Topic: Nordic - Eddic Mythology

[Prometheus]

Gerd was threatened with him as her possessor . 25 Helgi told
the monstrous Hrimgerd that she would be mistress of the giant
Lothen, who dwelt in Tholley , 1 Pine Island.’ This very wise
giant was yet worst of all dwellers in the wild . 26 Alvaldi was
father of Thjazi, Idi, and Gangr. He was rich in gold, and at
his death his sons agreed to take the gold each in the same num-
ber of mouthfuls so that all should share equally . 27

However monstrous the giants may be, they are anthro-
pomorphic. A few other beings called giants are theriomorphic,
e.g., the brood of Loki, himself called a giant and the son of a
giant. The giantess Angrboda bore to him the Fenris-wolf and
the Midgard-serpent, giant animals of a supernatural kind . 28
The wolves Hati and Skoll, who pursue the sun and moon, are
giants, offspring of the Fenris-wolf and a giantess . 29 The giant
Hrsesvelg, who causes the winds, is in eagle form and is called
1 the tawny eagle ’ who gnaws corpses at the Doom of the gods . 30
Giants also took animal form occasionally, and some of them had
animal names — Hyndla, 1 She-dog,’ Kott, ‘ Cat .’ 31

The Hill-giants were connected with hills and rocks. Sut-
tung and Gunnlod dwelt in rocks, and the rocks were called £ the
giants’ paths.’ Thrymheim, £ Home of clamour,’ where Thjazi
dwelt, was in the mountains. The giantess who accosted Bryn-
hild had her home in the rocks . 32 The titles Bergbui, Bergrisi,
Berg-daner point to hills as the giants’ dwelling, and some hills
were regarded as petrified giants, while some names of giants
suggest a connexion with stone. Hrungnir had a stone head and
heart, and a shield made of stone.

Frost-giants or Hrimthursar, are personifications of frost,
snow, and ice, or of the mountains covered with snow and ice.
As Ymir himself originated out of ice, so his descendants are the
Frost-giants, who appear at the Doom of the gods in a body, led
by Hrym . 33

Fire-giants are suggested by the dwellers in the Fire-world
who, led by Surt, come forth to fight the gods. Surt’s fire will
destroy the world ; meanwhile he sits at the frontier of Muspell,


28 o


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


the region of heat, to defend it, brandishing a flaming sword.
Icelandic folk-lore knows that in the Surtarhellir, a great lava-
cave, there once dwelt the giant Svart or Surt . 34 The giantess
Hyrokkin has a name which means 1 Fire-whirlwind.’ Logi in
Utgard is fire which consumes everything. ASgir’s servant was
Eldir, £ Fire-man,’ and other giants have names pointing to the
same element. Eruptions were thought to be caused by giants.

Some giants were connected with the wild forest regions.
Vitholf, £ Wolf of the wood,’ named in Hyndluljod , may be the
Vitolfus of Saxo, skilful in leechcraft, and living in the wilds.
Those who sought him with flattering words to cure them he
made worse, for he preferred threats to flattery. When the
soldiers of Eirik menaced his visitor Halfdan, Vitolfus led them
astray by a delusive mist. His name is from ON vipr (OHG
witu ), £ a wood,’ and he resembles the Wild Man of the Tirol
who aids by leechcraft only when he is threatened. He is akin
to the giant Vidolf in T hidriks-saga and to the Bavarian giant
Widolt, £ the Wood-lord .’ 35 The Ivithjar, £ Wood-giantesses,’
of whom Hyndla was one, and the giant Welderich, £ Lord of
the woods,’ belong to the same category. The Eddas speak of
an old forest called Iarnvith, £ Iron-wood,’ in which lived the
giantess who bore Fenrir’s monstrous brood. In that wood
dwelt troll-women called Iarnvithjur, £ Iron-wood women .’ 36
These giants of the woods resemble the shaggy Wood-spirits or
Schrats of German folk-lore. Such giants resented the cutting
down of timber in their domain, threatening the wood-cutter
with death if he persisted . 37

There were also giants of the waters, like Grendel in Beowulf ,
called eoten and thyrs , and his monstrous mother. Grendel
might be a personification of the storm-flood which devastates
the low-lying coasts of the North Sea. As Beowulf slew the
mother of Grendel in the mere, so Grettir, as is told in the
Grettis-saga , dived into a waterfall and entered a cave where
he slew a giant who dwelt there. Both incidents are variants of
a common theme . 38 Other giants associated with the waters are


GIANTS


281


JEgir and Ran. Akin to Ran is Hrimgerd who, with her
mother, lay in wait for ships, and is called £ corpse-hungry
giantess .’ 39

Possibly other elements of nature were typified in certain
giants.

A curious genealogy of giants shows how the forces of nature
were conceived of as giants, though the genealogy itself is of
comparatively late date. Fornjot, 1 the old giant,’ was pro-
genitor of the giants, the first dwellers in Norway. He was
father of Kari, the wind; of Hler, TEgir, or Hymir, the sea; and
of Logi, the fire. Kari had a son Iokul, c Icicle,’ whose son was
Snaer, 1 Snow.’ Snaer had four children — Snow-heap, Snow-
drift, Black Frost, and Fine Snow. Some of these are euhemer-
ized as kings in the Heimskringla and in Saxo, but the geneal-
ogy suggests an old myth of the cold north wind producing ice
and snow in their different forms . 40

Different theories have been advanced regarding the origin
of the giants. They have been regarded as an earlier and wilder
race of men, with stone weapons, opposed to the more cultured
race which uses the plough, as in stories where a giant’s daughter
carries home a ploughman and his plough and learns that he and
his kind will yet do the giants harm . 41 The wilder traits of
giants suggest a savage race, but the theory does not explain the
universal belief in giants nor the great stature ascribed to them.

They are also regarded as an older group of gods dispossessed
by newer deities and therefore hostile to them. This theory
might apply to some giants, e.g., Thrym and Hrungnir, who are
almost counterparts of Thor himself, but it cannot apply to all.
No trace of a cult of giants is found in tradition, in spite of at-
tempts to discover this . 42

Another theory is that of Schoning, who, taking the word
jo tun in its sense of ‘ devourer,’ considers that this group of
giants at least, the Jotuns, were originally corpse-devouring
demons of the Under-world, viz., Jotunheim, originally a realm
of the dead . 43


282


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


The giants may be looked upon as mainly personifications of
the wilder elements and phenomena of nature, as these might
be supposed to be arrayed against men and gods whose rule and
attributes were those of order and growth. Probably no one
theory accounts for the archaic belief in giants, but, if this one
does not fit all the facts, it has the merit of fitting many of them.
To this personification must be added the power of imagination,
creating those strange and monstrous forms, and giving them
such intense life and movement.

In folk-tradition giants were favourite subjects of story.
Boulders, rocks, even islands were said to have been dropped by
them as they were carrying them from one place to another. To
this corresponds Saxo’s theory of boulders on hill-tops and the
Eddie myth of the rocks formed from Hrungnir’s stone club . 44
Other stories tell of the huge print of a giant’s hand or fingers
on rocks which he had thrown . 45 Tradition also tells of rocks
or even stone circles which were once giants turned to stone,
sometimes because they opposed the preaching of Christian
saints, e.g., S. Olaf . 46 As in other parts of the world, so in
Scandinavia and Germany, the remains of archaic ages, old and
(to the folk) mysterious buildings or ruins, were ascribed to
giants, the wrisilic giwerc of the Heliand and the enta geweorc
of Beowulf and other Anglo-Saxon poetry, both phrases mean-
ing ‘giants’ work.’ Hence a giant is spoken of as a smipr ,
‘ artificer ’ in the wide sense, like him who rebuilt Asgard, not
merely ‘ a smith .’ 47 Even old weapons were sometimes said to
have been made by giants, as the phrase in Beowulf shows —
eold sweard eotenised 8 Older tradition made giants fight with
stone clubs and shields or with boulders flung at their enemies.

Apart from Eddie myths of giantesses, Snorri gives a prose
account and cites an old poem, the Grottasong y about two giant-
maidens, Fenja and Menja. Their story is mingled with ver-
sions of two wide-spread folk-tales, ‘ The Magic or Wishing
Mill ’ and ‘ How the Sea became Salt,’ and it is also linked to
the myth of Frodi and the golden age of peace. Frodi bought


GIANTS


283

the two maids, huge and strong, and set them to grind the mill
called Grotti, the stones of which were so large that no one
could turn them, though whatsoever one asked for would be
ground by this mill. Frodi bade the giantesses grind out gold,
and this they did along with peace and happiness. Frodi al-
lowed them no rest for longer than the time that the cuckoo was
silent or a song might be sung. So they sang the magic Grotta-
song and ground out a host against Frodi. The sea-king
Mysing (Hrolf Kraki) came and slew Frodi, ending the cele-
brated 1 Peace of Frodi.’ He took the mill and the giantesses,
and bade them grind out salt. They ground so much that the
ship on which they sailed sank, and from that day there has been
a whirlpool in that place in the sea where the water falls through
the hole in the mill-stone. So the sea became salt.

In the song Fenja and Menja tell their story. They, mighty
maidens who know the future, are in thrall to Frodi and must
grind. So they will sing of what they are doing, and, since Frodi
is so hard, they tell how unwise he was in buying them for their
strength, without enquiring about their kindred — Hrungnir,
Thjazi, Idi and Aurnir. These were brothers of Hill-giants,
and of them were the maidens born. The mill-stone would not
have come from the mountain, nor would Menja have been
grinding, had her origin been enquired about. For nine winters
the sisters had been playmates beneath the earth, moving huge
rocks from their places. They had rolled the stone over the
giants’ garth: the ground shook beneath them: they slung the
mighty stone till men took it. Then in Sweden they, as Val-
kyries, went to fight, caused wars, casting down and setting up
kings. For years this continued and many wars did they cause.
Now they are thralls, but they prophesy how they see fire and
hear war-tidings, and how a host is coming against Frodi. Their
song becomes a magic charm by which evils are ground out for
the king. So they ground in giant frenzy, until the stone was
broken, and Menja told Frodi that now they would cease from
grinding . 49


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


284

This poem is of the tenth century, and references to the story
occur in skaldic poetry. The whirlpool is in the Pentland Firth,
and traditions of the giant-maids still linger in the Orkneys.
The mill-stone (which is not broken in the prose version) came
to men through them, a stone which they had thrown, and pos-
sibly, as Boer suggests, they were identified with the mill-stones
which they turned, as giants often are with the nature elements
which they personify . 60 The appearance of giantesses as Val-
kyries is curious. In this myth, as in the story of Volund, super-
natural beings held in bondage are content to work for a time,
until their wild nature breaks out and causes disaster.


CHAPTER XXVIII


TROLLS

S NORRI often speaks of Thor’s having gone to the East to
slay trolls . 1 The word occurs once in the Poetic Edda>
one of Fenrir’s brood is said to be in the form of a troll . 2 The
word included giants, but also meant beings with magic power,
unearthly beings, and all kinds of monsters. The giant aspect
of the troll perhaps came first, then the more demoniac. The
word occurs in the Sagas in these different senses. Etnar saw a
troll-karl (a giant) sitting on the cliffs and dangling his feet in
the surf . 3 The Grettis-saga makes Grettir say that a rock-troll
attacked Skaggi, when he himself killed him ; and Thorkel’s
men exclaim: c Surely trolls did not take him in daylight .’ 4 A
troll-wife came to a house by night and ate all the food stupidly
left out. Then she tore and slit men asunder and threw them
into the fire . 5 Another troll-wife was overcome by Grettir and
killed, but men said that day dawned as they wrestled, so that
she burst when Grettir cut off her arm. Now she is a rock in
the likeness of a woman . 6 This agrees with popular traditions
of giants or trolls of the mountains turned to stone when sur-
prised by the sun or at the word of a saint. To many super-
natural creatures the sun is believed in many parts of the world
to be fatal. A giant slain by Grettir in a cave, as well as this
troll-wife, haunted a district troubled by trolls, and was himself
a troll . 7

Men could be possessed by trolls, like Thorlaf, who, how-
ever, became a Christian . 8 One person would devote another
to the trolls with the words: £ Trolls take thee and thy com-
pany! ’ This was a common Viking curse, and resembles Har-
bard’s final words to Thor: ‘ Get hence where every fiendish


286


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


being will have you! ’ Egil said to Hermund in the Bandaman-
na-saga : 1 Though it was prophesied that I should die of old age,
the better would I be content if the trolls took thee first! ’ 9
With the coming of Christianity trolls became more demoniac,
representing the supernatural powers of paganism. When Olaf
was introducing the Faith to Norway, trolls and other evil beings
tempted his men and himself. But by his prayers they were ex-
pelled from their haunts in the mountains. On the whole Olaf
Tryggvason and the later S. Olaf took the place of Thor as
enemy of trolls and giants. Sometimes, however, Olaf would
agree with a troll to build a church, as the gods agreed with the
giant to rebuild Asgard . 10

‘ Half-trolls ’ are spoken of in the Sagas. Grettir told how
one of these ruled a certain valley, the giant Thorir, who made
him his ?protege. Halmund’s song in the Grettis-saga speaks of
his fighting giants, rock-folk, and half-trolls . 11

Troll-women are mentioned in the Eddas , and these are
sometimes giantesses, but occasionally a troll-woman is a witch,
and one of these hailed Bragi by night in a forest. The word is
also used as the name of a Fylgja, like that one who met
Hedin . 12 This troll-woman rode a wolf bridled with snakes,
but giantesses (Hyndla, Hyrokkin) also rode such steeds, and
the skaldic term for a wolf was ‘ the grey horse of the
giantesses .’ 13

In later folk-tradition the word £ troll ’ was applied to less
evil beings, though in Iceland it still retains its older meaning,
and trolls there are more monstrous than elfin, though not lack-
ing elfin traits . 14 In Norway Troldfolk or Tusser may be as
large as men, and music is heard from their mountain-abodes,
to which they carry off mortal maidens . 15 Danish legend con-
nects its Troldfolk, who are akin to dwarfs, with the rebel
angels, who, when cast out of Heaven, fell into mounds and
barrows, or into the moors (these latter the Elverfolk). The
mounds contain treasure and may be seen raised on red pillars
on S. John’s Eve. These trolls are small, with big heads, and




PLATE XXXVI

Runic Monument with Troll-wife

Runic monument at Hunestad, Scania, Denmark,
tenth century. The figure is that of a troll-wife or
giantess riding on a wolf, bridled by a snake. See
p. 286.




