Page:The Prose Edda (1916 translation by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur).pdf/50

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18
PROSE EDDA

and thence are come the races of the Rime-Giants, as it says in Völuspá the Less:

All the witches    spring from Witolf,
All the warlocks    are of Willharm,
And the spell-singers    spring from Swarthead;
All the ogres    of Ymir come.

But concerning this says Vafthrúdnir the giant:

Out of the Ice-waves    issued venom-drops,
Waxing until    a giant was;
Thence are our kindred    come all together,—
So it is    they are savage forever."

Then said Gangleri: "How did the races grow thence, or after what fashion was it brought to pass that more men came into being? Or do ye hold him God, of whom ye but now spake?" And Jafnhárr answered: "By no means do we acknowledge him God; he was evil and all his kindred: we call them Rime-Giants. Now it is said that when he slept, a sweat came upon him, and there grew under his left hand a man and a woman, and one of his feet begat a son with the other; and thus the races are come; these are the Rime-Giants. The old Rime-Giant, him we call Ymir."

VI. Then said Gangleri: "Where dwelt Ymir, or wherein did he find sustenance?" Hárr answered: "Straightway after the rime dripped, there sprang from it the cow called Audumla; four streams of milk ran from her udders, and she nourished Ymir." Then asked Gangleri: "Wherewithal was the cow nourished?" And Hárr made answer: