According to Scandinavian myths, before this world was created, there was nothing - only a gaping abyss, whose name is Ginnungagap. Before the creation of the world there was then neither land nor sea; the grass did not grow and the heavenly Firmament did not rise above it.
But one day, in the north of the world abyss, Niflheim, the Dark World, arose, and in the south, the hot and glowing Muspellheim, the Fiery World. Cold came from Niflheim, and sparks flew from Muspellheim, and from the meeting of icy moisture and dry heat, whirlwinds swirled and rain poured in the void between the two worlds. Then, in the very middle of the Dark World, the stream Hvergelmir, the Boiling Cauldron, began to flow, and rivers flowed from it, Elivagar, Stormy Waters. There are eleven of them in total, and the water in them is poisonous. From the darkness and cold, the stormy Waters rushed to the hot Muspellsheim, but far from their source, barely reaching the world abyss, they turned into ice. The poisonous frost that appeared on the ice was picked up by the whirlwinds raging in the void, and it began to melt, meeting the warmth flowing from the Fiery World.
The entire abyss of Ginungagap was filled with moisture, and from it arose the giant Ymir, cruel as fire and frozen poison, which gave him life. Ymir was neither a man nor a woman, and when he fell asleep, a boy and a girl appeared under his arm, from whom the line of giants later descended. Then Ymir's legs intertwined and gave birth to Trudgelmir, a giant with six heads. To feed Imir and his children, the cow Audhumla emerged from the frost, from whose udder four rivers of milk flowed.
Audhumla herself fed by licking salty frost from the stones. She licked one large stone for so long that it began to come to life from the warmth of her tongue. First, human hair grew on a block of stone, the next day the whole head appeared, and a day later a man emerged from the stone - the progenitor of the Storm gods. His son Bor married Bestla, the daughter of the giant Belthorn, and she gave birth to three sons, who were named Odin, Vili and Ve. Odin was destined to become the greatest of the gods of Norse mythology and rule over heaven and earth.
Odin and his brothers killed the evil and cruel Ymir, and his blood flooded the entire world abyss. And everyone who existed then drowned in it, except for the sons of Bor and the family of the giant Bergelmir, the son of the six-headed Trudgelmir. And then Odin, Vili and Ve decided to create a new world, unlike what already existed. To do this, they threw Ymir's body into his blood, which filled the Ginungagap abyss, and then raised him from the depths, turning him into the ground. Ymir's blood became an ocean that surrounded the earth's surface. The sons of Bor turned those streams of blood that spilled over the land into rivers and lakes, bones into mountains, teeth into stones, and hair into plants. The gods raised Ymir’s skull above the ground, strengthening it at its four curved ends, and created a firmament from it.
The sun, moon and stars already existed then - they were sparks that escaped from the fiery Muspellsheim and flew randomly in space. Odin and his brothers established the order that the luminaries now follow. Some stars were immovably fixed in the firmament, while others began to move along the roads assigned to them. One decided that from now on day will begin to give way to night, morning, evening and middle of the day will be different.
The gods did not want the earth they created to be populated by cruel giants - the descendants of Bergelmir, so they surrounded the middle of the earth's firmament with a wall from the ages of Ymir and called this place Midgard, the Middle World. The lands around Midgard were given to the giants. And since giants are also called Jotuns or Turs, the name of these outlying lands was given to Jotunheim, the country of giants. The genus of giants is very large and diverse. Some giants are monstrously ugly, especially those with several heads, but others do not differ in appearance from the gods and are even almost no taller than them, although they can grow to enormous sizes in order to frighten their enemies. Many Jotuns possess ancient magic and are very wise, and almost all of them can transform into animals and birds, most often into wolves and eagles. In the Dark World, Niflheim - it is located under Midgard - live the most terrible giants, whom people call trolls.
The magical power of Odin released the forces hidden in it from the earth - this is how new gods and goddesses appeared in the world. One of the goddesses was called Yord (Earth) and she was the soul of the earth. Jord gave birth to Odin's son, the strongest of the gods. His name is Thor.
All the gods began to be called Ases, and they recognized Odin as their ruler. The Aesir decided to settle in the sky and built their country there, Asgard.
Asgard is located around the trunk of the World Tree, the Yggdrasil ash tree, which grew in the middle of the earth from three roots.
One root is located in Niflheim above the Boiling Cauldron Stream. The moment Ymir died, under this stream an entrance opened into a country even darker than Niflheim - the country of Niflhel, the land of the Dead, which is sometimes called simply Hel.
Another root of Yggdrasil reaches out to the source of wisdom, flowing in Jotunheim, and the third - to the source of Urd in Midgard.
According to Scandinavian myths, people cannot see the World Tree, although it extends its branches over the whole world.
An eagle sits on the top of Yggdrasil. This is a wise bird, Odin's favorite. He is so big that he does not notice the hawk that usually sits on his head. The eagle loves to talk to the squirrel Ratotosk, scurrying along the trunk of an ash tree. She runs from its very top to the roots and even sees a dragon gnawing on a root growing in Niflheim. The dragon and the eagle have never met, but the squirrel tells them everything they say about each other - and they constantly bicker. The dragon's name is Nidhogg. It is covered with black feathers and not only gnaws at the root of Yggdrasil, but also sucks the blood from the dead who fall into Heol.
According to Scandinavian mythology, when after the creation of the world the Aesir settled in the sky, the goddess Jord did not leave the earth. In Asgard, Odin's wife was the goddess Frigga, wise, fair and modest. The future is often revealed to her, but she does not make predictions and is silent about what she knows.
The Aesir are not the only tribe of Scandinavian gods. The gods, who did not recognize Odin as their ruler, settled after the creation of the world south of Asgard, in Vanaheim, and called themselves the Vanir. The Vanir and the Aesir are equally beautiful and wise, but the Vanir are mortal, although they live for a very long time. Aces do not age and do not die. Odin's wisdom helped him find magical golden apples in the depths of the earth. The one who eats these apples always remains young, and the box in which they are stored is never empty.
Based on a retelling of Scandinavian myths by E. L. Kuvanova
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru