Viktor Rydberg

“ They traverse deep and dark valleys, and come to a thorn-grown plain against whose pricks Hel-shoes protect those who were merciful in their life on earth, and thence to the river mixed with blood, which in its eddies whirls weapons and must be waded over by the wicked, but can be crossed by the good on the drift-wood which floats on the river. When this river is crossed the way of the dead leads southward to the thingstead of the gods. ”

“ With judges on the one hand who, in spite of all their loftiness, and with all their superhuman keenness, nevertheless are not infallible, and with defendants on the other hand whose tongues refuse to serve them, it might happen, if there were no proofs and witnesses, that a judgment, everlasting in its operations, not founded on exhaustive knowledge and on well-considered premises, might be proclaimed. But the judgment on human souls proclaimed by their final irrevocable fate could not in the sight of the pious and believing bear the stamp of uncertain justice. ”

“ A terrible winter threatened to destroy everything on the surface of the earth. Then the ruler of the lower world built on his domain a well-fortified citadel, within which neither destructive storms, nor physical ills, nor moral evil, nor sickness, nor aging, nor death can come. Thither he transferred the best and fairest human beings to be found on earth, and decorated the enclosed garden with the most beautiful and useful trees and plants. ”

“ When the pretended lover has seated himself in the golden high-seat, a conversation begins around the banquet table. It is necessary for Odin to guard well his words, for he represents another person, well known there, and if he is not cautious he may be discovered. It is also necessary to be eloquent and winning, so that he may charm Gunlad and secure her devotion, for without her knowledge he cannot gain his end, that of carrying away the supply of inspiration-mead kept at Suttung's. ”

“ Warriors who have not fallen on the battlefield are as much entitled to Asgard as those fallen by the sword, provided they as heroes have acquired fame and honour. It might, of course, happen to the greatest general and the most distinguished hero, the conqueror in hundreds of battles, that he might die from sickness or an accident, while, on the other hand, it might be that a man who never wielded a sword in earnest might fall on the field of battle before he had given a blow. ”

“ The genuine mythical conception was, however, that the thunder which purifies the atmosphere and fertilises the thirsty earth with showers of rain, or strikes down the foes of Midgard, came from Thor; while that which splinters the sacred trees, sets fire to the woods and houses, and kills men that have not offended the gods, came from the foes of the world. ”

“ And as all symbols, in the same manner as the lightning which becomes Thor's hammer, in the mythology become epic-pragmatic realities, so this symbol becomes to the imagination a real mill, which operates deep down in the sea and causes the phenomena which it symbolizes. ”

“ But that the mythology presumed the existence of such a world follows already from the fact that Urd's fountain, which gives the warmth of life to the world-tree, must have had its deepest fountain there, just as Hvergelmer has its in the world of primeval cold, and Mimer has his fountain in that wisdom which unites the opposites and makes them work together in a cosmic world. ”

“ But on the dictum of the court of death it depends [Pg 511] where the dead person is to find his haven. The judgment, although not pronounced on the hamingje, touches her most closely. When the most important of all questions, that of eternal happiness or unhappiness, is to be determined in regard to her favourite, she must be there where her duty and inclination bid her be—with him whose guardian-spirit she is. The great question for her is whether she is to continue to share his fate or not. During his earthly life she has always defended him. ”

“ But the violence of the father does not appear externally in the son's character. He long prepares the conflagration of the world in secret, and not until he is put in chains does he exhibit, by the earthquakes he produces, the wild passion of his giant nature. ”

“ The giantesses, whose names are Fenja and Menja, grind on the mill gold and safety for King Frode, and good-will among men for his kingdom. But when Frode, hardened by greed for gold, refuses them the necessary rest from their toils, they grind fire and death upon him, and give the mill so great speed that the mill-stone breaks into pieces, and the foundation is crushed under its weight. ”

“ They who are frightened when a giant-monster—a most dangerous one, as it hitherto had been chained—gets free from its fetters, and they whose fright is allayed when the monster is destroyed in the conflagration of the world, such beings can impossibly follow this monster and its fellow warriors with their good wishes. ”

“ A hymn of sacrifice, dedicated to the sacred mead, the liquid of inspiration (homa, the soma and soma-madhu [Pg 382] of the Rigveda-Aryans, the last word being the same as our word mead) , relates that Jima and his father were the first to prepare the mead of inspiration for the material world; that he, Jima, was the richest in honour of all who had been born, and that he of all mortals most resembled the sun. In his kingdom there was neither cold nor heat, neither frost nor drought, neither aging nor death. A father by the side of his son resembled, like the son, a youth of fifteen years. ”