TROLLS


287

are generally friendly to men, though old ballads tell of their
stealing maidens and of the seductive power of their women
over men. They can become invisible or transform themselves.
They prophesy, and confer prosperity, strength, and other gifts
on men. The stories told of them resemble those told elsewhere
of fairies and elfins . 16 They dislike the ringing of church bells
and any kind of noise, and this trait has suggested a reminis-
cence of the trolls’ dislike of the noisy Thor and his hammer . 17

The Swedish Dvarg (dwarf) is akin to the trolls or mountain-
dwellers, though these are sometimes of giant form. Little
trolls ride out with witches, or dance and feast under stones
raised on pillars on Christmas-night, and the troll-women entice
men into these when watching their dancing . 18

The trows of Orkney and Shetland recall the old Norse trolls,
the traditions about them being derived from Scandinavian
settlers, but much influenced by Scottish fairy beliefs. They
dwell in mounds, of great splendour within. They are small,
clad in green, and fond of dancing by night, but, if surprised by
sunrise, must remain above ground all day. On the whole, they
are malicious, and are given to abducting women and children . 19


CHAPTER XXIX


THE NIGHTMARE SPIRIT

S AVAGES regard nightmare as the oppression of a demon
or ghost, and the Incubus or demon lover was at first the
nightmare, but personified like the Greek Ephialtes and the
nightmare demons of most European lands. In ancient times
and in the Middle Ages some medical enquirers regarded night-
mare merely as a dream produced by congestion of blood-
vessels, hindrance to breathing, or some other physical cause . 1
The popular view was quite different, and the various names for
nightmare show this. Of these the German Mahr with its cog-
nates in Scandinavian speech, ON Mara, Danish Mare, our own
‘ nightmare , 1 and the French cauchemar , are examples. In
Upper Germany Mahr has been displaced by Alp, and the
words Trut, Trude, Schrettele, and others are also in use. The
Schrettele or Schrat is the medieval filosus , a shaggy spirit . 2

All of these were supposed to ride or press the sleeper, even
to cause death. But the sleeper’s feelings varied from great
pain or oppression to mild or even voluptuous sensations. He
might imagine himself attacked by an animal or a more or less
monstrous or shaggy being (e.g., Fauns, Satyrs), or by a male or
female person. All depended on his physical state, the position
of his body, the nature of his bed, the materials of his bed-
clothes, no less than upon his preconceived ideas aided by his
dream fancies. The Mahr might even be imagined as changing
into a straw, a piece of down, or vapour, if, on awaking, the
sleeper found himself grasping these or his room filled with
smoke . 3

The form of the Mahr varies — now a giant, now a dwarf ;
now deformed, now handsome or lovely. A beautiful elfin was

[Prometheus]

THE NIGHTMARE SPIRIT 289

sometimes supposed to enter a room by the key-hole or a knot-
hole, and, resuming larger proportions, to attack the sleeper.
If, knowing the Mahr to have entered or having taken precau-
tions to prevent its attack, he closed such means of egress, the
Mahr was found next morning as a beautiful nude woman. She
could be forced to promise never to return, or might beg to be
set free. 4 Often, however, the Mahr was in the form of an
animal. It was usually the soul of a person which had left its
body in order to torment a sleeper. A witch might cause her
soul to act as a Mahr, or it might be the soul of a woman secretly
in love with the victim. 5 Stories show that the sleeper, finding
the Mahr desirable, offered her love or married her. When a
Norse husband asked his nightmare wife how she had entered,
and she replied that she did not know, he showed her a knot-
hole through which, now becoming small, she vanished. This
corresponds to the broken conditions by which a man loses his
fairy or Swan-maiden wife, of whom the nightmare is the
equivalent. Or she might beg the husband to remove the plug
from the hole. This done, she vanished, but might return to
tend her children, like the fairy wife or dead mother in other
tales. A Swedish story tells how a girl, as a nightmare, tor-
mented a man who refused her love. When he placed a scythe
by his bed as a means of riddance, she cried that she would die,
and next morning she was found dead in bed. 6 The Mahr
might be a spectre from the region of the dead, and when ques-
tioned regarding herself or whence she came, she vanished.
When such a spectre was drawn back to earth by a former prom-
ise of marriage, there is a resemblance to the dead lover in the
henore ballad and its parallels ; and where the Mahr is a living
woman or her spirit sent forth by her, she resembles the witch
or fairy who uses a man as a steed and makes him hag-ridden.

Night is the usual time for the Mahr’s attack, but it might
occur to sleepers at noon, and then the Mahr is a form of the
Midday demon. 7

From old Icelandic literature the best example of an oppres-


290


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


sive nightmare spirit is recorded in the Heimskringla. Van-
land, Svegdir’s son, was king of Sweden, and abode one winter
with Snasr (Snow) the old, and married his daughter Drift. He
left her, but promised to return. She sent for Huld the witch
in order that she might draw Vanland by spells or slay him.
Vanland was sleeping, and cried that a Mara was treading him.
His men tried to help him. She went to his head and legs in
turn, breaking his legs and smothering him, so that he died . 8

That the belief in the Mara was seriously regarded is shown
by the ecclesiastical law which ordained that a woman, proved
guilty of acting as one and riding a man or his servants, must pay
a money fine. If she could not pay, she was outlawed . 9


CHAPTER XXX


WERWOLVES

W HILE transformation of themselves or others was a
property common to gods, spirits, giants, and human
magic-wielders, there was one form of it which, found all over
the world, developed into a belief which for centuries caused
terror and is not now extinct among savages and in backward re-
gions of Europe. This is the belief in lycanthropy, the power
which certain persons have of becoming wolves or, in some re-
gions, the fiercest animal there existing — bear, tiger, leopard,
hyena, etc. The basis of this superstition is the belief in trans-
formation, but its special form is due to mental aberration, per-
sons of diseased mind imagining that they were wolves and the
like, acting as such, and preying upon other human beings.
Without the belief in transformation this form of mental aberra-
tion could not have arisen. The belief in lycanthropy was ex-
ploited by interested persons — magicians and sorcerers. It
is one of the most deeply rooted of all superstitions and the
most wide-spread. We are concerned with it only as far as it
existed among the Norsemen and other members of the Teu-
tonic race . 1

People who could change their form by the soul’s entering
another body or by putting on, e.g., a feather-dress and so be-
coming a bird, were said in Norway to be eigi einhamir , £ not of
one form they were hamramr or hamhleyfa , £ changing form.’
The word for Werwolf (literally £ Man-wolf ’) in Norse was
Vargulf, a wolf worse than any other kind of wolf ( varg ,

£ wolf ’; ulfr , £ wolf ’). Save for one reference, the Eddas do
not speak of the Werwolf, but there are examples of it in the
Volsunga-saga.


292


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


A she-wolf came night after night and ate one of Volsung’s
sons, set in the stocks by their brother-in-law Siggeir. Their
sister Signy saved the last of the brothers, Sigmund. This wolf
was held to be Siggeir’s mother, who had thus changed her
form . 2

Signy’s son, Sinfjotli, and his uncle Sigmund, came to a house
in the forest where two men were asleep, spell-bound skin-
changers. Wolf-skins hung above them, and every tenth day
they came out of those skins. Sigmund and Sinfjotli put on the
skins, each now howling as wolves, but thinking as men. Each
went his way, agreeing that they should risk the attack of seven
men, but no more. If more attacked one of them, he must howl
for the other’s aid. On one occasion Sinfjotli slew eleven men
without seeking help. For this Sigmund bit him in the throat,
and then carried him home and healed his wound. They now
cast away the wolf-skins, devoting them to the trolls, and later
burned them . 3

The belief was mingled with and perhaps influenced by the
custom of wild warriors and outlaws, e.g., the berserks, wearing
wolf-skins or bear-skins over their armour or clothing them-
selves in these, while they were often victims of frenzy and acted
as if they were animals. As the person who had the power of
changing his form became preternaturally strong, so the berserks
in their fury were very powerful, and, as was said of two brothers
in the train of Earl Hakon of Norway, they £ were not of the
fashion of men when wroth, but mad like dogs and feared
neither fire nor steel .’ 4

The story from the V disun ga- saga is referred to in the Edda
when Godmund says to Sinfjotli: £ Thou hast eaten wolves’
meat . . . and often sucked wounds with cold mouth, and,
loathsome to all men, slunk into the dens of wild beasts .’ 5

Other examples are found in the Sagas. The Story of
Howard the Halt says of the dead Thormod that in life he was
thought to have more shapes than one, and men held him ill to
deal with . 6 The Egils-saga tells of Ulf, grandfather of Egil,


WERWOLVES


293

that at times he would be subject to attacks at night, during
which he changed his form. Hence he was called Kveldulf,
£ Evening Wolf.’ 7 In the Eyrbyggja-saga Thrand was ham-
ramr in his heathen days, but this fell off him at his baptism. 8
Other persons are said to have had this power of changing their
form, and a Norse gloss to the Bisclaverit of Marie de France
says that in earlier times many men took wolf-form and dwelt
in the forests. 9

The word hamramr does not always refer to wolf-form.
Thus Dubhthach and Storwolf were mighty skin-changers.
They quarrelled and were seen by a second-sighted man fight-
ing, one as a bull, the other as a bear. The bear was the stronger
of the two. Next day the valley where they had fought looked
as if an earthquake had occurred in it. Both men were worn
out and lay in bed. 10 In a wild tale from Hrolfs-saga kraka
Bjorn was transformed into a bear by his step-mother, who
shook a wolf-skin glove at him. He lived as a bear and killed
many of his father’s sheep, but by night he was a man. 11

Among the Anglo-Saxons the existence of the belief is proved
by the use of the word c Were-wulf ’ in the laws of Cnut, e.g.,
at the council of Winchester, 1018 a.d., where preachers were
told to guard their flocks from the fierce devouring Were-wulf,
i.e., Satan. Gervase of Tilbury speaks of the English name
‘ Were-wolf ’ and explains its meaning. He also says that at
changes of the moon in England men became wolves. 12

In Germany the belief is witnessed to by the OHG woljhetan ,
the equivalent of ON uljhedinn , and meaning one who puts on
a wolf-girdle or skin ( uljhamr ) in order to become a wolf. 13
The oldest literary testimony to the superstition is found in a
sermon of S. Boniface (eighth century), who speaks of the belief
of the Saxons in fctos lufos , obviously Werwolves. 14 Later evi-
dence is supplied in the Penitential of the 1 Corrector ’ which
speaks of the gift conferred by the Parcae of power to change
into wolf-form or any other shape at will. c Vulgar folly calls
this creature werewuljf ’ — the German name. The connexion


294


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


of this power with the German Parcae, equivalents of the Norns,
is curious, but points to popular tradition or to the belief that the
power was innate in certain men . 16

Modern collections of Scandinavian and German folk-tales
contain many Werwolf stories. In later medieval times the
superstition was closely connected with witchcraft, and theolo-
gians turned their attention to lycanthropy as a branch of sorcery.
The power of changing the form, or of deluding the eyes of
others so as to make them believe that such a change had taken
place, was ascribed to diabolic agency.

In Scandinavian and German belief the change was effected
by donning a wolf-skin or a girdle of human skin, or by throwing
these over another person. The girdle had sometimes magic
signs upon it, and was held in place by a buckle with seven
catches. When the buckle was broken off, the transformation
ceased. The man was a wolf or bear by night, or he assumed the
animal form for nine days, or even for three, seven, or nine
years, the eyes alone retaining a human appearance. He howled
and devoured like the actual animal.


CHAPTER XXXI


MAGIC


HE practices of divination, prophecy, and magic were com-


mon in the pagan North, but a distinction was drawn be-
tween lawful and unlawful magic. The deities wrought magic,
but this was reflected upon them from human practice.

Magic songs, spells, incantations — s-pjall, galdr , Ijodh —
were used to effect the magic act. These were also called runes
{run, OHG runa , AS run), though this word betokened magic
signs engraved on something and producing magic power. After
being engraved, they were coloured. Hence the verse in
Havamal:

‘ Runes thou shalt find, and fateful signs,

Most powerful signs, most mighty signs,

By the mighty poet (Odin) coloured, by the high gods made,

By the chief of the gods carved.’ 1

The colouring was made with blood, and this increased the
power of the runes.

The Norse word run was used in two senses. The primary
meaning was £ a mystery ’ or 1 mysterious knowledge.’ It also
signified a letter of the alphabet, such as was used before the
Roman letters came into use. The unlearned, who were the
majority, would regard letters as a mystery ; hence the word
run was applied to them. These runes had a magical signifi-
cance besides an alphabetic value, and apparently some magical
runes were not letters in the ordinary sense. In using them,
besides engraving them on some object, there was a necessary
ritual which gave power to them. This seems to be referred to
in Havamal , where, besides cutting, interpreting, and colouring



EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


296

them, there are mentioned invocation, offerings, and the right
method of slaughtering the victim . 2 The runes could not be
used unless one knew their meaning, and there was danger in an
ignorant use of them . 3

Runes were ascribed to the gods, and Havamal also tells how
Odin came into possession of them. He wrote them for the
gods, as Dainn for elves, Dvalin for dwarfs, and Alsvith for
giants. Another verse of Havamal shows that not only was
advice given to Loddfafnir in the hall of Odin, but that there
runes had been spoken and their meaning declared . 4

Each rune had a name which represented a particular object,
and, through this, good or evil magic was wrought. Hence to
produce the magical result, the magic power of each rune must
be known. Examples of imparting this knowledge are given
in the Edda. Thus Sigrdrifa taught runes to Sigurd — victory,
ale, birth, wave, branch, speech, and thought runes. Victory-
runes are to be written on the sword-hilt and other parts of the
sword, the name of Tyr (the name of the rune for the letter T)
being uttered twice. Ale-runes, by which the wife of another
will not betray a man’s trust, are to be written on the drinking-
horn and the back of the hand, the sign Naudr (the runic N)
being written on the nail. Birth-runes, to relieve a woman in
child-birth, are to be written on the palm of the hand and on the
joints, while the Disir are called on to help. Similar explana-
tions are given regarding the other runes. The poem then tells
how Odin stood on a hill with Brimir’s sword, his helmet on his
head: then Mimir’s head first spoke words of truth and wis-
dom. There follows a curious list of mythical and actual things
on which runes were commanded to be written — the shield of
the sun, the ear of Arvak, the hoof of Alsvith (steeds of the sun),
the wheel of the car of Hrungnir’s slayer, Sleipnir’s teeth, the
straps of a sledge, the paw of a bear, Bragi’s tongue, a wolf’s
claws, an eagle’s beak, bloody wings, the end of a bridge, the
reliever’s hand and the healer’s foot, glass, gold, amulets, in
wine and beer, on favourite seats, on Gungnir’s point, or Grani’s






























] IV ;




- * ' ' ; ' SH JU .. 3

.

'

. £- - . ... •„**


















PLATE XXXVII


Spear-head, Sword, and Bear’s Tooth

The spear-head is from Kowel in Volhynia, Russia,
and has runic markings.

The sword, of the La Tene period, has snakes en-
graved on its surface. See p. 216.

The bear’s tooth with a hole for a cord was used as
an amulet. From West Gotland. See pp. 296-97.






MAGIC


297

breast, on the nails of the Norns, and on the beak of the night-
owl . 5

Some of the actual objects on which runes in this list were to
be written resemble the miscellaneous things found in Scandi-
navian graves — bones of a weasel, teeth of a horse, claws,
vertebrae of a snake, etc . 6

The poem continues by saying that runes thus engraved were
scraped off and steeped in mead and cast far and wide. Some
are with the gods, some with the elves, some with the wise
Vanir, and some with men. There are beech-, birth-, and ale-
runes, and the excellent magic runes for him who knows them
rightly and reads them truly: they will benefit until the gods
perish . 7

Whether all the verses describing these runes are in a true
series or drawn together from various sources is not clear. The
account of the objects, mythical and actual, on which they are
written seems to belong to an old myth of the value of runes,
telling how they had been used. The scraping of the runes into
mead and casting them abroad, so that they are now with gods,
etc., is mythical, but it may be based on actual practice — drink-
ing mead into which runes had been scraped from wood or bone.
Havamal also speaks of runes being with gods, elves, dwarfs,
etc . 8

The enumeration of runes is preceded by a verse telling how
Sigrdrifa gave Sigurd a magic drink:

‘ I bring you beer, O tree of battle,

Mixed with strength and powerful fame;

In it are magic songs and healing strength,

Beneficent charms and love-runes.’ 9

As Sigrdrifa taught runes to Sigurd, so in Rigsthula Rig
taught them to the first jarl, and his son in turn learned to use
them — life-runes, everlasting runes; now he could shield war-
riors, dull the sword-blade, and calm the seas . 10

Odin carved and coloured runes before speaking with a dead


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


298

man on the gallows, and he touched Gerd with a piece of bark
on which spells (runes) were written, inducing frenzy in her.
Grimshild carved runes on the cup from which Gudrun drank
and by which he forgot Brynhild . 11 Runes were carved on a
cup to destroy a poisoned drink within it, as Egil cut them on the
cup which queen Gunnhild gave him. At once it broke. They
were also carved on the insulting-pole which he set up . 12 Saxo
tells how the giantess Hardgrep cut magic runes ( carmlna ) on
wood and placed them under a dead man’s tongue, making him
speak . 13

The list of magic songs ( Ijod ) in Havamal already cited in
Chapter IV shows the different purposes for which they were
used . 14 In Svipdagsmal the dead Groa chants charms at her
son’s request, while she stands at the opening of her barrow on a
stone. These charms will help him in his dangerous quest of
Menglod. The first is that which Ran taught to Rind. The
second will guard him by means of the bolts of Urd. The third
will make dangerous rivers fall away before him. The fourth
will deliver his foes into his hands. The fifth will burst all
fetters. The sixth will prevent wind and wave from harming
his boat. The seventh will protect him against deadly frost and
cold. The eighth will protect him from the curse of a dead
Christian woman — perhaps a pagan view of the potency of a
Christian’s curse. The ninth will give him words and wit in a
word contest with a giant . 15

These different lists in Sigrdrijumal y Havamal , and Svip-
dagsmal show several points of contact. All three have charms
which give power of speech and wit, such as Odin gave to his
favourites . 16 All three have charms to still tempests and to give
victory. Two have charms to break fetters and charms for heal-
ing. It is interesting to compare the fetter-breaking charm with
the similar magic of the Idisi in the Merseburg charm. The
power-giving spells of Odin in Havamal correspond to the
magic ascribed to him in the Ynglinga-saga y and the passage in
the Saga may be a paraphrase of the stanzas in the poem . 17


MAGIC


299

Cursing spells were used, and an example of these is found
in Atlamal where Vingi pronounces a conditional one on him-
self. He devotes himself to giants or to the gallows if he breaks
his oath . 18

Various names were used for magic. One of these, seidr,
which, according to the Ynglinga-saga , owed its origin to
Freyja, usually refers to harmful magic, though sometimes also
protective magic. Gullveig practised it and so also did Odin
according to Loki . 19 In using seidr a special seat was necessary,
and the magician held a staff. Magic songs were sung to effect
the result. The male magician was called seidhmadhr , the fe-
male seidhkona. Deadly results were ascribed to seidr — kill-
ing others, causing tempests, creating delusions. The seidh -
kona, while sitting on the seat, could send her soul out of her
body in another form, while her body remained on the seat. If
the soul was wounded or killed, the body of the witch showed
similar wounds or fell dead . 20 This, as well as other kinds of
magic, is regarded in the Sagas as a natural accomplishment of
the Finns or Lapps, and often a magician was one of these. But
it is improbable that all Norse magic came from Finland.

