The Norse Creation Story

The Story

At the creation of the universe, the dawn of time itself, only the most primal of forces existed. Niflheim, the frozen realm of darkness and fog, and Muspelheim, the burning realm of flame and heat, faced each other across a great chasm of unimaginable nothingness known as Ginnungagap. Massive chunks of ice and streams of mist flowed out from Niflheim into the void, where they met the sparks and smoke billowing out of Muspelheim. The ices began to melt, forming a primordial ocean. From these waters emerged a great and terrible giant of chaos who was called Ymir. It is said that one of his legs fathered offspring on the other leg, and thus Ymir brought into being the race of frost giants called the Jotnar (singular: jotun).

Around this time the great cosmic cow Audhumla also emerged from the primordial waters. She licked the salty ice blocks for nourishment. As she did, a head appeared in a large ice block. Eventually Audhumla licked free Buri, who became the first of the tribe of Gods known as the Aesir. Buri had a son named Bor, who married Bestla, the daughter of a frost giant. Bor and Bestla became the parents of Odin and his brothers Villi and Ve.

With his violent and reckless ways, Ymir threatened to destroy the new life that had arisen, so the Gods slew him. They made the earth out of his flesh and the mountains out of his bones. The stones were made of his teeth and the sand was made of dust from grinding up some of his bones. Ymir’s blood became the seas. The Gods made the sky out of his skull and the clouds out of his brains. Then they took sparks from Muspelheim and set in them in the surrounding void, and the sparks became stars. They used the eyebrows of Ymir to divide the new creation into a realm for the Jotnar, Jotunheim, and a realm for humanity, Midgard. Midgard literally means “middle enclosure”. It is in the middle of the higher realms of the Gods and the lower realms of Niflheim and the underworld, and enclosed (at least somewhat) against the forces of a chaotic universe.

Humans were created when Odin and his brothers came upon two dead trees while walking along a beach in Midgard. One tree was an ash, and the other an elm. From the elm tree they created a woman named Embla, and from the ash a man named Ask. Odin gave them a soul, Villi gave them intelligence and emotion, and Ve gave them physical senses.

Interpretation

I have long considered the first part of the creation story to be a metaphor for the Big Bang. That is not to undermine its spiritual significance at all, and indeed the realms of the Gods do exist in other universes/dimensions/etc with Midgard being this one. But the story does seem to fit very well with the scientific theory: great primordial forces reacted to produce all that is. Audhumla may well be the force of life itself, which, via many millions of years of (divinely guided?) evolution, gave rise to all life on Earth (and perhaps elsewhere?). The Gods bringing forth intelligent life from organic matter (dead trees) that they came across also fits the scientific theory, after accounting for the epic and metaphorical language.

The creation story is often seen as the Gods bringing order to a chaotic and violent universe, and indeed the universe was much more chaotic and violent billions of years ago. Astronomy tells us that our own solar system went through a “heavy bombardment” period, during which planets were both forming and being ripped apart in gigantic collisions. Earth’s moon was likely produced by one such collision. It was only after things settled (were wrangled into?) a more orderly state that life could arise.

Humans were created by Odin, Ville, and Ve, who are Odin’s brothers, or occasionally referred to as aspects of Odin. They are mentioned almost nowhere else in the surviving lore. Given the known impact of Christian patriarchy on Norse tradition over the centuries, it seems entirely possible that it may actually have been Frigga who created humanity along with Odin. She is not only his wife but the only one besides him who may sit on his throne. This interpretation would give additional weight to Odin being the Alfather and Frigga the Almother.

Whether one accepts interpretations like these or not, it remains important to consider the lore in the context of our current age and to account for the fact that what we have now is neither complete nor unaltered, but that needn’t prevent us from repairing and rebuilding.