Elivagar- Norse LocationLocation · Landmark

The Ice-Waves

The Élivágar are eleven primordial rivers that pour from the spring Hvergelmir in Niflheim. Snorri names them in Gylfaginning: Slíðr, "the Fearsome," which Völuspá sends flowing through dales of swords and knives, and Gjöll, "the Resounding," the river the dead must cross to reach Hel's domain. Nine others joined them. All carried eitr, a venomous substance that hardened into ice as it flowed far from its source.

Layer upon layer of poisoned rime built up in the northern reaches of Ginnungagap. When the heat and sparks from Muspelheim began to melt this frozen venom, the dripping ice quickened with life. From it the first being took shape: Ymir, the primordial giant from whose dismembered body the gods would later fashion the earth, sea, and sky. The cosmic cow Auðhumla also emerged from the thawing ice, nourishing Ymir with her milk while she licked the salt-ice blocks that concealed Búri, ancestor of the gods. In Vafþrúðnismál, the wise giant Vafþrúðnir confirms to Odin that from the Élivágar's venomous drops Ymir grew and all the rime-giants descend.

Thor's Crossing

The Élivágar reappear after creation as a boundary of extreme cold. Following his duel with the giant Hrungnir, Thor encountered Aurvandil the Bold stranded in the frozen north and carried him across the Élivágar in a basket on his back. During the crossing one of Aurvandil's toes froze solid through the basket's side. Thor snapped it off and flung it into the sky, where it became the star Aurvandilstá.