[Prometheus]

The Volva and Spakona, prophetess and spaewife, were
mainly soothsayers (like the German prophetesses mentioned
by Tacitus and Dio Cassius), practised in the art of divination,
though some of them used the most hurtful seidr. The Volva
travelled through the land with a retinue, especially during
the winter nights when spirits were abroad. She visited
one house after another, where she was well received, and
a meal put out for her . 21 In Orvar-Odds-saga Heidr
travelled with fifteen youths and fifteen maidens. The retinue
sang the magic songs by which the Volva fell into a trance and
learned the future. The power of the Volva was gained by
sitting out for several nights. By this sitting out, uti-seta , spirits
of the dead or other supernatural powers were conjured up and
gave revelations to the Volva . 22 Even when dead the Volva
could still supply hidden knowledge, when conjured up by the


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


300

proper spells. Odin called up a dead Volva to enquire of her
about Balder’s dreams, and possibly the utterance of the Volva
in V oluspa was made to Odin by a dead seeress.

The serial flight of witches and sorcerers to a nocturnal gather-
ing is found in widely separated regions. Only in the later
Middle Ages and under theological influence was it attributed to
direct diabolic agency. In pagan Scandinavia this flight was
practised by the Tunnrida, who sat on roofs or hedge-enclosures
of a homestead to destroy it, or rode and sported in the air,
usually after shape-shifting (tun, 1 a hedged place ’ or £ farm ’).
One of the charms described by Odin in Havamal was used to
discomfit these £ House-riders ’ :

‘ A tenth I know when House-riders
In flight sweep through the air;

I can so work that they wander
Bereft of their own form,

Unable to find their way home.’

The witch’s soul has left her body, assuming another form, and
in that, as a result of the charm, she must wander about . 23

Other Eddie names are Myrkrida and Kveldrida, £ Dark-
rider,’ £ Night-rider,’ both names referring to the riding about
at night. Odin used much seductive craft with Night-riders,
and in the Eyrbyggja-saga the following lines occur:

‘ There are many Dark-riders about,

And often a witch lurks under a fair skin.’

Geirrid said this to Gundlaug in order to keep him from going
home at night But he set out, and was found senseless, bruised,
and the flesh torn in lumps from his bones. Men thought that
Geirrid herself had ridden him. She was summoned to the
Moot as a Dark-rider and for causing Gundlaug’s trouble. But
on her oath that she was not responsible for this, the case was
quashed . 24

In Helgakvitha Hjorvardssonar Atli says to the monster
Hrimgerd:


MAGIC


301


‘ Atli am I, ill shall I be to thee,

Giant- women to me are hateful;

Often have I been in the dripping bows,

And slain the Night-riders.’ 25

A poem by Eilif calls Thor destroyer of konor kveldrunnar or
night-faring beings. 26 The MHG 2 eunriten corresponds to the
Tunnrida: other MHG names are nahtjara , nahtfrouwa , 1 night-
travelling women.’ 27

The witch-ride was performed on a gandr or £ staff ’ — the
gandreid. Witches, troll-women, and demoniac beings also rode
a wolf bridled with snakes, and the wolf was called £ the troll-
women’s steed,’ £ the dusky stallion on which the Night-rider
fareth.’ 28 The distinction between spirits or demons of a dan-
gerous kind and the night-faring witches is not clearly sustained.

Examples of the witch-ride and of nocturnal gatherings occur
in the later Sagas. Thus in the Thorsteins-saga (fourteenth
century), Thorstein overheard a youth call to his mother in her
burial-mound: 1 Mother, give me staff and gloves, for I am
going to gandreid? These were thrown out of the mound.
The youth put on the gloves, rode on the staff, and went off.
Thorstein now repeated the same formula, received gloves and
staff, and rode after the youth to a mountain where many people
sat drinking round a king and queen. Thorstein, whose staff
made him invisible, took a ring and a cloth, but at the same time
dropped the staff, and, becoming visible, had to ride off from the
throng on the youth’s staff. 29

In the Ketils-saga we learn how Ketil was awakened by a
great noise in a wood, and saw a troll-woman with hair waving
behind her. At his question she told him that she was going to
the troll-thing. To it the troll-king, Ofoti, Thorgerd Holga-
troll, and other mighty spirits were coming. 30 An earlier
glimpse of the witch-gathering is seen in the Salic Law of the
Franks (c. 600 a.d.), which condemns in a fine anyone who calls
another herburgium or £ cauldron-bearer ’ for the Striae or
witches. 31


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


302

Cattle which were troubled by a disease of the spine, causing
palsy, were supposed to be troll-ridden . 32 Witches also caused
disease in cattle and death. This was supposed to be done by an
invisible arrow, the hcegtessan gescot of an Anglo-Saxon charm
already cited . 33 They did harm to crops and caused tempests.
In the Gisla-saga Audbjorga went round a house widdershins,
sniffed to all the points of the compass, and drew in the air. The
weather changed and there came driving sleet, floods and snow,
which caused the death of twelve people . 34 To the witch was
also ascribed the power of blunting weapons and taking away a
warrior’s courage . 36

Icelandic and Norwegian laws condemn these different prac-
tices, including the use of runes and spells, and one of these laws
speaks of the troll-woman who, if proved guilty of riding a man
or his servants, was fined three marks . 36


CHAPTER XXXII


THE OTHER WORLD

I N this Chapter we consider the different views of Other
World existence entertained in the pagan North.

HEL

The Norse word Hel with its cognates — Gothic halja , OS
hellia , AS helle , OHG hella — denotes the general Under-
world of the dead, a primitive conception of the Teutonic peo-
ples. In Scandinavia alone is Hel also personified as ruler of
this Underworld, but it is not always easy to differentiate per-
son and place. Grimm thought that an early goddess of the
dead gave her name to the region of the dead, but the reverse is
more probably correct.

The abode of Hel is under one of the roots of Yggdrasil. Of
Fafnir, Sigurd said that now Hel would have him, and Hogni
said of the five sons of Butli that Hel has now the half. To
come to Hel’s seat is to die . 1 Hel has a dog, Garm, which
barked at Odin when he went to consult the dead Volva. His
breast is besprinkled with blood, and he howls loud before the
Doom of the gods. Hel has also a rust-red cock which crows
and awakens her dwellers . 2 Snorri tells how Hermod rode
down to Hel to seek Balder’s release from her. Her condition
could not be fulfilled because of Loki, who said: 1 Let Hel hold
what she has! ’ Hence Balder is called £ companion of Hel .’ 3
Hel was said to be one of Loki’s monstrous offspring, whom
Odin cast into Niflhel or Niflheim, giving her power over nine
worlds, to apportion their dwellings to all who were sent to her,
those who die of sickness or old age. She has a great abode.


304


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


Her hall is Sleet-cold; her servant Hunger; her maidservant
Tardy; her threshold Sinking to destruction; her bed Disease;
her bed-cover Unhappiness. She is half black and half flesh-
colour, and with down-hanging head she looks grim and fierce . 4
The personified Hel is somewhat monstrous, but Snorri, in this
account, may have borrowed traits from Christian visions of
Hell. Popular sayings, however, spoke of things £ black as
Hel/ and heljarsk'mn meant a complexion of a deathly hue . 5

The personified Hel in Saxo is called Persephone, who ap-
pears to Balder before his death, saying that soon she will em-
brace him. So king Frodi, when dying, heard voices calling him
£ home to Hel.’ A saying about the dead was: £ Hel will fold
thee in her arms.’ The curious Solarljod or £ Song of the Sun , 5
with its mixture of paganism and Christianity, speaks of the
maidens of Hel calling to them a man about to die . 6 The poem
of Beowulf may preserve a memory of the personified Hel. In
describing the death of Grendel, the poem says: £ There Hel
received him . 5 7

Hel as a place is deep down in the earth, enclosed, with one
or more gates. Within is the hall of Hel, £ a high house . 5 8
Near the entrance is Gnipahellir, £ Cliff-cave , 5 where Garm,
best of hounds, is set to guard . 9 Hel is sometimes called Niflhel,
which suggests a misty region ( nifl , £ mist , 5 £ darkness 5 ). But
the description of it in Baldrs Draumar and in Snorri’s account
of Hermod hardly bears this out. Balder sat on a high seat.
The hall had benches bright with rings and platforms decked
with gold. There the dead ate and drank mead . 10

The way to Hel is the Helveg, a troublesome road, though
the plural is also used, as if there were more than one. When
Hermod went to rescue Balder, he rode for nine nights through
deep and dark vales to the river Gjoll, crossed by the Gj oil-
bridge, thatched with gold. The maiden Modgud who guarded
it asked his name, and said that on the previous day five com-
panies of dead men rode over it, yet the bridge thundered no
less under him alone. Why was he, who had not the hue of dead


THE OTHER WORLD


305


men, riding on the Hel-way? Then, learning that he sought
Balder, she permitted him to ride on the Hel-way to the North . 11
When Brynhild, burned on a pyre, went in a wagon along Hel-
way, she passed the house of a giantess who would have stopped
her . 12 Those who descended to Hel for tidings of the dead were
said to perform the Hel-ride. The dead might traverse Hel-
way on horseback: hence the custom of burying or burning the
horse with its owner. Saxo tells how when Harald’s horse and
chariot were burned on his pyre by Ring, he prayed that Harald
might ride on this steed and reach Tartarus before those who
fell with him, and that Pluto, lord of Orcus, might grant a calm
abode to friend and foe . 13 Possibly Odin and Valhall, not Hel,
are here intended.

The Gj oil-bridge is perhaps ‘ the brig o’ dread, na brader
than a thread,’ which, in Yorkshire belief, the dead had to
cross . 14 The toilsome journey to Hel was aided by the equip-
ment buried with the dead, e.g., the Hel-skor (German Todten-
schuh), 1 Hel-shoe.’ The custom of providing shoes for the
dead existed in prehistoric Europe and continued as a general
custom. When Vestein was dressed for his barrow, Thorgrim
said to Gisli: 1 It is the custom to bind on Hel-skua for folk to
walk to Valhall, and I shall do this for Vestein.’ After putting
them on, he said : 1 I know nothing about binding on Hel-shoes
if these loosen .’ 15 The shoes are here for the journey to Val-
hall, but the old name is retained. In Yorkshire, where we may
see survivals of Teutonic custom, a pair of shoes given to a poor
man in life would cause the giver after death to meet an old man
who would present him with the same shoes at the edge of
Whinnymoor, a region full of thorns and furze, which other-
wise the spirit would have to traverse ‘ wi’ shoonless feet.’
This belief is illustrated by the Lyke-wake dirge, versions of
which are still known in the north of England . 16

Snorri limits Hel to the old and those who died a 1 straw
death,’ i.e., in bed. This is in keeping with the views which sent
warriors to Valhall, women to Freyja, maidens to Gefjun, and


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


306

the drowned to Ran. Behind these views is the more primitive
one that all, even warriors, go to the Underworld. The Eddie
and skaldic conception of Valhall was mainly a product of the
Viking age, and slain warriors were even yet said to go to Hel,
e.g., Balder, Hjalmgunnar, warriors mentioned in Atlamal,
Sigurd, and others. Thor threatened to smite Harbard and
Loki and send them to Hel. Egil, after slaying three men,
speaks of their faring to the high hall of Hel. Regin and Faf-
nir went to Hel, and Sigurd told Fafnir that a time comes when
everyone must fare to Hel, far a til Heljar. Though this phrase
may be used here and elsewhere in the conventional sense of
£ to die,’ still it points to what was once regarded as following
death . 17 The same conception is seen as late as the time of the
Saxon Widukind of Corvei, who says that gleemen declaimed
after a victory : 1 Where is there an infernum so large as to hold
such a multitude of the fallen? ’ Infernum stands here for the
Saxon hellia , 18 So also in Saxo’s story of Hadding’s visit to the
Underworld, which has much in common with Norse concep-
tions, warriors are found there . 19

Conversely even some of those who did not die in battle went
to Odin in Valhall, e.g., king Vanland, killed by a Mara, and
king Halfdan, who died in bed. These are said to have gone
to Odin, though Halfdan was bidden to go to him by Loki’s
daughter, i.e., Hel . 20


THE DEAD IN THEIR BARROWS

With the early conception of Hel as the general home of the
dead, stands the equally early, if not earlier, conception of the
dead living on in their barrows or burial-mounds, as well as that
of their being within hills. The barrow or group of barrows was
in itself a small Underworld. In primitive thought this passed
over to the conception of a hollow region under the earth or in
the hill where the barrows were set, while yet the grave or bar-
row was thought to be the dead man’s abode. Hel, the hollow



PLATE XXXVIII


Entrance to a Giant’s Chamber

This double Giant’s Chamber or Jasttestue is on the
Island of Moen in the Baltic. It is a large chambered
barrow or tumulus of the Stone Age, with a double
entrance and double interior chamber.




THE OTHER WORLD


307

place, was thus an extension of the barrow where the dead
feasted, occupied themselves with the welfare of their kindred,
and where their presence in these barrows was a blessing to the
neighbourhood . 21

The dead were said ‘ to die into the hill,’ and this belief with
its corollary that they still lived in grave, barrow, or hill is de-
cidedly primitive. Dead Norsemen were vigorously alive in
their barrows. The Eyrbyggja-saga tells how Thorstein’s
shepherd saw the hill on the north side of Helga-fell open.
Fires blazed in it: the clatter of ale-horns was heard. Words of
welcome were spoken to Thorstein and his companions, who had
just been drowned at sea, and those already in the hill said that
he would sit in the high seat with his father . 22 A good example
of the dead alive in their barrow is found in Helgi Hundings-
bana , though it is combined with the Valhall conception. A hill
was raised for Helgi and he went to Valhall. But at night one
of Sigrun’s maidens saw him ride with many men to the hill.
She told this to Sigrun who went to see him and rejoiced at the
reunion. Sigrun kissed him. His hair was covered with frost,
his body damp with the dew of death. Helgi told her that her
tears caused this dew, each tear falling like blood on his breast.
Sorrow will now be forgotten. ‘ Now in the mound our brides
we hold, the heroes’ wives by their dead husbands ’ — as if his
followers were also visited by their living wives. Sigrun made
ready a bed and said : c I will make thee rest in my arms as once I
did when you lived.’ So they rested until Helgi had to ride back
to Valhall ere the cock woke the warrior throng there . 23 Two
beliefs are illustrated in this episode, besides that of the dead
living in their barrow, viz., that excessive tears of mourners
harm the dead, and that the dead can rejoin the living for a
time — both wide-spread conceptions.

