The Story of Bergelmir, the Flood Survivor

In the earliest days of creation, when the world was young and the boundaries between order and chaos were still being drawn, there lived a giant whose wisdom and foresight would save not just his own life, but the future of all giant-kind. His name was Bergelmir, and he was destined to become the sole survivor of the greatest catastrophe the world had ever known.

Bergelmir was the grandson of Ymir, the primordial giant from whose body the world itself was formed. Unlike many of his giant kin, who were content to live from day to day without thought for the future, Bergelmir possessed an unusual gift for seeing patterns and understanding the deeper currents that flowed beneath surface events.

The giant lived with his wife in a hall built on the shores of a great river in Jotunheim. He was a skilled craftsman and boat builder, having inherited not only Ymir’s strength but also a keen intelligence that led him to study the movements of water, wind, and weather. His neighbors often sought his advice about when to plant, when to harvest, and when to prepare for storms.

But Bergelmir’s greatest talent was his ability to read the signs of approaching change. He noticed things that others missed: the way birds flew differently before great storms, how animals behaved when the seasons were about to shift, and most importantly, the subtle tremors that ran through the earth when powerful magic was being worked.

As the three young gods – Odin, Vili, and Ve – grew in power and began to challenge the dominance of the giants, Bergelmir sensed that something momentous was approaching. He felt it in the very stones beneath his feet, in the changing patterns of the stars, and in the restless behavior of all living things.

“Something great and terrible is coming,” he told his wife one evening as they watched the sunset paint the sky in shades of red and gold. “I can feel it in my bones, the way I feel an approaching storm. We must prepare.”

His wife, wise in her own right, trusted her husband’s instincts completely. “What must we do?” she asked.

“We must build a boat,” Bergelmir replied. “Not just any boat, but one strong enough to weather the greatest flood imaginable. And we must gather supplies – food, tools, seeds, everything we will need to start anew if the old world passes away.”

For months, Bergelmir worked on his boat, crafting it from the strongest wood and binding it with the most durable rope. He hollowed out an enormous tree trunk, making it watertight and filling it with compartments for supplies. His neighbors laughed at his preparations, calling him foolish and overly cautious.

“The world has always been as it is,” they scoffed. “What flood could possibly threaten giants who have lived since the beginning of time?”

But Bergelmir continued his work, driven by an certainty he could not explain but dared not ignore. He and his wife stored away dried meat, grain, and seeds from every plant they could find. They gathered tools, weapons, and even soil from their garden, understanding somehow that they might need to replant their entire world.

The day of reckoning came when the three gods finally confronted Ymir in battle. When the primordial giant fell, his death released torrents of blood so vast that they created an ocean that threatened to drown all of creation. The flood came with no warning, rising faster than anyone could have imagined possible.

All across Jotunheim, giants were caught unprepared. Some tried to flee to higher ground, but the blood-flood rose higher than the tallest mountains. Others attempted to fight the rushing waters, but even their tremendous strength was no match for the cosmic deluge.

Only Bergelmir and his wife were ready. As the waters rose around their hall, they launched their carefully prepared boat and watched sorrowfully as their world disappeared beneath the crimson tide. For days and nights they floated on the endless sea of Ymir’s blood, alone in all the nine realms.

“Are we the last?” Bergelmir’s wife asked as they drifted through the strange, red-tinged darkness.

“Perhaps,” Bergelmir replied, holding her close. “But if we are, then we carry with us the hope of all who came before and the responsibility for all who might come after.”

When the flood finally receded and new land appeared, Bergelmir and his wife found themselves in a world transformed. The familiar landmarks of their old home were gone, replaced by the new geography that the gods had shaped from Ymir’s body. Mountains rose where valleys had been, and seas stretched where dry land had once stood.

But they were not discouraged. Using the supplies they had saved, they began the work of rebuilding. They planted their precious seeds in the new soil and watched with joy as familiar plants began to grow in this strange new world. They built a new hall and began the slow process of creating a new life.

In time, Bergelmir and his wife had children, and their children had children, until a new generation of giants spread across the transformed world. These giants, descended from Bergelmir’s wisdom and his wife’s courage, were different from their ancestors – more thoughtful, more adaptable, and more aware of the delicate balance between creation and destruction.

Bergelmir lived to see his great-grandchildren playing in gardens that had grown from the seeds he had saved from the old world. He taught them the stories of what had come before, but also the importance of being ready for change and transformation.

“Remember,” he would tell the young giants, “the world is always changing, always becoming something new. The wise person is not the one who tries to stop change, but the one who prepares for it and finds ways to help the best of the old world survive into the new.”

The story of Bergelmir teaches us about the importance of wisdom, preparation, and the courage to face uncertainty. His tale reminds us that sometimes survival depends not on strength or size, but on the ability to see what others miss and the wisdom to prepare for possibilities that others refuse to consider.

Most importantly, Bergelmir’s story shows us that even in the face of overwhelming destruction, hope can survive if we are willing to preserve what is valuable and plant the seeds for a better future.