Sunrise, Sunset

Did you know the first man and woman were created out the arm pit of a giant and some wood? It's true. Just ask the Nordic Gods, or at least Neil Phillip's version of them:

"At the beginning of time, nothing was. To the north lay Niflheim of ice and south Muspell of fire and between, a gap, a waiting space. Where the two met, life began to stir and so was Ymir the giant born. Ymir slept. And as he slept he sweated. "

Anyway, I'll dispense with the big story teller voice and get to the punch. From the sweat comes more giants and the gods: Odin, Vili and Ve. They gang up on poor sweaty Ymir and from the bloody mess left behind when they've finished with him emerges terra firma as we know it. They then banish the rest of his giant friends to the ends of the earth where they will wait until the end of days to ultimately destroy the three brothers and send the world back to the chaos from which it emerged. After the bloodbath the brothers three apparently get bored walking along a beach and turn some driftwood into the first two members of the human race. Being rather uninventive they name them Ask and Embla from the Ash and Elm trees from which they originated.

From this I can only surmise one thing about the people who created this creation story. Nordic people are seriously bizarre. And that's only the beginning. Take Kvasir, made from the spittle of all the gods combined and so therefore possessed all their knowledge and wisdom. Jigga wha?! Or Loki whose children include an eight legged horse, a serpent and a wolf. There are also these guys called Berserkers who run around crazed and fight people as wells as Njord, a sort of neo Poseidon but with the added bonus of the most beautiful feet in the world. And don't forget Skadi the goddess of snow shoes who incidentally married Njord. Guess she wanted only the best for her shoes.

If you spend enough time with the myths you realize there's something weirdly fatalistic about Norse mythology. I mean, Loki one of the most major players ends up tied on a rock with a snake dropping poison in his eye. Yee-ouch. But more directly built into the mythology is an actual end to the world as we know it. An end that is inextricably linked to its own creation. A final chapter told in conjunction with the first. The last battle of the Gods, Ragnarok, has in fact already been decided, play for play, by the tellers of the heavenly tales. Battle by battle this story is laid out for anyone who wishes to hear of earth's demise. The telling of Ragnarok is not a particularly vivid one. Instead of glory and a score akin to something John Williams might come up with the reader is left instead with a systematic explanation of how each God is defeated, by whom and with what implement of destruction. In the end not even Odin the All Father with his throne in Asgard can escape the rage of Surt the fire giant, leader of this last revolt in effort to avenge the death of Ymir who set off the motion of the story in the first place. Just as surely as it was once created from blood, so must Surt waste the earth with fire to win the battle over the Gods. He must, it is told, "set the whole world ablaze".

It's a rather grim thought. But there is sometimes a silver lining to this dingy cloud, a light at the end of the tunnel that perhaps may be what it is all for.

Because in some versions of the story there's an epilogue to the whole drama. A coda that states a new sun and earth will be born from the ashes of the old world. That four lone Gods, two of Odin and two of Thor are left in the heavenly domain. They sit where Asgard once stood and remember. They weep for what they have lost. But eventually they look up from their weeping and realize that from this vantage point they can see a tree that has sheltered two tiny beings, one man and one woman, who have slept unharmed through Surt's terrible flames. These two tender mortals will soon wake horrified to find their world destroyed. They will be named Lif and Lifthrasir, Life and Eager for Life, and they will feed on morning dew. And together they will inherit the rubble and create a new greener earth.