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I don't have a question but I was reading about J.R.R. Tolkien and it's books, and I found many similarities with our scriptures. I am not even sure that is it debatable or not.

Now like, most of the stories of Tolkien are based on Norse mythology. and

  • they have Elves, in our scriptures we have 'Deva's'
  • they have Orcs, in our scriptures we have 'Danvas'
  • Humans

elves are immortal, royal and oppressed with Gold, so does our devas.

orcs are ugly and filthy fanged humanoids. so does our rakshasa's.

Edit-1

As my friend Arkaprabha suggested, there are more things in common like swarg and valhalla, ragnarok and pralay etc.

So, I was just curious that is it really connected to each other or just coincidence.

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    The question pertains partly to Hinduism - "Are our scriptures and the Norse Mythology work Edda really connected or is it mere coincidence?" I have accordingly edited the question and recommend the question be left open. Aug 14, 2018 at 4:00
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    This is not a cross religion question. Asking similarities between religions is on-topic. Question was fine as it was.There was no need of new additions into the question. Aug 14, 2018 at 4:26

1 Answer 1

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I do not know about Tolkien, because Tolkien is merely fantasy and Lord Of The Rings is not a source on Norse Mythology. The real source of Norse Mythology is the Poetic Edda, which is just another oral transmission, just like our Scriptures. But the Edda is a combination of Shruti and Smriti as known from the introduction section of Henry Adams Bellows' translation of the Poetic Edda:

Icelandic tradition, however, persisted in ascribing either this Edda or one resembling it to Snorri's much earlier compatriot, Sæmund the Wise (1056-1133). When, early in the seventeenth century, the learned Arngrimur Jonsson proved to everyone's satisfaction that Snorri and nobody else must have been responsible for the work in question, the next thing to determine was what, if anything, Sæmund had done of the same kind. The nature of Snorri's book gave a clue. In the mythological stories related a number of poems were quoted, and as these and other poems were to all appearances Snorri's chief sources of information, it was assumed that Sæmund must have written or compiled a verse Edda--whatever an "Edda" might be--on which Snorri's work was largely based.

So matters stood when, in 1643, Brynjolfur Sveinsson, Bishop of Skalholt, discovered a manuscript, clearly written as early as 1300, containing twenty-nine poems, complete or fragmentary, and some of them with the very lines and stanzas used by Snorri. Great was the joy of the scholars, for here, of course, must be at least a part of the long-sought Edda of Sæmund the Wise. Thus the good bishop promptly labeled his find, and as Sæmund's Edda, the Elder Edda or the Poetic Edda it has been known to this day.

Since this has no sources in written form, I will quote what my Norse occult friend practitioner had told me, when we had a coven meeting :-

".......and thus they were written down by the shamans who could visit those realms and traverse the entire Yggdrasil in a single command of their mind......."

This resembles a lot of what our Vedas are, Apaurusheya.

Another excerpt from Bellows' book reads:

There is even less agreement about the birthplace, authorship and date of the Eddic poems themselves than about the nature of the existing collection. Clearly the poems were the work of many different men, living in different periods; clearly, too, most of them existed in oral tradition for generations before they were committed to writing. In general, the mythological poems seem strongly marked by pagan sincerity, although efforts have been made to prove them the results of deliberate archaizing; and as Christianity became generally accepted throughout the Norse world early in the eleventh century, it seems altogether likely that most of the poems dealing with the gods definitely antedate the year 1000.

This is similar to Puranas, wherein many episodes of gods and heroes are mentioned. And the characters have a similar theme, righteous vs unrighteous. While we have races in Hindu mythology, Devas, Danavas, Asuras, Rakshasas the Norse too had their own, Aesir, Vanir, Jötunn etc.

Wikipedia, a seemingly liberal and rational site mentions :

The afterlife is a complex matter in Norse mythology. The dead may go to the murky realm of Hel, a realm ruled over by a female being of the same name, may be ferried away by valkyries to Odin's martial hall Valhalla, or may be chosen by the goddess Freyja to dwell in her field Fólkvangr. The goddess Rán may claim those that die at sea, and the goddess Gefjon is said to be attended by virgins upon their death. Texts also make reference to reincarnation. Time itself is presented between cyclic and linear, and some scholars have argued that cyclic time was the original format for the mythology. Various forms of a cosmological creation story are provided in Icelandic sources, and references to a future destruction and rebirth of the world - Ragnarok - are frequently mentioned in some texts.

This is interesting.

The Ragnarok is a similar parallel to Pralaya. And the cyclic timeline is similar to Hindu concept of Yugas, although their timelines are not divided into four halves of decreasing harmony/order/righteousness (Dharma, in short). The different places of death may be similar to the destination of a person in Hinduism, according to his deeds, either going to Naraka or Chandraloka or even Vaikuntha. In Norse religion (I won't call it mythology) Odin's hall Valhalla is considered to be the highest honor one can get. And once they are reborn, they can carry out their duties in Midgard (earth) again.

For more info, refer to this site - https://gangleri.nl/articles/32/asatru-and-hinduism/

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    this is quiet a good info, regarding valhala and swarga, ragnarok and pralaya, I believe it's also something in much like the same way.
    – Bharat
    Aug 13, 2018 at 14:53
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    I am a follower of multiple syncretism. Combining Hinduism with Norse, Greek, Chinese and Abrahamic faiths. So I am basically interested in all of these. Truth is one, no one can monopolize on it. They just have different ways of expression.
    – user9072
    Aug 13, 2018 at 23:49
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    very true, even mandarin scripture contains monkey king, similar to our Hanumanjee.
    – Bharat
    Aug 14, 2018 at 5:21
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    Taoist scriptures also contain the Xian - the 8 immortals of China who were verily men and women, but ascended to the level of divinities through Daoist practices and austerities. This is similar to Rishis and Gurus who verily reach the divine through themselves.
    – user9072
    Aug 14, 2018 at 15:46
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    No they are not. The Saptarshis were designated for a specific purpose. The Xian are just ascended humans.
    – user9072
    Aug 14, 2018 at 16:01

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