"Long before the earth was created a place emerged;
the land of mists it was called,
and from the well at its core twelve power-filled rivers flowed,
in pulsating waves they flowed,
farther and farther away from their source they kept flowing,
slower and slower until they almost stopped,
and the edges became solid and turned to ice.

Then cold vapours would rise from these edges and fall again,
adding intricate layers and veins of frost like the branches of a tree,
ever smaller and more intricate.
The river becoming a stream,
the stream turning into trickles,
the trickles into veins,
the veins into droplets of frost,
until the whole Northern sphere of the jawless yawn was blanketed in icy layers
and hugged by a chilling wind.

In the South a land of fire had emerged,
where everything burned,
and everything moved.
Who was not of this land could never enter
for its gates were barred by a blackened guard,
wielding a flaming sword,
Surtr was his name.

When the heat of this fiery realm reached the solid ice,
droplets of melting water filled the space in between,
and from it life emerged for the first time,
and it took form as a giant,
Ymir was his name,
and he carried all that would ever be.
Audhumla, the cow, also emerged from the water,
and with her four flows of milk she nurtured Ymir.

From the sweat of his sleep a man and woman were born,
from under his left arm they emerged,
while he birthed also a son from his legs.
They were the first of the frost giants
and many more were born from them.

Meanwhile Audhumla, the cow, licking the salty stones,
uncovered the hair of a man.
On the second day his head emerged,
and on the third he was utterly freed.
Buri was his name,
and he was strong and powerful.

His son Borr then gave birth to three more sons;
Odin, Vili and Vé were their names.
Ymir they slayed and all but one of the frost giants drowned in his blood.
Ymir's body they took to the center of the jawless yawn,
and from his flesh they sculpted the earth,
his bones gave rise to the mountains,
his teeth scattered around as boulders,
his blood poured into oceans and lakes.

From his skull they erected the heavens
and put them over the earth,
at each corner held up by a dwarf;
Austri, Vestri, Nordri and Sudri were their names.
From his hair they made the trees,
and his eyebrows they made into a wall to protect the earth from the giants,
his brain lastly becoming the clouds in the sky.

They called this realm Mitgardr or Middle Earth,
and then they took some fire from the Southern land,
sculpted the sun, the moon and all the stars,
and threw them into the heavens.

Later a clan of dwarfs was created,
from pieces of wisdom and knowledge,
the Gods being urged so by three sisters from the giant's realm.
Then at dusk the sons of Borr,
while walking the shores of Middle Earth,
found two trees without life or destiny.
Odin gave them breath and life,
Hunir consciousness, perception and movement,
Lodur finally gifted them their senses, warmth and individuality.

The Gods then clothed them and gave them their names;
the man they called Askr, the woman Embla.
From them the race of men was born,
and in Middle Earth they were given their place..."

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