Ymir

In Norse mythology, Ymir (/ˈiːmɪər/), also known as Aurgelmir, Brimir, or Bláinn, is the progenitor of all jötnar (giants). References to Ymir appear in the 13th-century Poetic Edda (compiled from earlier traditional material), Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, and in skaldic poetry.

According to several stanzas from four poems in the Poetic Edda, Ymir was a primeval being born from eitr (poisonous, yeasty venom) that dripped from the icy Élivágar rivers into the empty void of Ginnungagap. From Ymir's body sprang the first beings: a male and female emerged from his armpits, while his legs together produced a six-headed creature. Later, the grandsons of Búri—the gods Odin, Vili, and Vé—slew Ymir and fashioned the world from his remains: Earth from his flesh, oceans from his blood, mountains from his bones, trees from his hair, clouds from his brains, and the heavens from his skull. They created Midgard (the realm of humans) from his eyebrows. One stanza also relates that the gods gave life to dwarfs using Ymir's flesh and blood (or the Earth and sea).

The Prose Edda expands this narrative, adding that when Ymir formed from the elemental drops, so too did Auðumbla, a primeval cow whose milk nourished him. It explicitly states that three gods—brothers Odin, Vili, and Vé—killed Ymir, causing an immense flood with his blood.

Scholars debate whether Snorri's account represents an attempt to synthesize a coherent narrative for the Prose Edda or draws from traditional material outside his cited sources. Through historical linguistics and comparative mythology, researchers have connected Ymir to Tuisto, the Proto-Germanic being mentioned in Tacitus's 1st-century ethnography Germania, and identified Ymir as an echo of a primordial being reconstructed in Proto-Indo-European mythology.