NORSE
In the very beginning of time . . . there was no Earth as we know it now: there was only Ginnungagap, the Yawning Void. In this moved strange mists which at length drew apart leaving an even deeper Gap, with Muspelheim, the Land of Fire, to the south of it, and Nifelheim, the Land of Mists, to the north of it. . .
Deep down in Ginnungagap lay the well of Life, Hvergelmir, from which flowed rivers which the cruel breath of the north froze into grinding blocks of ice.
As the ages passed, the grinding ice piled up mysteriously above the Well of life and became Ymir, the greatest of all Giants, father of the terrible Frost Giants, and of all the Giant kin.
Ymir grew into life, and with him appeared the magic cow Audumla whose milk was his food. And very soon the ice of Ymir broke off in small pieces and each became a Rime Giant--a father of witches and warlocks, of ogres and trolls.
Audumla herself needed food, and she licked the ice about her and found in it the slat of life that welled up from Hvergelmir.
On the 1st day the she licked the ice there came forth in the evenings the hair of a man; the 2nd day she licked, and in the evening there was a man's head showing; and by the ending of the 3rd day the whole man was there.
He was the 1st of the Aesir, and his name was Buri; he was tall and strong, and very fair to see. His son was called Borr, and this Borr married the giantess Bestla, and they were the mother and father of the Aesir who planted the World Tree, Yggdrasill, and made the Earth.
Borr had 3 sons called Odin, Vili, and Ve, and of these Odin, the Allfather, was the greatest and the most noble.
They fought against Ymir the great Ice Giant, and slew him, and the icy water gushed from his wounds and drowned most of the Rime Giants, except for one who was named Bergelmir. He was wise and clever, and for this reason Odin sparred him. For Bergelmir built himself a boat with a roof, and took shelter in it with his wife and children so that they escaped being drowned in the flood.
But Odin and his brothers thrust the dead Ymir down into the void of Ginnungagap and made of his body the world we live in. Hic ice-blood became the sea and the rivers; his flesh became the dry land and his bones the mountains, while the gravel and stones were his teeth.
Odin and his children set the sea in a ring round about the earth, and the World Tree, the Ash Yggdrasill, grew up to hold it in place, to overshadow it with its mighty branches, and to support the sky which was the ice-blue skull top of Ymir . . .
When Odin had set the stars in their course and had lit the earth with the Sun and Moon, he turned back to the new world which he had made. Already the Giants and other creatures of evil were stirring against him, so he took more of the bones of Ymir and spread the mountains as a wall against Giantland, or Jotunheim. Then he turned back to the land made for men, which he called Midgard or Middle Earth, and began to make it fruitful and fair to see.
Out of Ymir's curly hair he formed the trees, from his eyebrows the grass and flowers, and he set clouds to float in the sky above and sprinkle the Earth with gentle showers.
Then for the making of Mankind, the Allfather Odin took an ash tree and an elder upon the seashore and fashioned from them Ask and Embla, the 1st Man and the 1st Woman. Odin gave them souls, and his brother Vili gave them the power of thought and feeling, while Ve gave them speech, hearing, and sight.
From these 2 came children enough to people Midgard: But sin and sorrow overtook them, for the Giants and other creatures of evil took on the shapes of men and women, and married with them, despite all that Odin could do.
