"In the beginning it was time,
when nothing existed.
There was no sand or sea
nor icy waves.
There was no land
nor sky above:
a void opened up
but nothing grew ".
Snorri Sturluson: Edda in prose, Gylfaginning
In Norse mythology the Ginnungagap is the empty chasm from which the cosmos was born.
The ancient stories tell us how, north of this void, a world called Niflheimr was created, home of frost and darkness, at the center of which is Hvergelmir, the icy well from which many cosmic rivers originate, while on the opposite side in the south a world was made called Muspell, a torrid region where "no one who is not born there can resist it."
The fire giant Surtr and his blazing sword guard its boundaries.
When the primeval rivers, called Elivágar, moved away from their source, the poisonous yeast that accompanied them turned to ice. It was in the place where this ice stopped that, from its poison, a rain evaporated that stratified in frost.
When the icy frost met the hot wind it melted and began to drip: from those drops life originated.
The giant Ymir was the first among living beings, from his sweat a man and a woman grew under his hand, while one of his feet fathered with the other a son with six heads.
The cow Auðhumla was also born from the drops of frost, four rivers of milk flowed from her breasts, which, to feed herself, licked icy stones, which were salty.
The first day he licked the stones, towards evening, a man's hair came out of them, the second day the head, the third day the whole person.
He was called Buri, he was the first man, he was handsome, tall and strong. Buri had a son who was named Borr; Borr joined with Bestla, daughter of the giant Bölþorn, and they had three sons: Odin, Vili and Vé. They were the first of the gods.
The sons of Borr killed Ymir and drowned the whole lineage of ice giants in his blood, only one managed to escape, Bergelmir, he went away with his family on a boat and generated a new lineage of giants.
From the body of Ymir, the gods created the world:
"From the flesh of Ymir the earth was made,
from his blood the sea,
from the bones the mountains, the trees from the foliage,
from the skull the sky.
From his eyebrows made the gods blessed
Miðgarðr for the children of men;
from his brain were all the storm clouds created. "
From the flesh of the giant worms were formed, these had by the will of the gods the appearance and the intellect of human beings becoming the dwarves who dwell among the stones.
Four of them, however, were placed at the corners of the earth where they support the sky. They are Austri, Vestri, Norðri and Suðri.
After creating the world, Odin and his brothers found two logs on the seashore, gave them many precious gifts and these became a man and a woman.
Odin gave spirit and life,
Vile wisdom and movement,
There is form, word, hearing and sight;
Then they were given clothes and a name.
The man was called Askr (Ash) while the woman Embla (Elm) and they fathered the human race.
This tattoo belongs to a dear friend of mine, in realizing it was there, for his part, the intention to represent his story and some of his peculiarities using the myth of gymnungagap as an allegory. To do this I compared a lot with him and I used several elements that are also very far from each other, despite the clear references to the expressiveness of the vichingo world the nodes do not follow the rules of a particular artistic style preferring a more "fantasy" construction.
