The Birth of the Universe

The Birth of the Universe is the first episode in the Ragnarök season from Ubisoft's Echoes of History podcast series.

Description

Norse mythology is a very rich universe, deeply ingrained in the traditions and customs of the Middle Age Scandinavian peoples. Gods and men walk alongside giants, elves, dwarfs [sic], and all manners of magical creatures. This world was created by the powerful Odin and his brothers from the body of a giant. The start of a mythical and breathtaking adventure.

Transcript

• Gylfi: You want to know more about the Norse gods? A word of warning: you will not be disappointed. I used to be like you, I only knew the superstitions. I worshiped the strength of Thor, and Odin, and feared Loki's mischief. Who am I? My good friends, my name is Gylfi, king of Sweden. Not the Sweden of today, no. A Sweden from times long past. Like you, one day I decided I wanted to know more about these famous gods who watch us from the sky, so I went to get them myself. I met three of them, their names High, Just-as-High, and Third, and here's what they told me...
• Lance Geiger: I'm Lance Geiger, the History Guy, and you're listening to Echoes of History: Ragnarök, a podcast inspired by the video game Assassin's Creed: Dawn of Ragnarök. How much do you know about Odin, Thor, Loki, and their companions? Do you really know them? Dive into Norse mythology alongside gods, elves, magical creatures, dwarves, and giants, a fantastic universe that guided the destiny of the valiant Vikings as much as it inspired the greatest authors. Episode one, the birth of the universe. Long before the creation of the world, it would be an understatement to say that living in Scandinavia was not exactly pleasant, because in the beginning, it was a vast dark emptiness. Just imagine, total desolation. Nothing grows, nothing lives, and silence reigns everywhere. Not enough to make poets dream, but enough to inspire a man, Snorri Sturluson, a prominent man from Iceland who in the 13th century, well after the Viking epics, decided to gather tales and mythological stories that were passed on orally at the time into a book. This essential work, entitled the Edda, structured our knowledge of Norse mythology. Gísli Sigurdson is a teacher-researcher at the Árni Magnússon Institute in Reykjavik.
• Gísli Sigurdson: In, uh, Norse mythology, the Eddas, so called the Edda poems and Snorri's Prose Edda, they are our main sources for everything we know about Norse mythology, and they were written in Iceland in the 13th century, that is, uh, more than 200 years after the coming of Christianity as the official religion in the country. And people therefore often ask, uh, this question, "How credible can they possibly be about pre-Christian mythology in the north?", and, and, uh, if we turn it around and regard Snorri as an informant about his culture—as we would do in an ethnological or anthropological study—then he is very trustworthy.
• Eric Lacey: —that in fact, Norse mythology, as we receive it, looks like a monolith.
• Lance Geiger: Eric Lacey, lecturer in Language and Literature at the University of Winchester.
• Eric Lacey: It looks like a singular narrative, singular belief structure, and this is probably not close to what the reality was. It was very much about small cultic, uh, devotions, and that each of these would have related stories—they probably come from the same place or the same series of ideas—but that they're not the same story. And this means that the multifaceted creation that we see in Norse mythology as we inherit it is probably as much the product of lots of these stories being brought together as it is a reflection on the Norse creation of the universe.
• Lance Geiger: In the most widespread version of Norse mythology, above the nothingness of the universe there is Niflheim, the realm of mist and darkness, a land colder than death itself, and below the terrible giant Surtr rules over Muspelheim, the realm of fire, the land of hell. Stuck between ice and fire, a frosty abyss that bears the sweet name of Ginnungagap.
• Eric Lacey: I should perhaps be skeptical, because that represents "in the beginning" creating the light and the darkness, and that is exactly what we see at the beginning of Genesis. And so it's not the only place where, um, Snorri Sturluson works Christianity into it, and it's not the only place in Norse paganism that is affected by Norse Christianity, but that's how it begins. Just like Christianity, it begins with the light and the darkness.
