It's something I've been thinking about for many years now and I figured I might as well ask, as there seems to be an exceptional Norse mythology braintrust on this site.
By "obvious" parallels, I am referring to a giant with a bovine companion the color of glacial ice.
In a sense - but while Bunyan and Babe actively change the landscape, Ymir is chopped up by others (Odin & Co) to make the world. Both Bunyan and Ymir are associated with cold - PB with the "blue winter" in North Dakota, while Ymir was the first frost-giant. (Prose Edda 18)
