Ginnungagap

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For the drone/ambient band, see Ginnungagap (band).

In Germanic mythology, Ginnungagap ("magical (and creative) power-filled space"^[1]) was the vast, primordial void that existed prior to the creation of the manifest universe.^[2] In the northern part of Ginnungagap lay the intense cold of Niflheim, to the southern part lay the equally intense heat of Muspelheim. The cosmogonic process began when the effulgence of the two met in the middle of Ginnungagap.

[edit] Notes

^ De Vries (1977:167); German: "der mit magischen (und schöpferischen) Kräften erfüllte Weltraum"
^ Simek (1995:132); German: "Ginnungagap ist [...] der Name des kosmischen Urraums vor der Erschaffung der Welt"

[edit] Resource

de Vries, Jan (1977). Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Leiden: Brill.
Simek, Rudolf (1995). Lexicon der germanischen Mythology. Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner. ISBN 3-20-36802-1.

[edit] See also

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