Creation 17
The Chasm There were no Sun, no Moon, no stars, no land or sea. There was only a great yawning void called Ginnungagap.
To the north of Ginnungagap was Niflheim, land of cold mists; to the south was Muspellheim, the land of fire. From Niflheim’ s spring, Hvergelmir, flowed the 11 poisonous rivers of the Elivagar. They emptied into the chasm, froze, and filled it with venomous ice. From Muspellheim came sheets of fire that turned the ice into mists and dense fog.
For millions of years fire and ice interacted with each other until at last there came sparks of life. The first life took the form of a huge, proto-giant, Ymir, and a gigantic cow, Audhumla, that nourished Ymir with her milk. She in turn licked the salty stones around Ginnungagap for nourishment.
As Audhumla licked at the icy, salty stones, she uncovered the hairs of a man’ s head. Soon she uncovered the entire head and finally the whole body of a handsome, manlike creature. He was Buri, the ancestor of the gods.
Buri produced a son named Bor, who married a giantess, Bestla, who gave him three sons, Odin, Vili, and Ve, the first gods.
Meanwhile, as Ymir slept, hordes of hideous giant children sprouted from his body. They were the Hrimthurssar, also known as the rime-giants or frost giants.
Odin and his brothers, the sons of Bor, quarreled with the unruly gang of giants. Finally, they attacked and killed Ymir, the father of them all. Immense floods of blood spurted from the fallen giant and drowned all the rime-giants except Bergelmir and his wife, who rode out the flood on a hollowed tree trunk.
Odin, Vili, and Ve dragged Ymir’ s huge body to Ginnungagap, and there they set about creating the worlds. They made the earth from his flesh, mountains and hills from his bones, and rocks and boulders from his teeth. His curly hair became leafy trees and all vegetation. The lakes and seas and oceans were made from his blood.
Sky Then they made the sky’ s dome from Ymir’ s skull and flung his brains aloft to make the clouds. Snorri says the four dwarfs Nordi, Sudri, Austri, and Vestri held up the four corners of the sky. The four points of the compass— north, south, east, and west— are named after these dwarfs. The gods took sparks and embers from Muspellheim’ s fires and made the Sun, Moon, and stars.
Jotunheim The new gods, the sons of Bor, gave to the new generation of giants, known as the Jotun— the race founded by Bergelmir— the land named Jotunheim. They asked that the giants stay there.
Midgard Then they put Ymir’ s eyebrows around a green piece of land, forming a pleasant enclosure they called Midgard, or Middle Earth.
Night and Day Once the gods had created the world and placed the Sun and Moon in the sky, they made night and day.
Nott( Night) was a beautiful giantess with a dark complexion and hair of midnight black. She was the daughter of Narfi, one of the first giants. She married three times. Her first husband was Naglfari, father of Aud. Her second was annar, father of Jord. With her third husband, Delling, she had a son named Dag( Day).
The gods sent Nott and Dag into the heavens in horse-drawn chariots to ride around the world. They created darkness and light, as one followed the other through the skies.
Nott drove first, with her lead horse, Hrimfaxi. The froth from his bit fell to Earth as dewdrops. After Nott came Dag with his horse, Skinfaxi. His golden glow lit up the heavens and the Earth.
Sun and Moon The gods placed the Sun and the Moon in chariots, also drawn by splendid horses. The horses were driven by Sol and Mani, the daughter and the son of a man from Midgard whose name was Mundilfari.
Sol’ s horses were Arvakr and Alsvid. A shield, Svalin, in front of Sol’ s chariot protected her from the Sun, whose brilliant rays would have burned her to a cinder. Mani’ s horse was Aldsvider.
Mani, the man of the Moon, stole two Earth children to help him drive his chariot. Their names were Bil and Hjuki.
Sun and Moon could never pause in their journeys across the heavens, for they were forever pursued by the terrible wolves Skoll and Hati Hroduittnisson. Each month Hati, it was said, took a bite out of the Moon and tried to gobble it up. But the Moon escaped and grew whole again. In the end the wolves devour both Sun and Moon and cast the world into darkness at ragnarok.
The First Humans The first man was Ask( Ash) and the first woman, Embla( Elm). The first three Aesir gods, Odin, Vili, and Ve, created them.
The gods were walking along the seashore when they saw two tree trunks lying at the edge of the