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Ask and Embla

(Redirected from Embla)

Ask and Embla were the first two humans created by the gods of the Norse Mythology (analogy with Adam and Eve).

Odin and his brothers, Ve and Vili, created all nine worlds of Norse cosmology. They then found two logs on a beach and gave them a human shape. Odin gave them the breath of life; Vili gave them wit and emotions; Ve gave them senses and speech. These two people, Ask ("ash"), the male, and Embla ("elm"), became the progenitors of humanity; they lived in Midgard. In the Elder or Poetic Edda, "The Seeress's Prophecy" says that they were without "lacking in fate". Odin gave them breath, Hænir spirit, Loki "vital spark" (Larrington, The Poetic Edda, Oxford University Press, 1996).

Last updated: 10-29-2005 02:13:46