Germanic Polytheism

[Koruam]

Well since yesterday actually I began reading this huge book I once got from my grandfather, a very old book about myths from all over the world.
We in the Netherlands think we don't have any native myths and legends... that's not entirely true.
Ofcourse we don't have any specific Dutch myths but when we where still a part of Germanic tribes we shared their Gods and Myths...
I am talking about Odin, Thor, and those kind of Gods. Many might think that these Gods are Viking Gods, true but we share that Polytheism as do most European countries.
In this thread I will tell the tales of these Gods and our native myths since no one knows what the heck they are about (thanks to christianity that is >_>)
If you have comments or additional stories about this subject, please reply below since I do not know everything XD

[Koruam]

The following story as like I told from the Germanic tribes all across Europe. I will tell the story in it's original point of view, the Scandinavian one. The only things that are different in the Germanic version are the names.
Odin=Wodan (of which Wednesday is originated)

The Myth of the creation of the World.

In the beginning there was, Ginnungagap (Old Norse for: Gaping Gap filled with magic), this is actually as far as I understood it from various sources, nothing.... it is a space filled with nothing, vacuum. Like space, or like the Greek mythology: Chaos (Khaos means emptines).
In this emptines there where rivers which swirled between 2 whirlpools, one of Fire and one of Ice.
From one of these rivers, mist rose up, it thickened and Audhoemla was born... a cosmic cow... the cow became hungry and licked the rocks of ice.
By the touch of her warm tongue the ice melted and three Gods came from the ice, the first one was Odin (Wodan) and the other two are Vili and Vé, brothers of Odin.
From these mists also rose a giant called Ymir. He drank the milk of the cow and became enormous.
Entire tribes of ugly giant children crawled out between his toes.
Ymir was too big and shaded everything and everyone.
The Gods decided to kill him and Odin threw his spear right through Ymirs heart and lots of salt blood gushed out and drowned most of the icegiants. Several of them where swept away to a hidden dimension called Jötenheim (One of the 9 worlds supported by the Worldtree, Yggdrasil).
The brothers created the world from Ymirs remains, the bones became the mountains, his flesh the earth, his hair became vegetation, his blood became rivers and seas and the skull became the heavens above.
It was kinda dark in this new world but Odin and his brothers made a fire, from the sparks they created the stars, from the white flames, the moon and from the yellow flames the sun.
These beings where given a new place to live, on the iceblue skull of Ymir on which they could rotate.
The giants (who survived the bloodflood) where blinded by this new light and where enraged. They let loose, 2 swift wolves to chase the sun and the moon. Every month one of them takes a bite from the moon, which escapes and recovers. The other wolf swallows the sun every now and then but when he finds out that the sun is so hot he spits it out again. Both wolves are inexhaustable and will continue their chase untill eternity. There will be a day that the light will be devoured.
Two of the surviving giants, Bergelmir and his wife gave birth to giant race who would forever would be in war with the Gods.

Creation of Humanity (two different stories by two different sources)
Humans are toys shaped by the elfish creatures who appeared all of a sudden out of Ymirs joints, Odin and his brothers gave us speech, life and a soul.

the second story:
One day the brothers found two logs an ash and an elm. They created the first man and woman from these trees, Ask and Embla. Odin gave them life, Vili gave them thoughts and emotions, Vé gave them a sense of hearing and sight.
They where allowed to live in Midgard (Midgarden, one of the 9 worlds), de Gods lived in Asgard (also one of the 9 worlds)

There are more stories about these ancient Gods, I will tell them another time ^^ as well as more myths about different civilizations about the creation of the world.