Hey dear Hive community, first of all I would like to welcome you all to my contribution and hope you had a day that brought some positive experiences into your life! Today I would like to discuss the Nordic mythology and hope you can expand your knowledge a little.
In pretty much all cultures, the blacksmith appears and has also strongly influenced mythology and also in Norse mythology the blacksmiths have an important meaning and there are some differences from other cultures and in order to better illustrate the topic I have created some works of art with the help of artificial intelligence. According to some traditions, even before the creation of humanity, there were forges in which tools were made by gods that were important for the creation of the world and the blacksmith was often revered as the creator of the world and it is noticeable that, unlike in other cultures, there were no almost no own deities related to this craft as in the Greek mythology the god Hephaestus. In Norse mythology, dwarves were particularly revered who live in the underground in mountains or caves and were rarely seen and did their work there with the help of their magical powers and the best-known of them are probably Brokkr and Sindri who created numerous works for gods or kings. The dwarves had magical powers and they also combined them with their works and they produced numerous pieces of jewelry or weapons and, among other things, they also created the golden ring of Odin and they were very well known for their nimbleness and attention to detail. When the dwarves were at work, you could already hear the hammer sounds far away and the dwarves were also used as inspiration for numerous artists and you can find many legends or fairy tales that had been inspired by the Norse mythology. There is often talk of the giant Mimir and once he was one of the protectors of the roots of the well-known tree Yggdrasill which is also known as the world tree and it is suspected that Mimir was generally revered as the deity of nature or forests and in addition he was also revered as a blacksmith. He was also considered very wise and some were so fascinated by his work that they had decided to learn from him and among his best-known students were Sigfrit and Wayland, which also has an important status and Wayland the Smith is also described in legends as a semi-divine being and is often regarded as the equivalent of Hephaestus. There are also always connections to other cultures and even if Finnish mythology is not a separate branch of Norse mythology, there are numerous parallels and this even when it comes to creation and here the blacksmith Ilmarinen was revered, which is considered the creator of the Sampo, which is also revered as a magical mill. The blacksmith as the creator of magical works or beings with magical powers has shaped the idea of many cultures when it comes to the shamanism and it is suspected that there are also connections to Norse mythology here and on the model of old Norse legends, numerous fairy tales have emerged which can still be found around the globe today.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read through my post and I hope you like it and can learn something new about this important topic!