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Poetic Edda

  Vafthruthnir spake:21.[1] "Out of Ymir's flesh  was fashioned the earth, And the mountains were made of his bones;The sky from the frost-cold  giant's skull, And the ocean out of his blood."
  Othin spake:22.[2] "Next answer me well,  if thy wisdom avails, And thou knowest it, Vafthruthnir, now:Whence came the moon,  o'er the world of men That fares, and the flaming sun?"
  Vafthruthnir spake:23.[3] "Mundilferi is he  who begat the moon, And fathered the flaming sun;The round of heaven  each day they run, To tell the time for men."
  Othin spake:24. "Third answer me well,  if wise thou art called, If thou knowest it, Vafthruthnir, now:Whence came the day,  o'er mankind that fares, Or night with the narrowing moon?"
  1. ↑ Ymir: the giant out of whose body the gods made the world; cf. Voluspo, 3 and note.
  2. ↑ In this and in Othin's following questions, both manuscripts replace the words "next," "third," "fourth," etc., by Roman numerals.
  3. ↑ Mundilferi ("the Turner"?): known only as the father of Mani (the Moon) and Sol (the Sun). Note that, curiously

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