world
Ginnungagap
The empty chasm that existed before the world, between the ice of Niflheim and the fire of Múspell, where the giant Ymir came to life.
Ginnungagap is the void before creation. It appears in Völuspá without its full name. The seeress recalls a time with no sea, no sand, no earth and no sky, "But a yawning gap, and grass nowhere" Völuspá 3.
Two readings of one stanza
Snorri quotes the same stanza, but the first line is different. In Bellows's Völuspá it begins "Of old was the age when Ymir lived" Völuspá 3; in Snorri's quotation it is "Erst was the age when nothing was" Gylfaginning 4. The difference matters. In the poem, Ymir already exists in the void. In Snorri, there is nothing at all, and Ymir must be explained.
Snorri explains him. North of the gap lies Niflheim, whose rivers freeze and fill the northern part of Ginnungagap with "heaviness, and masses of ice and rime"; the southern part is lit by sparks from Múspellheim. The middle is "as mild as windless air", and there the rime melts and drips, and the drops come to life as Ymir Gylfaginning 5. Later the sons of Borr kill Ymir, carry him "into the middle of the Yawning Void", and make the earth from his body Gylfaginning 8. One root of the world-tree, Snorri adds, stands among the frost-giants "where aforetime was the Yawning Void" Gylfaginning 15.
The word
Gap is a gaping chasm; ginnunga is harder. Brodeur, like many translators, uses "yawning". Some scholars connect it with words for deception or illusion, others with sacred or magical power, so that the name would mean something like "the charged void". No reading has won general agreement. In Snorri's list of poetic names, "Yawning Void" is also given as a name for the air Skáldskaparmál 58.
In the sources
Quoted from the hosted translations; each line is checked against the text when the site is built. Select a reference to read it in context.
Earth had not been, nor heaven above, But a yawning gap, and grass nowhere.
Erst was the age when nothing was
but Ginnungagap was as mild as windless air, and when the breath of heat met the rime, so that it melted and dripped, life was quickened from the yeast-drops
They took Ymir and bore him into the middle of the Yawning Void, and made of him the earth
Where the sources disagree or fall silent
- The meaning of ginnunga is disputed; 'yawning' is only one reading.
- Völuspá 3 in Bellows (from the Codex Regius) says the gap existed 'when Ymir lived'; Snorri's quotation says 'when nothing was'. Which is older is debated.
In modern culture
Not from the medieval sources.
Modern retellings of the creation almost always follow Snorri's version, with ice to the north, fire to the south and life beginning where they meet; the name is also borrowed freely in fantasy fiction and games for any primordial void.
