Ginnungagap

In Norse mythology, Ginnungagap (old Norse: [ˈɡinːoŋɡɑˌɡɑp]; "gaping abyss", "yawning void") is the primordial, magical^[1]^[2] void mentioned in three poems from the Poetic Edda^[3]^[4] and the Gylfaginning, the Eddaic text recording Norse cosmogony.

Etymology

Ginnunga- is usually interpreted as deriving from a verb meaning "gape" or "yawn", but no such word occurs in Old Norse except in verse 3 of the Eddic poem "Vǫluspá", "gap var ginnunga", which may be a play on the term.

In her edition of the poem, Ursula Dronke suggested it was borrowed from Old High German ginunga, as the term Múspell is believed to have been borrowed from Old High German.^[5] An alternative etymology links the ginn- prefix with that found in terms with a sacral meaning, such as ginn-heilagr, ginn-regin (both referring to the gods) and ginn-runa (referring to the runes), thus interpreting Ginnungagap as signifying a "magical (and creative) power-filled space".^[1]

Creation

Ginnungagap appears as the primordial void in the Norse creation account. The Gylfaginning states:

Ginnungagap, the Yawning Void ... which faced toward the northern quarter, became filled with heaviness, and masses of ice and rime, and from within, drizzling rain and gusts; but the southern part of the Yawning Void was lighted by those sparks and glowing masses which flew out of Múspellheim^[6]

In the Völuspá, a supernaturally long-lived völva who was raised by jötnar tells the story of how Odin and his two brothers created the world from Ginnungagap.^[2]

Geographic rationalization

Scandinavian cartographers from the early 15th century attempted to localize or identify Ginnungagap as a real geographic location from which the creation myth derived. A fragment from a 15th-century (pre-Columbus) Old Norse encyclopedic text entitled Gripla (Little Compendium) places Ginnungagap between Greenland and Vinland:

Now is to be told what lies opposite Greenland, out from the bay, which was before named: Furdustrandir hight a land; there are so strong frosts that it is not habitable, so far as one knows; south from thence is Helluland, which is called Skrellingsland; from thence it is not far to Vinland the Good, which some think goes out from Africa; between Vinland and Greenland is Ginnungagap, which flows from the sea called Mare oceanum, and surrounds the whole earth.^[7]

A scholion in a 15th-century manuscript of Adam of Bremen's Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum similarly refers to Ghimmendegop as the Norse word for the abyss in the far north.^[8]

Later, the 17th-century Icelandic bishop Guðbrandur Thorlaksson also used the name Ginnungegap to refer to a narrow body of water, possibly the Davis Strait, separating the southern tip of Greenland from Estotelandia, pars America extrema, probably Baffin Island.^[9]

In popular culture

Ginnungagap is song taken from the Jethro Tull album, RökFlöte, and released as a single on January 20, 2023.^[10]

Ginnungagap is featured in the Marvel Universe, as a void that existed before the formation of the world. In this place were formed entities such as the Elder Gods,^[11]^[12] Xian,^[13] Ennead,^[14] Frost Giants, Fire Demons,^[15] Nyx^[16] and Amatsu-Mikaboshi.^[17]

In the Netflix series Ragnarok, Ginnungagap is visited as camping site for a classroom field trip during Season 1, Episode 4; it also happens to be the name of this particular episode. In Season 2, Episode 2, Ginnungagap is visited by the characters Laurits and Vidar, and is depicted as a scenic vantage point overlooking a fjord and two adjoining mountains.

Alastair Reynolds' space opera novel Absolution Gap features a chasm named Ginnungagap Rift.

Swedish death metal band, Amon Amarth and their 2001 album The Crusher features a track titled, "Fall Through Ginnungagap".

Swedish symphonic metal band, Therion, features a track titled "Ginnungagap" on their Secret of the Runes album from 2001.

EVE Online has a black hole whose accretion disk shows up in the skybox named Ginnungagap.

"Ginungagap" (sic) is the title of a science fiction short story by Michael Swanwick.

French neofolk group SKÁLD included a song titled "Ginnunga" in their 2018 album Vikings Chant.^[18]

Ginnungagap (ギンヌンガガプ, Ginnungagapu) is a weaponized grimoire introduced in Fire Emblem Fates, a video-game franchise published by Nintendo. It is a high-level item that hits the hardest of all tomes and scrolls in the game.

Ginungagap is the hub world of the video game Jøtun.

In PlatinumGames's Bayonetta 3, the main characters travel through the multiverse, and the Ginnungagap is used as a gateway. In the game, it is referred to as "Ginnungagap, the Chaotic Rift".

A variation of Ginnungagap called "The Spark of the World" appears in the 2022 action-adventure video game God of War Ragnarök. This location becomes accessible during the main quest while in Muspelheim, appearing as a cosmic tapestry of orange sparks merged with blue-tinged essence, presumably from Niflheim.

Notes

^ ^a ^b De Vries (1977:167); cf. also Dillmann (1998:118-123).
^ ^a ^b Polomé, Edgar Charles; Turville-Petre, E.O.G.; Tikkanen, Amy (2023-03-08). "Germanic religion and mythology". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2023-04-30.
^ "Ginnungagap". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2023-04-30.
^ Polomé, Edgar Charles; Turville-Petre, E.O.G.; Tikkanen, Amy (2023-03-08). "Germanic religion and mythology". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2023-04-30.
^ The Poetic Edda, edited with translation introduction and commentary by Ursula Dronke, Volume II: Mythological Poems, Clarendon Press (1997), pp. 112–14, note to "Vǫluspá", line 3/7. Dronke notes that Þjóðólfr of Hvinir also plays on the term in his Haustlǫng, with "ginnunga vé".
^ The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson, translated by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur, 1916, p. 17.
^ Gripla, Codex No. 115 translated in The Norse Discovery of America, A. M. Reeves, N. L. Beamish and R. B. Anderson, 1906, p. 238.
^ Dronke, p. 112.
^ Seaver, Kirsten "Maps, Myths and Men", Stanford University Press (2004) pp. 247-253.
^ "Jethro Tull official Instagram page". Instagram. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
^ Venom Vol. 4 #4. Marvel Comics
^ Silver Surfer Annual #2. Marvel Comics
^ Thor & Hercules: Encyclopaedia Mythologica #1. Marvel Comics
^ Thor Annual #10. Marvel Comics
^ Thor Vol. 5 #2. Marvel Comics
^ Avengers: No Road Home #1-10. Marvel Comics
^ Thor Annual #5. Marvel Comics.
^ MetalDen (2018-09-09). "SKÁLD Le chant des Vikings". RockMeeting - Rock / Metal mélodique (in French). Retrieved 2022-06-26.

References

Dillmann, F. X. (1998). "Ginnungagap" in: Beck, H., Steuer, H. & Timpe, D. (Eds.) Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, Volume 12. Berlin: de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-016227-X.
de Vries, Jan (1977). Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Leiden: Brill.
Simek, Rudolf (1995). Lexicon der germanischen Mythology. Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner. ISBN 3-520-36802-1.