The Great Flood…                    

    Each race has their own unique Myth of Origin, and we of the North are no different. The Eddas and various Sagas of our Tradition state that in the beginning there was naught but the Fimbulvetr, or mighty winter of darkness. Then, at the morning of time, a great chasm called Ginnungagap came into existance from the ever etheric non-being of space. So deep was this abyss that none could see its depths, for it was hidden in perpetual twilight.
    North of Ginnungagap came into being a world known as Niflheim, the cloudhome of mist and darkness, wherein still exists the bubbling spring Hvergelmir, from which the twelve great streams known as the Elivagar find their source. As these streams first flowed southwards to the great abyss, they were hit by a steady cold blast escaping from the yawning gulf, which caused the water to quickly harden into huge blocks of ice before falling into the depths with a continually thunderous roaring. Whilst to the south of Ginnungagap is the world known as Muspellsheim, the realm of elemental fire. This first world created of warmth and brightness shot forth flaming particles, a perpetual shower of sparks, which fell with a hissing sound upon the ice blocks at the bottom of the abyss causing them to melt. As the ice melted from this heat, steam was then created, forming into vaporous clouds which were encountered by the prevailing cold winds and changed into hoarfrost, and slowly began stretching across the great center. Thus, increasing layer upon layer, the rime began to fill this voidless gap.
    From the quickening which was formed from this fertile vapor a gigantic creature was born, the first of the Jötunn rime-thurs or ice giants and given the name of Ymir (the Roarer), known by his own kind as Aurgelmir. Next to come into being from the dripping hoarfrost was the gigantic primal cow, Audhumbla the nourisher, whom, as Ymir noticed when he approached her, produced from her udder four streams of milks, which easily supplied ample nourishment for the starving Rimtusar. Ymir then began to feed off of this creature, who for her own nourishment, started to lick the salt-rime off a nearby ice block, thus uncovering the head of Buri (the producer). As Adhumbla set about further uncovering and thus setting this being free, Ymir fell into a deep sleep, during which the perspiration from each of his armpits created a son and daughter, and from his feet was created the six headed giant call Thrudgelmir, who after his birth created the giant Bergelmir, (from whom all the frost giants are now descended).
    When the giants had learned of the existence of Buri they immediately began to resent him. Borr, son of Buri, then married the giantess Bestla, daughter of Bolthorn, in the hopes to qwell the ill-will. Bestla then bares forth three sons, Odin, Vili, and Ve. Over time the three sons begin to plot of openly attacking the giants and thus sieze control and they then killed he who was the most powerful, Ymir. When Ymir died of his wounds, his blood gushed forth with such a deluge that all of the giants perished with the exception of Bergelmir and his wife, (who managed to escape in a boat), and thus are able to then create Jotunheim. Having now laid waste to the Giant Folk, this triad of brothers began to look on how they might improve upon the desolate aspects of their surroundings. Thus Borr's sons deposited the giant Ymir's corpse into the great abyss, and out of its various bodily parts, they brought Midgard forth.
    This then is the Northern version of Creation in a summery format. A few questions arise when perusing the above… Is it possible that the giant Bergelmir is counterpart to say; Ziusudra the Sumarian, Deucalion the Greek, Utnapishtim the Babalonian, Manu the Hindu, Man of numerous African tribes, Woman of the Indonesian tribes, oh, what about Noah? … From out of Chaos something quite wondrous is created, nourished, destroyed, recreated, (we are shown this from the very opening lines and quite literally all the way through this particular myth), could this then point to a cyclic view of the universe for the Norse, for all ancient folk were ruled by the cycles of nature and that of the seasons were they not? … One final point to ponder over if you will, Audhumbla licked Buri free from the rimey hoar-frost, suggesting that perhaps there was a creation prior to this one being related, and that it somehow came to a sudden bitter and cold end thus placing Buri in a suspended animation within the freezing ice. So are the Ancient Ones of the North suggesting an even earlier creation within the cycle of the universe, possibly Lumeria? But now I am regressing when I should instead be entertaining thoughts of progressing…
    So here then is one referrence in regards to a Northern version of the Great Deluge, but this is not the only recorded flooding which I have thus far come across. You see I am puzzled, are the Wurm Glaciation flood waters when Ymer's blood becomes the Seas and drowns all but one of the fearsome Rimtusarnas? Is the Deluge of the Black Sea possibly when all the Worlds – both alive and dead – wept for the death of Baldur? Perhaps an as yet un-known Deluge is the climax of Ragnarok – when the World arises anew from the chaos? One thing that I do realize is that in the distant past, where the Black Sea now is, the land was relatively dry with a lake or two, circa 5,500 BCE, as it also once was in the Mediterranean Sea area, (thought to be well over 15 thousand years ago). However, both were very fertile plains, each in their own time, and life was indeed glorious..
    The years which have been proven to be fastidiously estimated between 12,000 to 7,000 BCE represent the last deglaciation period. One plasible reason which was recently brought to my attention for this vast melting process is the explosion of an Indonesian volcano, which we can compare to the smaller eruption of Mt. Krakatoa in 1883. This geological phenomena of 14,000 years ago Before Present could easily have caused a tsunami of gigantic proportions, and triggered the end of the Ice Age by covering the expansive continental glaciers with a fine layer of sooty fly ash which then simply increased their absorption of sunlight. Such a huge amount of ice melted in those six millennia that the sea level rose by about 150 meters, and during this same period the snow-limit in the mountains rose by about 3,000 meters. This indicates an extensive warming period, thus limiting freezing conditions and causing tremendous strains and stresses in the crust of the earth due to the drastic increase of water volume in the world's oceans of the time.
    This deglaciation process should be considered by no means uni-directional. It was a complex series of quick advances, long regressions and temporarily stable periods. No less than ten terminal moraines have been identified from these millennia. Each of these moraines indicates a temporary stop in melting or, more likely, the edge-line of a temporary readvancement of the ice sheet. The most pronounced cooling period of the ice was the so called Younger Dryas cold episode from about 9,150 BCE to approximately 8,250 BCE which is known to have covered and greatly affected at least the whole of the Northern Hemisphere, but it is not yet known whether it extended to the Southern Hemisphere as well because of current lack of evidence. However, the result was the dramatic end of the Pleistocene Ice Age and is the cause for the widespread mortality that took place at the end of the Pleistocene Era which the geologists refer to as the Quaternary Extinctions. But they, as yet, are foiled at explaining their cause.
    Due to the simple fact that all of the Teutonic, Latin, Greek, Slavonic, Celtic, and yes, even the Oriental languages of Persia and India happen to share in a similar form of speech, it has been thought that the various Clans originated from the Central Home~Stone of Mesopotamia to discover Europa to the north, and India to the south, and thus carried with them not only a common language, but also a common faith and a common mythology. However, does it actually matter at this point where these Ancient Ones originated from, or is the hidden knowledge which is imparted through their vast wisdom the issue here? One obvious truth of this matter is simply that the Northern Reaches are indeed the Home-Stone of an honourable Clan who are honestly seeking to regain their almost-lost story of ancestry.

But where might we possibly find a thread of this truth…