Ginnungagap


In Norse mythology, Ginnungagap is the primordial void, mentioned in 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. An alternative etymology links the ginn- prefix with that found in terms with a sacral meaning, such as ginn-heilagr, ginn-regin and ginn-runa, thus interpreting Ginnungagap as signifying a "magical power-filled space".

Creation myth

Ginnungagap appears as the primordial void in the Norse creation account. The Gylfaginning states:
In the northern part of Ginnungagap lay the intense cold of Niflheim, and in the southern part lay the equally intense heat of Muspelheim. The cosmogonic process began when the effulgence of the two met in the middle of Ginnungagap.

Geographic rationalization

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

In popular culture

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, Xian, Ennead, Frost Giants, Fire Demons, Nyx and Amatsu-Mikaboshi.
It is mentioned in the fourth novel 'A Clash of Cymbals/The Triumph of Time' of the Cities in Flight series by James Blish when this Universe ends.
In the Netflix series Ragnarok, it is visited as camping site for a classroom field trip.