Early in the morning of time there was no sand, no grass, no lapping wave. There was no earth, no sun, no moon, no stars. There was Niflheim, a waste of frozen fog, and Muspelheim, a place of raging flames. And in between the fog and fire there was a gaping pit – Ginungagap.

For untold ages crackling embers from Muspelheim and crystals of ice from Niflheim whirled around in the dark and dismal pit.

As they whirled together, faster and faster, fire kindled a spark of life within the ice. An enormous ugly shape rose roaring from Ginungagap. It was the frost giant, Ymir, first of the race of jotuns. At his side a hornless ice cow came mooing from the pit.

Together jotun and cow lived on the rim of Ginungagap. The jotun did not lack for food. Four rivers of snow-white froth flowed like milk from the huge ice-cow’s udder and Ymir drank and drank and grew to a towering height.

As for the cow, she found plenty of food licking the salty brim of Ginungagap.

For a long time there were only Ymir and the cow. Then Ymir fell into a deep sleep. While he slept, a male and a female jotun came to life in the warmth of his left armpit, and a troll with six heads sprouted from his feet. These monstrous creatures grew quickly and had offspring of their own. They were all big and rough, and Ymir was the biggest and wildest of them all.

The ice cow also brought about life. As she licked and licked her tongue grew warm, for she had to lick hard to make enough food for Ymir and his brood. Then, under her warm tongue, a head of hair sprouted on the briny brim, and as she went on licking, a face appeared.

The cow went right on licking. Shoulders and chest came forth, then legs, and, at last out stepped a whole new creature! He was straight and quite handsome – not ugly like the jotuns and trolls. He had a son who was even more handsome, and the son took for a wife a beautiful jotun maiden; for it sometimes happened that an ugly frost giant would have a lovely daughter.

She bore her husband three sons who were so fair that a radiance spread from them and lit up the darkness around them. They were the first of the Aesir gods; their names were Odin, Hoenir, and Lodur – Spirit, Will, and Warmth. They were high and very holy, and they had the power to create a world.

-- Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire, "Norse Gods and Giants"

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -- Mark Twain

"Life is not orderly. No matter how we try to make life so, right in the middle of it we die, lose a leg, fall in love, drop a jar of applesauce. In summer, we work hard to make a tidy garden, bordered by pansies with rows or clumps of columbine, petunias, bleeding hearts. Then we find ourselves longing for the forest, where everything has the appearance of disorder; yet, we feel peaceful there." -- Natalie Goldberg