Auðumbla

The Cow at the Beginning of the World

The fullest account comes from Gylfaginning, the first main part of the Prose Edda written by the Icelandic author Snorri Sturluson in the thirteenth century. Snorri drew on older poems and traditions, although scholars must be careful because he wrote after Iceland had become Christian. The Poetic Edda preserves shorter and sometimes different pieces of the creation story. Comparing these sources helps us see which details are ancient and which are only recorded by Snorri. Before the familiar world exists, there is a huge gap called Ginnungagap. To one side lies the icy realm Niflheim, and to the other is the fiery region Muspelheim. Rivers from Niflheim freeze into layers of poisonous ice. Heat from Muspelheim meets the frost, and drops begin to melt.

From these drops comes Ymir, the first great ancestor of the jötnar. Audumbla also forms from the melting rime. Ymir needs food, and four rivers of milk flow from Audumbla’s udders. The source does not describe her searching for grass because no green fields exist yet. She feeds herself by licking salty blocks of ice. During the first day, human hair appears from the block. On the second day, a head is uncovered. By the end of the third day, a complete man has emerged. His name is Buri, and Snorri calls him strong, handsome and large. Audumbla therefore supports both sides of the earliest family history. Her milk keeps Ymir alive, and Ymir becomes ancestor of the jötnar. Her tongue releases Buri, whose descendants include Odin, Vili and Ve.

These brothers later kill Ymir and make the ordered world from his body. Audumbla does not choose between them or take part in the killing. Her simple acts allow both family lines to begin. We do not know what happens to Audumbla afterwards. No surviving Norse poem gives her a later adventure, husband, calf or death. Modern stories sometimes make her ruler of cattle or invent a home for her, but the medieval sources do not. Her importance is concentrated in the first moments of creation. That small role is essential because there would be no Buri without her and no gods descended from him.

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