Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

life. Hades-images of those things which kinsmen and friends placed in the gravemounds
accompany the dead (Hákonarmál 13; Gylfaginning 49 ) 10 as evidence to the
judge that they enjoyed the devotion and respect of their survivors. The appearance
presented by the shades assembled in the Thing indicates to what extent the survivors
heed the law, which commands respect for the dead and care for the ashes of the
departed.
Many die under circumstances which make it impossible for their kinsmen to
observe these duties. Then strangers should take the place of kindred. The condition in
which these shades come to the Thing shows best whether piety prevails in Midgard; for
noble minds take to heart the advices found as follows in Sigurdrífumál 33-34: "Render
the last service to the corpses you find on the ground, whether from sickness they have
died, or are drowned, or are from weapons dead. Make a bath for those who are dead,
wash their hands and their head, comb them and wipe them dry, before you lay them in
the coffin, and pray for their happy sleep."
It was, however, not necessary to wipe the blood from off the byrnie and sword of
one fallen by weapons. It was not improper for the elect to make their entrance in Valhall
in bloody armor. Eyvind Skaldaspillir makes King Hakon come all stained with blood
(allur í dreyra drifinn) into the presence of Odin.
When the gods have arrived from Asgard, dismounted from their horses
(Gylfaginning) and taken their judges' seats, the proceedings begin, for the dead are then
in their places, and we may be sure that their psychopomps have not been slow on their
Thing-journey. Somewhere on the way the Hel-shoes must have been tried; those who
ride to Valhall must then have been obliged to dismount. The popular tradition first
pointed out by Walter Scott and J. Grimm about the need of such shoes for the dead and
about a thorn-grown heath, which they have to cross, is not of Christian but of heathen
origin. Those who have shown mercy to fellow-men that in this life, in a figurative sense,
had to travel thorny paths, do not need to fear torn shoes and bloody feet (W. Scott,
Minstrelsy, II.); and when they are seated on Urd's benches, their very shoes are, by their
condition, a conspicuous proof in the eyes of the court that they who have exercised
mercy are worthy of mercy. 11
The Norse tradition preserved in Gisla saga Surssonar in regard to the importance
for the dead to be provided with shoes reappears as a popular tradition, first in England,
and then several places (Müllenhoff, Deutsche Altertumskunde. 5. 1, 114; J. Grimm.,
Deutsche Myth., III. Ch. 26 and the Supplement in volume IV; Karl Weinhold,
Altnordisches leben 494; Mannhardt in Zeitschreift für deutsch. Myth., IV. 420; Karl
Simrock, Myth., v. 127). Visio Godeschalci 12 describes a journey which the pious
10 The reference in Gylfaginning is to the objects Baldur and Nanna give to Hermod to bring back to
Asgard for Odin and Frigg. In Hákonarmál, upon his arrival in Valhall, Hakon speaks of keeping his armor,
his helmet and coat of mail.
11 Sir Walter Scott Minstrely II, 357 "They are of belief, that once in their lives it is good to give a pair of
new shoes to a poor man, forasmuch as after this life they are to pass barefoot through a great land of
thorns and furzen, except by the merit of the alms aforesaid they have redeeemed the forfeit; for at the edge
of the land an old man shall meet them with the same shoes that were given by the party when he was
living and after he has shod them, dismisses them to go through thick and thin without scratch or scathe."
12 The most recent edition of this work, published in German is Godeschalcus und Visio Godeschalci. Mit
deutscherÜbersetzung hrsg. von Erwin Assmann. Neumünster: Wachholtz Verl. 1979. (Quellen und
Forschungen zur Geschichte Schleswig-Holsteins. Vol. 74) ISBN 3-529-02174-1