Stories in the Sagas show that the forgotten dead in ancient
barrows would reveal themselves to the living; that the dead
resented any desecration of their barrows, and that they would
make known to the living any annoyance caused them, e.g., by a


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


308

thrall buried beside them . 24 The Hervarar-saga tells how
Angantyr was buried with the famous sword Tyrfing, his eleven
brothers being buried in as many mounds beside his own. His
daughter Hervor, who had taken to Viking ways, visited the bar-
rows in order to obtain the sword. She rode through the fire
which burned around them, and by incantations forced her
father to speak. In spite of his trying to send her away and
telling her that the sword, lying beneath him surrounded by
fire, would bring destruction with it, she still persisted, and now
it came forth from the barrow of itself . 25 Another story de-
scribes a visit paid by Thorstan to a barrow at the invitation of
a dead man. In it were this man, Bryniar, and eleven men, be-
sides other eleven, companions of Ord. Bryniar and his men
had to give treasure to Ord, but their store was running short.
Thorstan, when asked by Ord for a gift, held out his axe, and
when Ord would have taken it, he cut off his arm. A general
fight between the two groups of the dead now began. Ord and
his men were slain, and Bryniar gave Thorstan Ord’s ring
which, laid beneath a dumb person’s tongue, would make him
speak. He also told Thorstan that he would change his faith,
which they, the barrow-folk, could not do, for they were earth-
dwellers or ghosts . 26 The Njals-saga tells how Gunnar’s bar-
row was seen open with lights burning in it, and how he recited
lines in an audible voice. His face was joyous. Yet immedi-
ately after, his son Hogni, who had witnessed this, speaks of
Gunnar’s going to Valhall . 27

The barrow-dweller, the haug-bui or £ barrow-wight,’ was
sometimes troublesome to the living, as many stories in the
Sagas show. Grettir saw a fire in the barrow of Karr who
haunted the region near. He broke open the barrow and was
removing its treasure, when Karr attacked him. After a
struggle Grettir cut off Karr’s head and placed it at his thigh —
a recognized way of laying such substantial ghosts . 28 Another
story in the Grettis-saga relates to the godless Glam who was
slain by a spirit, and now began to haunt the farm on which he


THE OTHER WORLD


309


had been a shepherd, riding on the roofs and nearly breaking
them in. The hauntings continued for two winters. People
who saw Glam went mad; others were killed; cattle were de-
stroyed; farms were burned. After a terrific fight Grettir slew
Glam, cutting off his head and placing it at his thigh. The body
was then burned and the ashes buried deep . 29

[Prometheus]

In other stories such substantial ghosts do immense harm, and
even after their bodies have been burned, their vitality continues
through the ashes. Thus a cow licked a stone on which the ashes
of the vicious ghost of Thorolf had lain, and its calf continued
the harm done by the ghost. Sometimes holy water and the
saying of Mass, as well as a doom pronounced against the tor-
menting dead, were necessary before their hauntings ceased.
While the 1 ghost ’ haunted, its body was undecayed. These
animated corpses, for they can hardly be called ghosts, resemble
vampires, for the quelling of which similar rites of riddance
were observed — cutting off the head, impaling, burning, and
scattering the ashes . 30 Many stories describe fights with the
barrow-wight by a hero bold enough to invade the barrow and
try to remove the treasure contained in it. Saxo gives such a
story. Asmund and Asvitus had promised to die with each
other. Asvitus died first and Asmund was buried alive with
him. Soon after, the barrow was broken open, and Asmund
came forth, ghastly and bleeding, for Asvitus had eaten his
horse and dog and then attacked his friend, who, however, had
been able to cut off his head and impale his body with a stake . 31

All the dead did not act in these ways. They were helpful
and interested in their descendants, and would appear to give
information on different matters. Hence some cult was paid to
the dead at their barrows or at the natural hillocks into which
they were supposed to have died. The greater or more beloved
they were, so much the more reverence was shown them. Jor-
danes says of the Goths that they regarded dead chiefs as ansis
or semi-deos. Adam of Bremen speaks of the cult of dead men
who had performed mighty deeds, and cites the Vita S. Anskarii


3io


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


which shows how the Swedes had neglected the gods through the
coming of Christianity. Through a certain man they com-
plained of this and said that if the Swedes desired more gods,
they might worship their former king Eirik, who would now
become one of the gods. A temple was therefore erected in his
honour, and sacrifices offered to him. The Indiculus Sufersti-
tionum shows that the dead were regarded as holy and wor-
shipful . 32 The Sagas give several examples of the worship of
popular or great persons when dead, and of the sacrifices paid
to them . 33 The euhemerized accounts of the gods also show
how they, as supposed mortals, were deified and worshipped
after their deaths.

In Iceland, hillocks or hills were believed to be abodes of the
dead, especially one near the family dwelling, on which we may
suppose the barrows to have been made . 34 The family barrow
or barrows were usually beside the dwelling. The living be-
lieved that they would £ die into the hill.’ One of the early
settlers in Iceland, Thorolf, in reverence for the hill on the
ness to which his high-seat pillars had floated, and which was
near his homestead, called it Helga-fell , 1 Holy fell.’ He would
allow no one to pray to it unwashed ; it must not be defiled ; and
no living thing could be destroyed on it or brought from it to
die. Things and Dooms were held on it, and Thorolf believed
that he would die into it. On one occasion, as we have seen, it
was found open and the dead were present in it. Another ex-
ample is that of the place where the lady Aud was buried, one
of several hillocks on which she had raised crosses. Her kins-
men, falling into heathenism, made it a place of worship and
sacrifice, and believed that they died into these hills. Ari, the
earliest chronicler, says that Selthorir and his kinsmen died into
Thori’s hill . 35

The 1 memory-toast ’ was one drunk to kinsmen in their bar-
rows . 36 The erf or erfiol was a feast in honour of the dead, e.g.,
the head of a house, at which many guests were present and
much ale drunk in memory and honour of the departed. The



PLATE XXXIX


Bronze Age Barrow or Tumulus

Tumulus of the later Bronze Age at Refsnaes, See-
land, made of stones covered with earth. It contains
urns with stone cists.




THE OTHER WORLD


3i i

heir then occupied the high-seat for the first time . 37 These
funeral feasts for the dead are also described by Saxo . 38 The
sacrifices at Aud’s hill were for her benefit, and the dead were
said to be present even visibly at their own funeral feasts . 39

Evidence of this cult of the dead is seen in the denunciations
of the Church through canons of Synods and Councils in the
Teutonic area, as elsewhere . 40

The dead were also enquired of at their mounds regarding
the future, as Odin did regarding Balder, and Svipdag of his
mother Groa . 41 In Harbardsljod Harbard says that he had
learned the words spoken to Thor from the old men who dwell
in 1 the grave-hills of home,’ i.e., ancestral grave-hills. Thor
replies that he is giving a fine name to cairns when he describes
them thus. Cairns, as distinct from barrows, were piled over
criminals. What Harbard had learned had been communicated
by wicked spirits . 42 A shepherd slept on a mound in hope of
composing a dirge in honour of its occupant Thorleif, but could
get no further than £ Here lies a skald.’ One night the mound
opened, and a stately man emerged, who told the shepherd that
if he could remember a poem of eight lines which he would
recite to him, he would become a poet. On awaking, he recalled
the lines and became a famous skald . 43 Saxo tells how the
giantess Hardgrep, desiring to know the future, made Hadding
place a wooden slip engraved with runes beneath a dead man’s
tongue. He then uttered a prophecy . 44 Odin knew a spell
which would make a hanged man talk, perhaps the valgaldr by
which he awakened the dead seeress in Baldrs Draumard 5

There is no example in the Eddas of the dead appearing in
dreams to the living to warn them or to foretell the future. In
Atlamal dead women were seen in a dream by Glaumvor seeking
and calling her husband Gunnar to come quickly to their
benches. They were apparently his kinsfolk, desiring his pres-
ence in the Other World . 48 The belief that the dead communi-
cated with the living through dreams was a common one, and
Saxo gives an example of it. Hadding’s dead wife appeared to


312


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


him foretelling his death by his daughter’s instigation, and, now
forewarned, he was able to prevent this . 47

The dead ancestor was sometimes thought to dwell in a par-
ticular stone. In the Cristne-saga Codran and his kin are said
to have worshipped at a stone in which their ancestor dwelt.
He told Codran the future and of what he should beware. A
bishop sprinkled the stone with holy water, and the ancestor
complained to Codran that he and his children were being driven
from their home by hot water. After a second sprinkling he
appeared, dark and evil of face, beseeching Codran to drive away
the bishop. After a third sprinkling, his appearance was la-
mentable. Codran told him that he had worshipped him as a
strong god, but, as he had proved false and weak, he would now
become a Christian . 48 A stone at which Thorstan worshipped
and from which a voice was heard foretelling his death, was
probably also a spirit stone . 49

In spite of the power of the barrow-wight, men still sought
in burial-mounds for treasure, and curses against such persons
are known on grave-stones. With the coming of Chris-
tianity the barrow-wight became more or less demoniac, and
later stories of encounters of living and dead are of a darker
kind.

All this belief of the dead living in their graves, barrows, or
hills, or in stones, may seem to conflict with the belief in Hel,
still more with that in the heavenly Valhall. But all religions
and mythologies show how apparently contradictory beliefs can
be held concurrently.


VALHALL

The belief in Hel is as prominent as the Valhall belief in the
Poetic Edda. Snorri and the skalds give it more emphasis, and
it was a profound future hope to warriors in the Viking age,
giving them courage in conflict and confidence that, if slain, Odin
would receive them.


THE OTHER WORLD


3i3


Valhall, £ Hall of the slain,’ £ Hropt’s (Odin’s) battle-hall,’
stands gold-bright and wide in Gladsheim, ‘Abode of joy,’ a
heavenly place. It is Odin’s favourite abode. Spears are its
rafters, shields its roof, its benches are strewn with corslets. A
wolf hangs by its western door, over it hovers an eagle (perhaps
carved figures above the door). The cook Andhrimnir cooks
the boar Ssehrimnir in the cauldron Eldhrimnir, as food for
dead warriors, though few know on what they feast. Odin’s
wolves sit beside him. The river Thund surrounds Valhall and
in it joyously swims £ Thjodvitnir’s fish,’ the sun. The fallen
find it hard to wade through this stream. Valgrind is the outer
gate of Valhall, and behind it are five hundred and forty doors
in the wall. Through each door eight hundred warriors will go
to fight the Fenris-wolf at the Doom of the gods. There is
unfailing mead for the heroes, to whom the Valkyries bring it.
Each day the warriors or Einherjar go forth to fight, felling
each other, but they are magically healed by nightfall, when
they feast. They are waked each morning by the cock Gollin-
kambi, £ Gold-comb.’ 50

Some of these details from Grimnismal and V aft hrudnismal
require explanation. The river Thund may be the sky in which
the sun, the fish to be swallowed by the mighty wolf (Thjod-
vitnir), runs its course, or perhaps it is the ocean surrounding
Midgard, in which is the Midgard-serpent. The three names,
Andhrimnir, £ Sooty-face,’ Eldhrimnir, £ Sooty-with-fire,’ and
Saehrimnir, £ the Blackened,’ are believed by R. M. Meyer to
be formula; of a riddle: — £ Sooty-face seethes the Blackened in
Sooty-with-fire 5 ’ the answer being £ the cook in Valhall seethes
the boar in a cauldron.’ 51

Snorri repeats this description of Valhall, with additions. The
host of Einherjar in Valhall will not be too great in the day of
the gods’ need. The boar’s flesh suffices for all, and though
killed and eaten, he is alive again each evening. Something
better than water is given to the warriors who have bought their
place in Valhall so dearly. From the udders of the goat Heid-


3H


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


run flows mead enough to fill a tun daily, and all the Einherjar
could become drunk from it. When Gylfi (Gangleri) arrived
in Asgard, he saw a hall with many people, gaming, drinking,
or fighting. This was evidently Valhall. Snorri also says that
in Valhall swords were used instead of fire, just as gold gave
light in /Egir’s hall . 52 Odin appoints dead warriors to Valhall
and Vingolf (not mentioned in the poems). Elsewhere in
Snorri Vingolf is the abode of goddesses, close by Gladsheim.
Warriors may have shared in this abode of goddesses, for
Freyja is said to decree who shall have seats in her hall Sessrum-
nir in Folkvang. She chooses half of the dead, Odin the other.
Sessrumnir may be the equivalent of Vingolf, the meaning
of which is variously given as £ Friend-hall,’ £ Wine-hall,’
and £ Hall of the beloved,’ where Valkyries serve the war-
riors . 53 In the Lexicon Mythologicum the dying Hadding’s
words are given. He speaks of the Valkyries coming to him
and says that he will go to Vingolf and drink beer with the
Einherjar . 54

The Einherjar were outstanding warriors, fallen in fight, and
chosen for Valhall by the Valkyries. They were Odin’s osk-
synir , £ wish-sons ’ or £ adopted sons,’ and Odin himself was Val-
father, £ Father of the slain.’ They are assembled in Valhall
partly to aid the gods in their day of need, when they will ride
forth with them to battle, though it is not known when the grey
Wolf (the Fenris-wolf) will come, and many as they are, their
number will seem small enough in that time . 55 While it is true
that all warriors did not go to Valhall and some went there who
were not warriors, the view of the skalds was that it was exclu-
sively for brave and noble fighters, men of high birth, heroes,
freemen. This is reflected in one of the Bjarka songs in Saxo.
The poet says: £ No humble and obscure race, no low-born ones,
no base souls are Pluto’s prey, but he weaves the fate of the
mighty and fills Phlegethon with noble shapes.’ Pluto stands
for Odin, Phlegethon for Valhall. So in Harbardsljod the
noble who fall in battle are said to go to Odin, while Thor has


THE OTHER WORLD


3i5

the thralls. Yet Thor himself is called £ Einhere ’ in Loka -

56

senna .

