30 



TIIK MYTHOLOGY OF THE XOIiTHM l-:.\. 



Ginnungagap there were two worlds, Nifikeim, the world of 

 cold, and Muspelheirn, the world of heat. 



When Yniir lived 



In early ages 



Was neither sand nor sea, 



Nor cool waves, 



No earth was there 

 Nor heaven above, 

 There was gaping void 

 And grass nowhere. 



" First there was a home (a world) in the southern half of 

 the world called Muspel ; it is hot and bright, so that it is 

 burning and in flames ; it is also inaccessible for those who 

 have no odals (or family estates) ; there the one that sits at the 

 land's end to defend it is called a Surt. He has a flaming 

 sword, and at the end of the world he will go and make 

 warfare and get victory over all the gods, and burn the whole 

 world with fire" (Later Edda, c. 4). 1 



The origin of the Hrirn Thursar and the Birth of Ymir, who 

 lived in Giimungagap. and of Odin, Vili, and Ve, is as follows : 



" Gangleri asked, ' How was it before the kindreds existed 

 and mankind increased ? ' Har answered, ' When the rivers 

 called Elivagar had run so far from their sources that the 

 quick venom which flowed into them, like the dross which 

 runs out of the fire, got hard, and changed into ice ; when this 

 ice stood still and flowed no longer, the exhalation of the 

 poison came over it and froze into rime ; the rime rose up all 

 the way into the Ginnungagap.' Jafnhar said, ' The part of 

 Giimungagap turning to the north was filled with the heavi- 

 ness and weight of ice and rime, and the opposite side with 

 drizzle and gusts of wind ; but the southern part of Ginnunga- 

 gap became less heavy, from the sparks and glowing sub- 

 stances which came flying from Muspelheini.' Thridi said, 

 ' Just as the cold and all things come from Niflheim, the 

 things near Muspel were hot and shining ; Ginuungagap was 

 as warm as windless air When the rime and the breath of 

 the heat met so that the rime melted into drops, a human 

 form came from these flowing drops with the power of the one 

 who had sent the heat ; he was called Ymir, but the Hrim- 

 thursar call him Orgelmir. and the kin of the Hrimthursar 

 have sprung from him.' Gangleri asked, ' How did the kin 

 grow from this, or how came it that there were more men ; or 

 dost thou believe in the god of whom thou didst tell now ? ' 

 Har answered, ' By no means do we think him a god ; he was 



1 It is well known that the later Edda 

 bears strong marks of the influence of 

 Christianity, and we quote it with caution 



and only when it essentially agrees with 

 Voluspa and other parts of the earlier 



Edda. 





