The Norse Creation of the Cosmos
The Norse creation myth portrays a dynamic and cyclical process of the cosmos originating from chaos. At the center of this narrative is Ginnungagap, an abyss between the lands of fire, Muspelheim, and ice, Niflheim. As these opposing forces converge, they give rise to Ymir, a primordial giant, from whom the world is ultimately fashioned after his death at the hands of the gods Odin, Vili, and Ve. This act of creation underscores a key theme in Norse mythology: that creation emerges from destruction. The various elements of the world—earth, sea, and sky—are crafted from Ymir’s remains, symbolizing the interconnectedness of life and death. Following this, the gods create the first humans, Ask and Embla, and establish Asgard, their home, encircled by a protective barrier against the giants. The story reflects a worldview where existence is marked by cycles of destruction and renewal, culminating in the eventual prophecy of Ragnarok, which foretells another cycle of destruction leading to new creation. Overall, the Norse cosmos is depicted as a complex interplay of forces, where the end of one existence lays the groundwork for another.
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Subject Terms
The Norse Creation of the Cosmos
Author: Traditional Norse
Time Period: 1001 CE–1500 CE
Country or Culture: Scandinavia
Genre: Myth
PLOT SUMMARY
Between Muspelheim, the land of fire, and Niflheim, the land of ice, there is a vast nothingness. Empty, dark, and soundless, this abyss is called Ginnungagap, and the void there is filled only with chaos.
Over time, the licking flames of Muspelheim and the icy tendrils of Niflheim begin to move toward each other, reaching across Ginnungagap. As the heat touches the ice for the very first time, a single droplet of water melts off of a glacier, landing in the chaos. As more droplets of water fall, they slowly form into Ymir, a terrible and powerful giant who is both man and woman. When the creature sweats, the perspiration falls to the ground and makes even more giants, who begin to populate the void of Ginnungagap.
Still the great masses of ice and burning flames continue to move closer to one another. As more of the ice melts, a gigantic cow named Audhumla is formed. She lumbers over to Ymir and provides the giant with milk, sustaining the godlike being’s strength. To keep herself alive, she licks the salty ice around Ginnungagap. As her tongue wears away the ice over time, the first god, Buri, is exposed within it. Buri’s son, Bor, marries the daughter of one of the great giants. Their children are both gods and giants at once, and they are named Odin, Vili, and Ve. Odin is a powerful god of war, victory, wisdom, and magic. Vili and Ve, as Odin’s siblings, are also expressions of the great god himself, Vili being a force of strong will and Ve a force of sanctity.
Knowing that the giants are a threat, Odin, Vili, and Ve slaughter Ymir. When he is dead, they create the world out of his corpse. His flesh becomes the dirt, his hair the plants, his blood the oceans and rivers, and his brain the clouds that float above. The sky itself they make out of his empty skull, which four dwarves hold above their heads so that it can stretch over all creation, one dwarf at each of the cardinal directions. In this new world, the gods then create two humans, Ask and Embla, from the trunks of trees. Pleased with what they have done, the gods build a fence around their home, which they call Asgard, hoping that it will protect them from the giants who still roam throughout the cosmos.
SIGNIFICANCE
As is the case in many world mythologies, the story of the creation of the cosmos indicates a great deal about the underlying philosophy that guided Norse culture. This particular narrative of creation and destruction was first recorded in a text called the Prose Edda, an Icelandic transcription of oral myths written in the thirteenth century.
Perhaps the tale’s greatest theme is the recurrent lesson that creation can only come from destruction and consequently that all destruction can lead to further creation. As in many spiritual and mythological traditions, there is a void at the onset of Norse mythology. Rather than existence rising spontaneously out of the void, however, the origins of the world are based in the slow destruction of two neighboring realities, Niflheim and Muspelheim. In these two worlds, the opposing primal forces of ice and fire, both themselves destructive energies, come together within the emptiness that is existence. The substance they create in their meeting is the same substance from which the first life is formed.
The intimate linking of creation and destruction does not end on this elemental level but rather continues into the origins of the earth itself. The first gods slaughter the first giant and then use the creature’s corporeal form to craft the world, while the offspring of this giant will one day return to destroy the earth again. Even before the creation of humans, the forces of Norse mythology are turning in on themselves, destroying one another in order to create new life. The giants and the gods have no clear reason to be instant enemies, but they must naturally turn against one another so that further creation and life can occur. The fact that the sky, the land, and the sea are all built out of the giant’s body further emphasizes this fact, making the elements of the earth once again metaphors for the duality of life and death that rests at the center of Norse mythology.
On the whole, the world created through the destructive meeting of Niflheim and Muspelheim is a world that is in constant motion. The very substances of life are all built out of the dead bodies of the past. Likewise, humans too shall one day die so that new life will come from their forms, just as Norse mythology itself moves toward Ragnarok, a prophesized world-ending destruction that will give way to another creation, another meeting of fire and ice within the void. Cyclical rather than linear, the cosmos of Norse mythology is a complicated place in which death is no more than an expression of life and creation is simply another aspect of the ongoing destruction of the world.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Acker, Paul, and Carolyne Larrington, eds. The Poetic Edda: Essays on Old Norse Mythology. New York: Routledge, 2002. Print.
McCoy, Dan. “The Creation of the Cosmos.” NorseMythology.org. McCoy, n.d. Web. 1 July 2013.
“Scandinavian Mythology.” Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia. World Almanac Educ. Group, 2009. Web. 1 July 2013.
Zorins, Kimberly. “The Eddas: Iceland’s Books of Lore.” The Norse Gods. Spec. issue of Calliope 13.5 (2003): 11–16. Print.