Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

his sister's son. Herein we have one more reason for the faithful friendship which Mimir
always showed to Odin.
The Mimir epithet Narfi, Narvi, means, as shown above, "the one who binds." His
daughter Nott is called draumnjörun, the dream-binder (Alvíssmál 30). 12 His kinswomen,
the norns, spin and bind the threads and bonds, which, extended throughout the world,
weave together the web of events. Such threads and bonds are called örlögþættir
(Helgakviða Hundingsbana I. 3), and Urðar lokur (Gróugaldur 7). As the nearest
kinswomen of Bestla all have epithets or tasks which refer to the idea of binding, and
when we add to this that Bestla's sons and descendants as gods have the epithet höpt and
bönd, her own name might most properly be referred to the old word beizl, beisl (cp.
betsel, bridle), which has a similar meaning. 13
As Mimir and Bestla are of giant descent, and in the theogony belong to the same
stage of development as Bur (Burr), Odin's father, then, as the mythologists also have
assumed, Bölthorn can be none else than Ymir.
Mimir, Bestla, the norns, and Nott thus form a group of kindred beings, which
belong to the oldest giant race, but still they are most definitely separated from the other
descendants of Ymir, as a higher race of giants from a lower, a noble giant race friendly
to the gods and fostering the gods, from that race of deformed beings which bear children
in the strangest manner, which are hostile to the gods and to the world, and which are
represented by the frost-giants Thrudgelmir and Bergelmir and their offspring.
It now lies near at hand to inquire whether the mythology which attributed the
same father to Mimir and Thrudgelmir was unable to conceive in this connection the idea
of a nobler origin for the former than the latter. The remedy nearest at hand would have
been to have given them mothers of different characters. But the mythology did not resort
to this expedient. It is expressly stated that Ymir bore children without the pleasure of
woman (gýgjar gaman - Vafþrúðnismál 32 ; cp. No. 60). Neither Mimir nor Thrudgelmir
had a mother. Under such circumstances there is another expedient to which the sister of
the Germanic mythology, the Rigveda mythology, has resorted, and which is explained in
the 90th hymn of Book 10 of Rigveda. The hymn informs us in regard to a primeval giant
Parusha, and this myth is so similar to the Germanic in regard to Ymir that it must here
be considered.
The primeval being Parusha was a giant monster as large as the whole world, and
even larger (verses 1-5). The gods resolved to sacrifice him, that is to say, to slay him for
sacred purposes (v. 6), and from his limbs was created the present world. From his navel
was made the atmosphere, from his head the canopy of heaven, from his two feet the
earth, from his heart the moon, from his eye the sun, from his breath the wind, etc. His
mouth became the Brahmam (the priest), his arms became the Rajanya (the warrior), his
thighs became the Vaisya (the third free caste), and from his feet arose the Sudra (the
thrall, verse 12).
12 Egilsson explains this name as the "goddess of dreams"; Lee Hollander translates it as "dream-weaver".
No certain definition has been established.
13 The name Bestla is ancient and it's meaning uncertain. The most likely explanation is a derivation from
"bast", böstur, dat. besti (cp. Völundarkviða 8, 13.) Bast is a membrane under the bark of a tree, used to
make a resilient thread or cord.