(1) The earthly matter of which the body is formed. (2) A formative vegetative force. (3) and (4) Loder's gifts. (5) Honer's gifts. (6) Odin's gifts.
fundu á landi found on the land litt megandi with little power, Ask ok Embla Ask and Embla orlauglausa. without destiny. Aund thau ne átto, Spirit they had not, óth thau ne haufdo, "ódr" they had not, la ne læti, neither "lá" nor "læti," ne lito goda. nor the form of the gods.
Aund gaf Odin, Spirit gave Odin, oth gaf Henir, "ódr" gave Honer, la gaf Lodur "lá" gave Loder ok lito goda. and the form of the gods.
The two lowest factors, the earthly material and the vegetative force, were already united in Ask and Embla when the three gods found them "growing as trees." These elements were able to unite themselves simply by the course of nature without any divine interference. When the sun for the first time shone from the south on "the stones of the hall," the vegetative force united with the matter of the primeval giant Ymer, who was filled with the seed of life from Audhumbla's milk, and then the "ground was overgrown with green herbs."
Thus man was not created directly from the crude earthly matter, but had already been organised and formed when the gods came and from the trees made persons with blood, motion, and spiritual qualities. The vegetative force must not be conceived in accordance with modern ideas, as an activity separated from the matter by abstraction and at the same time inseparably joined with it, but as an _active matter_ joined with the earthly matter.
Loder's first gift _lá_ with _læti_ makes Ask and Embla animal beings. Egilsson's view that _lá_ means blood is confirmed by the connection in which we find the word used. The _læti_ united with _lá_ (compare the related Swedish word "_later_," manners) means the way in which a conscious being moves and acts. The blood and the power of a motion which is voluntary were to the Teutons, as to all other people, the marks distinguishing animal from vegetable life. And thus we are already within the domain of psychical elements. The inherited features, growth, gait, and pose, which were observed as forming race- and family-types, were regarded as having the blood as _efni_ and as being concealed therein. The blood which produced the family-type also produced the family-tie, even though it was not acquired by the natural process of generation. A person not at all related to the family of another man could become his _blódi_, his blood-kinsman, if they resolved _at blanda blódi saman_. They thereby entered into the same relations to each other as if they had the same mother and father.