How the World Began
A Norse myth
How the World Began: Fire and Ice told by Tristan Jackson Pate
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Story
Ice flowed south and fire flowed north and where they met they merged to form the mighty Frost Giant, Ymir. The great cow Audumla emerged as the ice melted and licked the ice to form the gods - and the gods and the giants fought from the very beginning. When the gods killed the giant Ymir they used his body to create the world. His bones became mountains and his teeth became rocks, his blood became lakes and seas and they flung his skull into the air to form the sky and threw sparks from the fire to create the stars and light the world. They created man and woman from two fallen trees and the gods, the giants and the men lived in three linked worlds, all contained within the roots and branches of the great tree Yggdrasil.
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Why we chose it
A dramatic and poetic story of gods and giants. The Norse myths are a great linked cycle of stories, which begins with the creation of the world and finishes with the end of the world at Ragnarok. In between are stories of gods and giants, men and dwarves, shapeshifters, tricksters, monsters. They are stories that show how the Norsemen saw the world.