MiniMe3388
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In the beginning there were neither gods nor giants nor men. The world looked completely different than today, empty spaces lived for themselves, no one ruled them.
The northern border of the Realms was occupied by ice fields torn by an eternal blizzard, feeding on the cold creeping from the underground spaces of frosty Niflheim, a black void, which in the future was to be taken over by the grim dominion of the dead. Far to the south, an opposing element was burning - in a land called Muspellheim, the volcanoes roared with anger, and the earth was devoured by an insatiable fire. And in the middle, between Niflheim and Muspellheim, yawned the unfathomable abyss of Ginnungagap (Magic Abyss), the bottom of which even a sharp-eyed observer could not see. The old world went to sleep for thousands and thousands of millennia, until the volcanoes of Muspellheim burst into flames. Tongues of flame soared far, far away to fall on the frozen plains of the North. A gigantic cloud of steam rose into the air, billowed into rain clouds, and then poured down in a downpour. It rained like this for hundreds of years until the water filled all of Ginnungagap. This is how the ocean that surrounds our world was created. And finally the time has come for space to give birth to the first being. The waters of the ocean revealed the body of the greatest of the giants our world has ever seen. It was terrifying in its immensity: in the north, the frost braided his hair into stiff icicles, and his feet sizzled from the fires of Muspellheim. Others say that the giant Ymir was born from the venom that leaked from the first river, the Eliwag. The giant Ymir floated limply on the surface of the waters. He couldn't move his arm or leg, he had no strength - he had no food. Then the first cow, Audhumla, arose from the melted iceberg. She took pity on Ymir and nursed him with her milk until he was strong enough to bear offspring. The giant Six-Headed Thrudgelmir sprang from his leg, and a second son and daughter grew under his arm. It is from them that the whole family of Thurs (giants) comes from, and those living in the North, and those from Muspellheim, and those who broke into Midgard. Audhumla left Ymir to lick the salty ice of the North until she licked off the next giant, the great Buri. He was credited with powerful magical powers. The older Thurs would not accept Buri into their ranks or give him any of their daughters as wives, for he was not of their line. Therefore, by means of a spell, he himself created his son, Borr, and then departed from our world. Some say that he did not leave, but fell asleep and lasts somewhere in the frozen North. Borr had long sought a wife from among the giants, but they kept rejecting his efforts. So he decided to take revenge on the Thurs. He kidnapped the giantess Beast and fathered three sons with her, the first gods of the Aesir family: Odin, Vili and Ve. This trinity was to become the instrument of his revenge. When the sons grew up, the father gave them his own power, surpassing even that of the giant father, Ymir. The brothers decided to take advantage of this and create, in spite of the Thurs, their own kingdom. They went to war with Ymir - they started the first war the earth had ever seen. The giants covered their eyes in fear and fled to the edge of the world, leaving their father. Finally, the magic spells wore off, and it turned out that Ymir lay dead. The three victors pounced on his corpse and tore it apart. From the flesh they made a mainland and placed it at the center of the world, separated from the ice of the North and the fires of the South by an ancient ocean. This land is our Midgard. From Ymir's bones they made mountains, from the blood of the sea, from hair forests, and surrounded Midgard with a fence of his eyelashes. They named the ocean Garsecg, or Raging Sea. They lifted Ymir's flayed skull and placed it in the heights - so was heaven. The brain poured out of the skull and dispersed in pieces in the vastness of the air - these are the clouds that float over our heads. This work was not enough for the three brothers. In order to count time, they hung the vehicles of the Sun and the Moon in the sky, and made the offspring of the giant Mundilfóri, Soi and Mani, their charioteers. Then they tore the veil of the eternal Darkness into a white scarf of the day and a black cloak of the night, and these in turn divided into parts to more easily determine the passage of time. The father of Dag, or Day, was the giant Delling, and the father of Nott, or Night, was Thurs Nórwi (Nor). The gods also determined the length of the year, and to make it consist of seasons, they divided it into Summer and Winter. Their fathers were the giants Windswal and Swasud. And this work did not please the tireless brothers. They intended to fill the world with creatures because they wanted someone to listen to them and worship them.
