Brewer's: Y'mir

The personification of Chaos, or the first created being, produced by the antagonism of heat and cold. He is called a giant, and was nourished by the four milky streams which flowed from the cow Audhumla. While he slept, a man and woman grew out of his left arm, and sons from his feet. Thus was generated the race of the frost-giants. (Hrimthursar.)

Odin and his two brothers slew Ymir, and threw his carcase into the Ginnungagap (abyss of abysses), when his blood formed the water of the earth, his gore the ocean, his bones the mountains, his teeth the rocks, his skull the heavens, his brains the clouds, his hair plants of every kind, and his eyebrows the wall of defence against the giants. (Scandinavian mythology.)

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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