Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology
Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology
Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology
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ut for certain lifandi menn (living men), yet inaccessible to people in general. In the<br />
myth concerning Mimir, we also find such a grove.<br />
52.<br />
MIMIR'S GROVE. LIF AND LEIFTHRASIR.<br />
The grove is called after its ruler and guardian, Mimir's or Treasure-Mimir's grove<br />
(Mímis holt - Uppsala Codex of Gylfaginning 53; Hoddmímis holt - Vafþrúðnismál 45,<br />
Gylfaginning 53).<br />
Gylfaginning describes the destruction of the world and its regeneration, and then<br />
relates how the earth, rising out of the sea, is furnished with human inhabitants. "During<br />
the conflagration (í Surtarloga) two persons are concealed in Treasure-Mimir's grove.<br />
Their names are Lif (Líf) and Leifthrasir (Leifþrasir), and they feed on the morning dews.<br />
From them come so great an offspring that all the world is peopled."<br />
In support of its statement, Gylfaginning quotes Vafþrúðnismál <strong>44</strong>, 45. This poem<br />
makes Odin and the giant Vafthrudnir (Vafþrúðnir) put questions to each other, and<br />
among others Odin asks this question:<br />
Fjöld eg fór,<br />
fjöld eg freistaðag,<br />
fjöld eg reynda regin:<br />
Hvað lifir manna,<br />
þá er inn mæra líður<br />
fimbulvetur með firum?<br />
Much I have travelled,<br />
much I have tried,<br />
much I have tested the powers.<br />
What living persons,<br />
shall still live when the famous<br />
fimbul-winter has been in the world?<br />
Vafthrudnir answers:<br />
Líf og Leifþrasir,<br />
en þau leynast munu<br />
í holti Hoddmímis.<br />
Morgundöggvar<br />
þau sér að mat hafa,<br />
en þaðan af aldir alast.<br />
Lif and Leifthrasir (are still living);<br />
they are concealed<br />
in Hodd-Mimir's grove.<br />
Morning dews<br />
they will have for nourishment,<br />
From them are born (new) races.<br />
Gylfaginning says that the two human beings, Lif and Leifthrasir, who become the<br />
progenitors of the races that are to people the earth after Ragnarok, are concealed during<br />
the conflagration of the world in Hodd-Mimir's grove. This is, beyond doubt, in<br />
accordance with mythic views. But mythologists, who have not paid sufficient attention<br />
to what Gylfaginning's source (Vafþrúðnismál) has to say on the subject, have from the<br />
above expression drawn a conclusion which implies a complete misunderstanding of the<br />
traditions in regard to Hodd-Mimir's grove and the human pair therein concealed. They<br />
have assumed that Lif and Leifthrasir are, like all other people living at that time,<br />
inhabitants of the surface of the earth at the time when the conflagration of the world