Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

Urðar magn,
svalkaldur sær,
Sónar dreyri.
Urd's strength,
cool-cold sea,
Son's blood.
Són has already been mentioned above (No. 21) as one of the names of Mimir's
fountain, the well of creative power and of poetry. Of Són, Eilif Gudrunarson sings that it
is enwreathed by bulrushes and is surrounded by a border of meadow on which grows the
seed of poetry. 1
As Urd's strength is a liquid mixed in the horn, nothing else can be meant thereby
than the liquid in Urd's fountain, which gives the warmth of life to the world-tree, and
gives it strength to resist the cold (see No. 63).
From this it is certain that at least two of the three subterranean fountains made
their contributions to the drink. There remains the well Hvergelmir, and the question now
is, whether it and the liquid it contains can be recognized as the cool-cold sea.
Hvergelmir is, as we know, the mother-fountain of all waters, even of the ocean (see No.
59). That this immense cistern is called a sea is not strange, since also Urd's fountain is so
styled (in Völuspá 20 - þeim sæ er und þolli stendur). Hvergelmir is situated under the
northern root of the world-tree near the borders of the subterranean realm of the rimethurses
- that is, the powers of frost; and the Elivogar rivers flowing thence formed the
ice in Niflheim. Cool (Svöl) is the name of one of the rivers which have their source in
Hvergelmir (Grímnismál 27). Cool-cold sea is therefore the most suitable designation for
Hvergelmir when its own name is not to be used.
All those fountains whose liquids are sucked up by the roots of the world-tree,
and in its stem blend into the sap which gives the tree imperishable strength of life, are
accordingly mixed in the lower-world horn (cp. No. 21).
That Grimhild, a human being dwelling on earth, should have access to and free
control of these fountains is, of course, from a mythological standpoint, an absurdity.
From the standpoint of the Christian time the absurdity becomes probable. The sacred
things and forces of the lower world are then changed into devilry and arts of magic,
which are at the service of witches. So the author of Guðrúnarkviða in forna has regarded
the matter. But in his time there was still extant a tradition, or a heathen song, which
spoke of the elements of the drink which gave to the dead who had descended to Hel, and
were destined for happiness, a higher and more enduring power of life, and also soothed
the longing and sorrow which accompanied the recollection of life on earth, and this
tradition was used in the description of Grimhild's drink of forgetfulness.
Magn is the name of the liquid from Urd's fountain, since it magnar, gives
strength. The word magna has preserved from the days of heathendom the sense of
strengthening in a supernatural manner by magical or superhuman means. Vigfusson
(Dict., 408) gives a number of examples of this meaning. In Ynglingasaga 4 Odin
"magns" Mimir's head, which was decapitated, in such a manner that it recovers the
power of speech. In Sigurdrífumál 12 Odin himself is, as we have seen, called magni,
"the one magning," as the highest judge of the lower world, who gives magn to the dead
from the Hades-horn. 2
1 In an analogy with sónar-blót, "atonement sacrifice", and sónar-göltr, an atonement boar, the phrase
Sónar dreyri is commonly interpreted to mean "the blood of a sacrifical boar."
2 See the footnotes to Chapter 70 regarding the word magni in Sigurdríf. 12.