to them; what is most, he made man, and gave him a soul that
shall live and never perish; and all men that are right-minded
shall live and be with himself in Vingolf; but wicked men fare to
Hell, and thence into Niithell, that is beneath in the ninth
world. Before the earth `'twas the morning of time, when yet
naught was, nor sand nor sea was there, nor cooling streams.
Earth was not found, nor Heaven above; a Yawning-gap there was,
but grass nowhere.' Many ages ere the earth was shapen was
Niflheim made, but first was that land in the southern sphere
hight Muspell, that burns and blazes, and may not be trodden by
those who are outlandish and have no heritage there. Surtr sits
on the border to guard the land; at the end of the world he will
fare forth, and harry and overcome all the gods and burn the
world with fire. Ere the races were yet mingled, or the folk of
men grew, Yawning-gap, which looked towards the north parts, was
filled with thick and heavy ice and rime, and everywhere within
were fog and gusts; but the south side of Yawning-gap lightened
by the sparks and gledes that flew out of Muspell-heim; as cold
arose out of Niflheim and all things grim, so was that part that
looked towards Muspell hot and bright; but Yawning-gap was as
light as windless air, and when the blast of heat met the rime,
so that it melted and dropped and quickened; from those life-
drops there was shaped the likeness of a man, and he was named
Ymir; he was bad, and all his kind; and so it is said, when he
slept he fell into a sweat; then waxed under his left hand a man
and a woman, and one of his feet got a son with the other, and
thence cometh the Hrimthursar. The next thing when the rime
dropped was that the cow hight Audhumla was made of it; but four
milk-rivers ran out of her teats, and she fed Ymir; she licked
rime-stones that were salt, and the first day there came at even,