Ymir
Taken together, several stanzas from four poems collected in the Poetic Edda refer to Ymir as a primeval being who was born from atter (Old Norse: eitr), yeasty venom that dripped from the icy rivers called the Élivágar, and lived in the grassless void of Ginnungagap.
The grandsons of Búri, the gods Odin, Vili and Vé, fashioned the Earth (elsewhere personified as a goddess, Jörð) from his flesh, from his blood the ocean, from his bones the mountains, from his hair the trees, from his brains the clouds, from his skull the heavens, and from his eyebrows the middle realm in which mankind lives, Midgard.
In addition, one stanza relates that the dwarfs were given life by the gods from Ymir's flesh and blood (or the Earth and sea).
By way of historical linguistics and comparative mythology, scholars have linked Ymir to Tuisto, the Proto-Germanic being attested by Tacitus in his 1st century CE ethnography Germania and have identified Ymir as an echo of a primordial being reconstructed in Proto-Indo-European mythology.
Brimir and Blain are usually held to be proper names that refer to Ymir, as in Bellows's translation.
[4]: 6 In the poem Vafþrúðnismál, the (disguised) god Odin engages the wise jötunn Vafþrúðnir in a game of wits.
[4]: 76–77 [5]: 44 [3]: 15–16 In the poem Grímnismál, the god Odin (disguised as "Grímnir") imparts in the young Agnarr cosmological knowledge.
In the first mention, in chapter 5 of Gylfaginning, High, Just-As-High, and Third tell Gangleri (the disguised mythical king Gylfi) about how all things came to be.
The trio explain that the first world to exist was Muspell, a glowing, fiery southern region consisting of flames, uninhabitable by non-natives.
High continues that these icy rivers, which are called Élivágar, ran so far from their spring source that the poisonous matter that flows with them became hard "like the clinker that comes from a furnace" – it turned to ice.
Third assesses that "just as from Niflheim there was coldness and all things grim, so what was facing close to Muspell was hot and bright, but Ginunngagap was as mild as a windless sky".
[6]: 12 Gangleri comments that what he has just heard is remarkable, as the construction is both immense and made with great skill, and asks how the earth was arranged.
A portion of a work by the 11th century skald Arnórr jarlaskáld is also provided, which refers to the sky as "Ymir's old skull".
[6]: 155–156 As Gylfaginning presents a cohesive narrative that both quotes stanzas from various poems found in the Poetic Edda (as outlined above) as well as contains unique information without a provided source (such as Auðumbla); scholars have debated to what extent Snorri had access to outside sources that no longer survive and to what extent he synthesized a narrative from the material he had access to.
Adams and J.P. Mallory comment that "the [Proto-Indo-European] cosmogonic myth is centered on the dismemberment of a divine being – either anthropomorphic or bovine – and the creation of the universe out of its various elements".
Other examples given include Ovid's 1st century BCE to 1st century BCE Latin Metamorphoses description of the god Atlas's beard and hair becoming forests, his bones becoming stone, his hands mountain ridges, and so forth; the 9th century AD Middle Persian Škend Gumānīg Wizār, wherein the malevolent being Kūnī's skin becomes the sky, from his flesh comes the earth, his bones the mountains, and from his hair comes plants; and the 10th century BCE Old Indic Purusha sukta from the Rig Veda, which describes how the primeval man Purusha was dissected; from his eye comes the sun, from his mouth fire, from his breath wind, from his feet the earth, and so on.
Among surviving sources, Adams and Mallory summarize that "the most frequent correlations, or better, derivations, are the following: Flesh = Earth, Bone = Stone, Blood = Water (the sea, etc.
[9]: 129 Adams and Mallory write that "In both cosmogonic myth and the foundation element of it, one of the central aspects is the notion of sacrifice (of a brother, giant, bovine, etc.).
... Sacrifice thus represents a creative re-enactment of the initial cosmic dismemberment of a victim and it helps return the material stuff to the world".
Davidson comments that "these myths are evidently connected with names of constellations, but the strange reference to a frozen toe suggests that there is some connexion with the creation legend of the giant that emerged from the ice".
