Faith… Must be enforced by reason…When faith becomes blind it dies.

 - Mahatma Gandhi

19'th Century scholar Hélène Adeline Guerber gives us an excellent introduction to Northern Mythology:

"Northern mythology is grand and tragical. Its principal theme is the perpetual struggle of the beneficent forces of Nature against the injurious, and hence it is not graceful and idyllic in character like the religion of the sunny South, where the people could bask in perpetual sunshine, and the fruits of the earth grew ready to their hand.

It was very natural that the dangers incurred in hunting and fishing under these inclement skies, and the suffering entailed by the long cold winters when the sun never shines, made our ancestors contemplate cold and ice as malevolent spirits; and it was with equal reason that they invoked with special fervor the beneficent influences of heat and light.

When questioned Concerning the creation of the world, the Northern skalds or poets, who’s songs are preserved in the Eddas and Sagas, declared that in the beginning, when darkness rested over all, there existed a powerful being called Allfather, whom they dimly conceived as uncreated as well as unseen, and that whatever he willed came to pass."

In Thorpe’s Northern Mythology, we are told that in the beginning of time a world existed in the north called Niflheim, in the middle of which was a well called Hvergelmir, from which flowed twelve rivers . In the south part there was another world, Muspellheim , a light and hot, a flaming and radiant world, the boundary of which was guarded by Surt with a flaming sword. Cold and heat contended with each other. From Niflheim flowed the poisonous cold streams called Elivagar  (Ice Waves), which became hardened into ice, so that one layer of ice was piled on another in Ginnunga-gap, or the abyss of abysses, which faced the north; but from the south issued heat from Muspellheim, and the sparks glittered so that the south part of Ginnunga-gap was as light as the purest air. The heat met the ice, which melted and dripped; the drops then, through his power who sent forth the heat, received life, and a human form was produced called Ymir , the progenitor of the Frost-giants (Hrimjmrsar), who by the Frost-giants is also called Aurgelmir, that is, the ancient mass or chaos.  He was not a god, but was evil, together with all his race. As yet there was neither sand nor sea nor cool waves, neither earth nor grass nor vaulted heaven, but only Ginnunga-gap, the abyss of abysses. Ymir was nourished from four streams of milk, which flowed from the udder of the cow Audhumla, a being that came into existence by the power of Surt. From Ymir there came forth offspring while he slept: for having fallen into a sweat, from under his left arm there grew a man and a woman, and one of his feet begat a son by the other. At this time, before heaven and earth existed, the Universal Father (Alfathr) was among the Hrimthursar, or Frost-giants.

The cow Audhumla licked the frost-covered stones that were salt, and the first day, towards evening, there came forth from them a man's hair, the second day a head, the third day an entire man. He was called Buri (the producing) ; he was comely of countenance, tall and powerful. His son, Bor (the produced), was married to Bestla, a daughter of the giant Bolthorn, and they had three sons, Odin, Vili and Ve. These brothers were gods, and created heaven and earth. 

Bor's sons slew the giant Ymir, and there ran so much blood from his wound that all the frost-giants were drowned in it, except the giant Bergelmir (whose father was Thrudgelmir, and whose grandfather was Aurgelmir), who escaped with his wife on a chest, and continued the race of the frost-giants. But Bor’s sons carried the body of Ymir into the middle of Ginnunga-gap, and formed of it the earth, of his blood the seas and waters, of his bones the mountains, of his teeth and grinders and those bones that were broken, they made stones and pebbles; from the blood that flowed from his wounds they made the great impassable ocean, in which they fixed the earth, around which it lies in a circle; of his skull they formed the heaven, and set it up over the earth with four regions, and under each corner placed a dwarf, the names of whom were Austri, Vestri, Northri, Suthri; of his brain they formed the heavy clouds, of his hair the vegetable creation, and of his eyebrows a wall of defense against the giants round Midgard, the middlemost part of the earth, the dwelling-place of the sons of men. 

They then took the sparks and glowing cinders that were cast out of Muspellheim, and set them in heaven, both above and below, to illumine heaven and earth. They also assigned places for the lightning and fiery meteors, some in heaven, and some unconfined under heaven, and appointed to them a course. Hence, " as it is said in old philosophy," arose the division of years and days. Thus Bor’s sons raised up the heavenly disks, and the sun shone on the cold stones, so that the earth was decked with green herbs. The sun from the south followed the moon, and cast her  right arm round the heavenly horses' door (the east) ; but she knew not where her dwelling lay, the moon knew not his power, nor did the stars know where they had a station. Then the holy gods consulted together, and gave to every light its place, and a name to the new moon (Nyi), and to the waning moon (Nithi), and gave names to the morning and the mid-day, to the forenoon and the evening, that the children of men, sons of time, might reckon the years thereafter.

To learn more about the Mythology that shaped our ancestors lives, pick up a copy of Northern Lore