In the beginning there was only the emptiness of Ginnungagap. In the south, the fiery realm of Muspell came into being, and in the north, the icy realm of Niflheim. Fire and ice played across the emptiness. And in the center of nothingness the air grew mild. Where the warm air from Muspell met the cool air from Niflheim, the ice began to thaw. As it dripped, it shaped itself into the form of a sleeping giant. His name was Ymir, and he was evil.
As Ymir slept, he began to sweat. There grew beneath his left arm a male and a female, and from his legs another male was created. These were the first frost giants, all of whom are descended from Ymir. Then the ice-melt formed a cow, named Audhumla. Four rivers of milk flowed from her teats and fed Ymir. Audhumla nourished herself by licking the salty blocks of ice all around. By the end of her first day she had uncovered the hair of a man. By the end of her second day the whole head was exposed, and by the end of a third day there was a complete man. His name was Buri, and he was strong and handsome. Buri had a son, named Bor, who married Bestla, the daughter of one of the frost giants. Bor and Bestla had three sons: Odin, Vili, and Ve.
Odin and his brothers hated the brutal frost giant Ymir, and they slew him. So much blood flowed from the slaughtered giant that it drowned all the frost giants save Bergelmir and his wife who escaped in a boat made from a hollowed tree trunk.
From Ymir's flesh, Odin and his brothers made the earth, and from his shattered bones and teeth, they made the rocks and stones. From Ymir's blood, they made the rivers and lakes, and they circled the earth with an ocean of blood.
Ymir's skull they made into the sky, secured at four points by four dwarfs named East, North, South, and West. They flung sparks of fire from Muspell high into the sky to make the sun, the moon, and the stars. From Ymir's brain, they shaped the clouds.
The earth was made in the form of a circle and around the edge of it lay the great sea. Odin and his brothers gave one area, Jotunheim, to the giants. They also established the kingdom of Midgard, protecting it from the giants with fortifications made from Ymir's eyebrows.
One day, as they walked along the shore of the great sea, Odin and his brothers came across two logs. Odin gave them breath and life; Vili gave them brains and feelings; and Ve gave them hearing and sight. These were the first man, Ask, and the first woman, Embla, and Midgard was their home. From them, all the families of mankind are descended.
Beneath Midgard lies the icy realm of death, Niflheim. Above it is the realm of the gods, Asgard, where Odin sits on his throne and watches over all the worlds. Asgard and Midgard are linked by a rainbow bridge, Bifrost.
At the center of all the realms is a great ash tree, Yggdrasil, whose
branches shade the world, and whose roots support it.
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Odin, the All-Father, sometimes wanders through Midgard among mortals. He comes disguised as a old man, leaning on his staff, and he repays kindness with riches, courtesy with wisdom, and ill-treatment with vengeance.
Each morning his two ravens, Hugginn and Munnin, fly forth across the world, bringing news to Odin about mankind. Odin himself can shift his shape, and while his body lies as if asleep, he can travel far in the form of bird or beast, unknown to men.
Many stories are told as to how the all-Father gained his wisdom and his magical powers. But for every gain the stories tell of a price paid.
Yggdrasil, the world tree, is a giant ash. One root is in the dread realm of Niflheim, where the serpent Nidhogg feeds on corpses and gnaws at Yggdrasil itself. A second root is in the gods' own realm of Asgard, and here dwell the Norns, three old women who rule over the destinies of men. Their names are Fate, Being, and Necessity, and they keep Yggdrasil alive by sprinkling the root with pure water from the well of fate. The third root lies in Jotunheim, the land of the giants. Beneath this root is the well where the severed head of wise Mimir speaks hard words. Odin paid with one of his eyes to drink insight and knowledge from that well.
But it was on Yggdrasil itself that the High One, the All-Father, the Hooded One, the terrible Spear-Shaker, Odin of the many names, gained the secret of the runes, magic symbols by which men can record and understand their lives. For nine long nights Odin hung on the windswept tree, pierced with a spear, offering himself in sacrifice. Not even Ratatosk, the squirrel that runs up and down the tree carrying insults from the eagle at the top of the tree to the serpent Nidhogg at the bottom, offered him food or drink. At the end of his ordeal, Odin gave a great cry and , seizing the runes, fell from the tree. When he rose again from death, Odin knew many things hidden from man. He knew how to heal the sick; he knew how to blunt his enemy's blade, and how to catch an arrow in its flight.
God of gods, god of battles, Odin holds mankind in his care. To poets
he gives sips of the mead of poetry brewed long ago by the dwarfs; to warriors
slain in battle, he gives a lordly welcome in the golden halls of Valhalla.
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The Norse gods were troubled in the high realm of Asgard. Their home had no wall to protect them from enemies. So when a horseman came and offered to build a wall they listened eagerly.
"It will be a great wall," he said, " a barrier to all your foes. Eighteen months from now, your worries will all be over."
"and what is your price?" asked Odin the wise.
"Nothing less than the goddess Freyja as my wife," replied the stranger. "And the sun and the moon, too."
