In the beginning there was the abyss known as the Ginnungagap. It was a void, a place of nothingness. On one side of the abyss was Nivlheim, a foggy and cold place. On the other side was Muspelheim, which was an inferno of fire and smoke.
In Ginnungagap the cold and damp air from Nivlheim met with the heat from Muspellheim and made good living conditions. The drops of water were heated and created a giant jotun named Yme. Also the cow named Audhumla came to life like this. From her ran rivers of milk that Yme could feed from.
The cow licked some salty stones covered by ice and after 3 days a man came out of the stones. The man was named Bure. His son Bor married the daugher of a jotun and had the sons Odin, Vilje and Ve.
Yme was a strange man. His sweat made a jotun and one of his legs had children by the other. That is how the jotuns were created. The sons of Bor cut off Yme's head and the blood drowned all the jotuns except for two.
From Yme's body they made the world. The soil was made by his flesh, the oceans and the seas by his blood, the mountain ranges by his legs, the canyons and stones by his teeth and broken bones. They made the sky from his skull and they set it up above the earth. It had 4 corners, and they left a dwarf to hold each corner. The dwarves names were East, West, North and South.
Then they took flames from Muspelheim and created the sun, the moon and the stars. |