Ask and Embla (ash and elm) In Norse mythology, the first man and woman. Odin, Vili, and Ve (or as a variant account lists them, Odin, Hoenir, and Lodehur) were walking along a beach when they found “two stems of wood,
out of which they shaped a man and woman,” according to the account in the Prose Edda.
Odin infused them with life and spirit; Vili, with reason and the power of motion; and Ve, with speech and features, hearing and vision.
In another version the dwarfs make human forms of earth, but the gods endow them with life: one gives spirit and life, the second mind and movement, the third appearance, speech, hearing, and vision. From Ask and Embla descended the whole human race. Ask and Embla (the latter also spelled Emla or Emola) appear in the Poetic Edda
SOURCE:
Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, Third Edition – Written by Anthony S. Mercatante & James R. Dow-Copyright © 2009 by Anthony S. Mercatante