Creation of Norse World

Did the Norse pantheon and Nine Worlds just simply exist in the cosmos? No, they didn’t. The fact was that the Norse World was created and it was the product of many primitive creatures. 

Prior to the beautiful landscapes described in poetic words or depictions, the Norse world was pitch-dark, only an enormous emptiness called Ginungagapp. To the North of the emptiness was Niflheim. The land of Niflheim was extremely cold and full of fog forever. To the South of the Ginungagapp was the land of lava and fire, Muspelheim. The Muspelheim later was the place of giant Surtr whose fire engulfed the whole world in Ragnarok.

First Giant and Gods

The frost from Niflheim and the flames from Muspelheim moved toward each other until they met in Ginungagapp. In the completely silent void of Ginungagapp, the fire melted the ice and the drippings resulted in the giant Ymir. According to the myth, when Ymir sweated, his sweat would become more and more giants. As the ice continued to melt, its drippings became the cow Audhumbla. The milk of this cow raised Ymir while this cow grew up by licking the salty ice from which she uncovered Buri the first god of Aesir god tribe. Buri had a son named Bor who married a giantess Bestla. The sons of Bor and Bestle was Odin, Vili, and Ve. Odin later became the chief god of Asgard.

Odin and brothers killing Ymir the first Giant

Odin and his brothers planned to kill Ymir and they succeeded. They used the body parts of Ymir to construct the world: brain for the cloud, teeth for mountains, blood for the ocean, hair for vegetation, skin and muscular for soil, and skull for the sky.

Dwarves

While Odin and his brothers were busy with the creation of the world, the worms from the dead body of Ymir crawled out and became the dwarves. The gods were still afraid that the sky would collapse one day. Thereby, they asked four dwarves to go into four directions to hold the sky. These four dwarves actually presented four cardinal points nowadays. Later, the Norse dwarves were the most talented craftsmen in the cosmos, creating and offering the Gods with many priceless treasures. (Read Treasures of Norse Dwarves)

Dwarves creating Thor's hammer Mjolnir

First Humans

The very first humans were created at that time. The gods used the tree trunks to create two first humans, namely Ask and Embla, from the tree trunks. The physical body was not enough, the gods with their magic give Ask and Embla the sense, knowledge, intellect, and other abilities to survive. They decided to protect the humans by building a fence, later known as Midgard.

All human beings were the descendants of Ask and Embla. Heimdall the Watchman of Asgard later created three social classes of men and women in Midgard.

Sun and Moon

Before the Creation, there was no Sun or Moon so the world was nothing but black. In the myth, a human had two children who were so shining and beautiful that he decided to call his children respectively Mani “Moon” and Sol “Sun”. Because the Gods viewed this as arrogance, they decided to take both of them and place them in the sky.

Wolves Hati and Skoll chasing Sun and Moon

Sol would ride a chariot pulled by two horses and the chariot was equipped with a shield to protect the Earth from flames. Mani would ride a chariot pulled by only one horse. Main then stole two Midgard children to help with pulling.
The Sun and the Moon were daily chased by two wolves, Hati and Skoll. Wolf Hati often bit part of the Moon but the Moon would heal itself. In Ragnarok, Hati and Skoll managed to catch the Sun and the Moon.

Day and Night

Nott (Night) was a beautiful giantess with the dark complexion and midnight color hair. She married three times and had many children, one of whom was Dag (Day). The gods sent Nott and Dag into the sky and gave them the chariots. They would pull their chariots and gave the world lightning and darkness, one following the other.