Gangleri asked: ‘How were things set up before the different families came into being and mankind increased?’
High replied, ‘When those rivers, which are called Elivagar [Storm Waves], came so far from their source, the poisonous flow hardened like a slag of cinders running from a furnace, and became ice. When this ice began to solidify and no longer ran, poisonous drops spewed out and froze into icy rime [hoar-frost]. Then layer by layer, the ice grew within Ginnungagap.’
Then Just-as-High said, ‘That part of Ginnungagap, which reached into the northern regions, became filled with thick ice and rime. Inside the gap there was mist and wind-whipped rain. But the southern part of Ginnungagap grew light because of sparks and glowing embers flowing from Muspellsheim.’
Then Third spoke: ‘Just as coldness and all things grim came from Niflheim, the regions bordering on Muspell were warm and bright, and Ginnungagap was as mild as a windless sky. It thawed and dripped at the point where the icy rime and the warm winds met. There was a quickening in these flowing drops and life sprang up, taking its force from the power that sent the heat. The likeness of a man appeared and he was named Ymir. The frost giants call him Aurgelmir, and from him come the clans of the frost giants, as it says in The Shorter Sibyl’s Prophecy:
All the seeresses[^fn17] are from Vidolf, all the wizards from Vilmeid, but the sorcerers are from Svarthofdi and all the giants come from Ymir. (*The Lay of Hyndla. 33*)
‘Here as the giant Vafthrudnir says:
From where Aurgelmir first came, the wise giant, among sons of giants.
When poison from Elivagar splashed out in drops it grew until forming a giant, from there all our clans have come; therefore they are all so cruel.’
(The Lay of Vafthrudnir. 30–31)
Then Gangleri asked, ‘How did the families grow from that point or how did it come about that others came into being? And do you believe that the one whom you were just talking about is a god?’
High answered: ‘In no way do we accept him as a god. He was evil, as are all his descendants; we call them frost giants. It is said that as he slept he took to sweating. Then, from under his left arm2 grew a male and a female, while one of his legs got a son with the other. From here came the clans that are called the frost giants. The old frost giant, him we call Ymir.’