In the beginning not anything existed, there was no sand nor sea nor cooling waves; earth was unknown and heaven above only Ginnungagap (open void) was - there was no grass.
It was many aeons before the earth was created that Niflheim was made, and in the midst of it is a well called Hvergelmir, (bubbling cauldron) and thence flow the rivers with these names: Svól (cool), Gunnthrá (battle defiant), Fjörm, Fimbulthul (loud bubbling), Slíð (fearsome), Hríð (storming), Sylg, Ylg, Víð (broad), Leipt (fast as lightning), and Gjöll which is next Hel's gate.
The first world to exist, however, was Muspell in the southern hemisphere; it is light and hot and that region flames and burns so that those who do not belong to it and whose native land it is not, cannot endure it. The one who sits there at land's end to guard it is called Surt; he has a flaming sword, and at the end of the world he will come and harry and will vanquish all the gods and burn the whole world with fire.
When those rivers which are called Elivágar (rivers whipped by passing showers) came so far from their source that the yeasty venom accompanying them hardened like slag, it turned into ice. Then when that ice formed and was firm, a drizzling rain that arose from the venom poured over it and cooled into rime, and one layer of ice formed on top of the other throughout Ginnungagap.
That part of Ginnungagap which turned northwards became full of the ice and the hoar frost's weight and heaviness, and within there was drizzling rain and gusts of wind. But the southern part of Ginnungagap became light by meeting the sparks and glowing embers which flew out of the world of Muspell.
Just as cold and all harsh things emanated from Niflheim, so everything in the neighbourhood of Muspell was warm and bright. Ginnungagap was as mild as windless air, and where the soft air of the heat met the frost so that it thawed and dripped, then, by the might of that which sent the heat, life appeared in the drops of running fluid and grew into the likeness of a man. He was given the name Ymir, but the frost ogres call him Aurgelmir, and that is where the families of frost ogres come from.
In no wise do we consider he was a god. He and all his family were evil; we call them frost ogres. But it is said that while he slept he fell into a sweat; then there grew under his left arm a man and woman, and one of his legs got a son with the other, and that is where the families of frost ogres come from. We call that old frost ogre Ymir.
As soon as the frost thawed, it became a cow called Auðhumla, and four rivers of milk ran from her teats, and she fed Ymir.
The cow, she licked the ice-blocks which were salty, and by the evening of the first day of the block~licking appeared a man's hair, on the second day a man's head, and on the third day the whole man was there.
He was called Buri. He was handsome and tall and strong. He had a son called Bor, who married a woman called Bestla, daughter of the giant Bólthorn. They had three sons; the first Óðin; the second, Vili; the third, Vé; and it is my belief that that Óðin, in association with his brothers, is the ruler of heaven and earth. We think that that is his title; it is the name given to the man we know to be greatest and most famous, and you can take it that that is his (Óðin's) title.
Bor's sons killed the giant Ymir, and when he fell, so much blood poured from his wounds that they drowned the whole tribe of frost ogres with it - except for one who escaped with his household; this one is known to the giants as Bergelmir. He climbed up on to his "lur" (boat hollowed out of a tree trunk; it can also mean coffin).and his wife with him, and there they were safe. From them spring the families of frost ogres.
