From Ginnungagap to Ragnarök – and what comes after.
Creation, the age of the gods, the doom and the rebirth – all of Norse mythology in its narrated order. Walk down the timeline and click any stage to dive deeper.
Before time and number: creation out of ice, fire and the body of a giant.
In the beginning there was neither sand nor sea, no sky and no earth – only the yawning void. To the north lay icy Niflheim with its well Hvergelmir, to the south blazing Muspelheim. Between them stretched the silent, bottomless gulf in which everything was to begin.
From Hvergelmir flowed the Élivágar, the icy primal rivers, freezing layer upon layer into rime. Where that rime met the sparks and heat of Muspelheim, it began to thaw. From the dripping meltwater the first life stirred.
From the meltwater formed Ymir, the primeval giant and ancestor of all frost giants. As he slept, a man and a woman grew from his sweat, and a six-headed son from his legs. Thus the first race of the world was already there before there were any gods.
At the same time the primeval cow Auðumbla emerged from the ice, and from her udder ran four rivers of milk on which Ymir fed. She herself licked the salty rime – and day by day a man came forth from it: Búri, the first god. So giant and god stand at the very same beginning, nourished by the same cow.
From Búri came his son Borr, who took the giantess Bestla. Their three sons were Odin, Vili and Vé – the first Æsir, half of divine and half of giant blood. With them was born the family that would order and rule the world.
The three brothers slew Ymir; in his blood nearly all the frost giants drowned. From his body they shaped the world: the flesh into earth, the bones into mountains, the blood into sea, the skull into sky. In the middle, with his eyelashes, they fenced a safe enclosure for humankind: Midgard.
Through every level grows the world-ash Yggdrasil, holding it all together. Its three roots reach to the gods, the giants and to Hel, and by them lie the wells of wisdom and fate. In its branches and roots rest the nine realms – from Asgard down to the lands of the dead.
On the seashore the gods found two logs, drifting and lifeless. Odin gave them breath and life, his companions gave them mind, movement, face and speech. So Ask and Embla became the first humans, to whom Midgard was given as a home.
From sparks of Muspelheim the gods set sun and moon in the sky and gave time its course. The siblings Sól and Máni drive their chariots – but behind them race the wolves Sköll and Hati. At the end of time they will overtake and devour the heavenly lights.
Beneath the root that reaches to the gods lies the Well of Urd, and there sit the three Norns. They carve signs into wood, set laws and decree the örlög laid upon each child at birth. Their word binds even the gods – Odin too knows his end and cannot turn it.
War and peace among the gods, their treasures, loves and journeys – and the monsters already growing in the dark.
Two families of gods clashed: the warlike Æsir and the fertile Vanir. The first war of the world ended in stalemate, with peace and an exchange of hostages. So Njörd, Freyr and Freyja came to Asgard, and from the spittle of peace the wise Kvasir was later formed.
A builder offered to raise Asgard an impregnable wall – for the price of sun, moon and Freyja. His stallion Svaðilfari hauled with more than mortal strength, and the deadline threatened to be met. Loki lured the horse away as a mare, broke the bargain, and later bore the eight-legged steed Sleipnir.
To atone for his prank with Sif's hair, Loki set two pairs of dwarves against each other. In their forges the gods' treasures were made: Odin's spear Gungnir, the ring Draupnir, Freyr's golden boar and Sif's new golden hair. Greatest of all was Mjölnir, Thor's hammer – with too short a handle, because Loki as a fly had stung the dwarf.
For a drink from the well of wisdom Odin gave his eye to Mímir. For the runes he hung nine nights, wounded by the spear, in the branches of the world-tree – consecrated to himself, by himself. He took up the runes with a cry and fell back: in the North, wisdom always has its price.
From the murdered Kvasir dwarves brewed the mead that makes a poet of anyone; by roundabout ways it reached the giant Suttung. Odin entered the mountain as a serpent, won for three nights the favour of the giant's daughter Gunnlöd, and drank the vessels dry. As an eagle he escaped to Asgard – ever since, poetry is Odin's find.
