Norse Mythology, the Creation of the world
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Everyone has an idea as to how the world and everything was made. This is the story of the Vikings and their kin. It is a long story but bear with me, it takes a long time to make a world.
The story begins…
In the beginning the universe was very simple. There was a southern place of heat, fire and lava called Muspelheim and a northern place of ice, cold and darkness called Nilfheilm. In Nilfheilm there was a spring called Hvergelmir from which sprang eleven venomous rivers called the Elivagar. Between these two places was a huge void called Ginnungagap and it was into this chasm that the Elivagar flowed.
The poison and cold from the Elivagar made the northern part of Ginnungagap full of frost ice. The southern part of the void was heated from the and embers that flew from Muspelheim.
The beginning of life
Where the cold and the heat met the ice started to thaw. The liquid that was created turned into the shape of a giant. His name was Ymir and he was a frost giant. He was born evil and all future frost giants would be as him.
While he slept he sweated. The sweat from his armpit became a man and a woman and one of his legs fathered a troll from the other leg1.
While all this was going on the ice was continuing to melt and another creature came into being. This time it was a cow called Audhumbla. Ymir fed from the four rivers of milk that flowed from her udder. Audhumbla herself fed off the salty ice.
On the first day when Audhumbla was licking one of the blocks of ice some man’s hair appeared from the ice. Next day while she licked a man’s head was revealed and on the third day the man was free2. His name was Buir and soon after he had a son called Bor.
By this time there were several frost giants about. One of these, Bolthurn, had a daughter called Bestla and it was her that Bor decided to marry. They had three sons together called Odin3, Villi and Ve.
These three strapping sons never got along with the cruel children of Ymir. There were fights and eventually Odin led his brothers against Ymir and succeeded in killing him. It is because of this that giants and gods would always be enemies.
When Ymir was wounded by Odin, Villi and Ve his blood flowed so fast and in such quantities that all the other giants were killed. All that is except Bergelmir and his houshold who escaped in the very first boat.
The making of the world
The world as we know it was made of Ymir’s body. The three aforementioned brothers dragged Yimr’s body into the very middle of Ginnungegap. There they shaped the world.
The earth was made from Ymir’s flesh and the seas from his blood. They made one large sea that encircled the world. This sea was so wide that no man would ever think to cross it. They then made trees from his hair, mountains from his bones and stones from his teeth.
Over this world they placed a sky that they had fashioned from the enormous skull of Ymir. At each corner4 they placed a dwarf so that the sky wouldn’t fall down. These dwarves were called North, South, East and West.
The three industrious brothers decorated the inside of the sky with embers and sparks from Muspelheim. Some were given specific spots to live whilst others were allowed to roam. These were the stars and planets.
The Inhabitants of the new world
In Ymir’s flesh Odin, Villi and Ve found maggots. These they turned into dwarves and dark elves who were made to live in the earth and mine it’s metals and minerals.
They were given a world each, the dwarves had Nidavellir and the dark elves Svartalfheim. The brothers also found nice creatures in the earth. They called them light elves and gave them a kingdom called Alfheim.
In the world the three brothers and their offspring, called the Aesir, sectioned off a bit and gave it to the frost and rock giants. This area was given the name of Jotunheim. Then the Aesir sectioned off another part of the world. They built strong walls around it with Ymir’s eyebrows. This land was called Midgard and here the grass was green and the sun warm.
One day the Odin and his two brothers were walking along the shore of Midgard when they saw an ash and an elm that had been ripped up, roots and all. They lifted the trees up and made them into the first man and woman. Odin gave them life, Vili gave them hearts, feelings and wit whilst Ve gave them hearing and sight.
Night and Day
In Jotunheim a giantess gave birth to a daughter named Night. Night is sometimes described as beautiful and sometimes ugly like the rest of the giants but everyone agrees that she had black hair and black eyes. Night married three times. First with Neglifari who fathered her son Aud and then with Annar, the father of her second child, Earth. With her third husband, Delling, she had a daughter whom they called Day. Day was as fair as was all of Dellings family. Odin took both Night and Day and gave them chariots and horses and made them ride around the sky. Night’s horse was dark and had a frosty mane whilst Day’s horse had a dazzling mane that lit up the earth.
In Midgard there was a man called Mundilfari who had two children. He thought them so beautiful that he called them Sun and Moon. The Aesir were enraged by Mundilfari’s insolence and grabbed the two children. Sun was made to drive Day’s chariot and Moon was made to drive Night’s chariot. Moon comes first and decides when he will wax and when he will vane. Sun comes after, drivin her two horses Arvak (who rises early) and Alsvid (who is very swift and strong). The Aesir had to insert iron-cold bellows in their shoulder-blades to keep them cool.
The Sun and Moon must always travel swiftly across the sky because at their heels there is a snapping and snarling wolf. The wolf Skoll chases Sun and Hati chases Moon. When Ragnarok comes the wolves will catch these two celestial bodies but until then the wolves must be
content with chasing them.
Land of the Gods
When the world had been made the Gods made themselves a land. It was high above the planes of Midgard and to reach it you had to cross the rainbow-bridge called Bifrost. This land of wonder was called Asgard. It was an emense stronghold sheltered by the world tree Yggdrasil. All the Aesir settled here and Odin, the strongest and wisest was their leader.Thus was the world made….
1Don’t question the biology here, just accept it.2Yet another biological phenomenon3Sometimes spelled Odhinn.4A square skull?!?!
