Creation

Back in the beginning, before everything else, there were only two places. The first place was a land of fire. It was in the south. The place is called Muspelheim (MOOSE-pell-hime). A giant named Surt lives there. He has a firey sword as a weapon.

In the north was the second place. This place is called Niflheim (NIF-fell-hime). Niflheim is a land of ice and snow. There is a spring in the center of this place. The water from that spring becomes eleven different rivers as it flows out of Niflheim.

Before everything else, there were only these two places, one all made of fire and the other made of ice and snow. Between these two places was a huge gap. This gap is called Ginnungagap (Gin-OON-gah-gap). The rivers of water from Niflheim poured into this gap. Where the fire and the ice met, a great amount of steam blew up. As the rivers chilled, they formed ice and rime, which is salty. Slowly the gap was filled until one day life began. It happened in the center of the gap, where the fire was warm and the ice cool.

The first being was named Ymir (EE-meer). He was an evil frost giant. He was made from the dripping of melting ice. He slept. While he slept a man and a woman were born from his armpits, and another man was born from his legs. These people were the first frost giants. Ymir drank the milk of Audumla (aw-DOOM-lah), a great big cow who was also formed from the melting ice. She licked the salty rime from the ice. Audumla licked and licked. One day a man’s head appeared where the cow had licked the ice away. The cow licked and licked at the ice until three days had gone by and the man was free. His name was Buri (BUH-ree).

Buri was a tall and good looking man. His son was named Bor (boar). Bor was as strong and tall as his father was. He married Bestla (BEST-lah). She was the daughter of one of the frost giants. Bor and Bestla had three strong, healthy boys named Odin (OH-dinn), Vili (VIH-lee) and Ve (vay). These three boys grew up in Ginnungagap, where the fire met the ice. There was no land yet, like the land we have now.

Odin, Vili, and Ve did not like the frost giants. The frost giants were mean. When they grew up and became men, the three brothers attacked Ymir and killed him. Ymir died, and he was so big that his blood made a river that drowned many of the frost giants. Many of the wicked giants died, but two escaped by making a boat out of an old tree trunk and sailing away to a new land. This land they called Jotunheim (JOH-toon-hime) and this is where the frost giants live today.

Odin, Vili, and Ve used the body of the great giant Ymir to make the land. They made earth out of Ymir’s muscles and skin and used his bones to make the mountains. His teeth and jaws, and broken bones, they scattered all around, so there would be rocks. This is why rocks come in so many different sizes. Ymir’s blood became water, and they used that to make oceans and lakes. They wrapped the ocean in a ring right around the earth. It is so big that no one can see across all the water.

They used Ymir’s skull to make the sky. They asked four dwarves to help them hold the sky up forever. The names of the dwarves are the same as the names of the directions, North, East, South, and West. They still hold up the sky today. Ymir’s brains became the fluffy white clouds we see in the sky. Odin, Vili, and Ve took sparks of fire from Muspelheim and threw them up into the sky. These became the stars. Two of the biggest sparks they made into the sun and the moon. The three brothers used Ymir’s eyebrows to make a safe wall around the earth they had made, to protect it from the giants. This earth they called Midgard (MIDD-guard).

One day, the three brothers went for a walk along the beach. They found two trees that had fallen over. One was an ash tree, and the other one was an elm tree. Odin, Vili, and Ve took the trees and made them into a man and a woman. Odin breathed on them and gave them life. Vili gave them intelligence and hearts, so they could think and feel. Ve gave them the gifts of hearing and sight. The man was called Ask, because he came from the Ash tree, and the woman they named Embla (EHM-blah) because they had made her out of the elm. They lived in Midgard and all the people in the world come from them.

There was a giant living in Jotunheim who had a daughter named Night. She had dark hair and dark eyes. She and her third husband, Delling (DEH-ling) had a son named Day. Day was radiant and light skinned. Odin gave Night and Day each a chariot and a horse. Night’s horse is named Hrimfaxi (RIM-fax-ee) and has a frosty mane and tail. Skinfaxi (SKIN-fax-ee) is Day’s horse, and it has a gleaming mane which lights up the sky. Odin had Night and Day chase each other across the sky in their chariots.

A man who lived in Midgard had two children. He named his daughter Sun and his son Moon. Odin and his brothers took Sun and Moon and gave them chariots, too, so they could draw the two biggest sparks taken from Muspelheim. Moon comes first, while Night rides her chariot, and he decides when he will wax (get bigger) and wane (grow smaller).

His sister, Sun, comes next in her chariot, riding next to Day. Sun has two horses to help her draw her chariot. Arvak (AHR-vak) is named that because it rises so early, and the other horse is named Alsvid (AHLS-veed) because he is so strong. Sun is always in a big hurry because there is a wolf chasing her chariot. Skoll (skahl) is the name of that wolf, and he will catch Sun eventually and eat her. Moon is also chased by a wolf, this one is named Hati (HAH-tee). These two wolves are children of a giantess.

There are also dwarves. The three brothers, Odin, Vili, and Ve made them, as well. The dwarves live under the rocks and mountains. The land the dwarves live in is called Svartalfheim (SVAHRT-ahlf-hime).

After the three brothers made all these things, they made themselves a place to live. Asgard (AHZ-guard) is the home of the gods. It is a mighty land, with green fields and palaces. It is above Midgard. A bridge made from a rainbow of light connects Asgard to Midgard. This bridge is named Bifrost (BY-frost). The gods who live in Asgard are called the Aesir (AYS-eer). There are twelve gods and twelve goddesses. Odin is first among them, and is called the Allfather.

A great ash tree connects all of these worlds. This tree is named Yggdrasil (IHG-drah-zihl) and it has three enormous roots, which touch Asgard, Jotunheim, and Niflheim. Its branches reach up and spread over all the worlds. At the very top of the tree lives an eagle. A hawk lives on the eagle’s beak. At the very bottom of the tree is a serpent named Nidhog (NIHD-dog). Nidhog chews on the roots of the tree. There are deer which eat the bark of the tree, and three goddesses, called the Norns (nohrnz), water the tree every day.

A squirrel named Ratatosk (RAT-tah-tossk) lives in Yggdrasil, too. He runs back and forth along the trunk of the tree. He tells the serpent all the insulting names the eagle calls it. Then Ratatosk runs back up the tree to tell the eagle all the bad things the serpent has to say. Every day Ratatosk runs between the serpent and the eagle, along the trunk of Yggdrasil. Ratatosk loves to cause trouble that way.

Yggdrasil is also called the World Tree, because it touches and protects all of the worlds.

-TRK-

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