Aesir- Norse RaceRace"Gods of Asgard"

The World from Ymir's Body

The first Æsir were three brothers: Odin, Vili, and Vé, sons of Borr and the giantess Bestla. Their grandfather Búri had been licked free from ice by the primordial cow Auðumbla. The gods were half-giant from the start.

The brothers killed the primordial giant Ymir and built the world from his corpse. His flesh became the earth, his blood the seas. They set his skull overhead as the sky, held up by four dwarves, and flung the sparks of Múspellsheimr above it as sun and moon and stars. From Ymir's eyebrows they made Midgard, a walled enclosure to shelter the humans they fashioned next: Ask and Embla, the first man and woman, shaped from driftwood on the shore.

The Æsir settled in Asgard and gathered at the plain of Iðavöllr. The Völuspá describes a golden age: the gods raised temples, forged treasures, and played board-games in the grass with golden pieces. That age ended when three Norns came from Jötunheim. After them, nothing happened without consequence.

The War with the Vanir

The Vanir sent a sorceress named Gullveig to Asgard. The Æsir stabbed her with spears and burned her body. Three times they killed her, and three times she rose. The Vanir went to war.

The Völuspá says Odin hurled the first spear over the enemy host. Asgard's wall was breached. Neither side could break the other. They agreed to a truce and exchanged hostages: the Vanir sent Njörðr and his children to Asgard; the Æsir sent Hœnir and Mímir. When the Vanir found Hœnir useless without Mímir's counsel, they cut off Mímir's head and sent it back. Odin preserved it with herbs and runes, and it continued to speak, offering wisdom for the rest of the age.

Ragnarök

The Völuspá foretells the end. Fenrir will swallow Odin. Thor will kill Jörmungandr and fall to its venom nine steps later. Freyr, swordless since he traded his blade for Gerðr, will fall to Surtr. Heimdall and Loki will kill each other. Surtr will cast fire over the world.

The earth will sink. The sun will go dark.

Then a new earth will rise green from the sea, with fields bearing unsown grain. Baldr and Höðr will return from the dead. Thor's sons Magni and Móði will carry their father's hammer. The surviving gods will gather at Iðavöllr and find in the grass the golden game pieces of the old world.