system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Norse Mythology] In the early days of the world, the first Norse god was frozen in a block of ice. After being licked by a giant magic cow, the ice melted and the first Norse god emerged into the world. How did that god end up in a block of ice?

I've never seen an explanation for this.  Where did he come from?  Why was he frozen in ice?
gpt
It's not literally ice.  Ginnungagap is the primordial void.  Cold things come out of Niflheim, towards the north.  Hot things come from Muspellheim, towards the south.  The situation in the middle is very much *like* a glacier's edge.  Ice cracks and heaves, there's a lot of water, and potentially there's new life.  Recall that Ymir, the first and greatest giant, had his blood made into the sea.  The sea is made of water.  Ymir's blood was water, and yet, it powered the giant.  So it was more than water, and so was the rest of this place: more than ice, more than rime, more than sparks and hot winds and simple cows.

Buri came from the ice, but so did Audambla (sp) the cow.  The ice was more than ice: it was primordial fluid, and in it was the capacity to create every sort of life we see today.  When the cow sprang forth, it licked the ice, and the ice was shaped into a god.  The god was the ice, the ice became the god.  Buri was made from it, just like the cow was, just like Ymir was.  He never "ended up" in a block of ice.  He started off as one.