The Norse Gods

    Once a long time ago according to the Old Norse tales, a man called Gylfe, the king of Svithiod, ventured to the home of the gods. There he was told by three beings named Hög, meaning High, Tredje, meaning Third, and Jämnhög, meaning Even Height how the world had been created out of a great void – Ginnungagap…

    Niflheim, a region of cold, mist and darkness was to the north and to the south laid Muspelheim, a region of fire. Out of a spring in Niflheim known as Hvergelmer, eleven glacial rivers sprouted – Svol, Gunnthra, Fiorm, Fimbulthul, Slidr, Hrid, Sylg, Ylg, Vid, Leiptr, and Gioll. They flowed into the northern part of the abyss, filling it layer upon layer deep with ice. At the same time molten material and hot winds carrying flares from Muspelheim flowed into the southern part of Ginnungagap. The mixture of fire and ice in the middle caused the ice to melt into the first two beings – A cow named Audhumbla and a giant named Ymir, who survived by drinking the cow’s milk with his four mouths, while Audhumbla lived off the salty white frost on the rocks of ice.

    Audhumbla’s warm breath formed into the first god, Buri, who began the first dynasty of the gods, the Asa Dynasty. His son, Bor, sired the gods Odin, Vili, and Ve. Ymir, on the other hand, created several creatures of his own. As the giant slept the sweat under his left arm melted into two people, one male and one female, who’s children would be the three fates, similar to the ones in Greek Mythology - Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld, but also Mimir, who would be the one to guard Mimir’s Well, and from his feet sprung a three-headed monster, the future ancestor of the Rimtusarnas, an evil family of giants.

    Odin and his brothers decided to kill the hapless Ymir and then used his giant corpse for the ground of the new world they would create. His blood caused a flood, which washed away all of the Rimtusarnas save for two; Bergelmir and his wife, who escaped on their boat. The flood then became the sea. His skull became the sky, his bones formed the mountains, his brain became clouds and a giant mill whose axis turned the universe ground his bodily tissues into dirt. The brothers named the new world Midgård, meaning Middle Garden or Middle Earth.

    Later on, the three brothers stumbled upon two logs lying on the beach, and from them fashioned the first two humans – Ask, meaning Ash, and Embla, meaning Elm or Vine.

    And so the world of Norse Mythology began. It is a captivating subject, and in many instances runs parallel to Greek or Roman mythology. Norse Mythology used to be the pre-Christian religion of the early Germanic tribes and the Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, and Danish peoples.