LITMIR.BIZ

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      Besides Asar and Jötnar, many other tribes are mentioned which can hardly be regarded as altogether mythical, some of which may have inhabited the far north of the ancient Sweden, or part of the present Russia and Scandinavia; the Thursar, who were also called Hrimthursar (hoar frost), and the Risar, also Bergrisar (mountain Risar), appear from these names to have lived in a cold mountainous country, possibly the region of the Ural Mountains.

      Jötunheim, the chief burgh of which was Utgard, would appear to be a general, vague name given to a very wide extent of country not embraced in Asaheim (the home of the Asar). Jötunheim, as the name indicates, was the home or country of the Jötnar and Thursar, between whom and the Asar there was fierce enmity.

      Some of the Jötnar were considered very wise, and Odin, as the chief of the Asar, determined to go in disguise to Jötunheim, the home of the Jötnar, in order to seek out the Jötun Vafthrudnir²¹ (the mighty or wise in riddles), who was renowned for his knowledge. The song begins by representing Odin as consulting his wife, Frigg, as to the advisability of undertaking the journey. The stanzas which follow represent Odin questioning Vafthrudnir in his search for knowledge:—

      Then went Odin

      To try word-wisdom

      Of the all-wise Jötun.

      To a hall he came,

      Owned by Ymir’s father;

      In went Ygg at once.²²

      (As Odin enters he sings—)

      Hail, Vafthrudnir,

      I have come into thy hall

      To look at thyself;

      First I want to know,

      If thou art a wise

      Or an all-wise Jötun.

       Vafthrudnir.

      Who is the man

      That in my hall

      Speaks to me?

      Thou shalt not

      Get out of it

      Unless thou art the wiser.

      Odin.

      I am called Gagnrad,²³

      I have now come from my walking

      Thirsty to thy hall;

      Needing thy bidding

      And thy welcome, Jötun;

      Long time have I travelled.

      Vafthrudnir.

      Why standing on the floor

      Dost thou speak to me?

      Take a seat in the hall.

      Then we shall try

      Who knows more,

      The guest or the old wise one.

      Odin.

      When a poor man

      Comes to a rich one

      Let him speak useful things or be silent;

      Great babbling

      I think turns to ill

      For one who meets a cold-ribbed²⁴ man.

      We are told in the Völuspa that Odin, in the quest of information, went to visit the Völva, or Sybil, Heid, who was possessed of supernatural powers of knowledge and foresight. She asks for a hearing from the sons of Heimdal, or mankind, and then proceeds to tell what she recollects:—

      I remember Jötnar

      Early born,

      Who of yore

      Raised me;²⁵

      I remember nine worlds,

      Nine ividi²⁶

      The famous world-tree (Yggdrasil)

      Beneath the earth.

      The nine worlds were—1, Muspel; 2, Asgard; 3, Vanaheim (home of the Vanir); 4, Midgard; 5, Alfheim (world of the Alfar); 6, Mannheim (home of men); 7, Jötunheim (the home of the Jötnar); 8, Hel; 9, Niflheim.

      The first beginnings of all things were apparently as obscure to the Völva as to others; nothing existed before the Creation. The world was then a gaping void (Ginnungagap), and there the Jötun Ymir, or the Hrim Thursar, lived. On each side of Ginnungagap there were two worlds, Niflheim, the world of cold, and Muspelheim, the world of heat.

      When Ymir lived

      In early ages

      Was neither sand nor sea,

      Nor cool waves,

      No earth was there

      Nor heaven above,

      There was gaping void

      And grass nowhere.

      “First there was a home (a world) in the southern half of the world called Muspel; it is hot and bright, so that it is burning and in flames; it is also inaccessible for those who have no odals (or family estates); there the one that sits at the land’s end to defend it is called a Surt. He has a flaming sword, and at the end of the world he will go and make warfare and get victory over all the gods, and burn the whole world with fire” (Later Edda, c. 4).²⁷

      The origin of the Hrim Thursar and the Birth of Ymir, who lived in Ginnungagap, and of Odin, Vili, and Ve, is as follows:

      “Gangleri asked, ‘How was it before the kindreds existed and mankind increased?’ Hár answered, ‘When the rivers called Elivagar had run so far from their sources that the quick venom which flowed into them, like the dross which runs out of the fire, got hard, and changed into ice; when this ice stood still and flowed no longer, the exhalation of the poison came over it and froze into rime; the rime rose up all the way into the Ginnungagap.’ Jafnhár said, ‘The part of Ginnungagap turning to the north was filled with the heaviness and weight of ice and rime, and the opposite side with drizzle and gusts of wind; but the southern part of Ginnungagap became less heavy, from the sparks and glowing substances which came flying from Muspelheim.’ Thridi said, ‘Just as the cold and all things come from Niflheim, the things near Muspel were hot and shining; Ginnungagap was as warm as windless air. When the rime and the breath of the heat met so that the rime melted into drops, a human form came from these flowing drops with the power of the one who had sent the heat; he was called Ymir, but the Hrimthursar call him Örgelmir, and the kin of the Hrimthursar have sprung from him.’ Gangleri asked, ‘How did the kin grow from this, or how came it that there were more men; or dost thou believe in the god of whom thou didst tell now?’ Hár answered, ‘By no means do we think him a god; he was bad, and all his kinsmen; we call them Hrimthursar. It is told that when asleep he sweated, and then there grew a man and a woman from under his left arm, and one of his feet begot a son with the other; thence have sprung the kin of Hrimthursar. We call Ymir the Old Hrimthurs.’

      “Gangleri asked, ‘Where did Ymir live, or by what?’ ‘It happened next when the hoar-frost fell in drops that the cow Audhumla grew out of it; four rivers of milk ran from her teats, and she fed Ymir.’

      “Gangleri asked, ‘On what did the cow feed?’ Hár answered, ‘She licked the rime-stones covered with salt and rime, and the first day when she licked them a man’s hair came out of them in the evening; the second day a man’s head; the third day a whole man was there; he is called Buri; he was handsome in looks, large, and mighty; he had Bör for son, who got Besla, daughter of Bölthorn jötun, for wife, and she had three sons, Odin, Vili,²⁸ Ve; and it is my belief that this Odin and his brothers are the rulers of heaven and earth. We think he is called so. Thus the man whom we know to be the greatest and most famous is called, and they may well give him this name’ ” (‘Gylfaginning,’ c. 5).

      The ash tree Yggdrasil is one of the strangest

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