Muspellheim

If anything less is know about Muspellheim than Nilfheim. A land of fire and constant destruction and rebirth it is said to be a terrifying place. To even venture along it's outmost edges is to court death as fire rains from the sky or springs from beneath your feet with unerring accuracy.

In elder ages this world was largely ignored with virtually no contact reported with it's semi-mythical inhabitants. Indeed were it not for the fact that the fire giants feature prominently in the prophesy of Ragnarok many on Asgard would dismiss their existence altogether. Only one being is known to have passed into Muspellheim proper and returned to speak of it in living memory. However given that individual was Loki reliable information about the interior was not forthcoming.

Geography

Given that no one in living memory has ever entered Muspellheim and returned to tell the tale virtually nothing is known of it's geography.

Fire Giants

Little is known of the fire giants. For many years they were thought of as a mere myth. More recently however Heimdall claims that he saw giants of fire coming to the Bifrost shortly before the Long Slumber. Once awoken, the Aesir have found Bifrost destroyed, and most are happy to attribute this to the work of the fire giants.

Surt

From the prophecies of Ragnarok the Gods are aware that a chief of the fire giants named Surt will lead the forces of Muspellheim into battle, and that the fires he brings shall burn the worlds.

Why Surt would lead his people to battle, and bring such destruction to all things is unknown. For most gods it is explanation enough that he is a giant and their enemy.

The creation of the Worlds

OC Note: the information presented below is IC - you may choose to believe as much or as little of it as you wish

An Excerpt from : Nordic Myths Truth or Fiction

The creation of the nine worlds is one of the less well known Nordic Myths and so it should come as little surprise that it is tied to two of the most mysterious worlds namely Niflheim and Muspellheim.

According to the myths at the beginning of time there was just the great empty void Ginnungagap. The first world to exist in the void was Muspellheim the world of primordial fire which awoke in the south of Ginnungagap. This world existed by itself for uncountable ages before far to the North another world came into being. This was Niflheim the land of primordial ice, cloaked in poisonous mists. At the centre of Niflheim was the well a well called Hvergelmir in later ages from which flowed nine frozen rivers. These rivers flowed out into the void but as they did so they came too close to the fires of Muspellheim and began to thaw.

The liquid from the rivers fell into the shape of a man, he was named Ymir and known among the jotun as Aurgelmir. From his own body Ymir is said to have birthed three children, a male and female the first of the Jotun and a six headed monstrosity. His first two children bred creating the race of the Jotun. For many generations this new people lived in the temperate middle regions of Ginnungagap however they found Niflheim and Muspellheim themselves too inhospitable and unwelcoming. Soon there was a thriving civilization presided over by Ymir but over time the first of the giants became corrupt and tyrannical until his people despaired at his unjust rule.

This all changed with the coming of Borr Son of Buri. Borr married Bestla who bore him three sons Odin, Vili, Ve. These three grew in age and power eventually waging war upon Ymir and slaying him. With the deathblow struck however Ymir's lifeblood poured out in a seemingly endless torrent Drowning all who dwelt in Ginnungagap bar two jotun and flooding even the far reaches of Niflheim and Muspellheim.

From this chaos Odin and his brothers then set about forming the nine worlds from Ymir's titanic corpse. His skull became the sky atop which rested Asgard and the upper realms. Beneath the Dome of his Skull was Midgard whilst the realm in which Ymir had dwelt became Hel. From what remained of Ymirs body grew the world tree Yggdrasil which would eventually expand to connect all the worlds. Thus it is that the Jotun have great power over things which grow from the earth as they are formed from the flesh of the earth itself. Finally Odin plucked a spark from Muspellheim placing it high in the sky to form the sun, whilst the moon was formed from a shard of Niflheim to maintain the balance in the worlds.

Thus ends the tale of the creation of the nine worlds. This myth is reportedly told to a Nordic King by Odin himself. Which I suppose is not that surprising when one considers quite how few survived the events preceding the creation of the worlds.

muspellheim.txt · Last modified: 2013/09/23 14:10 by gm_matthew
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