Ymer

Ymer

in Norse mythology, is the giant from the separate parts of whose body the world was created. The heat at Muspelheim made the ice in Niflheim melt, which caused the creation of the great giant Ymer and the cow Audumbla, from whose milk the former was nourished. The cow satisfied her hunger by licking the salt-stones, by which means the first man, Bure, was created. Ymer himself created the frightful dynasty of the Hrymthussen. But he did not live long, for Bure's nephews, sons of Bors — Odin, Wile, and We — killed Ymer, and of his blood they made the sea, of his flesh, the earth, of his bones, the rocks and hills, of his skull, the firmament, of his brain, the clouds, and of his eyelashes, the battlements about Asgard.