first human couple in Norse mythology
Ask and Embla
Ask and Embla are, in Norse mythology, the first man and the first woman, created by the gods from two trees. Their story explains the origin of all humankind, which tradition holds descends from them.
The myth
According to the two Eddas, the medieval Norse texts, the gods found Ask and Embla on the seashore, barely capable of anything. In the Poetic Edda, Hœnir, Lóðurr and Odin gave them three gifts, whose meaning scholars still debate. In the Prose Edda, the three brothers Vili, Vé and Odin carve the first couple from wood taken from two trees: one gave them the breath of life, another movement and wit, and the third shape, speech, hearing and sight. The gods also gave them clothing and names, and settled them in Midgard, where they became the ancestors of all people.
The name Ask means "ash tree", while the origin of Embla is uncertain: "elm" and "vine" are proposed, and some linguists connect it with fire.
Legacy
They appear in Stig Blomberg's 1948 sculpture in Sölvesborg, Sweden, and on two of Dagfin Werenskiold's wooden panels in Oslo City Hall. They also inspired the poem "Ask to Embla" in A. S. Byatt's novel Possession, and the main story of the mobile game Fire Emblem Heroes.
Ancient sources: The Poetic Edda, in stanza 17 of the Völuspá, and Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, chapter 9.