The first race in the world was the frost giants

In Norse mythology, the creation of the world is a tale of cosmic forces and divine beings.  In the beginning, the north was frozen, with nothing but ice and snow. This icy land was called Niflheim, which means “desolate.” The south, however, was ablaze. The land of raging fire was called Muspelheim, signifying “fury.” Between the ice and fire, Ginnungagap lay like a void, a chasm where the warm southern air met the cold northern winds, creating a comfortable area in the middle. Here, the frost giant Ymir was born from a drop of water, and every movement, every thought of his created more frost giants. This was the earliest race in the world – the frost giants.

The birth of the gods

As temperatures became more hospitable, a cow named Audhumbla licked the first god, Buri, out of the ice of Ginnungagap. Buri soon had a son named Bor, who married a frost giantess named Bestla. Bestla gave birth to the gods who would later rule the nine realms of the Norse world – Odin, Vili, and Ve. These three gods despised the filthy frost giants that occupied the central area of the world. So, they killed Ymir. The old frost giant fell in blood, his blood flooding Ginnungagap like a surging tide, nearly drowning all other frost giants. Of course, the sighing mother Bestla was included. But her sons saw hope on the vast corpse of Ymir.

Death can bring life; life and death are interdependent, and this is the cycle of all things.

Ymir’s blood became the oceans and lakes, his decaying flesh turned into land, his bones into mountains, and his teeth into rocks and pebbles. The gods hollowed out Ymir’s skull to create the sky, took the maggots from the corpse to make dwarves, and assigned four of them to lift Ymir’s skull in the four cardinal directions. The light-facing side of the corpse gave birth to the light-loving and peaceful elves. The gods also tore Ymir’s brain and threw it into the sky to form clouds, and stole some embers from Muspelheim to create the sun and moon, with the sparks becoming the stars in the night sky. Finally, Ymir’s eyebrows were made into a wall to keep the frost giants out, with the land outside the wall called Jotunheim and the land inside called Midgard.

In Midgard, the three gods took driftwood from the sea and made a man from an ash branch and a woman from an elm branch. The man was named Ask, and the woman Embla. Odin gave them life and soul, Vili gave them reason and motion, and Ve gave them emotions, appearance, and language. The gods thus settled them in Midgard, the ancestors of mankind.

Day and Night

In the meantime, the surviving frost giants continued to multiply, and among them was born a female giant with hair as black as pitch and skin as withered as tree bark. She was named Nott, and it is said that anyone who comes into contact with her shudders uncontrollably. She bore a son named Dagr, whose hair seemed to blaze like the flames of Muspelheim, and whose complexion was as fair as the milk of the cow Audhumbla. It is said that those who encounter him cannot help but smile.

The stark contrast between them fascinated Odin, so he harnessed them to two chariots that chase each other across the sky. Nott drives her chariot pulled by Hrimfaxi, a horse whose mane is crusted with frost; Dagr drives his chariot pulled by Skinfaxi, a horse whose mane emits sparks of starlight.

Sun and moon

At this time, in Midgard, a human (some sources say a frost giant) gave birth to a pair of siblings with astonishing beauty, more beautiful than anything the gods had created. In his ignorance and arrogance, the human named his children: the daughter Sun and the son Moon. This presumptuous act angered the gods, who seized the siblings and placed them on the chariots of day and night. In the iron forest to the east of Midgard, a son of a frost giant witch, Hati Hrodvitnisson and Skoll, turned into wolves chasing the moon and the sun, and they will eventually catch them at the time of Ragnarok.

Everything began this way.

Everything will also end this way.