Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

The fact that a dead man sat á nornastóli or á Helpalli 19 without having a
hamingja to defend him doubtless was regarded by the gods as a conclusive proof that he
had been a criminal.
If we may judge from a heathen expression preserved in strophe 16 of Atlakviða,
and there used in an arbitrary manner, then the hamingjur who were "cut off" from their
unworthy favorites continue to feel sorrow and sympathy for them to the last. The
expression is nornir gráta nái, "the norns (hamingjur) bewail the náir." If the námæli, the
ná-dictum, the sentence to Niflhel which turns dead criminals into náir, in the
eschatological sense of the word, has been announced, the judgment is attended with
tears on the part of the former guardian-spirits of the convicts. This corresponds, at all
events, with the character of the hamingjur.
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 Valhall when they ride
across Bifröst, and sends Aesir or einherjes to meet them with a goblet of mead at
Asgard's gate (Eiríksmál, Hákonarmál). But on the way there has been a separation of the
good and bad elements among them. Those who have no hamingjur must wait, á
nornastóli, 20 for the next Thing-day and their judgment. The Christian age well
remembered that brave warriors who had committed nithing acts did not come to Valhall
(see Hakon Jarl's words in Njáls Saga, ch. 88). 21 The heathen records confirm that men
slain by the sword who had lived a wicked life were sent to the world of torture (see
Harald Harfagri's saga, ch. 27 - the verses about the viking Thorir Wood-beard, who fell
in a naval battle with Einar Rognvaldson, and who had been a scourge to the
Orkneyings). 22
The high court must have judged very leniently in regard to certain human faults
and frailties. Sitting long by and looking diligently into the drinking-horn certainly did
not lead to any punishment worth mentioning. The same was the case with fondness for
female beauty, if care was taken not to meddle with the sacred ties of matrimony. With a
pleasing frankness, and with much humor, the Asa-father has told to the children of men
adventures which he himself has had in that line. He warns against too much drinking,
but admits without reservation and hypocrisy that he himself once was drunk, nay, very
drunk, at Fjalar's, and what he had to suffer, on account of his uncontrollable longing for
Billing's maid, should be a hint to men not to judge each other too severely in such
matters (see Hávamál). All the less he will do so as judge. Those who are summoned to
the Thing, and against whom there are no other charges, may surely count on a good orðs
tírr, if in other respects they have conducted themselves in accordance with the wishes of
Odin and his associate judges: if they have lived lives free from deceit, honorable,
helpful, and without fear of death. This, in connection with respect for the gods, for the
temples, for their duties to kindred and to the dead, is the alpha and the omega of the
heathen Germanic moral code, and the sure way to Hel's regions of bliss and to Valhall.
19 Egilsson, Lexicon Poeticum: "hellpallr, Hel's bench, falla á helpalla, to die. Sörlaþ."
20 "on the Norn's seats."
21 In regard to Hrapp, who had burnt a heathen temple and stripped the idols of their riches, Hakon says:
"The gods are in no haste to seek vengeance, the man who did this shall be driven out of Valhalla forever."
(Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson translation)
22 Þá gaf hann Tréskegg tröllum, "he gave Tree-beard to the Trolls."