Norse Creation Myth
Norse Creation Myth
At the beginning of time, nothing existed. The earth, the gentle oceans lapping up against its shores, man and animal had not yet been created. Only a great yawning abyss was present in the void of nothingness. Out of the abyss, a land of eternal mist, darkness and terrible cold was formed to the North; to all beings, this land was known as Niflheim. In the midst of the Dark Land surged a fountain known as Hvergelmir, from which spread the freezing glacial waters of twelve rivers throughout the void. To the South lay the land of Fire, Muspellsheim; an infernal region of unbearable, insatiable heat and flames. From there poured rivers of fire whose waters contained a bitter poison which, little by little, gathered and became a solid mass. From the ice flowing from the North, this mass of venom was covered in a thick layer of frost. With the heat blowing from the lands of Fire, the frost began to melt, and the giant Ymir was born from poison and ice.
Ymir became the father of all giants. On the night of his creation, he fell asleep near the lands of the South and became completely bathed in sweat: from under his left arm were born man and woman, both giants like him. At the same time, the block of ice from which he was born gave forth the great cow Audumla, the wet nurse of the giants. Ymir refreshed himself from her udders at the beginning of every day, which flowed with life-giving milk. Audumla began to lick the salt from the ice to nourish herself, and the heat of her tongue and breath yielded first the hair, then the head, and finally the entire body of a being whose name was Buri. Buri had a son whose name was Bor, who went on to marry Ymir's daughter, Bestla. With her, he fathered the three gods Odin, Vili and Ve.
The three sons of the Giants' race at once began to rebel against their creators, which ended in the annihilation of the Giants. They first killed the aged Ymir. So much blood flowed from his shattered body that the abyss was
At the beginning of time, nothing existed. The earth, the gentle oceans lapping up against its shores, man and animal had not yet been created. Only a great yawning abyss was present in the void of nothingness. Out of the abyss, a land of eternal mist, darkness and terrible cold was formed to the North; to all beings, this land was known as Niflheim. In the midst of the Dark Land surged a fountain known as Hvergelmir, from which spread the freezing glacial waters of twelve rivers throughout the void. To the South lay the land of Fire, Muspellsheim; an infernal region of unbearable, insatiable heat and flames. From there poured rivers of fire whose waters contained a bitter poison which, little by little, gathered and became a solid mass. From the ice flowing from the North, this mass of venom was covered in a thick layer of frost. With the heat blowing from the lands of Fire, the frost began to melt, and the giant Ymir was born from poison and ice.
Ymir became the father of all giants. On the night of his creation, he fell asleep near the lands of the South and became completely bathed in sweat: from under his left arm were born man and woman, both giants like him. At the same time, the block of ice from which he was born gave forth the great cow Audumla, the wet nurse of the giants. Ymir refreshed himself from her udders at the beginning of every day, which flowed with life-giving milk. Audumla began to lick the salt from the ice to nourish herself, and the heat of her tongue and breath yielded first the hair, then the head, and finally the entire body of a being whose name was Buri. Buri had a son whose name was Bor, who went on to marry Ymir's daughter, Bestla. With her, he fathered the three gods Odin, Vili and Ve.
The three sons of the Giants' race at once began to rebel against their creators, which ended in the annihilation of the Giants. They first killed the aged Ymir. So much blood flowed from his shattered body that the abyss was