In the Eiriksmal and Hakonarmal (tenth century), already
cited, we have seen how the Valkyries were sent forth to bring
the heroes to Valhall. In the former Sigmund and Sinfjotli are
bidden by Odin to go out and welcome Eirik and those who fol-
low him; in the latter Hermod and Bragi are sent to greet
Hakon. Sigmund asked why Odin looked so much for Eirik’s
coming, and was told that he was such a mighty warrior. He
died in fight because the gods need such as he against the day of
the Wolf’s coming. Hakon said that he mistrusted Odin
because he had been slain; but Bragi told him that now
the Einherjar will toast him and he will drink ale with the
gods . 57

The Valhall belief had entered deeply into the Viking mind,
as is seen in the phrase used of a hero fallen in combat with
another — 1 to show him the way to Valhall.’ Such heroes
would wish each other a journey to Valhall before fighting.
When a warrior was buried he was dedicated to Valhall in the
funeral oration . 58

How did the conception of the heavenly Valhall arise in
Scandinavia? As Odin was father of the slain, lord of the
Einherjar, and lord of ghosts ( drauga drqttinn ), 59 so he had
once been god of the dead in general. When he came to be re-
garded as dwelling in the sky, the abode of the dead or, at least,
of those more directly associated with him, was also transferred
there. Valhall in Heaven was thus an extension of the Under-
world or of an abode of warriors within a hill. Valhall with its
surrounding stream, wall, gate and doors, and its hall, is a
replica of Hel. We have seen that the dead were supposed to
go into hills regarded as sacred. Now certain hills in Scandi-
navia are called £ hills of the dead ’ (D^deberg, D^demands-
bjoerge), and some Icelandic and Swedish hills bear the name
Valhall . 60 Odin was connected with hills which bear his name
in Germany and Scandinavia, like £ Sigtyr’s mountain ’ in Atla-


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


3i6

kvitha. He was ‘ the Man of the mountain,’ and 1 the god of the
fells ’ (Fjallgautr ). 61 Were these hollow hills into which the
dead entered? With some such hills the Wild Hunt was linked,
emerging from them and returning to them, and the dead took
part in the Hunt . G2 The numerous legends of kings or heroes
sleeping in hills with their followers are also in point here. The
king or hero is an earlier deity, Wodan or some other . 63 Charle-
magne’s army fought a battle at the foot of the Odenberg in
Hesse. At night the hill opened, king and soldiers entered, and
then it closed upon them. Every seven or every hundred years
they come forth in battle-array and after a time re-enter the hill.
Other legends of armed men coming out of hills, fighting, and
re-entering them, are known from medieval times . 6,1 The con-
tinual fighting of dead warriors, not in Valhall, is an early belief
enshrined in folk-tradition. It is exemplified in the story of the
Hjadnings’ strife in its various forms. Snorri gives one ver-
sion of this and connects it with Hoy in Orkney. The kings
Hogni and Hedin fought because Hedin had carried off Hild,
Hogni’s daughter. They and their men fought all day, and at
night Hild resuscitated the dead. They renewed the fight next
day, and all who fell turned to stone. But they rose up armed in
the morning and fought again. ‘ In songs it is said that the
Hjadnings will fight thus till the Doom of the gods.’ This con-
tinual fight is also mentioned in Bragi’s poem, Ragnarsdrapa
(ninth century). The story is also attached to the Brisinga-men
myth, Freyja receiving back the necklace on condition that she
should cause two kings and their armies to fight until a Christian
ended the strife. The resuscitation theme occurs here also, and
the fight continues for one hundred and forty-three years until
one of Olaf Tryggvason’s men agrees to kill all the warriors
and so release them from their doom. Another version of the
story is given briefly by Saxo. Hilda is said to have longed so
ardently for Hedin, that after he and Hogni had slain each other,
she resuscitated them by her spells in order to renew the fight . 66
Other legends deal with a similar theme, and Saxo in one of his













' ’ ' '

' 1

'








-

‘ ‘ . J











PLATE XL


H ELGA-FELL AND SaCRED BlRCH-TREE AND MOUND

The upper picture shows Helga-fell, ‘ Holy Fell ’ or
1 Holy Mountain,’ in Western Iceland, with the farm
of the same name beneath it to the right. The hill was
that into which the dead died, and was held to be most
sacred. The idea that it was the abode of the dead may
have arisen from the form of the hill, like a house with
a great gate. From W. G. Collingwood, Sagasteads
of Iceland. See p. 310.

The lower picture is that of a sacred birch-tree and
mound near the farm of Slinde at Sogn, West Norway.
No one might cut its branches and at the Christmas
festival ale was poured over its roots by every member
of the family. The tree fell in 1874. From a paint-
ing by Thomas Fearnley, 1840. See p. 203.





THE OTHER WORLD


3i7

stories of a visit to the Underworld shows us dead warriors
fighting there . 66

Valhall might thus be regarded as an Underworld abode of
warriors transferred to Heaven as a result of Odin’s growing im-
portance in the Viking age. The warriors there awaited the final
assault of demoniac powers. Meanwhile they fought, feasted,
and caroused, as the dead feasted in Helga-fell. It is also sig-
nificant that valhall is the name applied to the hall where Atli
and his warriors drank wine . 67 Apparently fighting as an occu-
pation after death was not a primitive belief, for the earliest
tombs do not contain armour and weapons . 68

Whatever the origin of the Valhall belief may be, it was not
the only conception of Other World life entertained by the
Northmen. It is quite possible that in earlier times the state of
the dead was not definitely formulated in Teutonic belief. In
later times different beliefs arose and some of these were held
simultaneously. The dead active in their barrows are also
linked with Valhall, as the Helgi poem and the reference to
Gunnar in the Njals-saga show. So also, according to Thjodolf
the skald, Halfdan, who died in his bed, was bidden to the Thing
of Odin (Valhall) by c Hvedrung’s maiden,’ i.e., Hel, for
Hvedrung is Loki . 69 In the Helgi poem, as Niedner puts it, the
Valhall belief has been superimposed on an older tradition of
Hel or of the dead living in their barrows . 70

[Prometheus]

RETRIBUTION AFTER DEATH

The belief in the punishment of certain crimes after death is
found among savage and barbaric peoples , 71 and may quite well
have been held by the Teutons. It is indeed spoken of in the
Eddas , but the question of Christian influence has to be con-
sidered.

Snorri speaks of the future lot as dependent on the nature of
the death — a common and primitive conception. Warriors
went to Valhall, those dying of sickness or old age to Hel, the
drowned to Ran, etc . 72 But he also says that All-father gave


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


318

man a spirit which is immortal. All men shall live; the right-
eous with him in Gimle, evil men in Hel and thence to Niflhel,
in the ninth world . 73 This contradicts the other passage, and
suggests that Hel is an evil place. In a third passage, already
cited, Snorri makes Hel a place of cold, famine, and disease . 74

Christian ideas seem to have obtruded themselves — that of
man’s immortal soul, of the righteous in Gimle or Heaven, of
the wicked in Hel and Niflhel. Snorri seems to have been in
error in making Hel and Niflhel different places: elsewhere
Niflhel is equivalent to Hel , 75 and the earlier sources (e.g., the
Eddie poems) do not suggest that Hel is an evil place of misery.

These passages tell of man’s fate after death. But Snorri also
describes the places allotted to men at the renewal of the world.
There will be many good and many evil abodes. Best will it be
to exist in Gimle, where will be abundance of drink for those
who like it in the hall called Brimir, which is in Okolnir. A
good hall is that which stands in Nidafells, made of red gold,
and called Sindri. In these the good and pure in heart shall
dwell. Gimle is further described as fairest of all halls, brighter
than the sun, at the south end of Heaven. When Heaven and
earth have departed, it shall continue, and the good shall dwell
in it. It is believed to be in the third Heaven, Vidblainn, and so
invulnerable against the fires of Surt. On Nastrand, £ Corpse-
strand,’ is a great and evil hall, its doors facing north. All the
snake-heads turn into it and spurt venom, so that it runs in two
rivers along the hall. Perjurers and murderers wade these
rivers. In Hvergelmir it is worse, for there the cursed snake
tears dead men’s corpses . 76

In this account there seems to be a mingling of pagan and
Christian beliefs, and some misunderstanding of his sources by
Snorri. In V oluspa Gimle is a hill on which the hall stands:

‘ A hall I saw, fairer than the sun,

Decked with gold, on Gimle’s heights,

There shall dwell true hosts

And enjoy happiness never to end .’ 77


THE OTHER WORLD


3i9


Even this stanza is suspect of Christian influence. In V oluspa
also Brimir’s hall has no connexion with the lot of the righteous
dead; while Sindri is the name of a dwarf, not of a hall:

£ In the north stood on Nidafells
A hall of gold for Sindri’s people;

On Okolnir another hall stood,

The beer-hall of the giant Brimir.’ 78

Sindri’s people are dwarfs. The next stanzas describe a place of
punishment, which Snorri connects with life after the Doom of
the gods. But, unless their position in V oluspa is misplaced, this
must be a present place of punishment, not one in the renewed
world :

c A hall I saw stand far from the sun,

On Nastrand, its doors facing the North;

Venom streams down from the smoke-hole,

For serpents are winding round the walls.

There I saw wading through rivers wild

Oath-breakers and murderers

[And such as entice other men’s wives] ;

There sucked Nidhogg the dead
And the wolf tore men.’ 79

The composition of this second verse is doubtful. Line three
may be interpolated; lines four and five may belong to a stanza
with no reference to punishments for sin after death. Accord-
ing to Grimnismal the dragon Nidhogg gnaws the root of
Yggdrasil. Snorri says that the dragon gnaws that root which
is over Niflheim and below which is Hvergelmir, a well in Hel.
In the concluding stanza of V oluspa, possibly also interpolated
or out of its proper place, the dragon Nidhogg comes flying from
Nidafells bearing the bodies of men on his wings . 80

That perjurers, murderers, and adulterers were punished
after death would be in keeping with Teutonic ideas of the
enormity of these crimes, and the punishments meted out in
life for committing them. In Sigrdrijumal an evil fate is said
to await the perjurer; and in Reginsmal Andvari says that per-
jurers will suffer long, wading through Vadgelmir’s waters.


320


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


This river, not mentioned elsewhere, may be one of those which
Volus-pa assigns to oath-breakers as a punishment, and which
are in Hel or on its confines. 81

Snorri’s reference to All-father, who is existing after the
Doom of the gods, conflicts with the belief in Odin as All-father,
slain at this final catastrophe. He has been influenced by his
belief in the Christian God. Gimle, 4 Gem-lee ’ or 4 Gem-roof,’
is possibly a reminiscence of the Heavenly Jerusalem, the city
of gold and gems, as described in the Book of Revelation.

VISITS TO THE OTHER WORLD

Stories of visits to the Other World, preserved by Saxo and in
some of the Sagas, contain reminiscences of pagan beliefs. In
their present form they belong to the twelfth and fourteenth
centuries. They tell how men went to seek Odainsakr, 4 the
Acre of the Not-dead,’ and J5rd lifanda Manna, 4 the Land of
living Men,’ in the East or North, and apparently underground.

One winter day Hadding, a mythic king of Denmark, saw a
woman rise out of the floor with hemlocks in her hand. He
desired to know where such plants grew in winter, and, wrapping
him in her mantle, she drew him underground through a dark
cloud, along a worn path, to a place where were richly clad
nobles, and then to sunny regions where the plants grew. A
river, full of whirling missiles and crossed by a bridge, was
passed, and on the other side two armies were fighting. The
warriors thus showed the manner of their past life and of their
death. A great wall barred further advance, but the woman
wrung off the head of a cock and flung it over the wall, when the
bird came to life again. Hadding now returned home, appar-
ently by sea. 82

This story must have been known in the tenth century, for
4 Hadding’s land,’ the Other World, is spoken of in the second
Gudrun poem. The region beyond the wall is probably the
Odainsakr of other stories. The fighting warriors resemble the
















PLATE XLI


Holy Well and Royal Barrows

The upper illustration is that of a holy well at Tis-
vilde, north coast of Seeland, for long the most famous
of Danish wells and still frequented for healing. It is
called S. Helen’s Well, but the name Tisvilde suggests
that it may once have been sacred to Tyr. From a
photograph in the Copenhagen collection of folk-lore.

The lower illustration shows the great royal bar-
rows at Upsala. The church in the background prob-
ably stands on the site of the temple of Upsala. There
are remains of a holy well in the churchyard. The
barrows were supposed to be those of ancient legendary
kings.





THE OTHER WORLD


321


Einherjar in Valhall, but they may be a reminiscence of its more
primitive aspect, underground or within a hill. The river with
missiles resembles the river Slid in V oluspa , full of swords and
daggers, one of several rivers which run in Hel, according to
Grimnismal. Its bridge recalls the Gj oil-bridge. The influ-
ence of Irish stories of Elysium, to which visitants with a magic
branch or apple invite mortals, may be seen in this story . 83

Saxo also tells of the visit of Gorm, king of Denmark, to
Geirrod’s abode, over ocean, down to Chaos, to a region of dark-
ness. Thorkill acted as guide to the party, and when land was
reached, he bade them kill no more cattle than sufficed for their
needs, lest the guardian gods of the place (Land-vsettir? ) should
not let them depart. This counsel was disregarded and three
men had to be surrendered to the giants who beset them. They
now sailed to a region of eternal cold, with trackless forests.
Gudmund warned all on no account to speak. A giant-like man,
Gudmund, brother of Geirrod, met them and conducted them
past a river, on the other side of which were monsters, to his
abode. Here Thorkill and the others refrained from food and
from the love of the beautiful women of the place, for the one
would cause oblivion and they would have to dwell with mon-
sters, while the other would cause madness. Four men suc-
cumbed to the women’s charms, and met this fate. Gudmund
tried to entice Gorm with the delicious fruits of his garden, but,
warned by Thorkill, he refused them. Gudmund now took the
visitors over the river to a gloomy town, guarded by dogs and
peopled by phantoms. Here was Geirrod’s dwelling, filthy,
swarming with snakes, its iron seats full of phantasmal mon-
sters. Geirrod and his daughters were seen just as they had
been overcome by Thor. In another place three of the party
took some of its treasure and were horribly punished. In another
room Thorkill’s self-restraint was forgotten at sight of a beau-
tiful mantle. The inhabitants attacked the voyagers, and all but
twenty perished. These were ferried over the river by Gud-
mund and returned home . 84


322


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


This story combines Polar travel with incidents of imaginary
journeys. Gudmund appears in other tales. In the Hervarar-
saga he is a king in Jotunheim, and dwells in Glasisvellir,
‘ glittering Plains.’ He is wise and mighty, and he and his men
live for generations. The heathen believed that Odainsakr was
in his realm and that whoever went there cast off sickness and
age and became immortal. After his death he was worshipped
as a god . 85 In other sagas Gudmund rules Glasisvellir and is
skilled in magic, but in one of these his land is tributary to
Jotunheim, ruled by Geirrod, who meets his death by the magic
power of Thorstein . 86 The Story of Olaf Tryggvason tells how
Helgi Thoreson met twelve maidens in the far north, one of
whom was Gudmund’s daughter, Ingibjorg, with whom he
stayed three days. In the sequel when, by Olaf’s prayers, she
could not keep him, she put out his eyes lest the daughters of
Norway should love him . 87

In Eirik Vidforlas-saga , Eirik reached Odainsakr by being
swallowed by a dragon. It was a place of great beauty, with a
tower suspended in the air and reached by a ladder. There
Eirik and his companions found delicious food and wine and
slept in splendid beds. A beautiful youth told Eirik in his
sleep that this was Odainsakr, and Jord lifanda Manna, and that
it was near Paradise . 88

Gudmund’s is an Elysian region, but has dangers incurred
through eating its fruits or loving its women. These are per-
haps made darker by Christian redactors or authors of the stories.
By analogy with Irish Elysian tales, the danger was that, by
eating the fruit of the land or through love of its women, the
visitor became bound to the region or, when he left it, found that
time had lapsed as in a dream. This food-tabu — the danger
of eating the food of gods, fairies, the dead, etc., is of wide-
spread occurrence . 89

Glasisvellir, Odainsakr, and Jord lifanda Manna are Ely-
sian wonder-lands, such as most races have imagined. But there
may have been influence from Irish Elysium stories, notably The


l


THE OTHER WORLD


323

Voyage of Bran, in which some of the voyagers come to grief
by doing what they were advised not to do . 90 The tales, how-
ever, contain several points of contact with native beliefs regard-
ing the region of the dead, e.g., rivers crossed by a bridge, dead
men fighting, the mysterious region beyond the river, perhaps
the equivalent of Hel. Geirrod’s realm is more repulsive in
Saxo’s tale than in the Eddie myth of Thor and Geirrod, and
here we may see the influence of Christian visions of Hell,
though it preserves some features of the Eddie Nastrand with
its snakes and venom, and even of Valhall, for its roof is made
of spear-heads. Rydberg identified Gudmund with Mimir; and
Odainsakr, the walled place in the Hadding story, and the tower
in the Eirik story, with Mimir’s grove where Lif and Lifthrasir,
progenitors of the new race of men, are preserved . 91 To them
the title ‘ living men ’ might be appropriate. But more likely
the names of this mysterious land were suggested to the North-
men by contact with the Celtic people of Britain and Ireland,
in whose myths Elysium bore such names as £ Land of the
Living,’ Mag Mell or ‘ The Pleasant Plain,’ and Tir na n-Og,
‘ The Land of Youth.’


