The primordial cow that nourishes Ymir with her milk and licks the progenitor Búri forth from the salt-stone.
Auðhumla is the primordial cow that arose in the void Ginnungagap during the early phase of the creation process. She nourishes the primordial giant Ymir with her milk and herself sustains herself by licking salty rime-stone blocks. From this licking, Búri, the progenitor of the Æsir, gradually emerges. The account is found in Gylfaginning 6-7.
Auðhumla is one of the oldest and most fundamental beings in the Old Norse cosmogonic system. Her name is generally interpreted as 'rich and hornless' or 'the abundantly fertile one'. Despite her crucial role in the creation narrative, she hardly appears in poetic sources; she is largely attested exclusively in Snorri's prose.
Sources in the Eddas
- Gylfaginning 6-7
- Snorri describes Auðhumla and her role in the creation narrative. Own translation.
Interpretive traditions
A What we know
Auðhumla is the primordial cow nourishing Ymir and licking forth Búri, attested in Gylfaginning.
B What we think we know
The cow's cosmogonic role is compared with Indo-European creation myths where a primordial cow or progenitor emerges from a liquid environment.
C What we do not know
Auðhumla's absence from the Poetic Edda leads some scholars to consider her a Snorrian invention rather than an older tradition.