Survivor of Ymir's Flood | Bergelmir | Signal from Asgard

Signal from Asgard presents: Tale of Bergelmir: Last of the First and First of the Last

Bergelmir watched everyone he knew drown in his grandfather's blood. When Odin and his brothers murdered Ymir, the flood from the first giant's veins swept away the entire giant-kind—mothers, children, elders all unmade in the crimson tide. Only Bergelmir and his wife survived, floating in a lúðr on the very blood that killed their people.

When the flood receded, they stepped onto ground made from Ymir's corpse. Every mountain was a rib. Every ocean was diluted blood. Every footstep was on family. The gods had carved the world from Ymir, and Bergelmir and his wife became the sole memory-keeper's—the last witnesses who could never forget. And so we call Bergelmir—the father of all giants who came after.

The rivers, mountains, and storms of Jötunheim are witness and memorial to what once was and what will be.

Subscribe to Signal from Asgard for Norse mythology music that honors the complete stories—including those silenced by time.

----------
LYRICS:

He saw them cross the ice at dawn
Three shapes sharp as break of blade
Sons of Borr with Bestla thread
Giant-blood with godly shade

Ymir stood, the ancient frame
Grand-father of, frost and flame
Steel fell; the old world cracked
First father bled, no turning back

The blood rose not as wound alone
But drowning tide through flesh and bone
It erased name and place
It unmade every face

Not just drowned, but un-become
Returned to flesh that once was one
Mothers swept, the young undone
Elders lost in crimson run

Not water—end. Not flood—erased
Kin-fire none could halt or brace
All giant-folk dissolved in red
Not just dying, but unmade, unsaid

His hands moved first. His thought came late
He pulled his wife through blood and fate
They climbed lúðr as tides grew grim
The ark that bore the death in him

On grandfather’s vein they drifted wide
On blood that broke and bore their side
He did not choose to live that hour
He only clung while death had power

To live, he had to trust the death
The very flood that stole each breath
Survival tasted bitter-red
Carried by the thing that left them dead

When waters thinned, he watched the three
Cut Ymir’s corpse with certainty
Flesh to earth and blood to sea
Bone to mountain, skull set free

They raised his ribs as mountain rows
Set his skull where heaven glows
Placed his brow as Midgard’s wall
Fortress built from giant-fall

Flesh to earth, blood to sea
Bone to stone, and sky set free
Order mount on chaos' back
Circled world with outer track

He stepped from hollow wood to ground
Each foot fall on a rib resound
Each stride across a limb
World beneath was Ymir still

He walked the lands they did not need
Leftovers of cosmic deed
Of rocks and fen and outer chill
Wild kept where worlds begin

His wife bore children in that place
Root restored of giant race
One household, then a host, then kin
From loss they shaped their strength again

One to many, many to more
Grief grew lineage on the shore
From Bergelmir’s breath arose
Jötunheim where wildness grows

Streams still hold Ymir's stain
Mountains groan with ancient pain
Forests whisper forgotten name
Seas remember the red that came

They live in water, wood, and crag
In winter’s breath, in wolf and stag
Drowned are not erased but sown
Voice returns in root and bone

He bears a memory none can share
Death of world and god-made tear
Witness-weight that stands alone
Cost of realms the gods have sown

As long as peaks stand cold and sheer
As long as rivers cut and sear
As long as forests guard their side
Ymir’s seed will not subside

#ymir #norse #odin #vikings #norsemusic