Indo-European origins A
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
Bronze Age grave in Kivik,
Scania,
Sweden.
Jaan Puhvel comments that "ancient myths teem with trite 'first couples' similar to the type of
Adam and his by-product Eve. In Indo-European tradition, these range from the Vedic
Yama and
Yamī and the Iranian
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". 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".
Other potential Germanic analogues Two wooden figures—the
Braak Bog Figures—of "more than human height" were unearthed from a
peat bog at
Braak in
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". A figure named
Æsc (
Old English "ash tree") appears as the son of
Hengest in the
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. Connections have been proposed between Ask and Embla and the
Vandal kings Assi and Ambri, attested in
Paul the Deacon's 7th century AD work . There, the two ask the god
Godan (Odin) for victory. The name
Ambri, like Embla, likely derives from
*Ambilō. 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. ==Modern depictions==