World Amazing Top Facts

Faith, mythology, tribal legends have all handed down stories through the generations. Stories of places long forgotten in time and physical presence, but places that we still believe in. This list presents some of those Mythological Places.

10. Hawaiki

Hawaiki is perhaps the single most important land in the Maori culture and is is deeply associated with the cycle of birth, life and death in the Maori traditions as the place where all people were born and where all go after death on earth. Hawaiki is the home of the Maori gods and major figures of tribal mythology and traditions, including Maui, Tawhaki, Tiki and Rata. In some traditions Hawaiki is said to be a physical place, an island, from which the Maori people originated before arriving in New Zealand. Similar legends regard it as an actual island located east of new Zealand somewhere in Polynesia, while others believe that Hawaiki is actually in New Zealand itself. However different the beliefs in its physical location may be, the common shared belief is that Hawaiki is source and origin of life and a special place of mystical power. The legends and traditions associated with the Maori people are passed down the generations with Hawaiki as a focal point, which earns this place a true status in mythology. More detail can be found here.

9. Asgard and Valhalla

Asgard is famous as the home of the Norse gods and home to Odin, father of Thor the God of Thunder and the King of the Gods in Norse mythology. This is the place where warriors who die meritoriously in battle and people of particular standing and valor go after death. The newly arrived enter at Valhalla, the Hall of the Heavens for warriors and nobility, which is located in Asgard. Although the Norse legends have been in place for over 1,000 years, since before the time of the Vikings, it is only relatively recently that these mythological places have become well known to other cultures, as the primary sources regarding Asgard come from the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Icelandic author Snorri Sturluson, and the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from a basis of much older Skaldic poetry. Asasgard of legend met its fate during Ragnarok, during which time a battle took place, Asgard was destroyed and sunk into the ocean.

8. Annwn

In Welsh mythology Annwn is the Otherworld: the realm of the dead, the home of the deities, the stronghold of other spirits and beings. Tales and folklore describe it as existing over the western sea, or at other times underground (such as in the Sídhe mounds) or right alongside the world of the living, but invisible to most humans. This is the Celtic legend of the pre-Christian Britons, handed down through generations and folklore, as well as a written history in medieval Welsh manuscripts such as the Red Book of Hergest, the White Book of Rhydderch, the Book of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin. As to the exact location, some claim that the door to Annwn was at the mouth of the Severn near Lundy Island or on Glastonbury Tor. Glastonbury has been interpreted by some as a sacred “Isle of the Dead”, and is also revered as a place where saints and kings are buried. Supposedly, on a certain day of the year, this door would open, and the inhabitants would welcome humans in for feasting and celebration, upon the condition that they took nothing back with them to the human realm. This went on until one reveller kept a flower in his pocket. From that day on, the door has remained closed.