Ymir

In Norse mythology, Ymir, also called Aurgelmir, Brimir, or Bláinn, is the ancestor of all jötnar.

Quotes

• Ymer's flesh produced the earth;
  Ymer's bones, its rocky ribs;
  Ymer's skull, the skyey vault;
  Ymer's teeth, the mountain ice;
  Ymer's sweat, the ocean salt.
  • From the Poetic Edda (Vafþrúðnismál), as translated by W. Taylor in H. W. Longfellow, The Poets and Poetry of Europe, 2nd ed. (1870), p. 42

Modern influence

• It was Atali, the daughter of Ymir, the frost-giant! To fields of the dead she comes, and shows herself to the dying! Myself when a boy I saw her, when I lay half-slain on the bloody field of Wolraven. I saw her walk among the dead in the snows, her naked body gleaming like ivory and her golden hair unbearably bright in the moonlight. I lay and howled like a dying dog because I could not crawl after her. She lures men from stricken fields into the wastelands to be slain by her brothers, the ice-giants, who lay men’s red hearts smoking on Ymir’s board. The Cimmerian has seen Atali, the frost-giant’s daughter!
  • Robert E. Howard, "The Frost-Giant's Daughter" (first published as "Gods of the North")