Audhumla – the Primal Cow of Creation

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’.

Four rivers of milk and a licked-out god

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

The primeval cow of creation

Audhumla is one of the oldest figures of Norse creation. When at the beginning life arose from the meltwater of the primeval mist, together with the giant Ymir the mighty cow Audhumla came forth – a symbol of the nourishing primal force.

Milk for the primeval giant

From Audhumla's udders flowed four streams of milk that nourished the primeval giant Ymir. Thus at the beginning of the world stands no war, but an image of food and care – the cow as nurse of the first being.

The cow that licked a god free

Audhumla herself fed by licking salty rime-stones. Out of the ice she licked free over three days a man: Buri, the ancestor of the gods and grandfather of Odin. Thus the race of gods owes its origin to a cow.

An image of great depth

This scene is among the most poetic of Norse mythology: from ice and salt, milk and patience, life arises. Cattle and livestock were the livelihood of the northern people – no wonder the primeval cow stands at the beginning of the world.

Read more with us

Ymir & the making of the world · Ginnungagap · Niflheim · Ask & Embla · Odin.

Sources & literature

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.

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