• Lance Geiger: One day at the bottom of the void, drops of water formed when the ice of Niflheim met the heat of Muspelheim, giving birth to the giant Ymir. He didn't stay alone for long, he was soon joined by the gigantic cow Auðumbla; it was time for her to come into the world. From her udders flow the rivers of milk on which Ymir feeds. The giant and the animal live side-by-side, and Auðumbla witnesses the birth of all of Ymir's children. Giants sprang from the sweat of his armpits, while other creatures came out of his legs. Everything could have continued this way, but one day, while licking the ice which covered a stone, Auðumbla uncovered Búri, the first of the gods. Sometime later, it is the turn of Borr, Búri's son, to come into the world. How did it happen? No text specifies it. It must be said that Snorri's Edda is not exactly a scholarly text.
• Gísli Sigurdson: What is unique about it is that it is written as a handbook in the mythology, as a handbook for young poets, not for practicing pagans. And, uh, it is written by a Christian who is brought up in learning the old myths for poetical purposes—so he's an insider in the culture of living myths—so the mythology was the frame of reference for their quarterly poetic diction.
• Lance Geiger: From what little we know the passage of the creation of the universe, we know that three children were born from the love of Borr and the giant Bestla: Vili, Vé, and the famous Odin. All could have lived peacefully, but for some unexplained reason, the three young gods decide to kill Ymir and his offspring. As they're busy getting rid of him, they don't realize that not all of the giants die at the same time as their father. For even if many were swept away by the streams of blood spilled by Ymir, two of them escaped unscathed. Will they be forgotten and live their whole lives hidden from the rest of the world? We'll find out only much later. Meanwhile, Ymir's death allows Odin and his brothers to create the universe. They have a lot to do now, and the task is huge. The giant's body is first used to fill the Ginnungagap, but that's not all. His flesh becomes the earth and his skull the sky. His blood fills the oceans, rivers, and lakes, his bones give birth to mountains, and his teeth to rocks. His hair becomes trees. With his eyelashes, the three brothers build the high ramparts that go around Midgard, the realm of men. All the realms—there are nine in total—find their place in the branches of the ash tree Yggdrasil, the gigantic tree that brings them balance. Now that the universe is formed, it must be filled. Odin, Vili, and Vé quickly get down to it. While the three brothers are walking on a beach, they notice two tree trunks washed up on the sand and immediately decide to carve them in their image and make them human beings. After this first mission is accomplished. Odin gives them breath, necessary for life. Vili brings them spirit and emotions, while Vé entrusts them with senses and language. Named Ask and Embla, they are placed in Midgard. It's now up to them to populate the realm of men. Until now, Odin, Vili, and Vé have done everything together, but from that point on, these last two disappear entirely from the stories. Annelie Jarl Ireman, lecturer in Norse Studies at the University of Caen.
• Annelie Ireman: I think they had no other roles to play other than creating the world. In a lot of mythologies, we have this archetype of brothers creating the world, and Odin, Vili, and Vé had such a role. However, Odin's the one who's going to have a role to play after the creation of the world.
• Lance Geiger: Now we just need to see where the gods will settle. It will be in the realm of Asgard. Gods move in and twelve of them sit at Odin's table to rule. Each one settles in a hall in his own image. Thor the god of thunder, a colossus with titanic strength, lives with his beautiful Sif in the manor of Bilskirnir. With its 540 rooms, it is the largest in Asgard. The god of light and kindness, Baldr, moves to Breiðablik, a domain from which evil is banished, and so on for Loki, Heimdall, Váli, Bragi, and all the other gods.
• Gísli Sigurdson: And when it comes to individual gods, so Thor is clearly very popular in place names and personal names, so by all measures that we can take, he must have been a prominent character. You know, it's, uh, very tricky to, uh, to, uh know who was popular, who was the most important god, and, uh, so on, because we know very little—if anything—about the daily religious practice of paganism, the rituals that must have been associated with the myths, and so on, in pagan times. We know that they held their places sacred—forests, and trees, and waterfalls—and probably associated some rituals with these.
