luge, in which
all his race perished, with the exception of Bergelmir, who escaped
in a boat and went with his wife to the confines of the world.

"And all the race of Ymir thou didst drown,
Save one, Bergelmer: he on shipboard fled
Thy deluge, and from him the giants sprang."

Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).

Here he took up his abode, calling the place Joetunheim (the home of the
giants), and here he begat a new race of frost-giants, who inherited
his dislikes, continued the feud, and were always ready to sally
forth from their desolate country and raid the territory of the gods.

The gods, in Northern mythology called AEsir (pillars and supporters
of the world), having thus triumphed over their foes, and being no
longer engaged in perpetual warfare, now began to look about them,
with intent to improve the desolate aspect of things and fashion a
habitable world. After due consideration Boerr's sons rolled Ymir's
great corpse into the yawning abyss, and began to create the world
out of its various component parts.

The Creation of the Earth

Out of the flesh they fashioned Midgard (middle garden), as the earth
was called. This was placed in the exact centre of the vast space,
and hedged all round with Ymir's eyebrows for bulwarks or ramparts. The
solid portion of Midgard was surrounded by the giant's blood or sweat,
which formed the ocean, while his bones made the hills, his flat
teeth the cliffs, and his curly hair the trees and all vegetation.

Well pleased with the result of their first efforts at creation, the
gods now took the giant's unwieldy skull and poised it skilfully as
the vaulted heavens above earth and sea; then scattering his brains
throughout the expanse beneath they fashioned from them the fleecy
clouds.

"Of Ymir's flesh
Was earth created,
Of his blood the sea,
Of his bones the hills,
Of his hair trees and plants,
Of his skull the heavens,
And of his brows
The gentle powers
Formed Midgard for the sons of men;
But of his brain
The heavy clouds are
All created."

Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).

To support the heavenly vault, the gods stationed the strong dwarfs,
Nordri, Sudri, Austri, Westri, at its four corners, bidding them
sustain it upon their shoulders, and from them the four points of
the compass received their present names of North, South, East, and
West. To give light to the worl