Ginnungagap and the creation of the World

[RU Joe]

Niflheim was the place of snow and ice in the North before our World existed.
To the South was Muspell, an area of fire and heat.
Between these two areas was the great void known as Ginnungagap.



Niflheim had eleven rivers flowing from it into the void, where they froze.
The ice which formed from them often found its way close to Muspell, where it melted.
From these melting drops came Ymir, the Frost Giant, and a giant cow named Audumla.
These two sustained each other: Ymir drank Audumla's milk, and Audumla licked the salty ice of Ymir's body.



Ymir sweated as he slept, and from his sweat more Frost Giants formed.

ONE day, as Audumla licked the ice, it seemed that a form was appearing from within it.
Three days later, Buri was free of that ice, and in time he had a son of his own named Bor. {remember, this is mythology, so it could happen}
Bor married the Frost Giantess Bestla and from these two came the first Gods:
Odin, Vili, and Ve.

Ymir and the other Frost Giants were mean - spirited and evil, and so were hated by the Gods, who attacked and killed Ymir.
As he died, enormous waves of blood ran from his body which washed away and drowned all the other Frost Giants, except Bergelmir, who escaped with his wife in a hollow tree trunk, and they floated away on the river of blood and gore.
From this pair all future Giants would be born.

Odin, Vili, and Ve brought Ymir's body into the center of Ginnungagap, where they used his body to form the World.
His bones were used to form the mountains, and his flesh became the very Earth itself.
His teeth and bone fragments became rocks and stones, and his blood formed the Oceans and rivers.

The Gods saw that there were maggots crawling on Ymir's flesh, and so they changed them into small, Human - like creatures called Dwarfs.
They raised his empty skull over the World to form the sky, and placed 4 Dwarfs named North, South, East and West in charge of holding it eternally in place.
Ymir's brains became what we see as clouds, and his eyebrows were used to form a shield to protect the World from the Giants.
Inside this fortification is our World, Midgard, the realm of Mankind.

The Gods then took some of Muspell's sparks and tossed them into the sky to form the moon, sun and stars.