CHAPTER XXXIII


COSMOGONY AND THE DOOM OF THE

GODS

T HE Eddie picture of the origin of the universe goes back to
a time when neither gods nor men, Heaven nor earth, ex-
isted. There was a great abyss, Ginnunga-gap, ‘Yawning
chasm,’ a conception probably due to popular belief in an abyss
outside the ocean surrounding the earth. North of it had been
made (by whom?) Niflheim, a frost and mist region, within
which was the well Hvergelmir, £ Cauldron-rushing,’ from
which flowed several rivers. To the south was Muspell, light
and glowing, ruled over by Surt. The streams or Elivagar from
Niflheim, as they flowed, became ice, which spread into Gin-
nunga-gap. There the ice met warm airs from Muspell or
Muspellheim and began to melt. Life was quickened in this
by the power of that which sent the heat (whose was this power?
there is perhaps a Christian influence here), and took form as
a giant Ymir. From him came the Frost-giants.

From the dripping rime there sprang the cow Audhumla (ex-
plained as £ the rich, polled cow,’ audr, £ riches,’ i.e., its milk,
and humlay £ polled ’). Streams of milk from its udders nour-
ished ,Ymir, and the cow was nourished by licking the salty ice-
blocks. As she licked there came forth from the ice Buri, who
was father of Borr. Borr married Bestla, a daughter of the giant
race. They had three sons, Odin, Vili, and Ve.

Thus the giant race preceded the gods, as Saxo also indicates,
and gods and giants were opposed to each other.

The sons of Borr slew Ymir, and his blood drowned all the
Frost-giants save Bergelmir with his wife and household. The
three brothers bore Ymir’s body into Ginnunga-gap and made
















.










.



























PLATE XLII


The Bewcastle Cross

On this Cross at Bewcastle, Cumberland, and on
the similar cross at Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire, there are
elaborate designs of a tree with roots, trunk, branches,
foliage, and fruit. Birds and animals are shown in
the tree, eating the fruit. On this face of the Bew-
castle Cross, counting from below, there are a complete
quadruped, two fantastic animals with forelegs only,
two birds, and two squirrels. It illustrates Bugge’s
theory that a Norse poet saw these designs and from
them elaborated the myth of the Ash Yggdrasil in
which were various animals, as told in Grimriismal.
The serpent is lacking in the design on the Cross. See
p. 332. The Cross is Anglo-Saxon and dates from
the seventh century. For a full description of these
two Crosses see Professor G. Baldwin Brown, The
Arts in Early England , vol. v, from which the illustra-
tion is taken.




COSMOGONY AND DOOM OF THE GODS 325

of it the earth. Sea and waters came from his blood ; gravel and
stones from his teeth and such bones as were broken ; rocks from
his bones. The sea was placed as a ring round the earth. His
skull became the sky, set up over the earth and upheld by four
dwarfs. The earth is ring-shaped, and on its coasts the gods
gave lands to the giants. Within the earth they erected a wall
against the giants, made of Ymir’s eyebrows. This they called
Midgard. Of Ymir’s brain, thrown into the air, they made the
clouds. The glowing embers and sparks from Muspellheim
were set in the Heaven, above and beneath, to illumine Heaven
and earth. The gods assigned places to all, even to such as were
wandering free. 1

This is Snorri’s account, based partly on sources now lost,
partly on stanzas of Volusia, Grimnismal , and V aft hrudnismal.
V olusfa says :

1 In time’s morning lived Ymir,

Then was no sand, sea, nor cool waves;

No earth was there, nor Heaven above,

Only a yawning chasm, nor grass anywhere.

Then Borr’s sons upheaved the earth
And shaped the beautiful Midgard;

From the south the sun shone on earth’s stones.

And from the ground sprang green leeks.’ 2

The first verse seems to contain the myth of Ymir formed in
Ginnunga-gap. The second gives a myth of earth raised out
of an existing ocean, not made from Ymir’s flesh. The sun
shone on it and growth began. Whether both verses come from
one hand or, as Boer holds, the second alone belongs to an earlier
form of the poem, is immaterial. The myth of earth raised out
of ocean is found in other mythologies. 3 The next verses tell
how sun, moon, and stars were allotted their places, and how the
gods gave names to night, new and full moon, etc.

In V dfthrudnismal the giant in response to Odin’s ques-
tion, tells how earth and sky arose, but does not speak of them
as a work of the gods.


326


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


‘ Out of Ymir’s flesh was shaped the earth,

The mountains out of his bones,

The Heaven from the ice-cold giant’s skull,

Out of his blood the boisterous sea.’

This is succeeded by an account of the giants, the first of whom is
said to have been made out of the venom from Elivagar. No
mention is made of fire and heat, only of frost and ice . 4

Grimnismal speaks of the origin of earth from Ymir’s flesh,
ocean from his blood, Heaven from his skull, the hills from his
bones, and it adds that trees were formed from his hair, Mid-
gard from his eyebrows, made by the gods for men, and out of
his brain the clouds . 5

In V oluspa three gods lift earth out of ocean, but the other
poems merely mention gods, without specifying the number or
saying how they came into existence. Snorri says that from
Odin and Frigg came the kindred known as the Aisir, a divine
race . 6 In an earlier passage he speaks of All-father or Odin
living through all ages and fashioning Heaven, earth, and all
things in them . 7 The latter is probably a reflexion from Chris-
tian views of Creation.

The conception underlying Snorri’s main account is that
giants, gods, and all things may be traced back to the union of
water (ice and mist) and fire. The ice contains salt, and this
plays an important part in the myth of Audhumla. An inter-
esting comparison is found in Tacitus, who, speaking of the
sacred salt springs near the Saale, says that the waters were made
to evaporate on red-hot coals, and salt was thus obtained from
two opposite elements, fire and water. This may point to an old
Germanic cosmogonic myth with fire, water, and salt as ele-
ments . 8 Skaldic kennings illustrate the Eddie myth of Ymir.
Heaven is £ skull of Ymir ’ or 1 burden of the dwarfs ’; earth is
1 flesh of Ymir’ j the sea is ‘blood of Ymir’; the hills are
‘ Ymir’s bones .’ 9

Grimm cites passages from medieval ecclesiastical documents
dating from the tenth century onwards, in which man is said to



PLATE XLIII

[Prometheus]

Detailed Carving on the Bewcastle Cross

The illustration shows one of the fantastic animals
and a bird. From Prof. Baldwin Brown, The Arts
in Early England , vol. v.






COSMOGONY AND DOOM OF THE GODS 327

have been created out of different materials. One of these says
that Adam’s bones were made from stone, his flesh from earth,
his blood from water, his heart from wind, his thought from
clouds, his sweat from dew, his hair from grass, his eyes from
the sun. The four documents differ in details, but there is a
curious inverse parallel with the Eddie account, which 1 uses the
microcosm as material for the macrocosm, and the other in-
versely makes the universe contribute to the formation of man.’ 10

Volusia goes on to tell that the gods met at Ithavoll in the
midst of Asgard and built temples and altars, made forges to
work gold, wrought tongs and fashioned tools. This was during
their golden age. Then the creation of dwarfs is described. 11
Snorri amplifies this. All-father gave counsel about the town in
the midst of Ithavall. A temple was made with twelve seats
and a thirteenth for All-father. It is all of gold and is called
Gladsheim. A second house was built for the goddesses, called
Vingolf. Houses were made for workshops} and tools, anvils,
hammers, and tongs were fashioned. The Aisir worked in
metals, stone, and wood, and fashioned their household wares
of gold. Hence that time is called the Age of Gold. Then fol-
lows the creation of the dwarfs. 12

Voluspa next gives the myth of human origins. Odin,
Hcenir, and Lodur came forth to the land and found Ask and
Embla (Ash and Elm) unprovided with fate and without
strength, soul, breath, movement, heat, or colour. Odin gave
them soul, Hoenir sense, Lodur heat and goodly colour. 13
Snorri says that Odin, Vili, and Ve, walking on the shore, found
two trees, which they shaped into human beings. Odin gave
them soul, Vili life, Ve hearing and sight. They named the
male Ask and the female Embla, and of them mankind was
begotten. 14 In an earlier passage, where biblical influence may
be seen, Snorri says that All-father made man, giving him spirit
which shall never die, though the flesh-frame rot or burn to
ashes. 15 The shaping of human beings out of trees may have
been suggested by wooden images, such as those which the


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


328

speaker in Havamal says that he found and on which he put
clothes. Now they regarded themselves as champions. Such
images, called tremadr , are mentioned in other documents. 16 In
Rigsthula the different classes of men were begotten by Rig.
The account given by Tacitus of the founders of the Germanic
race is interesting by way of comparison. The Germans cele-
brate in ancient hymns a god Tuisto, issued from the earth, and
his son Mannus, as the originators of their race. Mannus had
three sons, progenitors of the Ingvseones, Herminones, and
Istasvones. Some, however, think that the god had other sons,
progenitors of other tribes. 17 Mannus is thus the first man,
born of a god who comes out of the earth, perhaps regarded as
spouse of a Heaven-god. His sons were eponymous ancestors
of three chief German groups. If Tuisto was thought to be
produced by earth alone, and himself alone produced sons, he
would resemble Ymir, who begat giants without a female
(p. 275).

Separate cosmogonic myths occur here and there. A river,
Van, is formed from the slaver out of the mouth of the Fenris-
wolf. Stars were made of the eyes of Thjazi or Aurvandill’s
toej a well from the footprint of Balder’s horse, etc. 18

For the Eddie conception of the universe we begin with the
earth, the middle of things, a general Teutonic conception —
Gothic midjungards , OS middelgard , AS middangeard, OHG
mittigarty ON midgard , literally £ boundary-wall,’ i.e., the
mountains by which the giants were shut out from the habitable
earth, then the earth as the dwelling-place of man, or, as Snorri
conceived it, a citadel. Thor is £ Midgard’s warder ’ ( veorr )
against the giants. 19 Earth is a vast disc, surrounded by the
ocean or floating upon it, and in this ocean is the Midgard-
serpent, lying about the land and surrounding it, his tail in his
mouth, £ the girdle of all lands.’ Around the shores of earth
are mountains, rocks, wastes, and caves, and these are the dwell-
ing of giants, Jotunheim or Utgard, though Utgard was also
regarded as being beyond the ocean. 20


COSMOGONY AND DOOM OF THE GODS 329

According to one passage of Snorri, Asgard, the abode of the
gods, is a city which men call Troy, in the midst of Midgard.
It is the new Asgard, in place of the elder Asgard in Asia. 21
This conception of Asgard is due to Snorri’s euhemerism and
the desire to connect the Scandinavian people and deities with
ancient Greece. The earlier pagan view of Asgard made it a
heavenly abode, or possibly it was on the top of a lofty central
mountain, which would give a link with Snorri’s view of Asgard
on earth.

Above all was Heaven, overarching and resting on earth.
Between Heaven and earth was the bridge Bifrost or Bilrost,
which the gods had made, the Asbru or £ bridge of the yEsir.’
It is the rainbow, of three colours. It is very strong and made
with greater craft than any other structure. The red colour is
fire, which keeps the Hill-giants off. Over this best of bridges
the gods ride daily to their tribunal at Urd’s well. Another
name of the bridge is Vindhjalmsbru, ‘Wind-helmet’s (the
sky) bridge.’ At the Doom of the gods the sons of Muspell will
cross it and break it down. Meanwhile Heimdall is its
guardian. 22

Valhall is Odin’s hall in Asgard, where are also Gladsheim
and Vingolf, but Grimnismal places Valhall in Gladsheim , 1 the
Place of joy.’

Separate dwellings of gods and others are enumerated in
Grimnismal and by Snorri, and these appear mainly to be in
Heaven. The chief of them are Alfheim, abode of the Alfar
and Frey; Breidablik, Balder’s abode; Valaskjalf , 1 Seat of the
fallen,’ possessed by Odin and thatched with silver, in it is
Hlidskjalf, 1 Gate-seat,’ whence Odin surveys all worlds.
Valaskjalf may be Valhall. Thrudvangir, with its hall Bil-
skirnir, is Thor’s abode.

Much speculation has been indulged in regarding the c nine
worlds,’ spoken of in Volusfa and V afthrudnismal, as well as in
an interpolated stanza in Alvissmal where the dwarf says: ‘ Oft
have I fared in the nine worlds all, and wide is my wisdom in


330


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


each.’ In Voluspa the Volva says that she knows 4 nine worlds,
nine rooms of the mighty World-tree.’ The giant in Vajthrud-
riismal says that he has been in every world, the nine worlds,
even to Niflheim. 23 In all three passages the idea is that of
comprehensive knowledge on the part of the speaker — dwarf,
seeress, giant. This knowledge is possessed by different kinds
of beings dwelling in different regions. Alviss knows the
names given to various things by several orders of beings
dwelling in earth, Heaven, Alfheim, etc. 4 Nine worlds ’
would thus be more a figurative phrase than one expressing
local geography or cosmology. In Voluspa these worlds
are connected with the World-tree, itself a comprehensive
symbol.

Regarded as different regions, the nine worlds may be — i.
Asgard, 2. Vanaheim, 3. Alfheim (though this is one of the
dwellings in Heaven), 4. Midgard, 5. Jotunheim, 6. Mus-
pellheim, 7. Svartalfheim, 8. Hel or Niflhel. The ninth is un-
certain. It may be obtained by dividing Hel from Niflhel or,
preferably, by including a Water-world. 24 Undoubtedly the
numbering of nine worlds is connected with the sacredness and
importance of the number nine in religion, myth, folk-belief,
and poetry. 25

Below Midgard is Svartalfheim, the region of the dwarfs.
Hel or Niflhel is also a subterranean abode. While Snorri
speaks of Niflhel in this sense, he also speaks in error of
Niflheim, apparently another form of the name, as a region in
the North, the cold region of mist, whence streams flowed into
Ginnunga-gap. In Niflheim Snorri places the well Hvergelmir,
whence spring certain rivers, among them Gjoll, which is near
Hel-gates. It is under the root of Yggdrasil which stands over
Niflheim. In Grimnismal , the site of Hvergelmir is not given,
but it is said that from the horns of the hart which eats the
branches of Lserad, a stream drips into Hvergelmir and thence
all the rivers run. 26


COSMOGONY AND DOOM OF THE GODS 331


THE ASH YGGDRASIL

To the seeress of Volusia the World-tree with its nine divi-
sions or worlds, is c the mighty Fate-tree (or 1 well-planned
tree,’ mjQtvithr ), deep in the earth.’ The nine worlds are con-
tained in the tree or symbolized by its divisions. In later pas-
sages the Volva speaks of an ash called Yggdrasil, reaching high
aloft, wet with white water, thence come the dews that fall in
the dales. It stands by Urd’s well, and the three Norns dwell
in a hall under it. 27 This reference to the three Norns may be
interpolated, enlarging on Urd’s connexion with the tree.
Heimdall’s horn is hidden under the tree, and a mighty stream
pours from Odin’s pledge (which is in Mimir’s well) on the
tree. At the Doom of the gods the tree shakes and its leaves
rustle. 28

The picture of the tree in Svlfdagsmal is similar. Mima-
meith ( £ Mimir’s tree’?) stretches its branches over all lands.
No one knows what roots are beneath it. Few can guess what
shall fell it, not fire and not iron. Then follows a piece of folk-
lore. The fruit of the tree placed in fire is good for women in
childbirth. What was within then comes out, such might has the
tree for men. Gering points out that in Icelandic belief a hard
legumen borne to Iceland by the Gulf Stream is used for the
same purpose. On the highest bough stands the cock Vithofnir,
glittering like gold, shining like lightning, ever-watchful, the
terror of Surt and Sinmora. 29 If this bird is the same as Gollin-
kambi, who wakes the heroes in Valhall, the top of the tree must
be in Asgard. The bird’s watchfulness is a terror to the enemies
of the gods.

These two passages give a picture of a wonderful world-tree,
its roots on or under the earth, beside it Mimir’s well — prob-
ably the older conception — or Urd’s well. As we shall see,
Snorri puts these two wells beside two separate roots of the tree.

