Yggdrasil · Described Without a Place on the Map
Élivágar (The Rivers)
The rivers of the creation account whose frozen venom filled Ginnungagap.
In Thorpe’s translation
31. From Elivâgar sprang venom drops, which grew till they became a Jötun; but sparks flew from the south-world: to the ice the fire gave life.
- Benjamin Thorpe (translator), The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson (the Poetic Edda) (opens in a new tab) (19th c.; Norroena ed. 1906), Vafþrúðnismál, stanza 31 (Thorpe’s numbering; other editions differ) Rights: Public domain. Nineteenth-century translation, in the public domain. Text as published online by Project Gutenberg (ebook #14726).
What the sources say
In Gylfaginning’s creation account, Hvergelmir lies in the middle of Niflheim and rivers flow from it. The text then speaks of the rivers called Élivágar, which flowed far from their sources until the venom they carried hardened, like dross from a furnace, and became ice; layers of frost piled up in Ginnungagap. Gylfaginning does not say in so many words that these are the same rivers as the twelve from Hvergelmir, but the account follows directly.
Vafþrúðnismál says venom drops sprang from the Élivágar and grew into a giant, and that fire from the south-world gave the ice life.
They belong to the account of the beginning of the world, not to the finished world, so they have no dot on the map.
- attributed to Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda: Gylfaginning (13th century), the creation passage
- Vafþrúðnismál (Poetic Edda), stanza 31 (Thorpe’s numbering; other editions differ)
Names and background
The name is glossed as Ice Waves. Eleven rivers are traditionally associated with the Élivágar, but Wikipedia’s article stresses that both Eddas name many further rivers, so the list is not fixed. Even the spelling varies: the river Leiptr appears as Leiftrar in one verse of Helgakviða Hundingsbana II.
The sources tell the origin of Ymir at different lengths. Vafþrúðnismál says he was formed from drops of poison from the rivers; Snorri expands this into a process of rime, cold from Niflheim and heat from Muspelheim. The rivers also seem to mark borders, either between gods and giants or between the mythical and mortal worlds, but Wikipedia’s article cites two readings and does not choose between them.
- Wikipedia contributors, Élivágar (opens in a new tab)
Where the sources attest it
Élivágar, which Bellows renders “stormy waves”, are the rivers of the primeval cold. Vafþrúðnismál stanza 31 (Bellows’s numbering) says that Ymir arose from drops of their venom, and Bellows records Mogk’s suggestion that the Élivágar might be the Milky Way, a proposal only. Snorri tells the story in Gylfaginning, where the streams called the “ice-waves” harden into ice and fill Ginnungagap.
The poem gives the venom and the giant; Snorri adds the freezing and the filling of the gap. No archaeological evidence is cited.
- Vafþrúðnismál (Poetic Edda), 31
- Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur, The Prose Edda (Brodeur translation) (opens in a new tab) (1916), Gylfaginning V Rights: Public domain. Chapter numbers follow this edition.