Norse Cosmology, the Afterlife, and Ragnarok

Norse cosmogony, as preserved chiefly in the thirteenth-century Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson and in eddic poems such as Völuspá, describes the world’s origin from Ginnungagap, a primordial void situated between the fiery realm of Muspelheim to the south and the icy realm of Niflheim to the north. Where heat and cold met within this void, the meltwater gave rise to the first being, the giant Ymir, along with a primeval cow, Audhumbla, whose licking of salty ice blocks uncovered Buri, ancestor of the gods. Buri’s grandsons, Odin and his brothers Vili and Vé, subsequently killed Ymir and fashioned the physical world from his body: his flesh became the earth, his blood the seas, his bones the mountains, and his skull the sky, held aloft by dwarves. The first man and woman, Ask and Embla, were said to have been created by Odin and his companions from two pieces of driftwood found on a shore, granted breath, understanding, and other vital gifts by the gods.