came to where another living form was standing in the mists. This was a
Giant Cow. Audhumla was the name of that cow. Ymir lay down beside her
and drank her milk, and on the milk she gave him he lived. Other beings
were formed out of the dew that fell to the ground. They were the
Daughters of the Frost, and Ymir, the Ancient Giant, married one, and
their children were the Giants.

"One day Ymir saw Audhumla breathe upon a cliff of ice and lick with her
tongue the place she breathed on. As her tongue went over and over the
place he saw that a figure was being formed. It was not like a Giant's
form; it was more shapely and more beautiful. A head appeared in the
cliff and golden hair fell over the ice. As Ymir looked upon the being
that was being formed he hated him for his beauty.

"Audhumla, the Giant Cow, went on licking the place where she had
breathed. At last a man completely formed stepped from the cliff. Ymir,
the Ancient Giant, hated him so much that he would have slain him then
and there. But he knew that if he did this, Audhumla would feed him no
more with her milk.

"Bur was the name of the man who was formed in the ice cliff, Bur, the
first of the heroes. He, too, lived on the milk of Audhumla. He married
a daughter of the Ancient Giant and he had a son. But Ymir and Ymir's
sons hated Bur, and the time came at last when they were able to kill
him.

"And now there was war between Ymir and Ymir's sons and the son and
son's sons of Bur. Odin was the son of Bur's son. Odin brought all his
brothers together, and they were able to destroy Ymir and all his
brood--all except one. So huge was Ymir that when he was slain his blood
poured out in such a mighty flood that his sons were all drowned in it,
all except Bergelmir, who was in a boat with his wife when the flood
came, and who floated away on the flood to the place that we now call
Joetunheim, the Realm of the Giants.

"Now Odin and his sons took the body of Ymir--the vastest body that ever
was--and they flung it into the Chasm of Chasms, filling up all the
hollow places with it. They dug the bones out of the body and they piled
them up as the mountains. They took the teeth out and they made them
into the rocks. They took the hair of Ymir and they made it into the
forests of trees. They took his eyebrows and formed them into the place
where Men now dwell, Midgard. And out of Ymir's hollow skull they made
the sky.

"And Odin and his sons and brothers did mor