The Alf came first. However, they were not the work of the victorious gods, they are said to have come from afar, built the luminous Alfheim on the tops of the clouds and lived there. They entrusted themselves to the gods and from then on faithfully served them, helping them in need. So the gods decided to create beings like the Alf. They used the bones and blood of Ymir as building blocks, but the work turned out not to be as excellent as the original: the dwarves looked ugly and clumsy, and they were afraid of sunlight. The sunlight, so kind to the Alfs, turned the dwarves to gray stone. Therefore, the gods assigned them underground Svartalfheim, the State of the Dark Alf, or Svartalfs, as the Aesir called the failed copies of the spirits of Alfheim. The first dwarves, Modsognir and Durin, molded their kindred out of clay, and they crawled through the endless underground corridors of their land. Dwarves are an unruly and recalcitrant tribe, often disobeying the gods and even causing them harm. After all, they are known as incomparable blacksmiths, goldsmiths and builders. After the dwarves, it's time for us humans. In those times, Odin and the other brothers had already had offspring, and one of the rulers of the Fire Giants, the mighty Loki, joined their ranks. Once upon a time, Odin, his brother (although there are those who deny their blood ties), Hónir and Loki traveled around Midgard. Walking along the seashore, they came across two trees growing side by side—an ash and an elm. Hónir passed them indifferently, but Loki stopped and said to Odin:
-Blood brother (Loki and Odin swore eternal friendship, strengthened by blood bond), you always wanted Midgard to be inhabited by creatures that obey us. Wouldn't it be good if we created a new tribe from these trees?
-That would be good - replied Odin.
And it came to pass that from the ash tree came a man named Askr, and from the elm tree a woman named Embla. But they lay motionless, their faces pale and lifeless. So Odin gave them the power to breathe, Hónir gave them his soul, and Loki gave them the warmth of hot blood, and blushed cheeks. From Askra and Embli all people come. This is how Midgard was filled with the servants of the gods. After the creation of humans, there was an ebb and flow, and it was because of two human children. One night, Mani-Moon set out on its night journey across the sky and looked at the earth from a considerable height. He saw two boys, Hjuki and Bil, carrying water in wooden buckets. He took them to his vehicle to tell them interesting stories along the way. And in the morning, after a night full of legends, it turned out that he and the children could not do without each other. But they had to come back to earth, finish what they started. So Mani asked the Night for permission to keep the children. In return, he vowed to ensure that Hjuki and Bil continued to take care of Earth's water. And so every night Hjuki fills his bucket in the ocean, and then it's low tide, and when Bill later empties it, high tide. The gods had nowhere to live, they wandered like a pack of wolves in winter, so they decided to find a place for their future home. On the sky commons they created the fortified Asgard, a seat full of palaces, where nightly parties were held. It was surrounded by spacious plains suitable for battle practice. Asgard is ranked even higher than Alfheim, which is right, for Alf are only servants of the gods. Also anchored in the heavens is Wanaheim, home of the divine Vanir, the second line of supreme beings. It is not known when and how the Vanir built it, rumor has it that they did it before the Aesir built Asgard. It is said that the Vanir were born of the divine Earth and became the guardians of our crops. They also make sure we don't lose; the power to beget children. How it was in the dawn of time - whether the Aesir or the Vanir came first, no one knows, at least the Vanir; they ruled the heavens before the Aesir. Years later, it turned out that people are mortal - after all, they do not eat the divine Apples of Youth - and their freed souls wander around Midgard, having nowhere to go. Odin therefore decided to receive warriors who died on the battlefield into his Valhalla. What about the other souls? And the gods found a solution for that. Well, deep underground, Niflheim, a cold and sad land, was empty. It was also decided to send the souls of people who were not lucky enough to stand out during their earthly life. It is said that Earth first gave Niflheim to the rule of the giant Mimir, but then the Aesir expelled him from there and installed the fearsome Hel, daughter of Loki, as Queen of Niflheim. This is how the world was created, our Alda, composed of nine lands.
