Ymir, Bergelmir and the flood of blood

The Norse creation story behind a moon’s name.

Published 2026-10-23

Saturn’s retrograde moons are named mostly after giants from Norse myth.^[4]

Ymir

Ymir is the ancestor of all jötnar (giants), attested in the Poetic Edda and Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda.^[5]

The killing

The gods Odin, Vili and Vé fashioned the Earth from Ymir’s flesh and the oceans from his blood.^[5]

The survivor

Bergelmir, Ymir’s grandson, and his wife alone survived the deluge of blood from Ymir’s wounds, and became the progenitors of a new race of giants.^[1]

A moon too

Saturn also has a retrograde moon named Ymir, one of the first of these moons found after Phoebe.^[4]

Numbered citations link to the sources list on the Bergelmir overview page.