The First War

"The gods themselves fought the first war that ever was."

-Poul Anderson, War Of The Gods (New York, 1999).

This statement refers to the war between Aesir and Vanir and is false. The Aesir had originally fought the giants, killed the first giant, Ymir, and made Midgard from his body.

Let's sort sources. Poul Anderson's Hrolf Kraki's Saga was published in 1973 but I did not read it till some time later. His War Of The Gods was published in 1977. Obviously, some of us knew of Norse mythology before reading of it in Anderson's works. I had read Roger Lancelyn Green's Myths Of The Norsemen, later re-entitled The Saga Of Asgard, in the 1960s and then was disappointed with the Marvel Comics Thor. Neil Gaiman tells us in the Introduction to his Norse Mythology that he read the Marvel Thor, then Lancelyn Green.

Since Lancelyn Green's book was published in 1960, it cannot be the Myths Of The Norsemen that CS Lewis mentioned in Surprised By Joy, published in 1955 and describing his earlier life. That work must have been Myths Of The Norsemen by H. A. Guerber which describes the war between Aesir and giants thus:

When these giants became aware of the existence of the god Buri, and of his son Börr (born), whom he had immediately produced, they began waging war against them, for as the gods and giants represented the opposite forces of good and evil, there was no hope of their living together in peace. The struggle continued evidently for ages, neither party gaining a decided advantage, until Börr married the giantess Bestla, daughter of Bolthorn (the thorn of evil), who bore him three powerful sons, Odin (spirit), Vili (will), and Ve (holy). These three sons immediately joined their father in his struggle against the hostile frost-giants, and finally succeeded in slaying their deadliest foe, the great Ymir. As he sank down lifeless the blood gushed from his wounds in such floods that it produced a great deluge, in which all his race perished, with the exception of Bergelmir, who escaped in a boat and went with his wife to the confines of the world.

-copied from here.

Later: The Aesir-Vanir War is described as the first in the world (see here) whereas the war between Aesir and giants was before the world.