Bergelmir

In the cosmogonic narrative attested in Old Norse sources, Bergelmir is a descendant of Aurgelmir/Ymir and the son of Þrúðgelmir (Vafþrúðnismál). When the sons of Borr (Odin, Vili, and Vé) kill Aurgelmir and his blood floods the earth, Bergelmir survives. In Vafþrúðnismál the poem states he was 'laid (lagiðr) in the lúðr', implying an infant preserved in that container; in Snorri's Gylfaginning the prose-redaction depicts Bergelmir and his wife escaping the flood in a lúðr, re-founding the frost-jötunn race. Scholarly commentary notes dispute over the meaning of lúðr (glosses include 'flour-bin', 'cradle', 'coffin', 'chest', or 'ark/boat'), and Snorri's account invites an interpretive Noah-like comparison not present in the older poem.

The surviving sources provide no physical description beyond Bergelmir's classification as a jötunn. Vafþrúðnismál presents him in a life-stage consistent with being an infant 'laid in the lúðr' (lagiðr), while Snorri's Gylfaginning depicts him as an adult who escapes with a wife — the texts differ on agency and life-stage but do not record specific bodily traits (size, color, shape).

The corpus does not ascribe overt supernatural powers to Bergelmir in the manner of later folkloric agents. His narrative role is survival and progenitorship: by surviving the flood of Aurgelmir/Ymir's blood (either as an infant placed in a lúðr or as an adult refugee with a wife) he preserves and re-founds the frost-jötunn lineage. No additional behaviors, ongoing interventions in human affairs, or magical abilities are recorded in the cited sources.