Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

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make one desire to remain in Gudmund's realm (Book 8 - amissa memoria . . . pocalis abstinendum edocuit). 23 Guðrúnarkviða in forna 21 places the drinking-horn of the lower world in Grimhild's hands. In connection with later additions, the description of this horn and its contents contains purely mythical and very instructive details in regard to the pharmakon nepenthes 24 of the <strong>Germanic</strong> lower world. Færði mér Grímhildur full að drekka svalt og sárlegt, né eg sakar mundag; það var um aukið Urðar magni, svalköldum sæ og Sónar dreyra. Voru í horni hverskyns stafir ristnir og roðnir, ráða eg né máttag, lyngfiskur langur lands Haddingja, ax óskorið, innleið dýra. "Grimhild handed me in a filled horn to drink a cool, bitter drink, in order that I might forget my past afflictions. This drink was prepared from Urd's strength, cool-cold sea, and the liquor of Son." "On the horn were all kinds of staves engraved and painted, which I could not interpret: the Hadding-land's long heath-fish, unharvested ears of grain, and animals' entrances." The Hadding-land is, as Sveinbjörn Egilsson has already pointed out, a paraphrase of the lower world. The paraphrase is based on the mythic account known and mentioned by Saxo in regard to Hadding's journey in Hel's realm (see No. 47). Heath-fish is a paraphrase of the usual sort for serpent, dragon. Thus a lowerworld dragon was engraved on the horn. More than one of the kind has been mentioned already: Nidhogg, who has his abode in Niflhel, and the dragon, which, according to Erik Vidforli's saga, obstructs the way to Odain's-acre. The dragon engraved on the horn is that of the Hadding-land. Hadding-land, on the other hand, does not mean the whole lower world, but the regions of bliss visited by Hadding. Thus the dragon is of the type that Erik Vidförli's saga had in mind. That the author did not himself invent his dragon, but found it in mythic records extant at the time, is demonstrated by Sólarljóð 54, where 23 "For if they partook of that food they would lose recollection of all things, and must live forever in filthy intercourse amongst ghastly hordes of monsters." Elton tr. 24 "potion of forgetfulness"
it is said that an immense subterranean dragon comes flying from the west (Vestan sá eg fljúga Vánar dreka) 25 - the opposite direction of that the shades have to take when they descend into the lower world - and obstruct "the street of the prince of splendor" (glævalds götu). The ruler of splendor is Mimir, the prince of the Glittering Fields (see Nos. 45-51). 26 The Hadding-land's "unharvested ears of grain" belong to the flora inaccessible to the devastations of frost, the flowers seen by Hadding in the blooming meadows of the world below (see No. 47). The expression refers to the fact that the Hadding-land has not only imperishable flowers and fruits, but also fields of grain which do not require harvesting. Compare this with what Völuspá 63 says about the Odain's-acre 27 which in the regeneration of the earth rises from the lap of the sea: "unsown shall the fields yield the grain" (munu ósánir akrar vaxa). Beside the heath-fish and the unharvested ears of grain, there were also seen on the Hadding-land horn innleið dýra. Some interpreters assume that "animal entrails" are meant by this expression; others have translated it with "animal gaps." 28 There is no authority that innleið ever meant entrails, nor could it be so used in a rhetorical-poetical sense, except by a very poor poet. Where we meet with the word it means a way, a way in, in contrast with útleið, a way out. As both Gorm's saga and that of Erik Vidfórli use it in regard to animals watching entrances in the lower world this gives the expression its natural interpretation. So much for the staves carved on the horn. They all refer to the lower world. Now as to the drink which is mixed in this Hades-horn. It consists of three liquids: 25 "From the west I saw Ván's dragon's fly" Thorpe translation. According to Gylfaginning 34, Ván is the river pouring from Fenrir's open mouth. 26 Referring to Rydberg's identification of Mimir with Gudmund of Glasirvellir. 27 "The field of the not-dead," the home of Lif and Lifthrasir in the lower world. 28 The dictionaries do not agree on the meaning of ínnleið. The La Farge-Tucker Glossary of the Poetic Edda (1992) defines inn-leið as entrance, and innleið dýra as "the jaws of animals," after Hugo Gering (1927-31), or "the intestines of animals," after Hugo Gering (1903); Ferdinand Detter and Richard Heinzel (1903) noting both as uncertain.
