Introduction

Before the introduction of Christianity, the ancient Scandanavian and Germanic peoples had developed a creation story unique to their geographical circumstances but similar in spirit to other earlier stories.

The earth was formed from Chaos out of a great emptiness called Ginnungagap. This great emptiness seems to refer to some inner reality that exists behind outward appearances. In Ginnungagap their existed potential life which was unleashed when the fiery realm of Muspell came into contact with the frozen wastelands of the arctic north. From this contact emerged the great giant Ymir; the ancestor of all giants. The first man and woman grew out of Ymir's left armpit, and the race of the frost giants grew out of Ymir's toes. Ymir was slain and dismembered; his body parts used to create land, air and clouds.

Ymir may have been the "Tuisto" mentioned by the historian Tacitus as the first ancestor of the germanic peoples, so this Creation legend may have existed in some form as long ago as the first or second century B.C. Like the cosmology of the Ionian School, ancient Scandanavians believed that the universe and all of its gods would eventually come to an end in an event called Ragnarok when Chaos would once again rule and consume the universe.

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Preview Image

An 18th century copy of the Prose Edda, one of the key literary sources for Norse mythology. From the article Norse paganism  - Wikipedia. (Source: WikiMedia Commons.)