In the highest realms of the heavens, Asgard and Wanaheim drift beneath Ymir's skull. Asgard is connected to Midgard by a rainbow bridge, Bifrost, the only way between mortals and gods. Beneath the realms of the gods hangs the luminous Alfheim. One floor below is flat land, and its center is occupied by Midgard, surrounded by the ocean. Behind Garsecg to the south, Muspellheim, the world of the Fire Giants, burns. To the north is Jótunnheim, and to the northeast is Hrimthursheim. Both of these lands crackle with frost, and their lands are covered with ice. Hrimthursheim is said to be colder, so its inhabitants are called Hrimthurs - Frost Giants for a reason. All the lands of the Thurs, and even the areas occupied by them in Midgard, have long been called Utgard (Outer Region). Masses of fish swim in Garsecg, followed by ravenous monsters, including terrible krakens. But the ocean's most dangerous creature, the Jórmungand, lurks in inaccessible depths. He is also called Midgardsorm (World Serpent), because his entire huge body is in the water, encircling Midgard. It has grown so vast that it encompasses the world of men and is still capable of biting its own tail. Svartalfheim rumbles under the flat earth, where many passages to Midgard have been dug. Even lower, much lower, stretch the dark plains of Niflheim, the land of the dead where no one ever laughs. What is under it is unknown. Maybe emptiness, maybe other lands. In order for Alda not to fall apart, it was connected with a strong trunk of Yggdrasill (Tree of Ygga, i.e. Odin). One of the ash roots is from Niflheim, the other from Hrimthursheim, and the third is from Asgard. The evergreen crown of the tree spreads over the land of the gods, giving it a pleasant shade. This is how all the lands of Alda are connected, and if one day this support falls, the stars will fall, the Sun will go out, and Midgard and Utgard will sink into the depths of the ocean.
Source: Szrejter Artur - Mitologia germańska
The northern border of the Realms was occupied by ice fields torn by an eternal blizzard, feeding on the cold creeping from the underground spaces of frosty Niflheim, a black void, which in the future was to be taken over by the grim dominion of the dead. Far to the south, an opposing element was burning - in a land called Muspellheim, the volcanoes roared with anger, and the earth was devoured by an insatiable fire. And in the middle, between Niflheim and Muspellheim, yawned the unfathomable abyss of Ginnungagap (Magic Abyss), the bottom of which even a sharp-eyed observer could not see. The old world went to sleep for thousands and thousands of millennia, until the volcanoes of Muspellheim burst into flames. Tongues of flame soared far, far away to fall on the frozen plains of the North. A gigantic cloud of steam rose into the air, billowed into rain clouds, and then poured down in a downpour. It rained like this for hundreds of years until the water filled all of Ginnungagap. This is how the ocean that surrounds our world was created. And finally the time has come for space to give birth to the first being. The waters of the ocean revealed the body of the greatest of the giants our world has ever seen. It was terrifying in its immensity: in the north, the frost braided his hair into stiff icicles, and his feet sizzled from the fires of Muspellheim. Others say that the giant Ymir was born from the venom that leaked from the first river, the Eliwag. The giant Ymir floated limply on the surface of the waters. He couldn't move his arm or leg, he had no strength - he had no food. Then the first cow, Audhumla, arose from the melted iceberg. She took pity on Ymir and nursed him with her milk until he was strong enough to bear offspring. The giant Six-Headed Thrudgelmir sprang from his leg, and a second son and daughter grew under his arm. It is from them that the whole family of Thurs (giants) comes from, and those living in the North, and those from Muspellheim, and those who broke into Midgard. Audhumla left Ymir to lick the salty ice of the North until she licked off the next giant, the great Buri. He was credited with powerful magical powers. The older Thurs would not accept Buri into their ranks or give him any of their daughters as wives, for he was not of their