A more elaborate picture is given in Grimnismal. The ash
Yggdrasil is ‘ best of trees.’ Beneath one of its three roots is


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


332

Helj the Frost-giants beneath the second ; mankind are beneath
the third. A lost stanza may have spoken of the wise eagle that
sits on the top of the tree, for the next stanza speaks of the
squirrel Ratatosk which carries the eagle’s words to the dragon
Nidhogg below. Four harts nibble the uppermost twigs, per-
haps a later amplification of the single hart of a succeeding
stanza. Numerous serpents lie beneath the tree and gnaw its
branches. Thus the tree suffers, for the hart bites its top 5 its
trunk is rotting; and Nidhogg gnaws its roots. Meanwhile the
gods ride daily to give judgments at the tree. Thor walks
there. 30

Snorri combines this information, but gives varying details.
Of the three roots, one is among the iEsir, one among the Frost-
giants, and one over Niflheim. Beneath each is a well or stream.
As the TSsir are in Heaven, a root cannot be there, unless we
assume that Snorri still regards Asgard as on earth. But later
he says that the root is in Heaven, and underneath it is Urd’s
well. Mimir’s well is underneath the root among the Frost-
giants. The third root, over Niflheim, is gnawed by Nidhogg.
The eagle in the tree knows many things. Between his eyes sits
the hawk Vedrfolnir. Ratatosk bears envious words between
the eagle and Nidhogg. 31

Snorri thus upsets the whole conception of Yggdrasil by plac-
ing one of its roots in Heaven, with Urd’s well there, and by
setting Mimir’s well among the Frost-giants.

Most of the details in Grimnismal may be no more than
decorative motifs , perhaps derived from the presence of birds
or other animals in sacred trees or groves, or, as R. M. Meyer
supposes, from sculptured representations of trees with con-
ventional animals. 32 Bugge thought that the poet had seen
monuments in the north of England with ornamentation like
that on the Bewcastle cross in Cumberland, if not that cross itself.
On such crosses was carved a tree, in the foliage of which sat an
eagle or hawk, squirrels and serpents, and ate of its fruits. 33 If
the tree or the animals had any mythic significance, the key to it



PLATE XLIV


The Ruthwell Cross

The left and right sides of the Ruthwell Cross are
decorated in a similar manner to the design on the
Bewcastle Cross. The illustration shows the left side.
The long lower panel shows the tree and begins below
with a bird having a fantastic tail, an otter, two birds,
two fantastic animals. The upper panel has a bird
and possibly a squirrel. This Cross is also Anglo-
Saxon, of the seventh century, and illustrates Bugge’s
theory of Ash Yggdrasil, see p. 332. The illustration
is from Prof. Baldwin Brown, The Arts in Early
England , vol. v.





COSMOGONY AND DOOM OF THE GODS 333

is lost, in spite of the ingenious conjectures of modern my-
thologizers.

The ash Yggdrasil has many prototypes. It recalls sacred
trees beside sacred wells from which oracles were obtained. It
is linked to the Vartrad or £ Ward-tree ’ growing beside Swedish
houses, which, if cut down, brings the prosperity of the house to
an end — a significant fact when we remember that the gradual
destruction of Yggdrasil denotes the approach of the Doom of
the gods. It may thus have once been a mythic heavenly
Vartrad, growing beside the hall of the gods. Such a tree is
spoken of in a stanza quoted by Snorri — Glasir growing by
the doors of Valhall, its leafage of red gold, the fairest tree
known among gods and men. 34 Grimnismal also speaks of a
tree, Lserad, growing beside Odin’s hall. From the horns of
the hart which bites its branches a stream falls into Hvergelmir,
whence all the rivers flow. This also resembles a Vartrad, and
both trees may be forms of Yggdrasil. 35 When Grimnismal
speaks of the gods riding to judgment beneath Yggdrasil, this
may be reminiscent of actual processions to judgment beneath a
Vartrad or a temple tree. 36

Yggdrasil also resembles the sacred tree growing beside a
temple, like that one described by the scholiast to Adam of
Bremen. Beside the temple at Upsala was a great tree with
spreading branches, always green, even in winter. Its origin
was known to none. Near it was a spring used for sacrifices. 37
The branches of Yggdrasil were also far-spreading} it was
always green } beside it was a spring} no one knew its fate or its
roots. The Old Prussian holy oak at the sanctuary called Ro-
move also offers an analogy to t Yggdrasil. It had three divi-
sions, each sacred to a god, and an image of each stood in each
section. Before the god Perkuna of one division burned per-
petual fire} before Potrimpo was the snake fed by the priests and
priestesses} before Patollo the heads of a man, horse, and cow.
This tree was also evergreen. 38

The full name of the Eddie tree was Askr Yggdrasils, ‘ the


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


334

Ash which is Ygg’s (Odin’s) Steed,’ or c the Ash of Odin’s
Horse.’ Yggdrasil was a kenning for Odin’s horse Sleipnir.
The name may be due to the fact that victims sacrificed to Odin
were hung on sacred trees, riding the tree, gallows, or horse
sacred to him. Other explanations are given. It is the tree in
which is Odin’s steed, the wind. Or Odin tethered his horse to
the tree, or, less likely, it is the tree on which Odin hung, hence
his gallows or steed . 39 In the same way the gallows was called
‘ the ice-cold steed of Signy’s husband ’ in a skaldic poem . 40
But, as Chadwick points out, there is £ not a single reference to
the World-tree having served as Odin’s gallows,’ while ‘ the
name Yggdrasil may have been applied to the earthly Vartrad,
and transferred together with the conception of the tree to its
heavenly copy .’ 41

The mythic Yggdrasil was almost certainly a tree growing on
earth before it was transferred to the Other World and the re-
gion of myth.

This tree is also connected with wide-spread myths of a
World-tree growing on a mountain or in the centre of the earth,
and reaching to Heaven. Such a tree also resembles the mythic
World-pillars supporting Heaven. Both trees and pillars are
many-storied. The roots of the tree go down into the Under-
world, its topmost branches pierce the sky, and it stands by a
spring, lake, or sea, or in the sea itself. As in a Yakut tale, a
goddess dwells at the root of the tree and foretells the future,
like Urd or Mimir. Tree or pillar is often the tethering-post
of deities, especially of the Over-god, as in the Yakut tale, and
this throws light on Yggdrasil as connected with Odin. Such
mythical pillars and trees are known all over Northern Asia, and
can be traced in India, Iran, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. The
eagle Garuda or Garide is believed to dwell in the tree. At its
roots is a dragon or snake at which the eagle pecks . 42 In some
of these myths a spring flows from the tree or from its sap, and,
as in Iranian belief, all the rivers of earth have their source in
it . 43 So out of Yggdrasil flows dew, called by men honey-dew,


COSMOGONY AND DOOM OF THE GODS 335

on which bees are nourished, and the source of rivers is connected
with the tree Lserad. 44

Such mythic trees would be suggested by lofty forest-trees on
which the sky seemed to rest, and, as in some Polynesian myths,
which separated earth and Heaven. Then, as the sky seemed
to recede into a remoter distance, arose the fable of one lofty
tree reaching from earth to Heaven. 45 Myths of a Heaven-
supporting tree are numerous, and they survive in tales of c Jack
and the Beanstalk.’ 46 The resemblances of the Scandinavian
tree to such mythic trees are numerous, and its origin need not
therefore be sought in medieval Christian legends of the Cross
as a World-tree, which, in fact, carry on the tradition of these
mythical trees.

The myth of the sky as a tent-roof supported on a pillar or
post occurs among the Lapps, Finns, and North Asiatic tribes,
Japanese, and ancient Egyptians. 47 The Asiatic pillar is seven-
storied, representing the seven Heavens, and it is the tethering-
post of the stars or of the horses of the gods. 48 Posts with seven
branches, on which sacrificial victims are hung, symbolize the
mythical post. The Lapps also had such sacrificial pillars, repre-
senting the heavenly pillar supporting the world, with an iron
nail at the top, a symbol of the World-nail which fixed the sky
in place. The nail of the sky is the Pole Star, round which the
Heavens are thought to revolve. This belief of the Lapps may
have been borrowed from the Scandinavians. 49 Similar beliefs
were entertained by the Celts and in ancient India. 50 The
symbolism of the seven Heavens in tree or pillar, like the three
divisions of the Romove tree, recalls the nine worlds or divisions
of the Eddie tree.

[Prometheus]

This helps us to understand the Irminsul of the Saxons, a
word denoting 1 sanctuary,’ c image,’ or ‘ pillar,’ such as was
destroyed by Charlemagne, 51 but its general significance was that
of a pillar or tree-stump. Rudolf of Fulda says that the Saxons
venerate leafy trees and springs, and worship a huge tree-trunk
called Irminsul, which means universalis columna , as if it sus-


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


336

tained all things . 52 The Irminsul must have been a symbol of
a mythic World-pillar, and connected with the cult of a god
Irmin. The nail of the sky may also have been known in
Scandinavia, as its name, veraldarnagli , occurs in Icelandic folk-
poetry . 53 The mythic World-mountain may be seen in the
Himinbjorg, or ‘ Heaven-mountain,’ situated at the end of
Bifrost.

These various conceptions show that, whatever details may
be due to Christian influences, the Eddie World-tree was a
native conception. The theory that it was copied from the
medieval legend of the Cross was advanced by Bugge, E. H.
Meyer, and Golther, though Bugge admitted the existence in
Scandinavian belief of a wonderful holy tree, which, under
Christian influence, was transformed into a World-tree. In the
medieval legend the Cross was a tree linked to the Tree of Life
in Paradise. Its end, set in the earth, reached down to the
Underworld, the top reached to Heaven, the two arms spread
over the world. The Cross was our Lord’s steed, according to
medieval poetic usage, and 1 steed ’ was a metaphor for 1 gal-
lows,’ the victim being the Rider. The -point d ’ appui here is the
explanation of Yggdrasil as Odin’s gallows, because he hung on
it. As we have seen there is no evidence that the tree on which
he hung was Yggdrasil. The dragon Nidhogg is the serpent of
Eden, associated with the Tree from which the Cross was de-
rived . 54 Be this as it may, the Yggdrasil conception is not en-
tirely, if at all, due to such legends as these.

THE DOOM OF THE GODS

A phrase used in the Poetic Edda is ragna rok> 1 fate or doom
of the gods ’ ( ragna being genitive plural of regen> ‘ powers,’
c gods ’). It resembles the phrase aldar rok , £ destruction of the
world,’ used in Vafthrudnismal. Another phrase, with which
it is often confused, is ragna rokr> i the darkness of the gods,’
which occurs in Eokasenna and is used by Snorri . 65 Used mis-





PLATE XLV


The Dearham Cross

This illustrates the tree design as on the Ruthwell
and Bewcastle Crosses, but here the tree-stem only is
shown, while the branches have become a chain plait
ornament. The date of this Cross at Dearham, Cum-
berland, is c. 1000 a.d. From a photograph by Prof.
Baldwin Brown.




















COSMOGONY AND DOOM OF THE GODS 337

takenly as a proper noun, Ragnarok, the phrase is often ren-
dered c Twilight of the gods.’

This Doom of the gods, the central incident of a wider myth
of the destruction of the world, is the subject of a great part of
Volusia , and shows that, as the gods are not eternal a 'parte ante ,
so their life at last comes to an end. In view of that Doom,
Valhall must be filled with heroes, and even now Thor fights
with the enemies of the gods.

The Voluspa poet connects the Doom with the coming of the
three giant-maids, the Norns, which brought the Golden Age of
the gods to an end. Now the gods are brought under the power
of fate. The Doom is also linked to the first war, when gods
fought the Vanir, and, more immediately, with the death of
Balder. 56

The verses describing these events do not all belong to the
original poem, and may have been interpolated by a moralizing
poet. The dualism which results in the conquest of gods by
demoniac beings, who are themselves annihilated, is the founda-
tion of the myth. This is bound up with fate, stronger than the
gods, but the verse regarding this (the coming of the Norns) is
isolated and is followed by interpolated verses about the dwarfs,
which may have ousted stanzas continuing the subject.

Then follows an outrage perpetrated by the gods — a wild
kind of justice, described in two interpolated stanzas. This is
c the first war in the world,’ and concerns the slaying of Gullveig
by the gods. She must have had some evil design in coming to
the gods’ world: hence they slew her, yet she ever lives. This
may be connected with the war between A 5 sir and Vanir, if Gull-
veig was Freyja, a Vanir goddess. This war is also called the
first war. During the contest with the Vanir, the wall of the
gods’ citadel was broken down. A moralized sign of the end is
now introduced — a reference (intelligible only from Snorri’s
account of the myth) to the breaking of oaths made by the gods
to the giant artificer, whom Thor slew. The gods have per-
jured themselves. Balder’s death is the next step to the Doom.


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


338

The working of demoniac might through Loki against the gods
has begun. Loki is put in bonds, but greater woes are coming,
and 1 Frigg weeps sore for Valhall’s need.’ The coming Doom
was almost certainly the subject whispered by Odin into the dead
Balder’s ear . 67 As a consequence of the gods’ violence and
treachery, evils abound among men — oath-breaking and re-
venge, and these are punished in the Underworld . 58

That the final destruction and Doom of the gods is a genuine
Teutonic myth, we take for granted. There seem, however, to
be different myths of the manner in which this would happen,
and these are more or less combined in Volusia.

1. A destruction of the world by its sinking into the sea, from
which it had emerged, according to one cosmogonic myth.

‘ The sun becomes black, earth sinks into the sea,

From Heaven fall the bright stars.’

This is also described in Hyndluljod:

‘ The sea ascends in storm to Heaven,

It swallows the earth, the air becomes sterile.’

To this may be linked the swallowing of the sun by a monster —
an eclipse myth used to heighten the effect of the myth of the
world’s destruction . 69 This myth of the sinking of the earth
into the sea is perhaps connected with the daily apparent sinking
of the sun into the sea, as seen by dwellers on the coast.

2. The world ends with a mighty winter, fimbul-vetr. In
V aft hrudnismal Odin asks what of mankind shall survive the
mighty winter. Vafthrudnir answers that Lif and Lifthrasir,
hid in Hoddmimir’s wood, will survive it. In Snorri’s account
they survive the destructive fires of Surt. Hyndluljod speaks
of snows and furious winds which follow the sinking of earth in
the sea, and in Volusfa mighty storms come in summer. Snorri
says that this winter will precede the Doom. Snow will drive
from all quarters, with sharp frost and wind; the sun will be
without power. Three such winters will follow in succession



























1 : " • ,


























?








PLATE XLVI


Magic Symbols: Detail from the Smaller
Golden Horn

Magic signs from later Icelandic tradition.

(1) . /Egishjalmr. In Eddie poetry this made its
possessor irresistible. In modern Icelandic custom this
sign is moulded in lead, and the mould is pressed be-
tween the eyes, while the formula ‘ I wear the helmet
of terror between my brows,’ or ‘ I wash off from me
the hates of my fiends, the anger of mighty men,’ is
repeated.

(2) . Ginnir, ‘the divine,’ ‘the demoniac,’ cf. the
Eddie words ginnheilag, ‘ supremely holy,’ ginnregin,
‘ high or holy gods.’

( 3 ) . Ginnfaxi y the ginnir provided with a fax, writ-
ten on the leaf of a tree, and placed by wrestlers in
their shoe.

(4) . Angrgafi, meaning uncertain.

(5) . Thorshamar , ‘the hammer of Thor.’ Cf.
J. Arnason, Islenxkar Tjodsogur og cefntyre , vol. i.

Two warriors, from the smaller golden horn.
Beside each is the symbol which represents the cegis-
hjalmr or ‘ helmet of terror,’ signifying invincibility.




COSMOGONY AND DOOM OF THE GODS 339

with no summer between. Over the earth are mighty battles.
Brothers will slay each other for greed’s sake: none spares
father or mother in murder and incest. He then cites a stanza
of Voluspa which refers to these evils:

‘ Brothers shall fight and slay each other,

Sisters’ sons break kinship’s bonds;

Hard is it on earth, with much unchasteness.

