Editing Ask and Embla (section)

==Theories==
[[Image:Sölvesborg Ask och Embla2.jpg|thumb|upright|"Ask och Embla" (1948) by [[Stig Blomberg]]]]

===Indo-European origins===
A [[Proto-Indo-Europeans|Proto-Indo-European]] basis has been theorized for the duo based on the etymology of ''embla'' meaning "vine." In Indo-European societies, an analogy is derived from the drilling of fire and [[sexual intercourse]]. Vines were used as a flammable wood, where they were placed beneath a drill made of harder wood, resulting in fire. Further evidence of ritual making of fire in [[Scandinavia]] has been theorized from a depiction on a stone plate on a [[The King's Grave|Bronze Age grave in Kivik]], [[Scania]], [[Sweden]].<ref name="SIMEK74">Simek (2007:74).</ref>

[[Jaan Puhvel]] comments that "ancient myths teem with trite 'first couples' similar to the type of [[Adam and Eve|Adam and his by-product Eve]]. In Indo-European tradition, these range from the Vedic Yama and Yamī and the Iranian [[Mashya and Mashyana|Mašya and Mašyānag]] to the Icelandic Askr and Embla, with trees or rocks as preferred raw material, and [[dragon]]'s teeth or other bony substance occasionally thrown in for good measure".<ref name="PUHVEL-284">Puhvel (1989 [1987]:284).</ref>

In his study of the comparative evidence for an origin of mankind from trees in Indo-European society, Anders Hultgård observes that "myths of the origin of mankind from trees or wood seem to be particularly connected with ancient Europe and Indo-Europe and Indo-European-speaking peoples of Asia Minor and Iran. By contrast the cultures of the Near East show almost exclusively the type of anthropogonic stories that derive man's origin from clay, earth or blood by means of a divine creation act".<ref name="HULTGAARD-62">Hultgård (2006:62).</ref>

===Other potential Germanic analogues===
Two wooden figures—the [[Braak Bog Figures]]—of "more than human height" were unearthed from a [[peat bog]] at [[Braak, Schleswig-Holstein|Braak]] in [[Duchy of Schleswig|Schleswig]], [[Germany]]. The figures depict a nude man and a nude woman. [[Hilda Ellis Davidson]] comments that these figures may represent a "Lord and Lady" of the [[Vanir]], a group of Norse gods, and that "another memory of [these wooden deities] may survive in the tradition of the creation of Ask and Embla, the man and woman who founded the human race, created by the gods from trees on the seashore".<ref name="DAVIDSON-88-89">Davidson (1975:88—89).</ref>

A figure named [[Oisc of Kent|Æsc]] ([[Old English language|Old English]] "ash tree") appears as the son of [[Hengist and Horsa|Hengest]] in the [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] genealogy for the kings of [[Kent]]. This has resulted in a number of theories that the figures may have had an earlier basis in pre-Norse [[Germanic mythology]].<ref name=ORCHARD8>Orchard (1997:8).</ref>

Connections have been proposed between Ask and Embla and the [[Vandals|Vandal]] kings Assi and Ambri, attested in [[Paul the Deacon]]'s 7th century AD work ''[[Origo Gentis Langobardorum]]''. There, the two ask the god [[Wōdanaz|Godan]] (Odin) for victory. The name ''Ambri'', like Embla, likely derives from ''*Ambilō''.<ref name=SIMEK74/>

===Catalog of dwarfs===
A stanza preceding the account of the creation of Ask and Embla in ''Völuspá'' provides a catalog of [[Dwarf (Germanic mythology)|dwarfs]], and stanza 10 has been considered as describing the creation of human forms from the earth. This may potentially mean that dwarfs formed humans, and that the three gods gave them life.<ref name="LINDOW62-63">Lindow (2001:62—63).</ref> Carolyne Larrington theorizes that humans are metaphorically designated as trees in Old Norse works (examples include "trees of jewellery" for women and "trees of battle" for men) due to the origin of humankind stemming from trees; Ask and Embla.<ref name=LARRINGTON279>Larrington (1999:279).</ref>