Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index

Ginnungagap

Ginnungagap ("seeming emptiness") was the vast chasm that existed between Niflheim and Muspelheim before creation in Norse mythology. To the north of Ginnungagap lay the intense cold of Niflheim, to the south the insufferable heat of Muspelheim. At the beginning of time, the two met in the Ginnungagap, and where the heat met the frost, and the frost drops melted, the drops quickened into life in the form of the giant Ymir, the father of all Frost giants