The Prose Edda on Ymer

The Younger Edda: > Snorre'S Edda, Or The Prose Edda. > Preface.

• attestation: The giant Ymer was born from melted drops of vapor in the midst of Ginungagap

  "the giant Ymer was born in the midst of Ginungagap"

• attestation: Ymer was not a god but the progenitor of all evil giants

  "He was not a god, but the father of all the race of evil giants"

• attestation: The universe was fashioned from Ymer's body: earth from flesh, sea from blood, rocks from bones, trees from hair, heavens from skull

  "from his body made they the universe; from his flesh, the earth; from his blood, the sea; from his bones, the rocks; from his hair, the trees; from his skull, the vaulted heavens"

The Younger Edda: > Chapter Iv. > The Creation Of The World.

• attestation: When Muspelheim's heat met the rime, the drops quickened into life taking the form of Ymer (called Aurgelmer by frost giants)

  "when the heated blasts from Muspelheim met the rime, so that it melted into drops, then, by the might of him who sent the heat, the drops quickened into life and took the likeness of a man, who got the name Ymer. But the Frost giants call him Aurgelmer"

• attestation: All giants are descended from Ymer according to the Lay of Hyndla

  "All giants have Come from Ymer."

• attestation: When Ymer slept, a man and woman grew from the sweat under his left arm

  "when he slept he fell into a sweat, and then there grew under his left arm a man and a woman"

• attestation: One of Ymer's feet begat a son with the other foot, producing the frost-giant race

  "one of his feet begat with the other a son. From these come the races that are called frost-giants"

• attestation: Odin and his brothers (sons of Bor) slew Ymer, and so much blood flowed that all frost-giants drowned except Bergelmer

  "The old frost-giant we call Ymer"

• attestation: The sons of Bor made the earth from Ymer's flesh, seas and lakes from blood, rocks from bones

  "They took the body of Ymer, carried it into the midst of Ginungagap and made of him the earth. Of his blood they made the seas and lakes; of his flesh the earth was made, but of his bones the rocks"

• attestation: Stones and pebbles were made from Ymer's teeth, jaws, and broken bones

  "of his teeth and jaws, and of the bones that were broken, they made stones and pebbles"

• attestation: The ocean was made from Ymer's free-flowing blood and placed in a ring around the earth

  "Of the blood that flowed from the wounds, and was free, they made the ocean; they fastened the earth together and around it they laid this ocean in a ring without"

• attestation: The sky was made from Ymer's skull, raised over the earth with four dwarfs at its corners: Austre, Vestre, Nordre, Sudre

  "They took his skull and made thereof the sky, and raised it over the earth with four sides. Under each corner they set a dwarf, and the four dwarfs were called Austre (east), Vestre (West), Nordre (North), Sudre (South)"

• attestation: Clouds were made from Ymer's brains

  "They also took his brains and cast them into the air, and made therefrom the clouds"

The Younger Edda: > Chapter Vi. > The First Works Of The Asas. The Golden Age.

• attestation: Dwarfs had first been created and quickened in Ymer's flesh like maggots

  "The dwarfs had first been created and had quickened in Ymer's flesh"

The Younger Edda: > Chapter Iii.

• attestation: Ymer's name means 'the noisy one' derived from ymja (to howl)

  "YMER is the noisy one, and his name is derived from ymja = to howl"