H.C. Andersen centret

Description of this motif: When Adam and Eve broke God's law in the Garden of Eden and ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of Knowledge, they were abandoned from the Garden. The Fall is a myth, that offers an explaination to some of the facts of life: the suffering in order to stay alive and to give birth and that you will eventually die. These facts are, according to the myth, regarded as a divine punishment for man's obedience. It is interesting, that the myth also shows that curiousity and striving, in short desire, is a fundamental human charateristic, and that man actually won something by the violation, which may also be regarded as a necessary sacrifice, of the law, that is knowledge, the ability to distinguish. Cf. Genesis, 3.