Before there were gods, before the world was formed, there were two beings in the frost: the primal giant Ymir and a mighty cow. Audhumla, the primal cow, nourished the giant with her milk – and licked the first god out of the salty ice.
When the fire of Muspelheim met the frost of Niflheim, the rime melted in the primal void Ginnungagap. From the drops arose Ymir – and Audhumla, whose name means ‘the hornless, milk-rich cow’.
From Audhumla's udder flowed four rivers of milk that fed Ymir. She herself found nourishment by licking the salty rime-stones. On the first day, under her tongue, a man's hair came forth; on the second a head; on the third the whole man: Buri, the first god and forefather of the Æsir. His grandson was Odin. So at the beginning of all gods stands a cow – an emblem of the nourishing power from which all life comes.
“The cow Audhumla licked the rime-stones… and four rivers of milk ran from her teats, and she nourished Ymir.”after the Prose Edda (Gylfaginning); public-domain tradition
Ymir & the making of the world · Ginnungagap · Niflheim · Ask & Embla · Odin.
Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning (c. 1220); English public-domain Edda tradition: Arthur G. Brodeur / Henry Adams Bellows. Scholarship: Rudolf Simek, Dictionary of Northern Mythology; John Lindow, Norse Mythology.