if the Brits had managed to make them extinct.

So, do you have any favorite myths and legends?

Good picks, CE!

I've always been fascinated by any legend or myth, even if it is only substantiated by the most far-fetched theories. There are several intriguing possibilities surrounding the disappearances of ships and planes around the Bermuda Triangle, and the concept of a sunken continent (Atlantis) is very interesting to me.

Also, in relation to what I just mentioned, I heard today that a fourth Indiana Jones movie has now offiicially been signed on to begin filming. It is rumored to be called "Indiana Jones and The Lost Continent", so I'm assuming it will be about the search for Atlantis. Good stuff.

Mine would have to be...

The Norse myth of Earth's creation

The great frost giant Ymir is slain by Odin and his brothers, Vili and Ve. They make the soil from his flesh, rocks from his teeth. mountains and bones, the ocean from his blood, and his skull from the sky, and trees were made from Ymir's hair. The sky in particular, is made by four dwarves: Nordri, Vestri, Austri, and Sudri, which we respectively as North, West, East, and South. Ymir's eyebrows, surprisingly, are turned into a protective barrier against the giant realms.

Both Dwarves and Elves almost seem to have originated from Norse mythology, or at least are featured greatly within them. Trolls and ogres also play roles, possibly a link to the two creatures being considered giants in Dungeons & Dragons.

Also, there's the tales of Beowulf slaying Grendel and the Arthurian Legends.

[QUOTE=Buck Satan]Good picks, CE!
Also, in relation to what I just mentioned, I heard today that a fourth Indiana Jones movie has now offiicially been signed on to begin filming. It is rumored be called "Indiana Jones and The Lost Continent", so I'm assuming it will be about the search for Atlantis. Good stuff.[/QUOTE]

*sobs into his beer* That's the worse news I have heard all day.

On the subject of myths - the Norse myths always took my fancy. One of my favourites was about Thor and Loki and involved Thrym the Frost Giant King. Loki stole Thor's hammer and gave it to Thrym, who offered it as a wedding gift for his son. Thor disguised himself (at Loki's insistance) as a female frost giant and nearly married Thrym's son - only getting the hammer back at the last moment, and then smiting the giants whilst Loki howled with laughter in the background.

Heh. That Loki.

Cheers all,
TGHO

[QUOTE=The Great Hairy]*sobs into his beer* That's the worse news I have heard all day. [/QUOTE]
Let's just hope that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are able to do it again... and that Harrison Ford can still do an action/adventure flick in his 60's.

[QUOTE=Buck Satan]There are several intriguing possibilities surrounding the disappearances of ships and planes around the Bermuda Triangle,
[/QUOTE]


This would be my top pick, mainly because of the training pilots who went missing. I still believe they got turned around and flew back towards the Gulf of Mexico and then went down.

Second on my list would be the tales from South America. Mainly the city (forgotten the name) in the sky. Built and then abandoned.

[QUOTE=Weasel]Second on my list would be the tales from South America. Mainly the city (forgotten the name) in the sky. Built and then abandoned.[/QUOTE]

City Of El Dorado? Sorry been watching the Disney movie, I think thats suppose to be the city of gold.

I love the ancient Egyptian mythologies and how the rulers managed to weave their political structure around it. Fascinating stuff, one day I would love to go visit the pyramids and the tombs.

[QUOTE=Tamerlane]City Of El Dorado[/QUOTE]


and Machu Picchu

[QUOTE=The Great Hairy]
On the subject of myths - the Norse myths always took my fancy. One of my favourites was about Thor and Loki and involved Thrym the Frost Giant King. Loki stole Thor's hammer and gave it to Thrym, who offered it as a wedding gift for his son. Thor disguised himself (at Loki's insistance) as a female frost giant and nearly married Thrym's son - only getting the hammer back at the last moment, and then smiting the giants whilst Loki howled with laughter in the background.

Heh. That Loki.

