130
FROM YMIR’S
FLESH THE
EARTH WAS
MADE
CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE
B
efore the Christianization
of Scandinavia in the 10th
and 11th centuries, the
Norse had an oral tradition rich
with their own mythologies, which
were frequently epic and violent.
Even in their creation myth, an act
of murder committed by the gods
plays a central role.
The fullest version of the Norse
creation myth is told in Snorri
Sturluson’s Prose Edda. According
to Snorri, before the beginning of
time, only the world of Muspelheim
existed, guarded by the primeval
fire giant Surt. Ages passed before
the world of Niflheim was made.
While the myths do not say who orIN BRIEF
THEME
The creation of the worldSOURCE
Prose Edda, Snorri Sturluson,
ca. 1220 ce.SETTING
The beginning of time.CHARACTERS
Ymir The first of the race
of frost giants.Odin Son of the giant Bor; one
of the first of the gods. The
most famous of Bor’s sons, he
fathered numerous offspring
with many lovers.Vili Son of the giant Bor, and
one of the first of the gods.Vé Son of the giant Bor, and
one of the first of the gods.Ask The first man, created
by Odin, Vili, and Vé.Embla The first woman,
created by Odin, Vili, and Vé.US_130-133_Creation_of_the_world.indd 130 05/12/17 4:15 pm
131
See also: Origin of the universe 18–23 ■ Pangu and the creation of the world 214–15 ■ Cherokee creation 236–37 ■
Ta’aroa gives birth to the gods 316–17what created the two worlds, they
do highlight the contrast between
Muspelheim, a world of fire, and
Niflheim, a world of ice.
Between the two worlds was
Ginnungagap, the primordial void.
Eleven rivers rose from a spring
called Hvergelmir and flowed into
this void from Niflheim, carrying
with them streams of poison. The
rivers froze as they reached the
void, and poisonous vapors rising
from them formed rime (frozen fog).
The northern part of Ginnungagap
therefore became choked with
layers of ice and rime.
The southern part of the void,
close to Muspelheim, was hot
enough to melt rock, but the
middle, halfway between the ice of
the north and fire of the south, was
mild: here the ice began to melt
and drip. The heat from the southcaused life to quicken in the drops
and they took the form of a giant
named Ymir. He became the
ancestor of the race of frost giants.Ymir’s descendants
While Ymir slept, a male and a
female giant formed from the sweat
under his left armpit, and one of his
legs fathered a son on the other leg.
This was not all: as the ice in
Ginnungagap continued to melt,
a cow emerged. She was calledNORTHERN EUROPE
Audhumla, and she was nourished
by licking the salty ice. The four
rivers of milk that flowed from her
teats fed Ymir.
By the evening of the first day,
Audhumla’s licking had revealed
the hair of another giant. During
the second day, his head emerged,
and, on the third day, the whole
giant arose. His name was Búri.
Búri was big, strong, and beautiful.
He fathered a son called Bor—no
mother is mentioned but she was ❯❯Ymir suckles from the teat of the cow
Audhumla in this 1777 depiction by
Nicolai Abildgaard. This neoclassical
Danish painting also shows other frost
giants, descendants of Ymir, being
born from the ice of Ginnungagap.The Prose Edda was written
by the Icelandic historian and
politician Snorri Sturluson
(1179–1241) as a handbook for
composing skaldic verse, a form of
bloodthirsty heroic poetry popular
in the Viking age (c. 800–1100ce).
Skaldic verse relied heavily on
allusions to Norse mythology for
its imagery, but knowledge of
such myths had declined since the
introduction of Christianity, and
with it, so had the popularity of
skaldic verse. Snorri hoped that
by recording the myths he could
revive the genre, but his attempts
were largely unsuccessful.Most of Snorri’s sources are
unknown—some were oral
traditions, now lost—but his
work shows a knowledge of the
older Poetic Edda. Snorri, a
devout Christian, framed these
stories so as to avoid any
charges of heresy: his myths
were interpreted as stories
originally told about ancient
human heroes who used a
variety of tricks to pass
themselves off as gods. This
approach to interpreting
mythology, called euhemerism,
interprets characters from myth
as having origins in real people.The Prose Edda
US_130-133_Creation_of_the_world.indd 131 05/12/17 4:15 pm