9 World Chronicles

Name: Kvasir

Associated: Wisdom

Culture: Germanic Norse

Classification: God

Literature: The Prose Edda

Kvasir (pronounced “KVAHSS-ir”) is a being who was created by the Aesir and Vanir gods and goddesses at the conclusion of the Aesir-Vanir War.

The war had ended with a truce. In the tale of the Mead of Poetry, whose storyline picks up where that of the Aesir-Vanir War leaves off, the deities sealed their peace treaty by coming together to produce an alcoholic drink by an ancient, communal method: everyone in the group chewed berries and spat out the resulting mush into a single vat. This liquid was then fermented. In this particular instance, the fermented liquid became the god Kvasir, whose name is surely related to Norwegian kvase and Russian kvas, both of which mean “fermented berry juice

Kvasir was the wisest of all beings. There was no question for which he did not have a ready and satisfying answer. He took up the life of a wanderer, dispensing his wisdom to all whom he met along the road. When he came to the house of two dwarves, Fjalar (“Deceiver” and Galar (“Screamer”, they killed him and drained his blood into three containers. They told the gods that Kvasir had suffocated from an excess of wisdom. The two dwarves then brewed mead by mixing Kvasir’s blood with honey – the Mead of Poetry.

a mead which imbues the drinker with skaldship and wisdom, and the spread of which eventually resulted in the introduction of poetry to mankind.

Name: Ymir

Known Aliases: The Frost King, The Sea Giant

Associated: The Sea

Culture: Germanic Norse Myth

Gender: Male

Classification: Giant

Element: Sea

Literature: The Prose Edda

Ymir as a primeval being who was born from venom that dripped from the icy rivers Elivagar and lived in the grassless void of Ginnungagap. is the ancestor of all jötnar.

Ymir birthed a male and female from the pits of his arms, and his legs together begat a six-headed being.

Ymir was slain by the gods Odin Vili and VE and his body was used as raw material for the creation of the world.  

They fashioned Earth from his flesh, from his blood the ocean, from his bones the mountains, from his hair the trees, from his brains the clouds, from his skull the heavens, and from his eyebrows the middle realm in which mankind lives,

The dwarfs were given life from his blood.