Welcome to Valheim. The Meadows is where everyone starts, and honestly it is a lovely place to learn. It is green, it is rolling, and almost nothing there is trying very hard to kill you. That makes it the perfect spot to get your head around building, cooking and fighting before you walk into somewhere that actually bites.
Here is what I would do with your first few hours.
What the Meadows is like
It is the safest biome in the game. You will run into a few boars, some necks down by the water and the odd greyling, and that is about it. You spawn near the sacrificial stones, which become your first respawn point, so get your bearings there before wandering off.
Rule one: always eat
This is the big one, and it is what kills most new players. Your health and stamina in Valheim come almost entirely from food, not from levelling up. With nothing in your belly you have about 25 health, which is nothing.
You have three food slots and you want all three full, all the time. Eat three different things, because eating the same thing three times does not stack. Early on I just keep 
Cooked deer meat, 
Grilled neck tail, 
Honey and a handful of 
Raspberries on rotation. I go into more detail in my guide to the best early game foods.
Rule two: get rested
Sit by a fire with a roof over your head and a bench nearby and you will pick up the Rested buff. It boosts your health regen, your stamina regen and your experience gain, and it lasts a good few minutes. Get Rested before every trip out. It is free and it makes everything easier.
What to gather here
Wood, from chopping trees. Watch the trunk when it falls, it rolls and it will absolutely flatten you.- Stone off the ground, and Flint down by the water. Flint gets you your first proper tools and weapons.
- Raspberries, Mushroom and Honey for food. (Blueberries come later, their bushes grow in the Black Forest.)
- Deer hide and Leather scraps from deer and boars, for your first armour.
- Dandelion for meads later on. (Its partner ingredient Thistle glows blue in the Black Forest at night.)
Your first hour, step by step
- Gather wood and stone, then craft a Hammer and a stone axe.
- Build a Workbench and put walls and a roof over it, otherwise it will not work.
- Head to the water for flint and make a Flint axe, a Flint spear and a Crude bow with some wood arrows.
- Build a small shelter with a Bed, a Campfire and your workbench. Leave a gap or a chimney for the smoke, because trapped smoke genuinely damages you.
- Eat constantly and pick up everything you walk past. You will need all of it.
- Craft every new recipe as it unlocks. Making one thing often unlocks the next.
Where to put your first base
Find a flat bit of Meadows near water, and reasonably close to the Black Forest without actually being on the border. The water matters because later you will be hauling ore back by boat, and ore cannot go through portals. Being near the Black Forest saves you a long walk once you start chasing copper. Do not build right on the edge though, greydwarfs wander over and will chew on your walls at night.
Use the 
Hoe to flatten the ground before you build. It makes everything sit properly.
Beating Eikthyr, the first boss
Eikthyr is a big stag with a lightning problem, and he is a gentle test of everything above. Kill deer until you get 2 
Deer trophy, hang them on his altar and he shows up.
He has no damage weakness, so use whatever you are comfortable with. A bow at range while you circle the big rocks is the easy way. If you would rather get stuck in, a 
Flint spear and a wooden shield to block works fine. Eat your three foods, get Rested, and it is usually over in a couple of minutes.
He drops 
Hard antler, which you turn into the pickaxe below. That is the whole point of this fight.
His power also cuts your stamina drain when you run and jump, which is lovely for getting around.
I wrote a fuller walkthrough in how to beat Eikthyr if you want the detail.
Mistakes I see people make
- Ignoring food and Rested, then wondering why everything hurts so much.
- Building with no smoke gap, then slowly choking in their own house.
- Standing under trees they are chopping.
- Running into the Black Forest before they have the pickaxe or any armour.
Where to go next
Once Eikthyr is down and you have that pickaxe, the Black Forest is next. That is copper, bronze, portals and a much less friendly boss. Take a look before you head in.
Happy building!
