Page 77 - Red Feather Book 2

The Aesir
In the beginning of time there was nothing except darkness and Allfather, who was a powerful entity that could not be seen or heard. In this great void in the universe, there was a deep, dark chasm. It was so deep that it was impossible to measure how far it descended. It was called the Chasm of Yawning or Ginnungagap. To the north of this chasm there was a great area of mist that rose above powerful streams that eventually made their way into the chasm. When the cold air of the chasm touched the water it caused it to turn to ice and soon it was covered with glistening, frozen waterfall. To the south of this region was Muspelheim, the land of fire. The fire was guarded by Surtr, the flame giant. Surtr possessed a magnificent light sword that flashed through the darkness of the universe and set sparks flying everywhere. Once, several embers fell into the chasm and melted some of the frozen water. Great clouds of steam rose from the abyss, and then cooled. Layer upon layer of frost appeared as the heat and the cold came together. From this union, Ymir, an ice giant, was created. Ymir began to stumble through the layers of ice looking for food and he uncovered a figure in a transparent block of ice. This was the god Buri. From Ymir’s hands and feet there sprang up the frost giants and Buri brought forth the race of gods. The giants felt threatened by these gods and attacked them and thus the war between the frost giants and the gods and goddesses began.
In an attempt to reconcile the feuding factions, Buri’s son, Bor, married the giantess Bestla. Together they had three children: Odin, which means spirit, Vili, which means will, and Ve, which means holy. Bor’s attempts to end the war were in vain. His three sons fought against the frost giants and they slew the great Ymir, who was so big that his blood flooded the world. All the giants were exterminated except for two, Ymir’s grandson, Begelmir, and his wife. Both of them managed to escape to Jotunheim. Here they existed for many years and produced numerous offspring, who would begin a new race of frost giants.
From Ymir’s body grew an ash tree named Yggdrasil whose branches covered the known
The Red Feather Literature Second Course
Norse Mythology
Part 1: The Creation of the World
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