“ Among them those forces are active which make the starry firmament revolve on its axis, and from them come the seasons and the divisions of time, for Nat and nidjar, Mane and Sol, belong to Mimer's clan, and were in the morning of creation named by the oldest "high holy gods," and endowed with the vocation árom at telja (Völuspa) . From Mimer comes the first culture, for in his fountain inspiration, spiritual power, man's wit and wisdom, have their source, and around him as chief stand gathered the artists of antiquity by whose hands all things can be smithied into living and wonderful things. ”

“ It is more than unnecessary to imagine that the lower world with this Paradise was duplicated by another with a similar Paradise, and that the living creatures on the former were by some magic manipulation transferred to the latter. Mythology has its miracles, but it also has its logic. ”

“ The giant maid, deceived and deplored by Odin, is consequently the daughter of Surt's son.
Light is thus shed on the myth concerning the giant who reappears in Ragnarok, and there wields the sword which fells Frey and hurls the flames which consume the world. It is found to be connected with the myth concerning the oldest events of mythology. In time's morning we find the fire-being Surt—the representative of subterranean fire—as a creative force by the side of Mimer, who is a friend of the gods, and whose kinsman he must be as a descendant of Ymer. ”

“ Skirner rides over damp fells and the fields of giants, leaps, after a quarrel with the watchman of Gymer's citadel, over the fence, comes in to Gerd, is welcomed with ancient mead, and presents his errand of courtship, supported by the eleven golden apples. Gerd refuses both the apples and the object of the errand. Skirner then offers her the most precious treasure, the ring Draupnir, but in vain. Then he resorts to threats. He exhibits the sword so dangerous to her kinsmen ”

“ Heimdal's antithesis in all respects, and therefore also his constant opponent in the mythological epic, is Loke, he too a fire-being, but representing another side of this element. Natural agents such as fire, water, wind, cold, heat, and thunder have in the Teutonic mythology a double aspect. When they work in harmony, each within the limits which are fixed by the welfare of the world and the happiness of man, then they are sacred forces and are represented by the gods. ”

“ It is also a beautiful poetic thought that it is the elf of the morning dawn—he outside of whose door the song of awakening and bliss is sung to the world—who has been appointed to watch those who in the dawn of a new world shall people the earth with virtuous and happy races. That the ásmegir in the lower world are permitted to enjoy the society of Balder is explained by the fact that Lif and Leifthraser and their offspring are after Ragnarok to accompany Balder to dwell under his sceptre, and live a blameless life corresponding to his wishes. ”

“ What the Aryan-Asiatic myth here given has in common with the Teutonic one concerning the subterranean persons in Mimer's grove can be summarised in the following words:
The lower world has a ruler, who does not belong to the group of immortal celestial beings, but enjoys the most friendly relations with the godhead, and is the possessor of great wisdom. In his kingdom flow inexhaustible fountains, and a tree grown out of its soil spreads its foliage over his dwelling, where he serves the mead of inspiration, which the gods are fond of and which he was the first to prepare. ”

“ It should also have been regarded as a matter of course that the judgment which, according to the Havamál strophe (77) , is passed on everyone dead, and which itself never dies, must have been prepared by a court whose decision could not be questioned or set aside, and that the judgment must have been one whose influence is eternal, for the infinity of the judgment itself can only depend on the infinity of its operation. ”

“ But from each person who is left unburied, or is put into his grave without being, when possible, washed, combed, cleaned as to hands and feet, and so cared for that his appearance may be a favorable evidence to the judges at the Thing of the dead in regard to his survivors—from each such person comes building material for the death-ship, which is to carry the hosts of world-destroyers to the great conflict. Much building material is accumulated in the last days—in the "dagger-and-axe age," when "men no longer respect each other" (Völuspa) . ”

“ The heathen fancy shrank from the idea of a knowledge able of itself to embrace all, the greatest and the least, that which has been, is doing, and shall be in the world of thoughts, purposes, and deeds. It hesitated at all events to endow its gods made in the image of man with omniscience. ”

“ Those fallen on the battlefield are not brought to the fountain of Urd while the Thing is in session. This follows from the fact that Odin is in Valhal when they ride across Bifrost, and sends Asas or einherjes to meet them with the goblet of mead at Asgard's gate (Eiriksm., Hakonarmal) . But on the way there has been a separation of the good and bad elements among them. Those who have no hamingjes must, á nornastóli, wait for the next Thing-day and their judgment. ”

