|
Yggdrasil, the Mighty Tree
Does the name " Yggdrasil " remind you anything? Perhaps, and I say perhaps, those of you who haven' t studied at all any Northern mythology nevertheless have found this particular name somewhere else, for example in the videogame Xenogears made by Square ( Yggdrasil was the name of the vehicle piloted by Bart and his crew ) , or in the manga Ah! Megamisama ( Oh, my Goddess! ) as the central computer system that regolates the flow of time. However, here is a very brief presentation of the Mighty Tree and its roots that, as you' ll be able to realize soon, resemble some " names " appearing in Final Fantasy VII.
According to the Northern mythology I just spoke about, the Yggdrasil is in fact a divine tree which can be considered as the basis of the Known and Un-Known universe. The interesting part is the following: the Tree has three enormous roots that extend in three regions of the universe. These regions where the roots springing from the bottom of the Tree lie in are respectively called Midgard ( the place where human beings - mortals - dwell ) , Jøtunheim ( the land of the giants ) and Niflheim ( the region of death and decay ) . Well, I think you have now realized the point that I wanted to reach: it can' t be called a coincidence that places like Midgar and Nibelheim possess such similar names. There' s obviously a reason for that, and if you try and think for a second you' ll find it immediately. Midgar is just the location of human beings, the humans that rely on the power of science, that suck the Planet' s energy and at last have to face the disaster brought by Meteor - they are " mortals " more than anyone else in the story. And Nibelheim is the place that more than any other location reminds death, sorrow and suffering, being the start-point of the story, " the beginning of your nightmare " as Vincent himself told Cloud about it. It is the saddest place with the worst, most melancholic and heaviest atmosphere in the world of Final Fantasy VII, and Nibelheim, considering the Yggdrasil mythology, is surely a proper name for such a desolated city.
|
|
Copyright © Daniele (DFAT)
Site optimized for 1024x768 screen resolution and Internet Explorer 6.x
Tested on Mozilla 1.6, Netscape Navigator 7.1 and Opera 7.23. The site is correctly displayed by these browsers except for the scrollbar and cursor customization, as well as for the shadow z-index of the Music Cathedral title and the background midi sound (this applies to Mozilla and Netscape only, for Opera displays the z-index perfectly and plays the midi too) .
|