line. Therefore, by means of a spell, he himself created his son, Borr, and then departed from our world. Some say that he did not leave, but fell asleep and lasts somewhere in the frozen North. Borr had long sought a wife from among the giants, but they kept rejecting his efforts. So he decided to take revenge on the Thurs. He kidnapped the giantess Beast and fathered three sons with her, the first gods of the Aesir family: Odin, Vili and Ve. This trinity was to become the instrument of his revenge. When the sons grew up, the father gave them his own power, surpassing even that of the giant father, Ymir. The brothers decided to take advantage of this and create, in spite of the Thurs, their own kingdom. They went to war with Ymir - they started the first war the earth had ever seen. The giants covered their eyes in fear and fled to the edge of the world, leaving their father. Finally, the magic spells wore off, and it turned out that Ymir lay dead. The three victors pounced on his corpse and tore it apart. From the flesh they made a mainland and placed it at the center of the world, separated from the ice of the North and the fires of the South by an ancient ocean. This land is our Midgard. From Ymir's bones they made mountains, from the blood of the sea, from hair forests, and surrounded Midgard with a fence of his eyelashes. They named the ocean Garsecg, or Raging Sea. They lifted Ymir's flayed skull and placed it in the heights - so was heaven. The brain poured out of the skull and dispersed in pieces in the vastness of the air - these are the clouds that float over our heads. This work was not enough for the three brothers. In order to count time, they hung the vehicles of the Sun and the Moon in the sky, and made the offspring of the giant Mundilfóri, Soi and Mani, their charioteers. Then they tore the veil of the eternal Darkness into a white scarf of the day and a black cloak of the night, and these in turn divided into parts to more easily determine the passage of time. The father of Dag, or Day, was the giant Delling, and the father of Nott, or Night, was Thurs Nórwi (Nor). The gods also determined the length of the year, and to make it consist of seasons, they divided it into Summer and Winter. Their fathers were the giants Windswal and Swasud. And this work did not please the tireless brothers. They intended to fill the world with creatures because they wanted someone to listen to them and worship them.
The Alf came first. However, they were not the work of the victorious gods, they are said to have come from afar, built the luminous Alfheim on the tops of the clouds and lived there. They entrusted themselves to the gods and from then on faithfully served them, helping them in need. So the gods decided to create beings like the Alf. They used the bones and blood of Ymir as building blocks, but the work turned out not to be as excellent as the original: the dwarves looked ugly and clumsy, and they were afraid of sunlight. The sunlight, so kind to the Alfs, turned the dwarves to gray stone. Therefore, the gods assigned them underground Svartalfheim, the State of the Dark Alf, or Svartalfs, as the Aesir called the failed copies of the spirits of Alfheim. The first dwarves, Modsognir and Durin, molded their kindred out of clay, and they crawled through the endless underground corridors of their land. Dwarves are an unruly and recalcitrant tribe, often disobeying the gods and even causing them harm. After all, they are known as incomparable blacksmiths, goldsmiths and builders. After the dwarves, it's time for us humans. In those times, Odin and the other brothers had already had offspring, and one of the rulers of the Fire Giants, the mighty Loki, joined their ranks. Once upon a time, Odin, his brother (although there are those who deny their blood ties), Hónir and Loki traveled around Midgard. Walking along the seashore, they came across two trees growing side by side—an ash and an elm. Hónir passed them indifferently, but Loki stopped and said to Odin:
-Blood brother (Loki and Odin swore eternal friendship, strengthened by blood bond), you always wanted Midgard to be inhabited by creatures that obey us. Wouldn't it be good if we created a new tribe from these trees?
-That would be good - replied Odin.
