Norse cosmology

According to scholar John Lindow, "the cosmos might be formed and reformed on multiple occasions by the rising sea.

"[1] Drawing in part on various eddic poems, the Gylfaginning section of the Prose Edda contains an account of the development and creation of the cosmos: long before the Earth came to be, there existed the bright and flaming place called Muspell—a location so hot that foreigners may not enter it—and the foggy land of Niflheim.

When the rime and the blowing heat met, the liquid melted and dropped, and this mixture formed the primordial being Ymir, the ancestor of all jötnar.

From his left arm grew a male and female jötunn, "and one of his legs begot a son with another", and these limbs too produced children.

From Ymir's skull they made the sky, which they placed above the earth in four points, each held by a dwarf (Norðri, Suðri, Austri and Vestri—Old Norse 'north, south, east, and west', respectively).

Creatures live within Yggdrasil, including the dragon Níðhöggr, an unnamed eagle, and the stags Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór.

As recalled by a dead völva in the poem: I remember yet the giants of yore, Who gave me bread in the days gone by; Nine worlds I knew, the nine in the tree With mighty roots beneath the mold.

"[15] Vafthrudnir said: "I can tell you the true secrets of the Jotun and all the gods because I've journeyed into all of the nine worlds below Niflhel Where the dead dwell below Hel.

"[16] The Nine Worlds receive a single mention in the Prose Edda, occurring section 34 of the Gylfaginning portion of the book.

The section describes how Odin threw Loki's daughter Hel into the underworld, and granted her power over all Nine Worlds: Hel he threw into Niflheim and gave her authority over nine worlds, such that she has to administer board and lodging to those sent to her, and that is those who die of sickness or old age.

For example, Henry Adams Bellows (1923) says that the Nine Worlds consist of Ásgarðr, Vanaheimr, Álfheimr, Miðgarðr, Jötunheimr, Múspellsheimr, Svartálfaheimr, Niflheimr (sometimes Hel), and perhaps Niðavellir.

[20] Ragnarök is a series of future events, including a great battle, foretold to ultimately result in the death of a number of major figures (including various deities), the occurrence of various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world in water.

Afterward, the world will resurface anew and fertile, the surviving and returning gods will meet, and mankind will be repopulated by Líf and Lífþrasir, who will emerge from Yggdrasil.