FIRST SECTION

MYTHOLOGY IN CONNECTED FORM ACCORDING TO NORWEGIAN-ICELANDIC SOURCES

I. HOW THE WORLD WAS CREATED

1. The Fog-Country and the Fire-World.— Long years before the earth existed, Niflheim was created. In the midst of it lay the well Hvergelmir, from which ten icecold venomous streams, Elivagar, had their origin. Niflheim lay toward the north, but southward there was a place called Muspell, where it was light and hot, glowing and burning, and therefore impassable for any one who had not his home there. At Muspell's boundary sat Surt as defender of the country, with a flaming sword in his hand; it was he who at the destruction of the world was to lead in the battle against the gods and set the earth on fire. Midway between the fog-country and

36

the fire-world there was a yawning gulf, Ginnungagap.

2. The Primitive Giant Ymir.-The waves of the venomous streams soon froze to ice and the poisonous vapor condensed to frost, which was met by the warm air from Muspell. From this contact came into being the primitive giant Ymir, and he became the ancestor of the race of giants, as both heaven and earth also were afterward constructed from his body. Once when he was asleep he fell into a perspiration and from under his left arm came forth a man and a woman; but it was even more wonderful that one of his feet begot a son with the other. This son again had a son by name Bergelmir.

The Cow Authumla; Bor's Sons.-The congealed venomous streams continued to send out frost, and from this the cow Authumla stood forth. From her udders there came four streams of milk, from which Ymir got his nourishment, while the cow herself lived by licking the salt, frost-covered stones. On the first day she licked them there came forth toward evening a man's

hair, the next day a man's head, and the third day the whole man stood there. He was named Buri, and was fair, tall, and mighty to look upon. Later he had a son by name Bor, who married the giant Bolthorn's daughter Bestla. Their sons were Odin, Vili, and Ve.

The whole story of the creation is told explicitly in Snorri's "Edda,” but is mentioned also in the beginning of the old poem, Voluspa, the Volva's Prophecy:

VSP. 3

'Twas the beginning of time

when Ymir lived,

there was no sand nor sea nor billows cool; earth was found nowhere neither heaven above; a gulf was Ginnunga but grass was nowhere.

3. Heaven and Earth.-Bor's sons now took Ymir and killed him. So much blood flowed from his wound that all his progeny was drowned in it, with the exception of his son's son Bergelmir and his wife, who saved themselves from the streams of blood in a boat or tree-trunk, and later became the ancestors of a new race of giants. But Bor's sons took the giant's body, brought it

out into the midst of the yawning gulf, and formed heaven and earth from it.

In one of the Eddic poems we get more exact information as to how this came to pass:

GRIMN. 40

From Ymir's flesh the earth was shaped

and from his blood the sea,

the mountains from his bones trees from his hair, and from his skull the sky.

And from his eye-lashes

41

the kindly gods made

Mithgarth for the sons of men,

and from his brain were the forbidding clouds all shaped.

The heaven was made fast over the earth by four corners; under each of these sat a dwarf who bore the same name as the corner of the earth. The sparks that went out from Muspell, the sons of Bor placed everywhere in the sky over the yawning gulf, so that they should illuminate the world. Now it was the sun, moon, and stars which had their places and courses appointed for men's computation of time, while the lightning went freely around. The earth was spher

ical in form, and out around it flowed the great sea, along whose coast the giants obtained land for settlement-Jotunheim, 'Giants' Home.' But midway between, Odin and his brothers constructed Mithgarth, hedged about with the primitive giant's eyelashes; there, men were to have their dwelling-place.

REMARK.-Terms like Mithgarth, applied to the world of men, appear among the Goths, Anglo-Saxons, and Germans. In a Danish ballad our dead Lord begs leave to return to Middelhjem.

4. Day and Night.-In Jotunheim there dwelt meanwhile a man who was named Nor, and who had a daughter by the name of Nat. She was dark and swarthy, like all her family. Nat was married to Delling, of Bor's race, and with him she had a son, Dag, who was light and handsome like his father. Odin now took mother and son and set them up in heaven, over which they were to drive every twenty-four hours.

Nat drives first with the steed Hrimfaxi, from whose bit foam flies down over the earth; this is what we call dew. Following