• Lance Geiger: Odin settles with his wife Frigg, the goddess of marriage and motherhood. Both live in the magnificent palace of Valaskjálf. More than a home, it is in fact a real fortress, topped by a high tower and a roof entirely covered with shining golden shields. Odin, the father of all things, sits every day on his throne Hliðskjálf with Frigg at his side. There he waits patiently for the news of the universe. Every morning, his two faithful ravens Huginn, whose name means "thought", and Muninn, who name means "memory", fly over the world to observe everything that is happening. At lunch-time, they return to the palace and whisper all that they have learned in their master's ear. Nothing can escape the god-creator of the universe, guardian of the balance of the Nine Realms. In the evening, he peacefully joins the room of banquets, where gigantic fires burn in the center of colossal tables. There's one more emblematic place that Odin watches over, Valhalla, and is in this immense hall located within the walls of Asgard that the Valkyries, fierce female warriors on horseback, take fallen human warriors to join Odin's heavenly army. What's the reward for these lucky warriors? Endless days filled with battles, banquets, and parties.
• Annelie Ireman: Valhalla is Odin's grand palace, it's a massive hall. To understand its size, it said there were 540 doors, and through each door, 800 men could enter at the same time. And if you die in a heroic manner, you're allowed to go there after dying; it's sort of a paradise. Meanwhile, the other inhabitants descended to Helheim, the realm of the dead. In Valhalla, however, they will celebrate. Warriors who died in battle will spend their days, uh, feasting, drinking, and fighting, so we can see the habits and values of the era: you celebrate by eating, drinking, and fighting.
• Lance Geiger: But this life of opulence is not enough for Odin. The god of wisdom and poetry is greedy for more knowledge, so he goes to find Mímir, the guardian of the Well of Knowledge which is under the roots of Yggdrasil. Odin, eager to accumulate as much knowledge about the universe as possible, asked to drink the water from the well. Mímir accepts, on one condition: the father of the gods must give him one of his eyes in exchange. The price is high, but Odin accepts, so he takes his sip of the magic water, and ever since then, his eye floats on the surface of the well. It is true that Odin is now one-eyed, but he has knowledge. Not only does he know the magic formulas that heal and the recipes for love potions, but he also knows how to read the runes, those strange characters engraved in wood.
• Eric Lacey: What he has in common with the other father of the gods is the fact that he is their father-figure both in terms of the respect that they give him and in terms of literal progeny. I think that's probably where the similarities end. He's extraordinarily untrustworthy, Odin is really only out there to look out for himself. And so things like Odin getting runes for all man's knowledge, that's because Odin wants the runes. When Odin gets the mead of poetry, which everybody benefits from, that's not intentional. Odin has gone to get the mead of poetry for himself, he's taken these big gulps of it, and actually, the mead of poetry that ends up with people and goes on to influence people isn't something Odin even meant to give to them. He's escaping from the giant that he's stolen the mead of poetry from and little bits fall out of his mouth.
• Lance Geiger: But this infinite knowledge also reveals terrible news to Odin that will determine all of his future actions. The end of the world of gods and men is near, and it's called Ragnarök. In the more-or-less distant future, a series of apocalyptic events will take place before the gods and their enemies fight in the hardest and bloodiest of battles. For in killing Ymir, Odin and his brothers did not extinguish the line of giants. Those who survived the original confrontation do not intend to live all their lives in the shadow of the gods. They will come back to threaten everything the gods have built. Odin, distraught, returns to Asgard, wondering how to react to this predicted catastrophe. Is it possible to go against Fate? Will he be able to avoid the final confrontation and save the universe? No one knows for sure, but whatever it takes, the father of all gods will prepare his troops and try to preserve this fragile balance.
• Gylfi: The frosty abyss, the giant, the gods, mankind. The story of the gods left me speechless. And there's poor Odin, who from the very beginning knew about the end of the world. I'm glad I'm not in his place. Imagine living knowing how you will die.
• Lance Geiger: Thank you for listening to Echoes of History: Ragnarök, a Ubisoft podcast brought to you by Paradiso Media.

Cast

(By order of appearance, host indicated with italics)

• James Brack as Gylfi
  • David Sighicelli (French)
  • Mark Bremer (German)
• Lance Geiger as himself
  • Benjamin Brillaud (French)
  • Marios Gavrilis (German)
• Prof. Gísli Sigurdson as himself
• Prof. Eric Lacey as himself
• Prof. Annelie Jarl Ireman as herself

Gallery

• File:ECHOES OF HISTORY - RAGNARÖK EP 1 - The birth of the universe