Ymir, Audhumla, Buri, and More!

  At the beginning of time, nothing existed except the 2 primordial realms. One was called Muspelhiem, the realm of fire, and the other one was Niflheim, the realm of ice. In between of them was only chaos, the void of nothing.
  But slowly, heat rose from the fire realm, which melted some ice from the ice realm and it met at the void in the center. It rose and froze again, forming a primordial mixture of chaos known as Ginnungagap. From this mixture came the first of the frost giants: Ymir (pronounced ee-meer). He drank milk from a cow, Audhumla.
  Audhumla licked the ice of Niflheim, and the first god Buri came into existence. Ymir slept for a long time, and while he slept, creatures came out of his body parts, who would later become the ancestors of the gods, like dwarves, elves, spirits, etc., But mostly giants of every kind: fire giants, frost giants, rock giants, and mountain giants. Ymir then became the king of the frost giants.

Eurynome and the Universal Egg

  Once upon a time, when nothing existed, there came the first of all goddesses: Eurynome (pronounced your-enemy) and her little sister Epimetheus. Not much is known about their looks and features, but we do know that they might have been a part-demon, though I bet they probably didn't look like it.

  Eurynome's very form separated the earth and the sky for life to grow. Afterward, she danced naked in the oceanic waters in order to create the wind. With this wind, she rubbed it in the palms of her hands in order to create the first serpent, Ophion, who became her husband. Ophion was a kind of ocean god, as he was in the form of a great sea serpent of universal size. Despite being a snake, he could still speak the human language.

   If he would have had friends at that time, then it probably would have been weird telling them "Hey!, I'm married to Eurynome! (your-enemy, get it?).
  In time, Eurynome became pregnant. Before she was going to give birth however, she transformed herself into a dove and flew away. Soon, she laid an egg, which the serpent Ophion guarded very carefully.

  It wasn't long before the egg hatched. Out of the egg came Chronos and Ananke, who got married.
 Chronos was the god of time (also known as Old Father Time/ or Old Grandfather Time, depending on which one you prefer). Don't get him confused with another Cronus, who we will talk about later.
  Ananke was the queen/goddess of destiny, beyond space and time. She was associated with the Fates, who thread destiny, who are sometimes said to be her daughters.

  Chronos and Ananke, together, used their powers and created their son Phanes from some primordial mixture that came out of the egg. Phanes became the god of light and creation. He is depicted as a marvelous, mixed-gender diety, wrapped in the coils of a snake.

  All the universe came from that very egg, which was produced by Eurynome and Ophion. They began to argue about who truly was the creator of the universe. Talk about an unhappy couple!
  Ophion claimed that it was he, who was the creator, and this angered Eurynome to no end, forcing her to banish Ophion into oblivion. Why couldn't they just get a divorce? Oh right! divorce didn't exist yet!!!

  Once again, there was nothing that existed in the universe except, Eurynome and Chaos, The primordial void of nothing.

(pic credit link )

Pronunciation Pointers

  In Mythology, there are some names of gods, places, items, etc. that sound different from the way they are spelled. So, to make sure you are pronouncing things properly, here are some notes on the pronunciations of the names for the Greek and Roman deities:

⦁ If you see a C or a CH, then pronounce it as K. For example, Chronos is pronounced KRONOS.

⦁ If you see a name with an E at the end, then it must be pronounced as well. For example, Aphrodite is pronounced: A-fro-d-I-t-EE.

And here is one note on the pronunciations of the Norse names:

⦁ If you see a J, then it must be pronounced Ya, as in the word jotun (pronounced Yo-tun)

Here is an Egyptian pronunciation note:

• "Kh", is pronounced with a heavy and rattly "ha", like the god Khnum (pronounced Hanum)

I'll include more notes along the way.

The Author

  Hey guys!, I'm Dev Madhavan. I am 14 years old. I know tons of mythology from around the world, so I want to share all my stories with you guys.
  I bet you are wondering about why and how I know so much about mythology. Let me tell you all about it.
  I have loved fantasy and stories all my life. I also loved to read books more than anyone else in my community. I really loved to read fantasy based stories and started off by reading a few classic fairy tales. Soon, I read the whole Land of Stories series, the Harry Potter series, and the Rick Riordan books. I started to read them because I had developed a strong love of reading mythology.
   In grade 6, we were given a task to research something and make a presentation about it. At first, I had no idea of what to research. But when I started to think more  about Hindu mythology, the thought of other mythologies came to mind, so I did a presentation about the family trees of the gods in other mythologies. After my project and presentation, I started to read more about the stories to learn than what I already knew. I read so many stories and enjoyed them so much, that I found so much pleasure from telling these stories to my friends and relatives.
   People today don't really find any interest in mythology like I do. So I thought about how I could share them with the world. That was when I decided, with help from my mom, to write a blog about all the stories that I know of and put my knowledge to actual use. This blog of mine is the result of that. I hope you enjoy!
   Please be free to comment on the stories and maybe you can tell me a bit of the story that I didn't know of. I always love to learn more. Be aware that my parents will be moderating all your comments!

(ME!)