Viking Creation Story

In the first volume of the Poetic Edda there lies the story of Creation as the Vikings thought. Verse three is "Of old was the age | when Ymir lived;Sea nor cool waves | nor sand there were;Earth had not been, | nor heaven above,
But a yawning gap, | and grass nowhere" (http://sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe03.htm). There was not a thing in sight except for Ymir, who was a giant. 

The next stanza describes how the earth was made.

 "Then Bur's sons lifted | the level land,

Mithgarth the mighty | there they made;
The sun from the south | warmed the stones of earth,

And green was the ground | with growing leeks" (http://sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe03.htm). Bur's sons being Othin, Villa, and Ve. They created the place where humanity lives Mithgarth. 

A few stanzas later, stanza nine tells of how the dwarfs were made. 

"Then sought the gods | their assembly-seats,

The holy ones, | and council held,
To find who should raise | the race of dwarfs
Out of Brimir's blood | and the legs of Blain" (http://sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe03.htm)

For the next few verses there are just lists of the names of the dwarfs and such things like where they found home, who was the mightiest and the like. 

Verses 19-21 are all seemingly related to the origin of man. 

"An ash I know, | Yggdrasil its name,

With water white | is the great tree wet;
Thence come the dews | that fall in the dales,
Green by Urth's well | does it ever grow.

Thence come the maidens | mighty in wisdom,
Three from the dwelling | down 'neath the tree;
Urth is one named, | Verthandi the next,--
On the wood they scored,-- | and Skuld the third.
Laws they made there, and life allotted
To the sons of men, and set their fates.

The war I remember, | the first in the world,
When the gods with spears | had smitten Gollveig,
And in the hall | of Hor had burned her,
Three times burned, | and three times born,
Oft and again, | yet ever she lives.

Heith they named her | who sought their home,
The wide-seeing witch, | in magic wise;
Minds she bewitched | that were moved by her magic,
To evil women | a joy she was" (http://sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe03.htm).

Later in lines 23 and 26 discord can clearly be seen within the holy world of the gods.

"On the host his spear | did Othin hurl,
Then in the world | did war first come;
The wall that girdled | the gods was broken,
And the field by the warlike | Wanes was trodden.

 In swelling rage | then rose up Thor,--
Seldom he sits | when he such things hears,--
And the oaths were broken, | the words and bonds,
The mighty pledges | between them made" (http://sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe03.htm)

The final lines of this saga are:
"From below the dragon | dark comes forth,
Nithhogg flying | from Nithafjoll;
The bodies of men on | his wings he bears,
The serpent bright: | but now must I sink". The world has been shaped, formed, put through hardships, and seen so many fantastic new arrivals. And now the Poetic Edda is finished telling the story of Creation.

 "File:Yggdrasil.jpg -." Wikimedia Commons. Web. 18 Mar. 2010. .

"The Poetic Edda: Voluspo." Internet Sacred Text Archive Home. Web. 18 Mar. 2010. .