“ Although the Teutonic gods are in a constant, more or less violent conflict with the powers of frost, still winter, when it observes its limits of time, is not an evil but a good divinity, and the cold liquids of Hvergelmer mixed with those of Urd's and Mimer's fountains are necessary to the world-tree. Still less could night be referred to the domain of demons. Mother Nat never transgresses the borders of her power; she never defies the sacred laws, which are established for the order of the universe. ”

“ The moon-god, like Nat, Dag, and Sol, is by birth and abode a lower-world divinity. As such, he too had his importance in the Teutonic eschatology. The god who on his journeys on "Nokve's holy way" serves auldom at ártali (Vafthrudnersmal, 23) by measuring out to men time in phases of the moon, in months, and in years has, in the mythology also, received a certain influence in inflicting suffering and punishment on sinners. ”

“ Urd and her sisters are beings of high rank, but nevertheless they are of giant descent, like Mimer. The power they have is immense; and on a closer investigation we find how the mythology in more than one way has sought to maintain in the fancy of its believers the independence (at least apparent and well defined, within certain limits) of the gods—an independence united with the high rank which they have. It may have been for this very reason that the youngest of the dises of fate, Skuld, was selected as [Pg 488] a valkyrie, and as a maid-servant both of Odin and of her sister Urd. ”

“ Thus, Nide's mountains are situated on Mimer's fields. Völuspa's seeress discovers on the rejuvenated earth Nidhog, the corpse-eating demon of the lower world, flying, with dead bodies under his wings, away from the rocks, where he from time immemorial had had his abode, and from which he carried his prey to Nastrands (Völusp., 39) . There are no more dead bodies to be had for him, and his task is done. ”

“ When daylight again falls on him from the mythic fragments extant, his son has captured and is in possession of a supply of mead, which must originally have come from Mimer's fountain, and been chiefly composed of its liquid, for it is skaldic mead, it too, and can also be designated as Ódrærir (Havamál, 107) , while the son is called "the mead-wolf," the one who has robbed and conceals the precious drink. Odin captures his mead by cunning, the grandson of the fire-giant is slain, the devoted love of the son's daughter is betrayed, and the husband selected for her is deceived and removed. ”

“ But it is no less certain from all the evidences we have from the heathen time, that honourable life was preferred to honourable death, although between the wars there was a chance of death from sickness. Under these circumstances, the mythical eschatology could not have made death from disease an insurmountable obstacle for warriors and heroes on their way to Valhal. In the ancient records there is not the faintest allusion to such an idea. It is too absurd to have existed. ”

“ We have already found giantesses, nine in number, mentioned as having their activity on the outer edge of the earth—namely, those who with the möndull, the handle, turn the vast friction-mechanism, the world-mill of Mundilfore. They are the níu brúdir of Eyludr, "the Isle-grinder" mentioned by Snæbjorn (see above) . These nine giant-maids, who along the outer zone of the earth (fyrir jordar skauti) push the mill's sweep before themselves and grind the coasts of the islands, are the same nine giant-maids who on the outer zone of the earth gave birth to Heimdal, the god of the friction-fire. ”

“ THE WORLD-MILL (continued) . THE ORIGIN OF THE SACRED FIRE THROUGH MUNDILFORE. HEIMDAL THE PERSONIFICATION OF THE SACRED FIRE. HIS IDENTITY WITH RIGVEDA'S AGNI. HIS ANTITHESIS, LOKE, ALSO A FIRE-BEING.
Among the tasks to be performed by the world-mill there is yet another of the greatest importance. According to a belief which originated in ancient Aryan times, a fire is to be judged as to purity and holiness by its origin. There are different kinds of fire more or less pure and holy, and a fire which is holy as to its origin may become corrupted by contact with improper elements. ”

“ All the inhabitants on Hel's elysian fields accordingly are the ásmegir, and the women, children, and the agents of the [Pg 445] peaceful arts who have died during countless centuries, and who unused to the sword, have no place in the ranks of the einherjes, and therefore with the anxiety of those waiting abide the issue of the conflict. Such is the background and contents of the Völuspa strophe. This would long since have been understood, had not the doctrine constructed by Gylfaginning in regard to the lower world, with Troy as the starting-point, bewildered the judgment. ”