Ask and Embla I remember the trees A pair lying on my shore Washed up by the tide One ash One elm or vine (The stories do not say) Breath was the gift of Odin Soul the gift of Honir Blood and body the gift of Loth

I saw them take root Their forms sprouting from the cracks Until with feet planted in the sand They stood tall Man and woman Ash and elm or vine

Ginnungagap I peered between them Ash and Embla (What was between them?) A gap, mild and windless Formed between two bodies, two worlds And from it I was birthed Ymir of the giants Neither man nor woman Something strange, different Feared

I was slain by them The sons of Bor (The sons of my son’s daughter) And my body transformed Blood became the sea Flesh became the earth Bones became the mountains Hair became the trees And my skull the sky Svarthofdi I was reborn as the child of my child Son of Farbauti and Laufey or Nal The Sly One, the Bound One A seidberendr from Svarthofdi Blood-brother of Odin Allfather (Loki was my name) The sire of my children The mother of several more

I was reborn as Odin himself The Hanged One and the One-Eyed Sacrificed myself to myself (And was granted knowledge) A practitioner of seid I changed my form A man and a woman I became

Ithavoll I sit after the destruction After Fenrir was released and fire consumed The leaves of Yggdrasil After I sailed with the giants on Naglfar After I fought and fell to the great wolf

I sit on the earth born again from my flesh The land ravaged and cleansed by fire So that nothing is left But the new growth which sprouts From the soil