What’s your favorite primordial deity? Mine is Tiamat.
Gotta be Auðumla – the magic cow who formed from the ice of the primordial void at the beginning of time according to the Gylfaginning, the section of the Prose Edda that deals with the creation of the world in Norse mythology. The exact cause-and-effect of events in this text is a bit tricky because it’s not a straightforward narrative; the stories are presented in a question-and-answer format (also: not my field, haven’t formally studied these texts, don’t know how they work). Basically, though, there was a great frozen void, and then there was a cow, and the cow said “let there be milk,” and Ymir, the first of the frost giants, drank the milk, and meanwhile the cow survived by licking the ice, which gradually revealed the first of the Æsir gods, Buri (what he was doing frozen in the ice is anyone’s guess). They don’t make cows like that anymore.
Follow-up question:
Which artistic depiction of Audumla et al is the more dignified one?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Au%C3%B0umbla
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Y’know, I think “dignified” might even be missing the point with Auðumla; trying for dignified just gets you bathos. She’s a cow at the beginning of time who fed one god with her milk and freed another from a glacier with her tongue; she *should* be kinda messy. Also, although it’s very much not historically accurate, I prefer to think of her as a Holstein.
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Hmm.
You’ve brought about some mild hipster identity crisis stuff for this anonymous commenter.
Do I think a frost giant drinking milk from a cow who’s licking a god out of an ice block is good silly or bad silly? Is this Garbodor or Zygarde-Complete?
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Oh, good silly all the way. Auðumla is primal motherhood at its messiest!
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See, this is why I love Norse mythology. I mean, most mythologies have weird friggin shit, but Norse just seems to make most of it seem normal comparatively. And is usually pretty hardcore while still just being… weird.
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I always figured the act of her licking the shape of the first Aesir just animated Buri from the ice XD
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I love Norse mythology ever since reading that bit about Loki turning into a mare in order to seduce and get impregnated by a horse.
Though other mythologies had plenty of weird stuff too. Like that part in greek mythology where milk way got creating by Hera squirting milk out of her breast onto the sky.
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*milky way got created
Stupid autocorrect
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I don’t think the pregnancy was actually part of the plan, but he certainly made it work for him; Sleipnir was probably the least messed up of Loki’s kids.
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I’m very particular about my deities. My favorite is the one that’s vain, vindictive, and promiscuous!
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