Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

hiti við himin sjálfan -- "high leaps" (plays) "the fire against heaven itself." Further, we
must point out the preterit form kyndisk (from kynna, to make known) by the side of the
present form leika. This juxtaposition indicates that the sons of Mimir "rush up," while
the fate of the world, the final destiny of creation in advance and immediately
beforehand, was proclaimed "by the old Gjallarhorn." The bounding up of Mimir's sons is
the effect of the first powerful blast. One or more of these follow: "Loud blows Heimdall
-- the horn is raised; and Odin speaks with Mimir's head." Thus we have found the
meaning of leika Míms synir. Their waking and appearance is one of the signs best
remembered in the chronicles in popular traditions of Ragnarok's approach and the return
of the dead, and in this strophe Völuspá has preserved the memory of the "chateau
dormant" of Germanic mythology.
Thus a comparison of the mythic fragments extant with the popular traditions
gives us the following outline of the Germanic myth concerning the seven sleepers:
The world-tree -- the representative of the physical and moral laws of the world --
grew in time's morning gloriously out of the fields of the three world-fountains, and
during the first epochs of the mythological events (ár alda) it stood fresh and green, cared
for by the subterranean guardians of these fountains. But the times became worse. The
feminine counterpart of Loki, Gullveig-Heid, spreads evil runes in Asgard and Midgard,
and he and she cause disputes and war between those god-clans whose task it is to watch
over and sustain the order of the world in harmony. In the feud between the Aesir and
Vanir, the middle and most important world-fountain -- the fountain of wisdom, the one
from which the good runes were fetched -- became robbed of its watchman. Mimir was
slain, and his seven sons, the superintendents of the seven seasons, who saw to it that
these season-changes followed each other within the limits prescribed by the world-laws,
were put to sleep, and fell into a stupor, which continues throughout the historical time
until Ragnarok. Consquently the world-tree cannot help withering and growing old
during the historical age. Still it is not to perish. Neither fire nor sword can harm it; and
when evil has reached its climax, and when the present world is ended in the Ragnarok
conflict and in Surt's flames, then it is to regain that freshness and splendor which it had
in time's morning.
Until that time Sindri-Dvalin and Mimir's six other sons slumber in that golden
hall which stands toward the north in the lower world, on Mimir's fields. Nott, their sister,
dwells in the same region, and shrouds the chambers of those slumbering in darkness.
Standing toward the north beneath the Nida mountains, the hall is near Hvergelmir's
fountain, which causes the famous maelstrom. As sons of Mimir, the great smith of
antiquity, the seven brothers were themselves great smiths of antiquity, who, during the
first happy epoch, gave to the gods and to nature the most beautiful treasures (Mjolnir,
Brisingamen, Slidrugtanni, 6 Draupnir). The hall where they now rest is also a treasurechamber,
which preserves a number of splendid products of their skill as smiths, and
among these are weapons, too large to be wielded by human hands, but intended to be
employed by the brothers themselves when Ragnarok is at hand and the great decisive
conflict comes between the powers of good and of evil. The seven sleepers are there clad
in splendid mantles of another cut than those common among men. Certain mortals have
6 An alternate name of Frey's boar Gullinbursti.