Ginnungagap

In Norse mythology, Ginnungagap ("yawning abyss") was the vast, primordial void that existed prior to the creation of the manifest universe,Simek (1995:132); German: "Ginnungagap ist [...] der Name des kosmischen Urraums vor der Erschaffung der Welt" corresponding (both in etymology and in meaning) to the Greek notion of Chaos.
Old Norse gína like English yawn are from Common Germanic *gainôjan, in turn from an Indo-European root *ghen-, whence also Greek χάος "gaping void" and χαίνω "to gape". Old Norse gap "chasm" is cognate with English to gape, perhaps from an (unrecorded) Old English *gapian. Cognate is Sanskrit jabh- "to gape", as it were from a Prot-Indo-European *g'ebh-. An alternative etymology, linking the ginn- prefix in Ginnungagap 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), interprets Ginnungagap as signifying a "magical (and creative) power-filled space".De Vries (1977:167); cf. also Dillmann (1998:118-123).
In the northern part of Ginnungagap lay the intense cold of Niflheim, and to 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.
Around 1600, several Icelandic and Scandinavian cartographers applied the name to parts of the Arctic Ocean. 17th century Icelandic bishop Guðbrandur Thorlaksson, for example, 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. Seaver, Kirsten "Maps, Myths and Men" Stanford University Press (2004) pp247-253
== See also ==
* Chaos (mythology)
* Creation myth
* Plane (esotericism)
* Abyss (religion)
== Notes ==
== 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.
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Category:Norse mythology