The Sparks of Múspell

“But the southern part of Ginnungagap was lighted by the sparks and flakes that flew into it from Muspellheim.”

“They afterwards took the wandering sparks and red hot flakes that had been cast out of Muspellheim, and placed them in the heavens, both above and below, to give light unto the world”

Snorri’s Gylfaginning describes a region in the south called Múspell, bright and hot. Sparks and flakes from Múspellheim flew into Ginnungagap and lit its southern side. Where their heat met the frost from the north, the ice melted and life began.

Later, when the gods have made the sky from the giant’s skull, they take sparks and glowing flakes cast out of Múspellheim and set them in the heavens to give light. Snorri adds that the sun’s car was made of such sparks. This account of the lights’ origin is found only in Gylfaginning; the poems do not give it.

Múspellsheimr is Snorri’s name for the burning region, and its guardian is Surtr. Snorri does not name any hall, mountain or city in it, and this entry does not add any. The word Múspell is of uncertain origin.

The sparks belong to a creation story in which fire from the south and ice from the north meet in the empty gap, an arrangement found in Snorri and not stated in the poems. For the region itself see the page for Muspelheim; for the gap see Ginnungagap.