Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

78.
THE PLACES OF PUNISHMENT (continued). LOKI'S CAVE OF PUNISHMENT.
GYLFAGINNING'S CONFOUNDING OF MUSPELL'S SONS WITH THE SONS OF
SUTTUNG.
Saxo (Book 8, pp. 243-247) relates that the experienced Captain Thorkil made, at
the command of King Gorm, a second journey to the uttermost North, in order to
complete the knowledge which was gained on the first journey. That part of the lower
world where Loki (by Saxo called Ugartilocus) 1 dwells had not yet been seen. This now
remained to be done. Like the first time, Thorkil sailed into that sea on which sun and
stars never shine, and he kept cruising so long in its darkness that his supply of fuel gave
out. The expedition was, as a consequence, on the point of failing, when a fire was
suddenly seen in the distance. Thorkil then entered a boat with a few of his men and
rowed there. In order to find his way back to his ship in the darkness, he had placed in the
mast-top a self-luminous precious stone, which he had taken with him on the journey.
Guided by the light, Thorkil came to a strand-rock, in which there were narrow "gaps"
(fauces), out of which the light came. There was also a door, and Thorkil entered, after
requesting his men to remain outside.
Thorkil found a grotto. At the fire which was kindled stood two uncommonly tall
men, who kept tending the fire. The grotto had an inner door or gate, and that which was
seen inside that gate is described by Saxo in almost the same words as those of his former
description of the hall at the Nastrands (obsoleti postes, ater situ paries, sordidum tectum,
frequens anguibus pavimentum). 2 Thorkil in reality sees the same hall again; he had
simply come to it from another side, from the north, where the hall has its door opening
toward the strand (norður horfa dyr - Völuspá), the pillars of which, according to Saxo's
previous description, are covered with the soot of ages. The soot is now explained by the
fire which is kindled in the grotto outside the hall, the grotto forming as it were a
vestibule. The two gigantic persons who mend the fire are called by Saxo aquili.
In Martianus Capella, 3 who is Saxo's model in regard to style and vocabulary,
persons of semi-divine rank (hemithei) are mentioned who are called aquili, and who
inhabit the same regions as the souls of the dead (lares and larvæ - Mart. Cap., I., II.
Compare P. E. Müller, not., Hist. Dan., pp. 68, 69). Aquilus also has the signification,
dark, swarthy, Icel. dökkur. 4
1 Utgard-Loki, the name of the giant that Thor encounters in Gylfaginning, here applied to Loki himself.
2 "The cave mouth was unsightly, the doorposts in disrepair, the walls black with filth, the ceiling dingy,
and the floor infested with snakes, everywhere offensive to the eye and mind." Fisher tr.
3 Martianus (sic Marcianus) Capella, an African Roman author, whose work “De nuptiis philologiæ et
Mercurii” (The Marriage of Philology and Mercury), composed c. 410-429, purports to be an encyclopedia
of liberal culture in prose and verse, and remained influential throughout the Middle Ages.
4 Rydberg's explanation is plausible. Based on the commentary to Martianus Capella by Remingius of
Auxerre (late 8 th century), Peter Fisher translates aquili as "eagle-headed demons", a definition most likely
based on the similarity of the word to the Latin aquila, eagle. If this is the case, these demons would be
akin to the winged serpents found in Niflhel, but as Fisher remarks "such eagle-headed demons have not
been identified in any Icelandic source."