Audumbla

Audumbla is the primeval cow, formed from the melting rime at the dawn of creation. From her udder flow four rivers of milk that feed the first being, the frost giant Ymir. She herself feeds by licking the salty ice blocks, and as she licks, a man's hair emerges on the first day, his head on the second, and on the third the whole body of Buri, ancestor of the gods. Buri's grandsons are Odin, Vili, and Ve. The nourishing cow thus shapes the first god from the ice with her tongue, standing at the very source of both giant and divine lineages.