. From the spring Hvergelmer ran icy streams into the
Ginungagap. The hoarfrost from these streams was met by sparks from
Muspelheim, and by the power of the heat the vapors were given life in
the form of the Yotun or giant Ymer and the cow Audhumbla, on
whose milk he lives. From Ymer descends the evil race of Yotuns or
frost-giants. As the cow licked the briny hoarfrost, the large,
handsome and powerful Bure came into being. His son was Bur, who
married a daughter of a Yotun and became the father of Odin, Vile, and
Ve. Odin became the father of the kind and fair Aesir, the gods who
rule heaven and earth.

Bur's sons killed Ymer, and in his blood the whole race of Yotuns
drowned except one couple, from whom new races of Yotuns or giants
descended. Bur's sons dragged the body of Ymer into the middle of
Ginungagap. Out of the trunk of the body they made the earth, and of
his blood the sea. His bones became mountains, and of his hair they
made trees. From the skull they made the heavens, which they elevated
high above the earth and decorated with sparks from Muspelheim. But
his brain was scattered in the air and became clouds. Around the earth
they let the deep waters flow, and on the distant shores the escaped
Yotuns took up their abode in Yotunheim and in Utgard. For protection
against them the kind gods made from Ymer's eyebrows the fortification
Midgard as a defense for the inner earth. But from heaven to earth
they suspended the quivering bridge called Bifrost, or the rainbow.

The Yotun woman Night, black and dark as her race, met Delling (the
Dawn) of the Aesir race, and with him became the mother of Day, who
was bright and fair as his father. Odin placed mother and son in the
heavens, and bade them each in turn ride over the earth. Night rides
ahead with her horse Hrimfaxe, from whose foaming bit the earth is
every morning covered with dew. Day follows with his horse Skinfaxe,
whose radiant mane spreads light and air over the earth.

A great number of maggots were bred in Ymer's body, and they became
gnomes or dwarfs, little beings whom the gods gave human sense
and appearance. They lived within the mountains, and were skilful
metal-workers, but they could not endure the light of day. Four
dwarfs, the East, West, North, and South, were placed by the gods to
carry the arch of heaven.

As yet there were no human beings on earth. Then, one day, the three
gods, Odin, Keener and Lodur, were walking on the shore of t