When fire and frost clashed - and fought for the void
I awoke in that first age - so alone in the wasteland
A mother missing children - a lover missing love
Shattering the silence - I sang the first galder
I brought into being - I bid to be known
Life runes, birth runes - and runes of beginning
The bare earth brought forth - bushes trees and grasses
Creatures crept out - from caverns and holes.
I brought into being - I bid to be known
Thurse runes, dwarf runes - and runes for the elves
From groaning glaciers - giants struggled free.
Deep down the hidden folk - danced in the dark.
I brought into being - I bid to be known
Man runes, woman runes - and runes for cunning
Ash trunk and elm tree - were torn apart yielding
The first of the man folk - your forefathers kin.
I brought into being - I bid to be known
Wealth runes, mother's runes - and runes for good ale
Bursting from my breasts - milk boiled on the new grass
Four streams of sustenance - gave strength to all
I brought into being - I bid to be known
God runes, Might runes - and runes for holy power
How did I hunger - for husbands to please me!
And three bairns I birthed - my belly released them
Fiery fierce Perun - feisty and red haired
Far faring Njord - friend of the oceans
Mighty mage Fjorgynn - master of runes
My cherished children - my cheerful lovers.
I ruled the runes - I ruled the Earth
At my cold command - ice covered the forests
Mountains melted - I made rivers of fire
Brother fought brother - and brought me joy.
I caused the crushing seas - to crash upon the land
Stars fell from the skies - smashing and burning
Men's shelters and stores - smouldered, abandoned
Loud was the lamenting - while I laughed with glee
Proud Perunn and Fjorgynn - pleaded for the Earth folk
Shocked and surly - in anger I struck them
Kind caring Njord - Clung to my breast
And wept to see weapons - held at his wife's throat.
I grew in girth - great in my fierce anger
Teeth became talons - nails became claws
My fair flesh hardened - firm scaled and tough
I roared and reared - ready for battle.
The scarred Earth was shaken - as I set to my children
Cruel and cold hearted - my own kin to harm
Battle mad for nine moons - this mood it possessed me
Our fight made the man folk - flee and take shelter.
Fjorgynn was first - to fall claw torn from living
I fought with failing strength - fierce and unthinking
Perunn was poisoned - and perished at my side
Sword slashed I howled - in short lived thriumph
My blood burst - brimming from my flesh
A drenching deluge - drowning the valleys
My last son took his ship -and sailed far away
I rose from the red seas - renewed but despairing.
I wandered the nine worlds - weeping for my lost loves
Golden tears glistened - glowing in my footsteps
By the sparkling well - at the world's heart
I made hearth and home - to be whole once more.
From Forgynn's seed - I brought forth daughters
Far seeing Sybil - and silent Frigg
Valiant Urd Verdandi and valkyrie Skuld
Wise ones more worthy - of the world than I
Next from Njord's seed - came two naked babes
Firm sworded Freyr - Freyja his sister
Their beautiful bodies - boasted their charms
Laughing and lusty - they knew love from birth
Of Perunn's strong seed - only one son I bore
My bairn my bear - my battle eager child
My eagle beaked urchin - with eyes of flame
Steel limbed and sturdy - strong from his first breath
Earth's people in peace - and pleanty were thriving
They tamed the tangled - trees and brambles
Hewn hard were the trunks - for ale halls and barns
The proud open pastures - they ploughed to their will
Nine times nine - the Norn's runes tally
Some are the secrets - of the smiths of Dvalin
The elegant elves know more - eager in their magic
Wise troll wives screech theirs - the wastelands resound
Women have weavers runes - the womb's bounty
Others whisper through the worlds - the wind hears them
None but I know - nine more runes
Runes of ending runes of terror - runes to break the Earth
You need to know - now how to carve
Shaving the signs - strong in intent
You need to know - now how to stain
From the Blot Bowl - blood brings the power
You need to know - now how to drum
Beat with the blood's pulse - bring strength from the heart
You need to know - now how to chant
Calling the crooked ones - the crows song shouting
Fate lies in your fingers, fibres from the distaff
Wind the shining skein, the stars are your warp posts
Wield the weavers sword, the web to command
Chop short with the shears, show the dead to the next world
My wild wilful son - broke wisdoms flow
My thoughts by thunderous - thuds were scattered
Bales of bear skins - he balanced and hurled
My brave bairn - but three years old.
I found two good folk - farm-wise and true
Hlora the housewife - and her beloved Vingnir
I blessed their barns - their beasts their fields
And fostered my feisty - fine lad upon them.
So now do you know me? - Some call me Nerthus
Ancient Audumla - As and Van's life spring
As the far faring goddess - Fjorgyn I'm known
The eldest of elders - your own mother Earth.
This is an highly reconstructed version of a Norse creation myth. It is based on middle eastern mythology and the terrible battled between the Earth/Dragon/Goddess and her son/lover, best known from the myth of Tiamat and Marduk. Such stories may be the origin of the popular tale of Thor fishing for the world serpent. This is my interpretation of how the Tiamat theme could have survived in the myths of Thor.
In the Norse myths it is women who are the teachers of magical lore (for example Freya and Brunhild) and the 'know how to carve' motif is found in this context. I have also linked in the Norns as their origin is not clearly explained and they share Frigg's knowledge of the future, as does the goddess 'Sybil' (Snorri's Edda prologue).
Earth's three sons are Njord, because of his close connections to the ancient earth goddess Nerthus, Perun the Russian thundergod who I have borrowed to serve as a father for Thor and Fjorgynn the father of Frigg in Norse mythology. Thor is frequently mentioned as Earth's son, but I have made him her grandson to place him in the same generation as Frey and Freya. The tale of Thor's fostering is taken from Snorri's Edda.