How the world was created - Introduction to Norse mythology.

Today's post will be devoted to the Norse culture which has fascinated me a few years ago. And to be more precise - to the Creation of the Cosmos perceived by the North Germanic Peoples (commonly called the Vikings). 

So let's begin!

In the beginning, there were no gods, no giants, and no people. The world looked completely different than today, empty spaces lived for themselves, no one ruled over them. 

The northern boundary of the Regions was torn by an eternal blizzard of ice, feeding on the cold crawling from the underground spaces of the frosty Niflheim, a black void that was to be overcome by the gloomy reign of the dead in the future. 

Far to the south in the land called Muspellheim, volcanoes flashed with anger, and the land was devoured by unsatisfied fire. It raged, soaring so hot that even the rocks gave into him and ran down rivers of hot lava. 

And in the middle, between Niflheim and Muspellheim, there was the unfathomable gulf of Ginnungagap (Magic Abyss), its bottom, not even a keen observer could see. 

It took thousands and thousands of millennia to put the old world to sleep until the volcanoes of Muspellhiem shot out. with a wealth of fire never seen before. Fiery tongues soared far, far away to descend into the frozen plains of the North. A gigantic cloud of steam soared into the air, swirled into rain clouds, then poured down a downpour. It rained like this for hundreds of years until the water finally filled the entire Ginnungagap. This is how the ocean that surrounds our world was created. 

And finally, it is time for space to give birth to the first being. 

The waters of the ocean revealed the body of the greatest giant our world has ever seen. It terrified its enormity: in the north, frost braided his hair into stiff icicles, and his feet sizzled with the fires of Muspellheim. Others say that the giant Ymir was born of the venom that leaked from the first river, Eliwag. 

The giant Ymir floated limply on the surface of the waters. He couldn't move his hand or foot, he lacked strength - he had no food. 

Then the first cow was created from the melted iceberg - Saint Audumla. She took pity on Ymir and fed him with her milk until he was strong enough to bear offspring. A giant Thrudgelmir with Six Heads jumped out of his leg, and a second son and daughter grew under his arm. It is from them that all Thurs (giants), and those in the North, and those of Muspellheim, and those who broke into Midgard come from. 

Audumla left Ymir to lick the salty ice of the North until she licked another giant, the great Buri.  He has been credited with tremendous magical power. The older Thurses (giants) refused to accept Buri into their ranks or to marry him any of their daughters because he was not of their bloodline. Therefore, with the help of a spell, he made his son himself named Borr and then departed from our world. Some people say that he did not go away, but fell asleep and remains somewhere in the cold North. 

Burr had long sought a wife from among the giants, but they still rejected his courtship. So he decided to take vengeance on older giants. He kidnapped the giantess Beasla and begot three sons with her, the first gods of the Æsir lineage: Odin, Vili, and Vé. This trinity was to become the instrument of his vengeance. 

When the sons grew up, the father gave them his own power, surpassing even that of the giant's father, Ymir. The brothers decided to take advantage of this and create their own kingdom, in spite of Thurses. 

They fought Ymir - the first was the earth had seen. The giants covered their eyes out of fear and fled to the end of the world, leaving their father. At last, the magic spells faded out and it turned out that Ymir was dead. The three victors pounced on his corpse and tore it to pieces. Form the flesh they made the mainland and placed it at the very center of the world, separating it from the ice of the North and the fires of the South by an ancient ocean. This land is our Midgard (Middle Earth). From Ymir's bones, they made mountains, from the blood - the sea, forests from hair, and they surrounded Midgard with a palisade of his eyelashes. They named the ocean Garsecg, meaning Raging Sea. They picked up Ymir's skinned skull and placed it in the hights - that's heaven. The brain spilled out of the skull and dissipated in pieces over the vastness of air - these are clouds soaring above our heads. This job was not enough for the three brothers. In order to be able to count time, they hung the vehicles of the sin and the Moon in the sky and made their charioteers the offspring of the giant Mundilfóri - Soi, and Mani. Then they tore the veil of the eternal Darkness into the white scarf of the day and the black cloak of the night, and these in turn divided into parts to make it easier to determine the passage of time. The father of Dag (Day) was the giant Delling, and the parent of Nott (Night) was Nórwi. The gods also set the length of the year and to make it consist of seasons, they separated it into Summer and Winter.

So that would be it for the first part. In the next one, I will show you how the first beings on Earth were created according to the Vikings. See ya!