Can't Get Over the Rainbow Myths Quiz

Answer: Bifröst

Bifröst was said to be a burning or shimmering bridge that joined Midgard, or earth, with the realm of the gods, Asgard. The bridge ended up at the home of Heimdallr, the god who was looking out for the onset of Ragnarök, when it was prophesied that Bifröst would be destroyed.
Fólkvangr was a meadow ruled over by Freyja where some humans went who died in combat.
Yggdrasil was the holy tree connecting the worlds.

Answer: Myanmar

The Karen say to their children that the rainbow is a painted demon that will eat them or drink them up. The Karen people have lived in what is now Myanmar for centuries. There are around 5 million of them in the country. In common with other ethnic groups in Myanmar, the Karen have been in conflict with the government. Many have crossed the border to Thailand.

Answer: serpent

The Aboriginal cultures had many names for the rainbow serpent or snake, such as Julunggul, Galeru and Wagyl. The rainbow serpent was a creator responsible for the seasons and for water. When a rainbow appeared in the sky, the serpent was thought to be moving between waterholes.

Answer: Hawaiian

Anuenue is the personification of the rainbow in Hawaiian mythology. She can sometimes manifest herself as a woman draped in rainbow colours. She rules over a set of dwarf spirits and is a benevolent goddess associated with healing. Anuenue is the sister of the gods Kane (chief god and god of creation), Ku (god of war) and Lono (god of peace and fertility).

Answer: Iris

Iris was a messenger for the Olympian gods, who travelled down a rainbow to take messages to mortals. As the link between the humans and the gods, she was felt to be worth praying to if someone had a matter that needed help from the gods. She is referred to in "The Iliad", but Hermes took on messenger duties in "The Odyssey".

There are around 300 species of iris, a plant so-named presumably because of the wide variety of colours it can be found in.

Answer: Mosquito Coast

The Mayangna people are also known as Sumo or Sumu. When they see a rainbow in the sky, they keep their children inside because of the danger of an angry devil causing them harm.

Evidence shows that the Mayangna have been in Central America since 2000BC. They occupied most of the Mosquito Coast in the 16th century AD, but have been forced into the margins, so they now occupy remote locations.

The Mosquito Coast is named after the Miskito, another indigenous ethnic group, who have displaced the Mayangna.

Answer: True

This is one of those funny things people say, rather than believe, I think, related to the wonder of a rainbow - it looks so amazing, surely it must mean something? Bulgarians say that a man walking under a rainbow will start to think like a woman, and vice versa.

They also have a saying that when the sun shines and there is a shower that a bear is getting married. Bulgaria has a rich mixture of Eastern Orthodox Christianity and ancient pagan customs, like the Nestinarstvo, where people walk on embers.

Answer: Sumerian

Ninurta was worshipped in Sumer as the god of agriculture, the south wind, war and hunting. Mainly aggressive, he was also associated with healing. His weapons were bows and arrows and a mace, and he wore a rainbow crown.

Sumer is the oldest known civilization from Mesopotamia, in what is now Iraq, and one of the oldest known civilizations worldwide. There is Sumerian writing that was created in around 3000BC. Sumer may have been settled as far back as 5500BC.

Answer: Indra

Many mythologies have a god of the skies or thunder. Zeus is from Greek mythology, Thor from Norse, and Perun from Slavic. Indra was king of the gods and heaven in early religious texts. He was later supplanted in Hinduism by Krishna, and was downgraded to god of the rains.

Answer: orange and indigo

Newton used a prism to split white light and observed the same colours as he saw in the rainbow. The spectrum is a continuum, and humans can distinguish dozens of colour changes within it. Historically, depending on their perspective, people had said a rainbow had one, two, three, four or five colours. Newton identified five: red, yellow, green, blue and violet.

He later added orange and indigo to fit the Greek sophist theories about the harmony of the universe - seven days of the week, seven notes in music, seven planets - that sort of thing. ROYGBIV has widespread acceptance as a rainbow descriptor, though dissenters have criticised the 7-colour selection as arbitrary and non-scientific.

The Chinese still say there are five colours in the rainbow.