Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology
Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology
Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology
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fountain daily. Therefore Gylfaginning draws the correct conclusion that Asgard was<br />
supposed to be situated at one end of the bridge and Urd's fountain near the other. But<br />
from Gylfaginning's premises, it follows that if Asgard-Troy is situated on the surface of<br />
the earth, Urd's fountain must be situated in the heavens, and that the Aesir accordingly<br />
must ride upward, not downward when they ride to Urd's fountain. The conclusion is<br />
drawn with absolute consistency (Hvern dag ríða æsir þangað upp um Bifröst -<br />
Gylfaginning 15). 7<br />
The third mythic tradition used as material is the world-tree, whose roots<br />
extended (down in the lower world) to Urd's fountain. According to Völuspá 19, this<br />
fountain is situated beneath the ash Yggdrasil. The conclusion drawn by Gylfaginning by<br />
the aid of its Trojan premises is that since Urd's fountain is situated in the heavens, and<br />
still under one of Yggdrasil's roots, this root must be located still further up in the<br />
heavens. The placing of the root is also done with consistency, so that we get the<br />
following series of wrong localizations: Down on the earth, Asgard-Troy; therefore<br />
extending up to the heavens, the bridge Bifröst; above Bifröst, Urd's fountain; high above<br />
Urd's fountain, one of Yggdrasil's three roots (which in the mythology are all in the lower<br />
world).<br />
Since one of Yggdrasil's roots thus had received its place far up in the heavens, it<br />
became necessary to place a second root on a level with the earth and the third one was<br />
allowed to retain its position in the lower world. Thus was produced a just distribution of<br />
the roots among the three regions which constituted the universe in the imagination of the<br />
Middle Ages, namely: the heavens, the earth, and hell.<br />
In this manner, two myths were made to do service in regard to one of the<br />
remaining Yggdrasil roots. The one myth was taken from Völuspá, where it was learned<br />
that Mimir's well is situated below the sacred world-tree; the other was Grímnismál 31,<br />
where we are told that frost-giants dwell under one of the three roots. At the time when<br />
Gylfaginning was written, and still later, popular traditions told that Gudmund-Mimir was<br />
of giant descent (see the Middle-Age sagas narrated above, Nos. 45 & 46). From this,<br />
Gylfaginning draws the conclusion that Mimir was a frost-giant, and it identifies the root<br />
which extends to the frost-giants with the root that extends to Mimir's well. Thus this<br />
well of creative power, of world-preservation, of wisdom, and of poetry receives from<br />
Gylfaginning its place in the abode of the powers of frost, hostile to gods and to men, in<br />
the land of the frost-giants, which Gylfaginning regards as being Jotunheim, bordering on<br />
the earth.<br />
In this way Gylfaginning, with the Trojan hypothesis as its starting-point, has<br />
advanced so far that it has separated Urd's realm and fountain, from the lower world with<br />
its three realms and three fountains, they being transferred to the heavens, and Mimir's<br />
realm and fountain, they being transferred to Jotunheim. In the mythology, these two<br />
realms were the subterranean regions of bliss, and the third, Niflhel, with the regions<br />
subject to it, was the abode of the damned. After these separations were made,<br />
Gylfaginning, to be logical, had to assume that the lower world of the heathens was<br />
exclusively a realm of misery and torture, a sort of counterpart of the hell of the Church.<br />
This conclusion is also drawn with due consistency, and Yggdrasil's third root, which in<br />
the mythology descended to the fountain Hvergelmir and to the lower world of the frost-<br />
7 "Every day the Aesir ride there up over Bifröst."