Key Info

- The ancestor of all Jötnar

- Born from atter droplets produced by the overlapping of Muspelheim's fire and Niflheim's ice

- Body produces several of the first born Jötnar including Bestla the mother of Odin

- Killed by Odin and his brothers who use his body to form the Cosmos

Brief Bio

Ymir as a primeval being who was born from atter, yeasty venom that dripped from the icy rivers called the Élivágar, and lived in the grassless void of Ginnungagap.

 

Ymir gave birth to a male and female from his armpits, and his legs together begat a six-headed being. After being killed by the grandsons of Búri, the gods Odin, Vili and Vé, fashioned the Earth (elsewhere personified as a goddess, Jörð) from his flesh, from his blood the ocean, from his bones the mountains, from his hair the trees, from his brains the clouds, from his skull the heavens, and from his eyebrows the middle realm in which mankind lives, Midgard.

 

In addition, the dwarfs were given life by the gods from Ymir's flesh and blood (or the Earth and sea).