Axe-age, sword-age,

Shields are cloven,

Wind-age, wolf-age, ere sinks the world;

No man will ever another spare.’ 60

3. A third myth is that of the destruction of the world by
fire. Voluspa tells how Surt comes from the South with £ the
scourge of branches,’ i.e., fire. In the stanza which describes
earth sinking into the sea, it is said that steam rages and the
preserver of life (fire) ; fire shoots high to Heaven itself. The
fires of Surt are also mentioned in V ajthrudnismal as occurring
at the end of the world. The possible destruction of the world
by fire, viz., by the sun, is spoken of in Grimnismal. If it were
not for the shield in front of the sun, mountains and seas would
be set in flames. Snorri often refers to this final fire, and says
that Surt will cast fire and burn the world. The sons of Mus-
pell ride forth, Surt at their head, before him and after him
burning fire. His sword is very good, from it shines a light
brighter than the sun. As they ride over Bifrost, the bridge
breaks down. In an earlier notice, Surt is said to sit at the
world’s end by Muspellheim. At the last he will go forth and
harry, overcome the gods, and burn the world with fire. 61 Fire
and heat were sources of life: now they are its destruction.

These separate myths, or at least the first and second, are
combined in Voluspa , together with the myth of the freedom
gained by chained monsters, the Fenris-wolf, Loki, and Garm,
and all three appear in Snorri’s account of the Doom, in which
he quotes freely from the poem.

The doom begins with moral evils on earth. 62 The sons of


340


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


Mim (the waters or spirits of the waters) are in motion . 63 The
Gjallar-horn sounds the note of Doom as Heimdall blows it.
All the Hel-ways are in fear. Yggdrasil shakes; its leaves
rustle, for the giant, the Fenris-wolf, is free. Odin consults the
head of Mim, but the wolf will slay him soon. Then comes an
impressive stanza:

‘ How fare the gods? How fare the Alfar?

All Jotunheim roars; the gods take counsel.

The dwarfs stand groaning before their rock-doors,

The lords of the rock-walls. Would ye know yet more? ’

From the East comes Hrym, leader of the giants. The
Midgard-serpent writhes in giant-fury. The eagle Hraesvelg
screams aloud, gnawing corpses. The ship Naglfar is loose,
steered, as Snorri says, by the giant Hrym and carrying the
giants . 64 Another ship sails from the North with the people of
Hel, steered by Loki. Wild hosts 65 follow the Wolf. With
them is Byleipt’s brother (Loki). From the South comes Surt
with fire. The hills are shattered; the giantesses fall; the dead
crowd Hel-way; Heaven is cloven.

To Frigg comes yet another grief: she sees Odin die by the
Wolf. Frey seeks out Surt, Vidarr pierces the Wolf with his
sword, avenging Odin. Thor advances against the Midgard-
serpent, and strikes a death-blow, but himself falls dead, suf-
focated by the venom. Now the sun turns black; earth sinks
into the sea, stream and flame grow in fierceness, and fire leaps
up to Heaven itself. It is the end.

Snorri’s account of the advance of the gods and the fighting
is vivid. The Wolf rushes forward, mouth gaping, the upper
jaw touching Heaven, the lower the earth, fire blazing from
eyes and nostrils. The Midgard-serpent by its side blows
venom. Heaven is cloven, and Muspell’s sons, led by Surt,
ride forth, fire preceding and following them. They ride to a
field Vigrid, and there come also the Fenris-wolf, the Midgard-
serpent, Loki, Hrym, and the Frost-giants. The people of


COSMOGONY AND DOOM OF THE GODS 341

Hel follow Loki. Heimdall blows his horn. Odin rides to
Mimir’s well to take counsel with him. Yggdrasil trembles:
all in Heaven and earth are in fear. The Aisir arm themselves
and ride to the field, with all the Einherjar from Valhall. Odin
is in front, with golden helmet, birnie, and spear. Thor is beside
him, but cannot aid him against the Fenris-wolf, as he must en-
counter the Midgard-serpent. The watch-dog of Hel, Garm,
is loose, doing battle with Tyr, each slaying the other. Thor
slays the Serpent, strides away nine paces, and falls dead, over-
come by its venom. Frey fights with Surt and falls, for he lacks
his sword, having given it to Skirnir. The Wolf swallows
Odin, but Vidarr sets one foot on its lower jaw, and with his
hand seizes the upper jaw, and tears them in two. Loki fights
with Heimdall, and each slays the other. Surt then throws fire
over the earth and burns it up. 66

Snorri gives details not in V oluspa , e.g., Tyr’s fight with
Garm, and Heimdall’s with Loki. He incorporates some inci-
dents from V ajthrudnismal which also contains some notices of
the Doom, viz., the field Vigrid, Njord’s return to the Vanir
before the end, the mighty winter which Lif and Lifthrasir sur-
vive, the swallowing of the sun, the fires of Surt, Odin’s death
by the Wolf, its slaying by Vidarr, and Thor’s end. 67

In spite of the large muster of forces, only a few are de-
scribed as actual combatants — on one side Odin, Thor, Tyr,
Heimdall, Frey, and Vidarr 5 on the other the Wolf, the Ser-
pent, Garm, Loki, and Surt. No account of the participation of
other gods or of the Einherjar is given. Some of these pairs of
opponents are found in hostility to each other in non-eschato-
logical myths — Thor and the Serpent, Heimdall and Loki.

The Doom is known to the poets who wrote Baldrs Draumar
and Grimnismal. In the former the sibyl tells Odin that none
shall seek her till Loki is free from his bonds and the destroyers
come to the Doom of the gods. In the latter Thor is to dwell in
Thrudheim i till the gods are destroyed ’ — a phrase used also
in V ajthrudnismal.™ Some of the skaldic poems also refer to


342


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


it. In Eiriksmal Odin speaks of the time not being known when
the grey Wolf shall come upon the seat of the gods. In Hakon-
armal are the words: ‘ the Fenris-wolf shall be let loose on
mankind ere such a good king as Hakon shall arise.’ Verses by
Kormak ( c . 935 a.d.) say: £ the earth shall sink, the mountains
drop into the sea ’ before such a fair woman as Steingud shall
be born. Arnor Iarlaskald ( c . 1065 a.d.) wrote: ‘the bright
sun shall turn black, the earth sink into the dark sea, the dwarfs’
burden (Heaven) shall be rent, the sea rush up over the hills,
ere such a one as Thorfinn shall be born.’ These references are
in conformity with the Eddie account. In the story of the
Hjadnings’ battle, it is said that the fight will continue till the
Doom of the gods; and when the maiden saw the dead Helgi
and his men riding to their barrow, she cried: ‘ Is this the Doom
of the gods, that dead men ride? ’ 09

How far Christian influences have coloured or moulded the
ideas and incidents of the world catastrophe is problematical.
Different critics assume more or less of such influence. While
here and there echoes of Scriptural language and incidents may
be found, the conception as a whole seems original, or at least
based on native folk-lore and eschatological myths. Parallels
from other mythologies exist, but it does not follow that there
was borrowing from these. The swallowing of the sun by a
monster is a wide-spread myth. Iranian mythology has a par-
allel to the mighty winter in its eschatology — the devastation
caused by the rain of Malkosh, when most of mankind die of ex-
cessive cold, snow, and famine. Rydberg and others regard the
Iranian and Eddie myths as examples of an old Indo-Germanic
belief. 70 The belief in the world’s destruction by water and fire
existed among the Celts, apart from Christian influence. There
are classical references to this belief among the Celts, and it
exists in native Irish documents. The prophecy of the War-
goddess Badb about evils to come and the end of the world, and
that of Fercertne in The Colloquy of the Two Sages have a cer-
tain likeness to the prophecy of Doom in Volus-pa . 71


COSMOGONY AND DOOM OF THE GODS 343

One point requires further elucidation. Snorri says that the
sons of Muspell ride with Surt at their head over Bifrost bridge.
At the end of the conflict the fires of Surt consume the world.
He has already spoken of the southern region of fire, Muspell or
Muspellheim, at whose frontiers sits Surt waiting to go forth
against the gods and destroy the world with fire. Muspell has
the largest ship, Naglfar. From the sparks flowing out of Mus-
pell, the gods made the chariot of the sun and the lights of
Heaven. 72

Two passages only of the Poetic Edda mention Muspell.
Loki told Frey that when the sons of Muspell ride through
Myrkwood he will be weaponless. In V oluspa the manuscripts
have the reading £ the people of Muspell,’ which is corrected by
critics to £ the people of Hel.’ ,3 Bifrost is spoken of twice. In
Fajnismal the gods assemble at Oskopnir ( £ the not yet created,’
perhaps another name for Vigrid) to meet Surt, and Bifrost
breaks down as they cross it. Elsewhere it is the hosts of Surt
who break it down. A stanza in Grimnismal speaks of Thor
wading through rivers, for Bifrost burns in flame. This may
either refer to the time of Doom or express a myth of the
sun’s reappearance after thunder when the rainbow-bridge
seems to be on fire.' 4.

Is Muspell a word originating from pagan or from Chris-
tian conceptions? Grimm says that in it £ we find another strik-
ing proof of the prevalence of Old Norse conceptions all over
Teutondom.’ 15 The word occurs in the Saxon Heliand: 1 the
power of mudspelli fares over men,’ and £ mudspelli comes in
dark night as a thief.’ The reference is to the Day of Judg-
ment j and a Bavarian poem says of the fire which burns up the
world: £ no friend can help another for the muspillid ,6 Thus
the word refers to a world conflagration as in the Eddas. Did it
first betoken the fire as a Christian conception, or was it orig-
inally applied to a similar pagan conception? Opinions are
sharply divided here, as also on the root-meaning of the word.
Grimm takes it to mean 1 fire,’ its component parts being mud ,


344


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


mu, ‘ earth,’ ‘ wood,’ ‘ tree,’ and spilli, cognate with ON spilla,
1 destroy ’: hence the word is an epithet of fire. Others connect
spilli with OHG and AS spell, 1 prophecy,’ and regard mud as a
Latin loan-word from mundus — hence £ a prophecy of the
world,’ viz., of its end. In this sense the word, originating from
Christian preaching about the end of the world by fire, took
root in Teutonic thought and passed to Scandinavia . 77 Other
derivations have been suggested and there is a copious literature
on the subject . 78

[Prometheus]

There is every likelihood that the destruction of the world by
fire was a native conception, as in other mythologies, though
Christian influences may have worked upon it. The Poetic
Edda personifies the agents of destruction as £ Muspell’s sons,’
i.e., spirits of fire or Fire-giants. Fire may have been person-
ified as a giant called ‘ Muspellr.’ ,0 Snorri then gives the con-
ception of a southern region of fire, Muspell or Muspellneim,
whether this originated with him or not. The destruction of the
world by fire was a Celtic conception, as has been seen, and this
may have passed from Celts to Teutons or have been a belief
common to both.

Why a myth of the destruction of the gods should have origi-
nated in Scandinavia is uncertain. It does not appear to signify
the defeat of Norse gods by the Christian religion, for there is
no trace of such a conception in the sources. We cannot even
say that it arose out of a weakening of the old religion among
the people. They were still firmly attached to it when Chris-
tianity appeared in the North. The best parallel to it is found
in Scandinavian mythology itself (as in Greek) — the destruc-
tion of the older race of giants by the gods.

THE RENEWAL OF THE WORLD

The gods are gone, men destroyed, the earth sunk in the sea
or burned, but now appears a new world. This is the theme of
the final stanzas of Voluspa:


COSMOGONY AND DOOM OF THE GODS 345

‘ Now I see for a second time
Earth in fresh green rise from the sea;

The cataracts fall, the eagle flies,

He catches fish from the rocks.

The ALsir assemble on Ithavoll,

They speak of the mighty earth-engirdler,

They recall the mighty events of the past,

And the ancient-runes of Fimbul-tyr.

Then once more will the wonderful
Golden tables be found in the grass,

Which once in old time the gods possessed.

On fields unsown will fruits spring forth,

All evils vanish; Balder comes back.

Hod and Balder dwell in Hropt’s battle-hall,

The hall of the mighty Battle-gods.

Then can Hoenir choose the prophetic wand.

The sons of the brothers of Tveggi abide
In spacious Vindheim. Would ye know yet more?

A hall I see, brighter than the sun,

O’erlaid with gold, on Gimle stand;

There dwell for ever the righteous hosts,

Enjoying delights eternally.

From on high comes a Mighty One
To the great judgment, ruling all.

From below the dark dragon flies,

The glistening snake from Nithaf j oil ;

On his wings bears Nidhogg, flying o’er the plain,

The corpses of men. Now must I sink .’ 80

There is thus a new earth without ills, where fruits unsown
ripen — a typical Elysian or Golden Age world. Some of the
gods return — those who were not destroyed, Balder, Hod,
Hoenir, the sons of Tveggi’s (‘ the Twofold,’ Odin) brothers,
of whom nothing is known. They speak of the things of the
past, of the Midgard-serpent, of Odin’s runes (Fimbul-tyr,
£ the mighty god ’). They find the golden tables on which the


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


346

gods had once played a kind of draughts in the Golden Age
(cf. v. 8 : £ In their home at peace they played at tables ’). The
mysterious £ Mighty One ’ is almost certainly a borrowing from
Christianity, just as the hall on Gimle is a reflexion of the Chris-
tian Heaven. The final stanza about Nidhogg is apparently
not in its right place. Its last words, however, belong to the
end of the poem, and refer to the Volva, who, having delivered
her prophecy, sinks back whence she came. Some have taken
the verse as meaning that the dragon tries to rise, but is de-
feated and sinks for ever. This is unlikely, and £ she must sink ’
= £ I must sink ’) refers to the seeress.

Hyndluljod also speaks of the High God to come:

‘ There comes another, a Mightier,

Yet dare I never his name forthtell;

Few are they who can further see
Than when Odin shall meet the Wolf.’ 81

The new world, as well as other details, is known to the poet of
V df thrudnismal. During the mighty winter Lif and Lifthrasir
survive. The sun (Alfrodull) will bear a daughter ere the
Wolf swallows her, and this daughter will follow her mother’s
ways when the Powers fall. Odin then enquires about the
maidens who shall fare over the sea. Vafthrudnir’s reply shows
that three throngs of maidens descend over Mogthrasir’s
dwelling-place. They will be guardian spirits to men, though
they come of giant stock. These are perhaps kindly Norns.
The giant then tells Odin that, after Surt’s fires have sunk,
Vidarr and Vali shall dwell in the realm of the gods, and Modi
and Magni, sons of Thor, shall have his hammer Mj ollnir. 82 In
this forecast of the new world, there is a further conception. Lif
and Lifthrasir ( £ Life ’ and £ Vitality ’), progenitors of a new
race of men, are hidden in Mimir’s grove, possibly Yggdrasil if
Mimameid, £ Mimir’s tree,’ mentioned in Svifidagsmal, is the
World-tree. This corresponds to the Iranian myth of the vara
or £ enclosure ’ of Yima, the first mortal, whose reign is a Golden
Age. He was commanded to make this vara and fill it with

































PLATE XL VI I
Anglo-Saxon Draughtsmen

Draughtsmen, of horses’ teeth, beginning of seventh
century. From a set of sixty-three pieces found at
King’s Field, Faversham, Kent, now in the British
Museum.

Another set, of the same date but of more elaborate
technique, found in a tumulus at Taplow, Bucking-
hamshire, and now in the British Museum. These
illustrate the passages in V olusfa regarding the game
of tables played by the Gods. See pp. 345—46.

From photographs, by permission of the British
Museum authorities.


Hi






COSMOGONY AND DOOM OF THE GODS 347

happy mortals, who will repeople the earth after the devastating
winter has passed. 83 There will be a new sun, and certain gods
will reappear, their names differing from those in Volusia. The
giant maidens who act as guardian spirits, presumably to the
dwellers on the new earth, descend over Mogthrasir’s 1 thorp 1
or dwelling-place; and, as Boer suggests, Mogthrasir , 1 he who
desires sons,’ may be the same as Lif, progenitor of the new
race. 84

Snorri combines the V oluspa and V af thru dnismal passages in
his account of the new world. But he adds a description of
places of bliss and punishment, and here, as we have seen, he
seems to have misunderstood his sources. 85

Apart from the reference to Gimle, which appears to be for
the righteous dead, the poems say nothing about the lot of the
dead in the renewed world.