Yotuns took up their abode in Yotunheim and in Utgard. For protection
against them the kind gods made from Ymer's eyebrows the fortification
Midgard as a defense for the inner earth. But from heaven to earth
they suspended the quivering bridge called Bifrost, or the rainbow.

The Yotun woman Night, black and dark as her race, met Delling (the
Dawn) of the Aesir race, and with him became the mother of Day, who
was bright and fair as his father. Odin placed mother and son in the
heavens, and bade them each in turn ride over the earth. Night rides
ahead with her horse Hrimfaxe, from whose foaming bit the earth is
every morning covered with dew. Day follows with his horse Skinfaxe,
whose radiant mane spreads light and air over the earth.

A great number of maggots were bred in Ymer's body, and they became
gnomes or dwarfs, little beings whom the gods gave human sense
and appearance. They lived within the mountains, and were skilful
metal-workers, but they could not endure the light of day. Four
dwarfs, the East, West, North, and South, were placed by the gods to
carry the arch of heaven.

As yet there were no human beings on earth. Then, one day, the three
gods, Odin, Keener and Lodur, were walking on the shore of the sea,
where they found two trees, and from them they made the first man and
the first woman, Ask and Embla (ash and elm). Odin gave them life,
Hoener reason, Lodur blood and fair complexion. The gods gave them
Midgard for a home, and from them the whole human race is descended.

The evergreen ash tree Ygdrasil is the finest of all trees. It
shoots up from three roots. One of them is in the well Hvergelmer in
Niflheim, and on this the dragon Nidhugger is gnawing. The other root