oo Before the creation of the world, there are two opposite poles: Niflheim, the ice, and Muspellheim, the fire. Ymir is also the founder of the race of the giants of hoarfrost. Giants went out of the body of Ymir while he slept, of his armpits arose a man and a woman, whereas of his legs was born a son. In the myth of the creation, Odin, irritated by the brutality of Ymir, killed him and threw him in Ginnungagap (the gaping abyss). The deluge caused by its blood was so big that it killed all the giants, except for the grandson of Ymir, Bergelmir (son of Thrudgelmir) and his wife. Odin and his(her) brothers used the body of Ymir to create the Earth from its flesh, mountains from the bones, the sky from the skull, trees from its hair, Midgard from its eyebrow, clouds from its brains and its blood gave birth to rivers, to lakes, to ponds and to sea. Ragnarök (” final fate of the gods “) is the destruction of the world which concerns as well the gods as the men and are characterized by 4 big events. Other natural disasters are added to it: the earth trembles, rocks collapse, the tree world Yggdrasil trembles, the bridge Bifröst collapses. Odin fights against the wolf Fenrir and dies, Vidar avenges him.
Cosmogony
Ymir arose from the ice of Niflheim which melted in contact with the heat of Muspellheim. Ymir lived on some milk of the cow Audhumla which, by licking the hoarfrost and the salt with which the giant was covered, put three days freeing the ancestor of the gods: Buri, father of Bor, father himself of Odin de Vili and Vé.Ymir or the myth of the creation
The first human couple, trained by Ask and Embla, was created from two tree trunks.Eschatology
· Fimbulvetr (” great winter “) which, according to Snori Sturluson, consists of a succession of three winters without intermediate summers, accompanied with snow coming from all the cardinal points, from the frost and from the cold storms.
Heimdall, the guard of the bridge, rings of the horn Gjallarhorn to warn the gods. Odin consults the Mímir head and the gods hold advice. Hrym at the head of the giants arrive aboard the boat Naglfar and Surt leads the sons of Muspell. He follows itself a big battle on the Vígríd plain during which the majority of the divinities rested by einherjar (armed with warriors of exception who, after their death in the fight, joined Valhalla), the giants and almost all of the men die.
Thor kills the snake of Midgard but dies poisoned by his poison.
Freyr fights and succumbs because he has no his sword.
Tyr and Garm, the dog of Hel, kills each other, Heimdall and Loki does the same.