And it came to pass that from the ash tree came a man named Askr, and from the elm tree a woman named Embla. But they lay motionless, their faces pale and lifeless. So Odin gave them the power to breathe, Hónir gave them his soul, and Loki gave them the warmth of hot blood, and blushed cheeks. From Askra and Embli all people come. This is how Midgard was filled with the servants of the gods. After the creation of humans, there was an ebb and flow, and it was because of two human children. One night, Mani-Moon set out on its night journey across the sky and looked at the earth from a considerable height. He saw two boys, Hjuki and Bil, carrying water in wooden buckets. He took them to his vehicle to tell them interesting stories along the way. And in the morning, after a night full of legends, it turned out that he and the children could not do without each other. But they had to come back to earth, finish what they started. So Mani asked the Night for permission to keep the children. In return, he vowed to ensure that Hjuki and Bil continued to take care of Earth's water. And so every night Hjuki fills his bucket in the ocean, and then it's low tide, and when Bill later empties it, high tide. The gods had nowhere to live, they wandered like a pack of wolves in winter, so they decided to find a place for their future home. On the sky commons they created the fortified Asgard, a seat full of palaces, where nightly parties were held. It was surrounded by spacious plains suitable for battle practice. Asgard is ranked even higher than Alfheim, which is right, for Alf are only servants of the gods. Also anchored in the heavens is Wanaheim, home of the divine Vanir, the second line of supreme beings. It is not known when and how the Vanir built it, rumor has it that they did it before the Aesir built Asgard. It is said that the Vanir were born of the divine Earth and became the guardians of our crops. They also make sure we don't lose; the power to beget children. How it was in the dawn of time - whether the Aesir or the Vanir came first, no one knows, at least the Vanir; they ruled the heavens before the Aesir. Years later, it turned out that people are mortal - after all, they do not eat the divine Apples of Youth - and their freed souls wander around Midgard, having nowhere to go. Odin therefore decided to receive warriors who died on the battlefield into his Valhalla. What about the other souls? And the gods found a solution for that. Well, deep underground, Niflheim, a cold and sad land, was empty. It was also decided to send the souls of people who were not lucky enough to stand out during their earthly life. It is said that Earth first gave Niflheim to the rule of the giant Mimir, but then the Aesir expelled him from there and installed the fearsome Hel, daughter of Loki, as Queen of Niflheim. This is how the world was created, our Alda, composed of nine lands.
In the highest realms of the heavens, Asgard and Wanaheim drift beneath Ymir's skull. Asgard is connected to Midgard by a rainbow bridge, Bifrost, the only way between mortals and gods. Beneath the realms of the gods hangs the luminous Alfheim. One floor below is flat land, and its center is occupied by Midgard, surrounded by the ocean. Behind Garsecg to the south, Muspellheim, the world of the Fire Giants, burns. To the north is Jótunnheim, and to the northeast is Hrimthursheim. Both of these lands crackle with frost, and their lands are covered with ice. Hrimthursheim is said to be colder, so its inhabitants are called Hrimthurs - Frost Giants for a reason. All the lands of the Thurs, and even the areas occupied by them in Midgard, have long been called Utgard (Outer Region). Masses of fish swim in Garsecg, followed by ravenous monsters, including terrible krakens. But the ocean's most dangerous creature, the Jórmungand, lurks in inaccessible depths. He is also called Midgardsorm (World Serpent), because his entire huge body is in the water, encircling Midgard. It has grown so vast that it encompasses the world of men and is still capable of biting its own tail. Svartalfheim rumbles under the flat earth, where many passages to Midgard have been dug. Even lower, much lower, stretch the dark plains of Niflheim, the land of the dead where no one ever laughs. What is under it is unknown. Maybe emptiness, maybe other lands. In order for Alda not to fall apart, it was connected with a strong trunk of Yggdrasill (Tree of Ygga, i.e. Odin). One of the ash roots is from Niflheim, the other from Hrimthursheim, and the third is from Asgard. The evergreen crown of the tree spreads over the land of the gods, giving it a pleasant shade. This is how all the lands of Alda are connected, and if one day this support falls, the stars will fall, the Sun will go out, and Midgard and Utgard will sink into the depths of the ocean.
Source: Szrejter Artur - Mitologia germańska