Cheers all,
TGHO[/QUOTE]

Oh yes! I was actually read that story in 1st grade, so that's the one that goes back the farthest for me. From what I remember, Freya was being egged on by one side of the whole story to marry Thrym's son, but she refused, and that's when Loki came up with the idea of disguising Thor. Then again, intrerpretations of almost all myths vary.

I must say that I've always had a soft sport for the Atlantis myth.
Something about it that draws me.

Arthurian legends for me. They really are my bread and butter of all the books that i love to read.

Wow, cool stuff.
Like I said, SYM'ers really are my inspiration, perhaps I'll be able to use these legends in my d&d quest.


I myself, like the simple myths. Like the bleeding stone. I forgot where it is, but if you stab the stone it's said that it would bleed.

-Favourite Myth: The Norse.

-Favourite God: Heimdall, The last god to fall in Ragnarok after having defeated Loki.

-Favourite Creature: Nidhogg, the mighty norse dragon which lies around Yggdrasil, The Worldtree.

Well if I could post here. I suppose that I've always been intrested in the ways of the mayans and how they calculated the end of the world in 12-21-2012. I've done lots of research on their past and could probably go on about them, but I won't. I suppose that's the sort of stuff that my mind questions. Things like Nostradamus and anything else that has to do with a sense of predicting the future. Even though it's likely that it's all B.S.

I guess I just look the universe as something more then what I have to go on.

Irish myths are also kinda sucky, like the langauge, things like the giants causeway and finn McCool (Can't remember his Irish name) and those kind of legends. But in saying that my favorite legends would also be norse one but I don't know to much about them.

Both the myth of nordic gods and Atlantis are very interesting.
But I always thought the legends of Merlin and king Arthur was something special

Wow. I guess I'll just have to be a complete stick in the mud and say Greek Mythology and the legends that go along with it. Oooh, but Atlantis...very cool stuff.

For everybody who likes the Arthurian legends, I really recommend reading the early versions by Geoffrey of Monmouth, L'amon/Layamon (spelling varies, about) and Wace, if you haven't already. Few of us can read Latin or old French, but ango saxon English is not so difficult for anyone who knows English well. (For me it was a piece of cake since all words that are not similar to modern English, is Scandinavian )

The most famous version, although not by any means closest to the original, is of course Sir Thomas Malory's "Le morte d'Arthur" from about 1470. Lord Tennyson's romantic version "Idylls of the King" is also well known, and has influenced present the image of Arthurian legend a lot. However, for those of you who are interested in the original version of the myth, I really recommend going back to the older work, it's very nice reading

[QUOTE=C Elegans]However, for those of you who are interested in the original version of the myth, I really recommend going back to the older work, it's very nice reading [/QUOTE]

I agree with you.
I allways read the original versions Even if it sometimes can be a little difficult with the language, I find it most more interesting and giving reading the "true" version of the myth.

Baba Yaga. Out of Ukrainian/Russian legend, she's quite a piece of work: an old, white-haired hag, Baba Yaga (literally, "Grandmother Yaga," the first part being a trad honorific) lived in a hut that sat on 10' high chicken legs. When she wanted to travel, her hut scurried along through the huge, dark forests--or she would occasionally be seen flying about in a giant mortar, using a pestle to sweep the air behind her.

Baba Yaga is sometimes a sneaky, underhanded villain, sometimes a great aid to the hero in Slavic myths. I see her as a third stage (elderly) initiatrix: she teaches valuable lessons, and can always be defeated by or enlisted to help a stalwart hero.

Lemminkainen. One of the most colorful gods, he's short, dark, powerful, mercurial in temperament (not surprisingly), a great spell speaker, an insufferable boaster, an arrant lecher, a noisy, nosy busybody and sulking, egotistical, overgrown child. In contrast to the tales of kindly old, all-knowing Vainamoinen, the stories involving Lemminkainen are full of enthusiasm, desire, success and failure. No odds were too great for Lemminkainen! Once, though, he took on too many enemies, and ended up chopped into pieces like Osiris and sprinked in the river of death, Tuonela, guarded by a black swan. His mother, Ilmatar, procured a kind of superglue from Suonetar to put her darling scamp back together--and he was just as insufferable afterwards, too.