The next step on our path of Understanding is perhaps an abstract, and yet important, idea behind the way the Erulians thought about the world around them. And that is elemental forces, the power of the natural world. This idea is presented in the book Runelore: A Handbook of Esoteric Runology by Edred Thorsson. Here I will take an exert from this book.

The subject of elements in the runic context has been one of the most hotly pursued areas of speculation and innr work among those dedicated to the Odhinic path. This in large measure is due to the prominent role played by the four elements of air, fire, water, and earth in the Hermetic/Neo-Platonic school of occult philosophy to which the runic is often compared, or out of which it is loosened itself in more recent times. These Neo-Platonic elements may very well derive from some formalization of Indo-European patterns, and these may indeed have been shared by the Germanic peoples. The elements are essentially basic classes of substances occurring in nature that evoke certain subjective psychic responses when meditated on. They are classificatory tools for the psychophysical complex. As such, it seems most beneficial to explore the runic ideology to extract from it directly, through runic investigation (a combination of lore learning and “wizardry”), the nature of the mysteries of runic elements. Here a note must be interjected: although what follows is based on traditional sources, it is not intended as a dogmatic rule. Other interpretations may be possible. It is hoped that this work will open some doors and at least broaden somewhat those doors that have long stood wide.

The elemental forces are hidden right beneath our noses within the Edda’s of Norse culture. If we take a look at the FIRST MYTH presented by Snorri Sturluson offers us insight.

Burning Ice, biting flame; that is how life began. In the south is a realm called Muspell. That region flickers with dancing flames and sparks. It seethes and shines and the slag flows like rivers. …
In the north is a realm called Nifelheim. It is packed with ice and covered with vast sweeps of snow. …
Between these realms there once stretched a huge and seeming emptiness; this was Ginnungagap. The rivers that sprang from Hvergelmir streamed into the void. The yeast and venom in them thickened and congealed like slag, and the rivers turned into ice. …
So it went on until all the northern part of Ginnungagap was heavy with layers of ice and hoar frost, a desolate place haunted by gusts and skuthers of wind. …
As more of the ice in Ginnungagap melted, the fluid took the form of a cow. She was called Audumla. Ymir fed off the four rivers of milk that coursed from her teats, and Audumla fed off the ice itself. She licked the salty blocks and by the evening of the first day a man’s hair had come out of the ice. …

The elements given to us are a bit more broader and come about in a different fashion then most Hermetic/Neo-Platonic cultures. We first have the polarized elements of Fire and Ice, Water and Wind. Further elemental building blocks are then described as Iron (slag), Yeast, Venom, and Salt. All of these elements eventually combine into creating the final and ninth element, Earth.