The gods were furious, and would have thrown the man out of Asgard for daring to think that the beautiful Freyja could be bartered for building work, but cunning Loki said, "If you can build the wall in six months, it's a deal." To the other gods he whispered, "In six months he can build only half a wall, but at least it will be free."
The builder took one more look at Freyja, as she wept tears of gold, and agreed, as long as his horse was allowed to help him.
All through the winter the stranger worked. With the help of his horse he managed to quarry the stone for a massive wall around Asgard. As summer approached, disaster stared the gods in the face. For, against all odds, the builder had nearly completed the wall.
"You think you're so clever, Loki," said Odin. "you got us into this; you must get us out. We cannot let Freyja marry this stranger, who must be a giant in disguise. And without the sun and moon, life will scarcely be worth living. Do something!"
So Loki thought hard, and finally he said, "Without the horse, the builder could not haul the rocks to complete his work."
Now Loki could change his shape, and that night, disguised as a pretty mare, he lured away the builder's horse
Realizing he could not complete the wall in time, the builder became enraged. His disguise fell away, revealing him as a giant, one of the gods' foes. The gods called for Thor, the strongest of them all. With his hammer, Miollnir, Thor paid the builder his wages: not the sun and the moon, but a thunderclap on the head.
AS for Loki, when he next thought it was safe to return to Asgard, he
was seen leading a strange horse with eight legs, named Sleipnir. Loki
gave Sleipnir to Odin, saying, "No horse will ever keep pace with him.
He will bear you over the sea and through the air, and to the land of the
dead and back." As Loki promised, Sleipnir has never failed his master,
Odin.
Not all of Loki's offspring were like Sleipnir, however. Loki himself is half giant, and has three children by a giantess. The first is the Fenris-wolf, who at the end of the world will consume Odin. The second is the Midgard serpent, and the third is the mistress of death, Hel, who feasts on hunger and thrives on sickness.
When Odin realized that these terrible children were lose in the world, he had them brought to him. The serpent he threw into the ocean; it was so huge it encircled the world and bit its own tail. Hel he banished to Niflheim, the Land of the Dead, and gave her power over all who died of sickness or old age.
But the Fenris-wolf was not so easily managed. Only the god Tyr was brave enough to feed it, and even he could see that the Fenris-wolf would soon grow strong enough to do terrible harm. So the gods made a strong chain and tied the wolf up. But with one kick it smashed the links. They tried again with an even stronger chain. Once again the wolf broke free.
Finally Odin asked the dwarfs for help, and they made a fetter called Gleipnir. Silky soft, Glepnir was made of special ingredients: the sound of a cat's footfall; a woman's beard; a mountain's roots; a bear's sinews; a fish's breath; and a bird's spittle.
The gods took the Fenris-wolf to a lonely island and challenged it to break Gleipnir. Sensing a trap, the wolf agreed to be bound only if one of the gods would put a hand in its mouth, as a token of good faith. So brave Tyr thrust his hand into the wolf's fearsome jaws.
They bound the wolf with the silken fetter, and this time when he kicked, the fetter only tightened. Furious, the Fenris-wolf clamped its great jaws together, and bit off the god Tyr's right hand.
Even though they knew that the time would come when the Fenris-wolf
would break free and bring death and destruction to them all, the gods
did not kill it. "What must be, will be," they said.
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The golden rooster crows to wake the gods to each bright morning. But there will come a last twilight of the gods. It will be an ax-age, a sword-age, a wolf-age. This is Ragnarok, when all is brought to wreck.
Brother will fight brother, father will fight son; all barriers will fall.
The Fenris-wolf will break free from his fetters; Loki the trickster will sail to the world's ruin in a ship made from the nails of the dead with an army of corpses. The wolf Skoll will swallow the sun, and Hati or Manigarm will swallow the moon so that the heavens will be sprayed will blood. A bitter winter it will be.
Surt, who has waited at the entrance to Muspell with a blazing sword since the begging of time, will go to war against the gods, and all nine worlds will be seared with his flames. At his side will come the Fenris-wolf, its jaws agape. The Midgard serpent will strew poison over land and sea.
Then Heimdall the watcher will blow his horn, and the gods will ride to battle, in glorious array. Thor will destroy the Midgard serpent, but when he steps back nine paces from it he will fall down dead from its poison. The wolf will swallow Odin, the All-Father; Odin's son Vidar will rend the wolf apart in vengeance. Heimdall and Loki will destroy each other.
The earth will sink into the sea. The sun will turn black. The bright stars will fall from the heavens. The very sky will burn.
Death will come to the gods, to the giants, to the elves and dwarfs, to men and women, the sons and daughters of Ask and Embla.
But two will be saved, hidden by Yggdrasil, the world tree. Lif and Lifthrasir are their names. The morning dew will be their meat and drink, and from them mankind will be reborn. Earth will rise a second time, fair and green. Odin's sons Balder and Hider will return to life. The rivers will fill with fish, and the fields with corn.
Walking the meadows of the risen earth, taking in wonder of what was
and will be, the children of Lif and Lifthrasir shall find in the grass
the gold chessboards on which the gods played out their games, and remember
Odin, the High One, the All-Father, and his children in their glory, in
the golden halls of Asgard.
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