Postcards from Asgard- Retelling the Norse myths: Creation Part 2

At the end of part one, the lands of fire and ice had merged in the great void and the first beings have come to life. Ymir and his children are cold and hungry, now wandering the barren frigid expanse of Ginunngagap. Read PART1

As the frost continued to melt, soon the great cow Audhumbla would emerge. Unlike Ymir She was created from the pure ice, and fire of Muspellheim and Niflheim, free of the poison from Elivigar. Audhmbla would nourish Ymir with her milk. Since no grass or trees existed, she would nourish herself from the salt in the ice. One day it came to be that Audhumla noticed a strange shape buried deep in the ice, and she began to lick . By the end of the first evening she revealed a mans hair, the second day a mans head, and on the third, the whole man was there. Naked and beautiful, huge and powerful. This was Buri, the first of the tribe of the Aesir gods.

Soon after, Buri would have a son, and he would be called Borr. In time the son of Buri would soon find love in the giantess daughter of Bolthorn. Her name was Bestla, and their children would soon change the dark chaotic reality of Ginunngagap. And so was born three brothers , Villi, Ve, and Odin.

This was the world of nothingness, Ginungagap. All of these beings were primal, from them all of the gods Giants and men would descend. They were born between the realms of Muspellheim and Niflheim, those formed within the pure ice and fire were good, like Buri. but those created from the corrupted waters of elvigar were evil. As has been proven all throughout time, good and evil cannot co exist peacefully. And so it was to be that the gods and giants would soon collide in the brutal madness of battle. This war between gods and giants would mean the death of Ymir, and the birth of the world.

Ymir had two sons, Bergelmir and Thrudgelmir, Huge and misshapen, filled with evil intent and without conscience. Their constant roaring, and thundering finally angered Odin, and he went with his brothers to speak with them. They would ask them to make less noise and counsel them to be better neighbors. However the giants veins flowed with the black ice of Elvigar, and their response to Odin’s request for consideration was swift and violent. A battle began that would shake the heavens. During the carnage Ymir was slain, chopped apart by the brother gods. So much blood flowed from Ymirs wounds that his entire family drowned. That is except the youngest Bregelmir, he was able to escape swimming through the torrents of blood, pulling his wife behind him by the hair. When they finally came to a mountain that rose above the ocean of blood, they collapsed on the mountainside. Chests heaving, completely exhausted. They had escaped the wrath of the gods.

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The gods used Ymir’s remains to create the world. They chopped and hammered at the body until they crushed it flat, creating the sweeping plains, they molded the rocky mountain ranges, and carved the deep dry sea beds. Then they squeezed the gray salty blood from his flesh filling the oceans, seas, and eventually the rivers. They gods took his teeth and bones crushing them up creating all the rocks, crags, and sea cliffs. Then by grinding them to powder, they created the sand of the beaches and deserts. From the hair was made trees and bushes. Where the flesh tainted by Elivigar fell crawled maggots, Seeing these creatures the gods gifted them with reason, and these became the races of dwarfs and trolls.

As the gods stepped back to examine their creation they were unimpressed. They found it to be dark and gloomy place. It depressed their spirits. So to make it more inviting they tore the skull from Ymir’s lifeless body and raised it to create the sky. As the three gods held it aloft, Odin ordered four of the recently born dwarfs to support it’s four corners. He named the dwarfs, North, South, East, and West. The gods then tore apart Ymirs brain and threw it to the sky creating the gray clouds.
Odin then took one of the sons of Bergelmir the giant and turned him into an enormous eagle and placed him where the seas ended. He enchanted him to endlessly beat his wings, creating the wind that blows across the earth and moves the waves of the sea. Heaven and earth being created the gods took some of the sparks that erupted from Muspellheim and cast them to the heavens, creating the stars.

The gods then split the world into two realms, The first was named Jotunheim, the land of the giants. They surrounded it with great seas, oceans, and great mountain peaks so the giants and their descendants would have a place to live, but were hemmed in making passage dificult.... so they would be less likely to leave and cause trouble. They took the eyebrows of Ymir and formed them into massive cliffs of Ice and rock creating walls around the center of the earth this great citadel was named Midgard or the middle fortress, this would become the home of women and men.

“California Spring” by Albert Bierstadt (1885)

Thanks for reading! There will be one more installment of creation and world building, then we will move on to the stories of the gods. What happened to Odin's eye? Where did Thor get his hammer? And what the hell was Loki's problem anyway? We will soon find out.