Here are two very different creation stories from the Vikings, one has parallels to ancient Greek mythology the other one is unique.
Northern Creation Myth one:
At the dawn of time say the old bards and poets, there was neither sand nor icy waves; the earth did not exists, nor the sky, which covers it. A yawning abyss stretched alone through space.
Ymir was the father of all the giants. Once while he slept it happened that he became completely bathed in sweat, and under his left armpit were then born a man and a woman, giants like himself.
At the same time, the cosmic ice, which partially fills the abyss, continued to melt and gave forth a cow, Audumla, wet nurse of the giants. Audumla licked the blocks of ice, and was nourished by the salt they contained.
And the ice melted under her warm tongue, bring to light first the hair, then the head, and finally the entire body of a living being whose name was Buri.
Buri had a son Bor, who married the giants daughter and engendered with her the three gods, Odin, Vili and Ve. These three sons of the giants’ race at once began a struggle against the giants which ended in annihilation. First they killed the aged Ymir. So much blood flowed from his body that the abyss was filled with it, and in it all the other giants were drowned, with the exception of Bergelmir who had launched a small boat on the stormy waves with his wife and escaped.
Meanwhile the sons of Bor raised the inert body of Ymir from the sea and with it formed the earth, which was given the name ‘Midgard’, or middle abode. The flesh of Ymir became the land and his blood the resounding sea. From his bones the three gods made mountains, and from his hair the trees. They took his skull and by placing it on four raised pillars they made the vault of the heavens. In the vault they placed the haphazard sparks from the kingdom of fire, Muspellsheim, and thus created the sun, the moon and the countless stars.
Northern Creation Myth two:
Luonnotar was the daughter of Ilmatar the spirit of the air, whose name means the Daughter of nature grew weary of her sterile virginity and lonely existence in the celestial regions, and let herself fall into the sea to float on the white crests of the waves. “The breath of the wind creased her bosom and the sea made her fertile.”
For seven millennia she thus floated without being able to find a resting-place, and she was lamenting the fact when a duck appeared, searching the vast primordial Dream Sea for a place to build its nest.
Luonnotar’s knee proved just the sort of thing she was looking for; she deposited her eggs on it and sat on them for three days.
Then the daughter of Ilmatar felt a scorching heat on her skin; she bent her knee violently and the eggs rolled into the slime: their remains were changed into beautiful and excellent things. From their upper parts the sublime heavens were formed and from their lower parts the Earth who is the mother of all creatures was formed. Their yokes became the radiant sun, their whites the gleaming moon. Their spotted fragments were the stars and the black fragments the clouds and air.
One is paternalistic the other typical of pagan goddess worship, but they both encompass destruction leading to creation. But the masculine model which is close to the Greek myth of the murder or Cronos, by his sons is decidedly the most violent.
Northern Creation Myth one:
At the dawn of time say the old bards and poets, there was neither sand nor icy waves; the earth did not exists, nor the sky, which covers it. A yawning abyss stretched alone through space.
Ymir was the father of all the giants. Once while he slept it happened that he became completely bathed in sweat, and under his left armpit were then born a man and a woman, giants like himself.
At the same time, the cosmic ice, which partially fills the abyss, continued to melt and gave forth a cow, Audumla, wet nurse of the giants. Audumla licked the blocks of ice, and was nourished by the salt they contained.
And the ice melted under her warm tongue, bring to light first the hair, then the head, and finally the entire body of a living being whose name was Buri.
Buri had a son Bor, who married the giants daughter and engendered with her the three gods, Odin, Vili and Ve. These three sons of the giants’ race at once began a struggle against the giants which ended in annihilation. First they killed the aged Ymir. So much blood flowed from his body that the abyss was filled with it, and in it all the other giants were drowned, with the exception of Bergelmir who had launched a small boat on the stormy waves with his wife and escaped.
Meanwhile the sons of Bor raised the inert body of Ymir from the sea and with it formed the earth, which was given the name ‘Midgard’, or middle abode. The flesh of Ymir became the land and his blood the resounding sea. From his bones the three gods made mountains, and from his hair the trees. They took his skull and by placing it on four raised pillars they made the vault of the heavens. In the vault they placed the haphazard sparks from the kingdom of fire, Muspellsheim, and thus created the sun, the moon and the countless stars.
Northern Creation Myth two:
Luonnotar was the daughter of Ilmatar the spirit of the air, whose name means the Daughter of nature grew weary of her sterile virginity and lonely existence in the celestial regions, and let herself fall into the sea to float on the white crests of the waves. “The breath of the wind creased her bosom and the sea made her fertile.”
For seven millennia she thus floated without being able to find a resting-place, and she was lamenting the fact when a duck appeared, searching the vast primordial Dream Sea for a place to build its nest.
Luonnotar’s knee proved just the sort of thing she was looking for; she deposited her eggs on it and sat on them for three days.
Then the daughter of Ilmatar felt a scorching heat on her skin; she bent her knee violently and the eggs rolled into the slime: their remains were changed into beautiful and excellent things. From their upper parts the sublime heavens were formed and from their lower parts the Earth who is the mother of all creatures was formed. Their yokes became the radiant sun, their whites the gleaming moon. Their spotted fragments were the stars and the black fragments the clouds and air.
One is paternalistic the other typical of pagan goddess worship, but they both encompass destruction leading to creation. But the masculine model which is close to the Greek myth of the murder or Cronos, by his sons is decidedly the most violent.
Last edited:
