Auðumbla
Auðumbla (also spelled Auðumla, Auðhumbla or Auðhumla) is the primeval cow of
Norse mythology. She is described in the
Gylfaginning part of
Snorri Sturluson's
Prose Edda after the description of
Ginnungagap and
Ymir.Auðumbla is not mentioned again in the Prose Edda and, apart from one mention in
Nafnaþulur, her name does not occur in any other ancient source. Nevertheless she is generally accepted by scholars as a genuine part of the Norse mythos and not dismissed as an invention of Snorri Sturluson.
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Audhumla
[Norse] The primeval cow on whose milk the Giant Ymir fed. She was created from the melting ice at the beginning of time. She sustained herself by licking the salt and hoar frost from the ice of Niflheim.
Audhumla
Audhumla (Icelandic) [from audr void + hum dusk] Dusky void; in Norse mythology, the cow (symbol of fertility) formed of the frozen vapors of elivagar (glaciers, ice waves). From her udder flowed the four streams that nourished the frost giant Ymir. She is the female principle and Ymir the male principle; the four streams of milk "which diffused themselves throughout space (the astral light in its purest emanation)" (IU 1:147). Audhumla licked the salt ice blocks and uncovered the head of Buri, the parentless progenitor of all living beings. "The meaning of the allegory is evident. It is the precosmic union of the elements, of Spirit, or the creative Force, with Matter, cooled and still seething, which it forms in accordance with universal Will. Then the Ases, 'the pillars and supports of the World' (Cosmocratores), step in and create as All-father wills them" (TG 43).