He had three sons.
They and their father were so strong that the gods were afraid of
them.
So Woden and his brothers killed Ymir. They broke his body in pieces
and made the world of them. His bones and teeth became mountains
and rocks; his hair became leaves for trees and plants; out of his
skull was made the sky.
But Ymir was colder than ice, and the earth that was made of his
body was so cold that nothing could live or grow upon it. So the
gods took sparks from the home of light and set them in the sky.
Two big ones were the sun and moon and the little ones were the
stars. Then the earth became warm. Trees grew and flowers bloomed,
so that the world was a beautiful home for men.
Of all the trees the most wonderful was a great ash tree, sometimes
called the "world tree." Its branches covered the earth and reached
beyond the sky till they almost touched the stars. Its roots ran
in three directions, to heaven, to the frost giants' home and to
the under-world, beneath the earth.
Near the roots in the dark under-world sat the Norns, or fates.
Each held a bowl with which she dipped water out of a sacred spring
and poured it upon the roots of the ash tree.
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