This was the first recipe I started working on as a Bríd’s Cross trial, so it seems fitting that it is named after an origin story.

Soon after the world was created Odin and two of his brothers were walking along the coastline. They found two tree trunks, one from an ash tree and the other an elm.

The three brothers first shaped these trunks into the forms of a man and a woman. Then Odin blew the breath of life into them and created the first people. They were named Ask and Embla, after the trees they were created from.

Ask and Embla were then given Midgard, the world of human civilization, for their dwelling-place. They became the father and mother of the entire human species.

Clearly this is a Norse tale, but I am sure that it would have been brought to these shores by Viking settlers. My home county of Suffolk was part of the Danelaw and I have been fascinated by the tales of the Norse gods since I was a child.