Is Ymir the grandfather of Odin?
Ymir is the ancestor of all Jötnar-giants. In the Norse-Germanic creation myth, the beginning of the world began in Ginnungagap, a ‘yawning gap/emptiness’. There was an ice-cold river, Elivàgar, who gave birth to Ymir. The giant fed from the first primeval cow, Audhumbla, who nourished him.
Audhumbla was herself sustained by licking the salty ice blocks, and as she licked, the shape of a man emerged named Búri. Búri later fathered Borr, who then had three sons: Odin, Vili, and Ve. These three brothers rose up against Ymir, slaying him and using his body to create the world as we know it. Thus, while Ymir is not directly the grandfather of Odin, he can be considered a primordial ancestor in the Norse mythology.
Scholars who specialize in comparative mythology equate Ymir to Tuisto. Roman historian Tacitus mentioned how important Tuisto was to the Germanic tribes. He wrote that:
‘In ancient lays, their only type of historical tradition, they celebrate Tuisto, a god brought forth from the earth. They attribute to him a son, Mannus, the source and founder of their people, and to Mannus three sons, from whose names those nearest the Ocean are called Ingvaeones, those in the middle Herminones, and the rest Istvaeones. Some people, inasmuch as antiquity gives free rein to speculation, maintain that there were more sons born from the god and hence more tribal designations—Marsi, Gambrivii, Suebi, and Vandilii—and that those names are genuine and ancient.’ (Tacitus, Germania, AD 98).
Ymir in Norse Mythology
Ymir is attested especially in the Poetic Eddas. For example in the Völuspa poem, Ymir is mentioned in regards to the gaping void of ginnungagap:
There was in times of old, where Ymir dwelt,
nor sand nor sea, nor gelid waves;
earth existed not, nor heaven above,
’twas a chaotic chasm, and grass nowhere
(Thorpe, 1866).
British scholar Hilda Ellis Davidson mentioned that Snorri, who compiled the Eddas, knew of a few completely different creation myths in Norse Mythology and that the creation myth is multilayered and not as easily to determine (Davidson, 1964). While Ymir can not be considered an actual God, his role in the creation of the world and that of Midgard can not be underestimated. For example, in the Skáldskaparmál poem, Ymir’s flesh and blood is considered to be the equivalent of ‘earth and see/water’. (Faulkes, 1998).