Under the name Rígr, Heimdall wandered the earth and lodged with three couples. From these visits sprang the social ranks: the thrall (Þræll), the free farmer (Karl) and the lord (Jarl). So the watchful guardian of the gods becomes the ancestor of human order (Rígsþula).
From Odin's high seat the Vanir god Freyr saw the giantess Gerðr and wasted away with love. He sent his messenger Skírnir with gifts and, when she refused, with a dreadful curse. Only then did Gerðr consent – a love across the borders of worlds, for which Freyr gave up his shining sword.
Again and again Thor rides against the giants with hammer and goat-cart. At Útgarða-Loki he seems to fail every test – until it all proves a mighty illusion: he wrestled Old Age itself and nearly lifted the World Serpent. On the fishing trip with the giant Hymir he hauls Jörmungandr to the gunwale before the line snaps.
The giant Thrym stole Mjölnir and demanded Freyja as his bride in ransom. On Heimdall's advice Thor himself dressed as the bride and Loki as the maid, and both travelled to the land of giants. At the wedding feast the hammer was laid in the bride's lap – whereupon Thor seized it and slew the whole clan.
The sea-giant Ægir brews the gods' ale in a huge cauldron and hosts them at feasts in his hall on the seabed. His wife Rán, however, drags the drowned down into her realm with her net. So the sea is host and grave at once – gifts and danger from the same depth.
Over the battlefields ride the valkyries, Odin's shield-maidens, choosing who shall fall and who shall win. The bravest of the dead they escort to Valhalla, the hall with 540 doors. There the Einherjar fight every day and feast every night – an army Odin gathers for the final battle.
With the giantess Angrboda, Loki fathered three monsters destined to bring the gods their end. The World Serpent Jörmungandr Odin cast into the sea, where it girdles the earth; Hel he set over the death-realm Niflheim. But the wolf Fenrir the gods kept among themselves – for as long as they dared.
A sprig of mistletoe, a bitter feast, a bound god – and three winters without a summer.
The shining Baldr dreamed of his death, and his mother Frigg took an oath from all things not to harm him – only the young mistletoe she overlooked. Loki shaped a dart from it and put it into the hand of the blind Höðr. So the purest of the gods fell, and with him the first light went out: Ragnarök had begun.
At the feast in Ægir's hall Loki forced his way in and reviled god after god. He laid bare their weaknesses and secrets until no word could calm the company. Only when Thor entered with raised hammer did he fall silent and flee – but his doom was now decided.
Turned into a salmon, Loki tried to escape, but the gods caught him in a net. They bound him in a cave with the entrails of his own son and hung a serpent above his face. His faithful wife Sigyn catches the venom in a bowl – but when she empties it, it drips on him, and the earth quakes.
Three winters follow with no summer between, snow drives from every direction, and the cold devours the world. Custom and kinship break: brother slays brother, it is the age of axes and wolves. The Fimbulwinter is the final sign before the fetters break.
The fetters break, the gods ride out, and fire devours the nine realms.
The cock crows, Heimdall blows the Gjallarhorn, and every fetter breaks. On the plain of Vígríðr gods and monsters meet: Fenrir devours Odin, Thor and the World Serpent kill each other, Týr and Garm fall together. At last Surt hurls his fire over the world, and the nine realms sink into the sea.
When Fenrir devours his father, the silent Víðarr steps forth. With the shoe made of all the leather scraps ever cast away he pins down the wolf's lower jaw and tears it apart. He is one of the few who survive the doom and cross into the new world.
From ash and sea a green world rises – and the story begins anew.
From the sea rises a new, green earth, and the fields bear unsown. Two humans, Líf and Lífþrasir, have survived in the wood of the world-tree and people it anew. Baldr returns from Hel, the young gods find the old ones' golden game-pieces in the grass – and everything begins again.
