Erik and the Gods

Chapter 2 – Journey to Asgard

CHAPTER 2 – JOURNEY TO ASGARD“Who are you?” Erik asked.

“Thor,” the man answered.

“Thor!” Erik looked at him awkwardly, still in shock. “Where are we going?”

“Home. Far from here,” Thor answered. “Don’t you have any other clothes than that? Those thin rags will be useless. Don’t you have any leathers?”

Erik looked down at his clothes. “I have a jacket and some thick trousers. Should I grab those?”

“Yes.”

“Are we going on the roads in that?” Erik asked and pointed at the chariot. The goats stamped at the ground impatiently.

“No. We are flying. Now go get changed so we can leave. I don’t want to stay here any longer than necessary.”

Erik did as Thor instructed him, climbed out of the window and walked over to the chariot.

“Hop in and hold on tight,” Thor said, “this chariot can really fly!”

Just as Erik settled in at the bottom of the chariot, it started moving. The wheels screeched and sparks flew from the iron wheels as the chariot thundered off. The goats snorted heavily, buckled down and pulled with all their might. The chariot creaked and groaned before soaring off, faster and faster, racing towards the heavens.

“Where are we going?” Erik repeated.

“Home, as I said before,” Thor answered, peering ahead into the clouds.

“Where is home?”

“Asgard, of course,” Thor answered with irritation.

“Where is that?”

“Hmm. There certainly is much you do not know,” Thor answered and turned to Erik. The goats seemed to know their way back and Thor relaxed the reins. He sat down next to Erik, took off his iron gloves and scratched his beard pensively.

“Hmm,” he said again.

Erik peeked over the edge of the chariot and looked down, with the Earth now far below him. He could see the city lights and the street lights winding across the landscape like shiny strings of pearls.

“You have much light, though it is artificial,” Thor muttered to himself.

“What’s it like in Asgard then?” Erik asked as he turned to Thor.

“Asgard is an entirely separate world, which… well, it lies in the middle of your world, and that is where the gods live. The Æsir, we are called.” Thor shook his head in dismay. It was going to be difficult to explain everything. He sighed. “Have you heard nothing of us?”

“Yes, of course,” Erik reassured him. “Well, a little anyway, and it was a long time ago. I guess I wasn’t paying much attention.”

“I see.” Thor frowned. He scratched his beard, glanced at Erik, and tried again. “I think I will have to start from the beginning. Are you paying attention now?”

“Yes, of course,” Erik answered.

“Hmm, very well then. In the beginning there was nothing. There was no Earth, in any case. To the north was Niflheim, an immense world, dark, cold and misty, and to the south was Muspelheim, a bright, hot and fiery region. Between these two worlds was an enormous divide called Ginnungagap. Try saying that.”

“Ginn-un-ga-gap,” Erik repeated.

“Do you hear the rhythm?”

Erik nodded and repeated the word to himself.

“Obviously something had to give, with all of that heat and cold. And indeed it did,” Thor continued.

“In the cold and misty world, there was a spring, the source of many great rivers. The rivers that flowed from there covered the north of Ginnungagap with enormous masses of ice and a freezing mist. The flames and the sparks from the south melted some of the ice, and so between these two extreme worlds, it was as lovely as a warm summer’s day. The drops of water that accumulated there became alive and formed a massive giant, a Jotun. He was called Ymir.

The drops also produced an enormous cow named Audhumla. The cow provided Ymir with milk as nourishment, and the milk gave him incredible strength.

While Ymir slept, he began to sweat. The drops under his arms turned into two giants, a male and a female, while the sweat from his legs created a son.

He was a strange fellow, that Ymir,” Thor muttered to himself, “– but that is where the Jotuns come from.”

Erik wasn’t following much of this but he didn’t interrupt.

Thor continued, “Well, while Ymir was lying under the cow, guzzling its milk, the cow was licking salt from a stone. That same evening, a man’s hair sprouted up from the stone. The following day a head emerged and on the third day an entire man appeared. Buri was his name, and he was a big handsome fellow. He married a beautiful female giant and they had three sons, Odin, Vili and Ve. They became the first Gods.

The three sons didn’t care for Ymir. They captured him and Odin chopped his head off. But his enormous body contained so much blood that it drowned every giant except for Bergelmir and his wife. They just managed to save themselves, and the Jotuns who now practically rule the world, originate from them.”

Thor sighed and looked at Erik to see if he was still listening or if he had fallen asleep.

Erik did his best to appear interested. “And then what happened?” he asked.

“To make a long story short,” Thor continued, “the three Gods then threw Ymir into the middle of Ginnungagap and created the Earth out of his body. The seas, rivers, lakes and streams were formed from his blood. From his flesh, the earth and from his bones, the mountains and cliffs. His teeth and the shards of his bones became stones and sand. His hair became the forests, and they raised his skull above the Earth to form the heavens. Ymir’s brain became the clouds and sparks from Muspelheim were sent into the sky to shine as stars.

The sea, they stretched all the way around the Earth and on the furthest shore of that sea, the Gods made a home for the Jotuns. That place is called Jotunheim, a cold and inhospitable place that you will see for yourself one day.

Within the centre of the world, the Gods made a place for humans to live. But back then, in the beginning, there were no humans. But one day when Odin, Vili and Ve went for a long walk on the beach, arguing fiercely out of sheer boredom, they stumbled upon two tree trunks that had washed ashore. They set to work at once and began whittling away at the wood like children who had just been given their first knives.

Without knowing what they were doing, they formed two humans out of the trunks and in order to flaunt their abilities, they each tried to outdo one another using their runic magic. Odin gave them life so that they could breathe, Vili gave them intelligence so that they could think and move, while Ve gave them all of their senses and a voice so that they could speak with each other and see and hear.

It turned out that the three Gods were equally skilled, and this improved their spirits. They clothed the humans, named the woman Embla and the man Ask, and placed them in Midgard where they would live. Midgard is your world,” Thor said, pointing down over the edge of the chariot. “All of the people who live there today originate from these ancient people.”

“Is that what you really believe?” Erik asked.

“Of course I do. That is how it happened. Perhaps that is not how it has been explained to you?”

Erik shook his head. “That’s not what I was taught. I learnt that people come from apes.”

“From animals,” Thor exclaimed and shook his head.

“I saw it in a movie too,” Erik said in an effort to defend himself.

“What is a movie?’

“It’s, umm, a moving picture.”

“A moving picture?”

“Well, a movie is, made with a camera and then it’s edited so you can watch it on the telly or at the cinema.”

Thor looked confused. “These things, I do not understand them, but then it has been many years since I last travelled to Earth,” he said thoughtfully. Then he cleared his throat, got up and shouted some unintelligible words to the goats who slowed to a steady pace.

Erik turned around and peered over the edge of the chariot. They were headed towards a great rainbow that looked to be some kind of bridge. The intense colours dazzled him and it was some time before his eyes adjusted.

Thor seemed to be in need of an outlet for something, because he started swinging his hammer, sending clear, golden beams of lightning whistling off into the distance. Thunderclaps boomed, drowning out the snorting of the goats and the rumbling of the chariot, and Erik was forced to cover his ears.

Down below on Earth, many people looked up at the night sky. Some thought they had seen a new comet, like the one Halley discovered, with a long, glowing tail trailing behind it. Others believed they had seen a satellite burning up, and of course there were a few who were sure they had seen a UFO.

Erik looked at the large man standing beside him. He could easily pass for a madman from another world. What have I gotten myself into now, he thought.