In the Norse cosmogony the gods encounter two pieces of wood or two trees on a shore and from them create the first human pair. In the Poetic Edda (Völuspá stanza 17) three gods named Hœnir, Lóðurr and Odin find Ask and Embla and give them gifts; in the Prose Edda (Gylfaginning ch. 9) the three brothers Odin, Vili and Vé walk along a beach, find two trees and from the wood create Ask and Embla, clothing them, naming them and placing them in Midgard. The accounts agree that the pair originate at the mythic beginning and that the gods bestow the capacities that make them human.
Primary attestations describe Ask and Embla as created from trees or wood (the Prose Edda says the gods took two trees on a beach and made them into the first man and woman). Ask's name transparently connects him to the ash tree (Old Norse askr = 'ash tree'); Embla's etymology is uncertain, with scholarly proposals including derivations meaning 'elm', 'vine', or a compound interpreted as 'firemaker'/'smokebringer'. No detailed anthropological physical description (height, hair, complexion) is preserved in the cited sources; the focus is on vegetal/material origin rather than corporeal detail.
Initially the pair are described as limited—Völuspá says they were 'little able' and lacking ørlög (fate/law/destiny) until the gods endowed them. The Prose Edda specifies that the three divine agents gave them the breath of life, movement and intelligence, and form, speech, hearing and sight; they were also clothed, named and placed in Midgard. After these gifts they function as the first humans and progenitors, capable of living and reproducing. The precise wording of the gifts and the identities of the two helper gods differ between sources and are matters of scholarly debate.
Ymir
Ymir is the primeval progenitor in Norse myth whose body is transformed by the gods into the material world; he is named in the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda as ancestor of the jötnar and a source-substance for earth, sea, mountains, sky and more.
Odin
Odin (Old Norse: Óðinn) is the chief god of the Norse (Æsir) pantheon, a multifaceted deity associated with wisdom obtained by sacrifice, poetic inspiration, death and warfare, and rulership over the hall Valhöll where chosen slain warriors (einherjar) dwell. He appears throughout Germanic tradition from Roman-era accounts through the Viking Age and in later folklore as leader of the Wild Hunt.
Andvari
Andvari is a dwarf from Old Norse sources (attested in the 12th century) who lives beneath a waterfall, hoards gold, owns a magical ring called Andvaranaut, can change into a pike, and curses the gold when it is stolen—events that set in motion tragic outcomes in Norse heroic narrative.
Angrboða
Angrboða is a jötunn (giantess) in Norse myth attested briefly in the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda as the partner of Loki and the mother of three world‑shaping offspring: Fenrir, Jörmungandr, and Hel. Surviving medieval attestations are sparse; most descriptions of her beyond genealogy derive from modern retellings and popular culture.
Atter
In Norse tradition, Atter refers to various forms of poison, corruption, or noxious influence that can manifest physically or morally. (Note: * Power tier should be Primordial only for its ability to cause cosmic-scale harm (e.g., societal consumption). However, most of its described abilities fall under Greater or Lesser powers, implying A)
Aurboða
Aurboða is a jötunn (giantess) in Norse mythology attested as the wife of the jötunn Gymir and mother of the jötunn Gerðr; the name also appears separately as one of the nine maidens in the poem Fjölsvinnsmál. Her name is debated etymologically as either 'gravel-bidder' (aurr + boða) or, in an alternative reading, 'gold-bidder' (aur + boða).
Auðumbla
Auðumbla is the primeval cow of Old Norse cosmogony attested in the Prose Edda: she nourishes the primordial jötunn Ymir with rivers of milk and by licking salty rime-stones reveals Búri, an ancestor of the gods. Her name and role link fertility, nourishment, and the emergence of key lineages in the Norse origin narrative.
Baldr
Baldr (Old Norse Baldr; Old English Bældæġ; Old High German Balder/Palter) is a god in Germanic mythology. In the Norse branch he is named as a son of Odin and Frigg and as a member of the Aesir, attested alongside brothers such as Thor and Váli in the supplied sources.
Barri
Barri (also attested Barrey/Barey) is a mythic place-name in Old Norse tradition, named in Skírnismál and Snorri Sturluson’s Gylfaginning as the rendezvous-site where Freyr and Gerðr will meet nine nights after prior events. The term is etymologically ambiguous between a grove/wood and an island or a grain-field, and scholars debate whether its semantic field evokes woodland or agricultural fertility.
Baugi
Baugi is a jötunn (giant) in Old Norse myth who appears as a secondary actor in the mead of poetry narrative preserved in Skáldskaparmál and the þulur. He is presented as the brother of Suttungr, provides and uses an auger named Rati to bore into the mountain Hnitbjörg, and figures in Odin's (Bölverk’s) bargain and deception to obtain the mead of poetry.
Beli
Beli is a jötunn (giant) in Old Norse myth known chiefly as an adversary slain by the god Freyr. Attestations are fragmentary: he appears in Eddic and skaldic references as the named foe of Freyr and as an element in kennings, and scholars treat the fuller myth as largely lost.
Bergelmir
Bergelmir is a jötunn in Norse mythology, attested as a descendant of the primordial giant Aurgelmir (Ymir) and portrayed as the survivor who preserves the frost-jötunn line after the primeval flood caused by Ymir's death. He appears in two primary Old Norse contexts: the poem Vafþrúðnismál (where he is implied to be an infant laid in a lúðr) and Snorri Sturluson's Gylfaginning (where he and his wife escape on a lúðr).
Beyla
Beyla is a minor attendant of the Vanir god Freyr attested only in the Poetic Edda poem Lokasenna (prose introduction and stanzas 55 and 66). Surviving texts give her no independent cult or clear domain; modern scholars have proposed she may be an agricultural personification based on name-interpretation and association with Freyr.
Blóðughófi
Blóðughófi (variant Blóðhófr) is a named mythic horse in Old Norse poetic tradition attested in þulur (name-lists) as the steed associated with the god Freyr, glossed literally as "Bloody Hoof." The attestations are primarily catalogic rather than narrative, and no extended mythic episodes or independent powers are directly ascribed to this horse in the surviving cited materials.
Community Record
- [1]Ask and Embla - Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 'Ask and Embla'wiki
- [2]Gylfaginning (Prose Edda) — chapter 9 (summary). Summary of Prose Edda account cited in sources (Gylfaginning ch. 9)literary
- [3]Völuspá stanza 17 (Poetic Edda reference). Poetic Edda (Völuspá stanza 17) as summarized in source materialliterary
- [4]Fire & Ice: The Heathen Concept of Being (archive). Archive copy, contains modern interpretive material referencing Eddic loreother
- [5]Where Did I Come From? (Academy Storytime) (archive). Asatru Academy children's adaptation referencing Eddic cosmogonyfolk
- [6]Gunlög Josefsson (etymological interpretation cited in notes). Gunlög Josefsson's proposal connecting Embla to eim + la ('firemaker') and to fire‑plough symbolism, discussed in supplied materialacademic
- [7]Comparative Indo‑European parallels (summary). Summaries noting parallels to Vedic Yama and Yamī, Iranian Mašya and Mašyānag, Anglo‑Saxon Æsc, and continental examplesacademic