The brothers were pleased with their world and decided to create new people to inhabit this world. This is sometimes written in modern English as Middle Earth. They called this world Midgard, the “Middle Yard,” because it was in the center of Yggdrasil and because the middle was enclosed like a safe yard. They used Ymir’s eyebrows to make a protective wall that encircled the new world and keep it safe from attack. The brothers knew that their new world needed to be made safe from the jötnar, many of whom were still malicious. Short grass and tall trees were all made from the giant’s hairs. Ymir’s hair and beard were used to form plants. They would be carried in chariots by later gods. In other accounts, the sun and moon were made from Ymir’s eyes. These became the sun, moon, and stars that gave light to the world. The brothers captured sparks that flew up from Muspelheim and placed them in the new sky. The brains that remained in it floated through the space as clouds that floated through it. The giant’s skull was placed over the new world to make the dome of the sky. Great mountain ranges and tall cliffs were sculpted in this way. The gods used his bones and teeth to make mountains and fjords. His blood was collected and contained to make seas and rivers. Ymir’s body became the surface of the land. Odin and his brothers decided to use it to make a new world, the first to be made after the primordial worlds. Ymir’s body took up a large area in the center of Ginnungagap. Only a few remained, and they became the ancestors of the jötnar. The blood that spilled from Ymir’s body washed away most of the cruel frost giants. Although he was large and powerful, they easily defeated him. The three brothers decided to kill Ymir so they no longer had to suffer his abuse. In dealing with Ymir, the three gods ended up creating the first world in the center of Ginnungagap. The ancestral giant was also unkind and demanding. The three young gods had no home of their own and were outnumbered by Ymir’s often cruel offspring. Together, they had three sons named Odin, Vili, and Vé. The first jötnar, or giants, were born from his sweat.īorr’s wife Bestla was likely one of these early giants. This became the first god, Búri, who went on to have a son named Borr. The ice slowly began to take shape as Auðumla licked it. Auðumla subsisted by licking the salty ice that accumulated on Niflheim. Then came an enormous cow that was known as Auðumla. First, the giant Ymir emerged from the mist. In Ginnungagap, this mist slowly began to coalesce into two distinct shapes. The rising warmth made the ice beneath Niflheim slowly melt, and the dripping water evaporated into mist when it fell toward Muspelheim’s fires. The heat of Muspelheim and the frozen ice of Niflheim eventually began to interact. Muspelheim on the opposite extreme was a realm of fire.Īccording to some accounts, both of these worlds were eventually inhabited by a race of giants well-suited to the extreme temperatures. The ground froze solid and no living thing could survive the extreme temperatures. Niflheim, the land of mists, was a realm of ice and fog. Eventually, these areas became the first primordial worlds. The higher regions of Ginnungagap were bitterly cold while the lower area grew increasingly hot. Before they were created, however, there was a vast empty space called Ginnungagap. The Primordial WorldsĪccording to the Norse creation myth, the Nine Worlds were created around Yggdrasil, the great World Tree. They would truly come together, however, when the people of at least four worlds fought on Midgard at Ragnarök. While the worlds were generally separated, some travel between them was possible for the gods. They were the homelands of various mythological races, but exactly what they were called and who lived there is sometimes open to debate. The remaining four worlds are less clearly identified. Each of the two coexisting pantheons made their homes in their own world. This was the home of the human race and the only world that most humans were aware of.īefore Midgard was made, two primordial worlds existed. The most important of these, at least as far as Norse writers were concerned, was Midgard. Most scholars identify the Nine Worlds of Norse creation as being the homes of the various races mentioned in the legends. The phrase Nine Worlds is used often in describing Norse cosmology.
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