Norse Mythology, Thursday, Second Period

[ifwebeworthy]

"In the beginning," Don told his students, "there was a cow. Actually, in the beginning there was a void," but not Don's void. A different void. "An abyss, really. Ginnungagap, the abyss between Muspelheim, the realm of fire, and Niflheim, the realm of ice. The heat from the fire began to melt the ice, and the water formed Ymir, the first of the giants, who produced more giants from his armpit sweat while he slept. Enter the cow. Where did the cow come from? Doesn't matter. The cow licked at salt in the ice--because there was salt in the ice--and uncovered the first of the Aesir, Buri, frozen in the ice. Once he thawed out, Buri married one of the giants, Bestla, and their descendants, three brothers, Odin, Vili, and Ve, killed Ymir and constructed our world, Midgard, from his corpse. The sky is his skull, the oceans are his blood, and so forth." Fun stuff. "Later, Odin and his brothers made the first humans, Ask and Embla, from a pair of tree trunks." A fact which had led to Don staring at his hands wondering what his body was made of for at least twenty minutes. "But that's another story.

"A lot of cultures' creation myths start with a void. A nothing from which everything springs. The meeting of fire and ice, the importance of water to creation, these are all common motifs. But I do have to admit that I get stuck on where the cow comes from. So. What's your take on this story?"