Mythology Book

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 or

IN BRIEF

THEME

The creation of the world

SOURCE

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.

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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 316–17

what 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 south

caused 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 called

NORTHERN 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

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