Ask- Norse FigureMortal"First Man"
Also known as: Askr
Titles & Epithets
Symbols
Description
A lifeless log on the seashore until three gods gave him breath, mind, and the flush of living color. Ask became the first man, placed with Embla in Midgard as ancestor of all humanity.
Mythology & Lore
The First Man
Three gods found two wooden forms on the seashore, without fate or purpose. Völuspá 17–18 names the gods as Odin, Hœnir, and Lóðurr; Snorri in the Gylfaginning calls them Odin, Vili, and Vé. The forms were logs, or perhaps living trees. Either way, they had no breath, no voice, no warmth.
Odin gave the first form önd, the breath of life. Hœnir gave óðr, a thinking mind. Lóðurr gave lá ok litu góða: blood under the skin, the flush of living color. The Hauksbkók manuscript adds læti, voice or movement.
The man they called Ask, from askr, the ash tree. His companion they called Embla. The gods set them in Midgard, the walled enclosure built to keep the giants out, and from that pair descended every human being. No poem records what Ask did after that morning on the shore. The sources turn back to the gods and say nothing more.
Relationships
- Family