Norse Mythology

1. Norse Mythology By: Rachel Wild, Alex Drye, Matt Watkins

2. The Creation Myth. • Burning Ice, and Biting Flame; That is how life began. In the south was a fire realm. In the north was an ice realm. In between those realms once stretched a huge and seeming emptiness; this was Ginnugagap. The rivers that sprang up from Hvergelmir (a spring in the north) streamed into the void.

3. Creation Myth. • The yeasty venom in them thickened and congealed like slag or metal waste, and the rivers turned into ice. That venom also spat out drizzle- an unending dismal hagger that, as soon as it settled, turned into rime. So it went on until all the northern part of Ginnungagap. Was heavy with layers of ice and hoar frost, a desolate place haunted by gusts and skuthers of wind.

4. Creation Myth. • Just as it the northern part was frozen, the southern was molten, but the middle of Ginnugagap was as mild as hanging air on a summer evening. There, the warm breath drifting north from Muspell met the rime from Niflheim; it touched it and played with over it, and the ice began to thaw and chip. Life quickened in those drops, and the took the form of a giant named Ymir.

5. Creation Myth. • Ymir was evil from the first. While he slept, he began to sweat. A man and woman grew out of the ooze under his left armpit, and one of his legs fathered a son on the other leg. Ymir was the father of all the frost giants and they called him Aurgelmir.

6. Creation Myth • More of the ice in Ginnugagap melted and took the form of a cow. They called her Audumla. Ymir fed off the milk fed off the four rivers of milk that coursed from her teats. Audumla fed off the ice. She licked the salty blocks and by the the first evening a man’s hair had come out of the ice.

7. Creation Myth • After 3 days a man was licked out of the ice, his name was Buri. Buri was the father of Bor who married a frost giant Bestla. Bor and Bestla were the parents of the gods. First came Odin, then Villi, then Ve.

8. Creation Myth • The 3 gods hated the frost giants. Over time they eventually killed Ymir and made the earth from his body.

9. Creation Myth • The 3 gods walked next to the sea when they found 2 fallen trees; one was ash, the other was elm. The 3 gods raised them and made them into the first man and woman. Odin breathed in the spirit of life, Vili gave them sharp wits and feeling hearts, and Ve gave them hearing and sight.

10. Main Characters • Ymir – father of all frost giants; he was evil from he start • Odin, Vili, Ve – they were the 3 first gods, sons of Bestla and Buri; they were kind and made the earth and first humans

11. Society Values • Through the story it seemed that they really focused around nature

12. Unusual Parts of Our Myth • This myth was unusual through the whole thing • Yet the most unusual in my opinion was the part where a cow grew from Ymir’s armpit ooze

13. Parts That Were Similar to Other Myths • Both Norse and Greek have the 3 main brother gods • Both Norse and Greek have the main god fight the current ruler. In Greek mythology Zeus and Chronus and in Norse Odin and Ymir