The chief become
Of all the dwarfs;
And after him Durin.
But the former account is preferable, because it accounts more satisfactorily for the cruel, vindictive, yet often contemptible character of the race,—a race with small deformed bodies, large heads, flat noses, and still more despicable in mind. Probably, as Mr. Magnussen conjectures, these beings, who could not bear the light of day; who, if they accidentally saw it, were changed into rocks; whose life was passed in the bowels of the earth, especially in the bowels of the mountains, were intended to personify the subterraneous powers of nature. Their names, when translated, favour the interpretation. Wind, Blast, Gleam, Light, Fruit-giver, Iceberg, and others equally fantastic, attest their elementary character. Of all beings they were the most skilful, the most expert, the most industrious: they were unrivalled smiths; they manufactured wondrous armour, and other enchanted things, which were highly prized by the gods, who excelled them in power, but were inferior in ingenuity.
The beings next created were mankind. “The sons of Bure,” says the prose Edda, “went to the sea-shore, and found two trees, which they formed into man and woman. Odin gave them breath and life; Vilè, understanding and vigour; Vè, beauty of form, speech, hearing, sight.” But the Valuspa says that it was Haenir who gave understanding, and Loder a fair complexion. These, however, may be only different names for the same beings. Askur was the name of the first man, and Embla of the woman; the former signifying an ash tree, the latter, it is said, an elm. This is evidently a vegetable mythos. It is not peculiar to the Goths. Hesiod informs us that Zeus formed the third race of men from ash trees. The ancient Medians had the same notion; the mythic Kaiamar died without issue because without mate; but from his remains in forty years sprung a tree with fifteen branches; and from it Ormuzd fashioned the first progenitors of mankind.
Midgard, or the middle world, was made for the habitation of man; but before we describe it, we must glance at the other worlds with which it was connected. According to both the poetic and the prose Edda, there were nine.
THE NINE WORLDS.
In the Valuspa, the prophetess says—
I tell of nine worlds
And of nine heavens.