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Undersökningar i Germanisk Mytolog
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myth, we shall discover an Erik who
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y a sacred order unlawful for the f
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there, the woman brought him to a p
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That these last ideas have been inf
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The river which is mentioned in Eri
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egg and the egg-shell." Also the ro
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conscious cunning. Nevertheless, he
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51 GUDMUND'S IDENTITY WITH MIMIR. T
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egins. They have explained Mimir's
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elapse into the faults of the forme
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and Leifthrasir were still remember
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the ásmegir demands that he must h
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immortality. In the Germanic mythol
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In the Norse sagas of the Middle Ag
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journey around the world. From a my
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There can be no doubt that "the ás
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Hakon's men are designated in the s
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which calls them ásliðar, a word
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youth of fifteen years. The evil cr
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square, to be an abode for men; an
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there comes a great conflagration a
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carried his prey to Nastrond (Völu
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In regard to the position of Yggdra
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giants, Niflhel, Niflheim, extends
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6. Under the third (subterranean) r
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Hades, the middle condition, and th
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2. Reið hann niður þaðan Niflhe
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In Grímnismál, the word Hel occur
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first cross a river and then come t
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creative force, over which the "ove
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Page 71 and 72: One of the signs that Ragnarok and
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Page 75 and 76: While a terrible winter is raging,
Page 77 and 78: dead) beings called ásmegir and á
Page 79 and 80: in the dialects of several Germanic
Page 81 and 82: As maid-servants under Urd, there a
Page 83 and 84: 30; Grímnismál 36; Skáldskaparm
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Page 89 and 90: THE CHOOSING. THE MIDDLE-AGE FABLE
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Page 93 and 94: In our mythical records there is me
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Page 97 and 98: dead. Another road went to the sout
Page 99 and 100: The Aesir go to the thingstead near
Page 101 and 102: unes which Hadding applied were car
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Page 105 and 106: In Völuspá 26 orð is employed in
Page 107 and 108: To understand this strophe correctl
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Page 111 and 112: The hamingja hears of it before any
Page 113: He who has observed these virtues m
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Page 121 and 122: uttering a sound; but, when the spi
Page 123 and 124: Their way from Urd's well goes to t
Page 125 and 126: grotto" - reka einn fyrir Geitis gn
Page 127 and 128: is also Saxo's statement, that the
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Page 131 and 132: Saxo further says that the floor is
Page 133 and 134: Codex Regius (36) A fellr austan vm
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Page 137 and 138: There are at least three caves of t
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Page 145 and 146: Vafþrúðnismál does not mean a w
Page 147 and 148: In its character as an institution
Page 149 and 150: According to Sólarljóð, the mill
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Page 157 and 158: Point by point the descriptions of
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22). During the war between the Aes
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85. NARFI, NOTT'S FATHER, IDENTICAL
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Tveggja bága Njörva nipt á nesi
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(e) As the father of Nott, living i
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The discrepancy shows that the auth
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patronymic or, in other respects, o
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The two fundamental ideas of the my
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the quoted Vafþrúðnismál stroph
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"mortals" can scarcely cross its th
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Though Völund is in the highest de
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The names, epithets, and paraphrase
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former. The name mjötviður, with
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103, 104) that on this occasion he
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concerned, from the expression að
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Ölvaldi, Ölmóður, and Sumbli fi
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Mimir and Urd. That he tried to get
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him they have called Svithiod geiri
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nourish the roots of the world-tree
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Some monosyllabic names ending in -
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out there. We must therefore choose
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wind-ship" (ausa Hertýs víngnóð
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mythology rescued in Germany, the s
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weapons of his foes. Surrounded by
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The misfortune which happened first
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atmosphere, and as we have also lea
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get light on this point. According
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Ægir's hall is far out in the dept
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which once was his, after the arch
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In the strophe immediately precedin
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form given above it appears through
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the Frisians pursued by the plunder
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that is to say, that they are the s
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hiti við himin sjálfan -- "high l
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Syrian" who had interpreted the sto
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The anthropological conception pres
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mælsku þína og meginhyggjur. you
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serpent-symbol of eternity, the liq
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spirit, and on the other hand by th
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covering of a personal kernel (óð
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Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

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