When the worlds were very young, in fact before they were truly formed and solid, there were three forces that overwhelmed all other things. There was the force of northern ice and endless cold, and that of untamable southern fire. These two met at a third force, a vast gap, a gap of nothingness, all empty space. Where they met, the ice would melt at the touch of heat coming from the south, and where the ice would touch the heat great mists and fogs and sparks would leap up and fly off in all directions.
After a great long length of primal time, these two great powers began to overlap in the middle, and layers of mist would solidify and become rimes and poisons and fumes, and rivers would begin to run over their layers, and surfaces would rise up, and something solid began to form. The greatest of these rivers was called Elivagar, and its torrents ran across the face of this solid land, amidst the northern ices where it would freeze at the extreme end, and the southern fires where it would steam up into mists and fumes. And after a great long length of time, in between these two forces, it became calm and mild.
Soon the mild air melted down and rearranged the poisons and the fumes and the sparks, and from the most solid things in this middle land a man was formed. His name was Aurgelmir, or Ymir. He stood and wandered the middle land, and discovered another creature coming alive there upon the salty rime, a beautiful cow, and her name was Audumla, the original giver. He lay down and drank from her teats, and her nourishment kept him alive.
Because his body was formed of self-generating stuffs, from his arms and legs and head he could create others like to him, and these were the first folk, the Hrim-thurse, or frost-giants.
Audumla lived off the salts and minerals that came up on the lands. She licked from the rime-frost a great long time, and in time she began to melt the rime around a new form, a beautiful, strong man formed from her giving, loving nature and her insatiable hunger. His name became Buri, and he soon found and married one of the hrim-thurse women, and they had a son named Bor. Bor married the daughter of Bolthorn, one of Aurgelmir's sons, and her name was Bestla. They had three powerful sons whose names were Othinn, Hoenir and Lothurr.
Bor's sons and the sons of Aurgelmir became inimical to one another, because Aurgelmir's sons were like unto him, they took and they used but gave nothing back. The useful portions of the new world would soon be exhausted, so Bor's sons sought out the patriarch Aurgelmir, and killed him. His blood was such that it flooded all of the middle lands, and caused a great sea to form, and there were none of his descendents that survived his death, save Bergelmir and his wife. They are the ancestors of the present Jotunn race. From Aurgelmir's skull Bor's sons constructed the shield of the atmosphere that surrounds the worlds, and from his bones the mountains, and from his flesh the dry lands and fertile soils, and found there were enough materials to build nine worlds in all, set around each other. They caught the sparks and cinders that flew out of the southern fires and set them as lights in the heavens, the greatest of which they endowed with spirit. The living spark they called Sol, and the ashen cinder Mani. Sol to give controlled fire and heat, and Mani to keep the waters in reigns and courses. From the fumes of Aurgelmir's brains they made the clouds, set to exchange the waters of the lands and the skies in equal measure. And then they thought on the hrim-thurse that had survived, and decided that there should be some warding against their ever again overtaking the worlds, and using them up, and so they set up one of the worlds for themselves, to keep guard and husbandry over their creation. They also set up a bridge of trembling ice in cold highest regions, that spans the distances between the worlds, and this bridge is called Bilrost. It shines with the broken colours of Sol's light: manfolk call it a rainbow.
The first of green things to grow within the new nine worlds was named Læraðr, an evergreen yew, and because she was the first she is the oldest living thing. She was later called Yggdrasill. Her branches touch into each of the worlds, and her roots run likewise. Elivagar was tamed by time and sank into the worlds to come up in streams and new rivers and wells, and the greatest of these wells is under her branches. Now it is called by some the well of Urðr, or of all things that have gone before. The reflections of all things that have ever happened shine in those waters, and a drink therefrom reveals the knowledge of what was, that is causing what is becoming.
When the three sons of Bor were one day walking upon the new shores, they came upon two trees, Ask the ash and Embla the elm, and Othinn gave them breath and consciousness, Hoenir gave them life and movement, and Lothurr granted them senses of hearing and sight and speech. Ask and Embla were the first man and woman, and they were given the middle-world Mithgarthr to populate and care for.
Bergelmir's children lived in the world named Jotunheimr, to the easternmost side of the worlds. He had a son named Narfi, and his daughter was named Nott, or night. She was married to a Jotun named Naglfari, and their son was Aud. She next took a husband named Annar, and their daughter was Jorth, who was endowed with the energy of growth and fertility, and became a joy to mankind. Nott's final husband was Delling, or Dawn. Their son was Dagr, or the energy of daylight. Othinn asked Nott and her son Dagr to ride two splendid chariots around with the course of Sol, in order to make the day and night for mankind. Nott's horse is named Hrimfaxi, or 'frosty mane', and Dagr's is named Skinfaxi, or 'shining mane'. Sol's horses are named Arvak, the 'always awake', and Alsviðr, the 'all swift'. There dwells a Jotun woman in Jotunheimr that lives in a forest in the guise of a wolf bitch, and there she breeds many children. It is from them the race of wolves are descended. Two of them are named Skoll and Hati, and they chase and bother Sol and Mani's horses always, keeping them moving swifter and swifter as the years roll on. One of their brothers will be Manigarm, and he will be born when this age of the worlds rolls to an end, a sign of foreboding and danger. One of his kinsmen, Fenrir, is well known in the worlds.
The creatures that first grew out of Aurgelmir's flesh were built like men, but small and dark, and without wit. Bor's sons granted them intelligence and skill, but they chose to live amongst the rocks and under the hills, the lands of their origin, and they are the race of Dvergr, or dwarves. They spend their lives finding materials to use in creating, forging and forming useful things, and these things they sometimes share with other races. The first plants and animals that came were sometimes endowed with spirit and intelligence, and from those so endowed came the race of Alfar, or elves, who are beautiful and helpful, and were granted the world Ljossalfheimr, nearer to Sol, full of light and healing energies. The southern lands of fire were impossible for most folk to live within, so the Jotun Muspell was granted them because he of all could tolerate the heat and thrive within it, and he guards his lands with a flaming sword. He and his descendents feel no gratitude for this gift, and will forever be enemies to the Æsir and to mankind.
When so much of the creation was finished, Oðinn took a beautiful form for living within it, then took the spinning energy of the worlds, called Fjorgynn, or Frigga, to be his wife. After he obtained oðr, the spirit of knowledge and language from Læraðr, his descendants and those he chose to similarly endow with oðr were after known as Æsir. Hoenir took a similar form, and called himself Njorðr, and then took energy of the seas and deep cycles for his wife, and her name was Nerðus, and they began the race of the Vanir. Loðurr also took a form to live and work in the worlds, and he was born into the race of Bergelmir by the Vanir woman Laufey, and came to be called Loki, friend and aide to both Æsir and Vanir.
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