Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

creative force, over which the "overshadowing holy tree" spreads its branches (Völuspá),
and around whose reed-wreathed edge the seed of poetry grows (Eilífr Guðrúnarson,
Skáldskaparmál 10, Jónsson edition); the Glittering Fields, with flowers which never fade
and with harvests which never are gathered; Urd's fountain, over which Yggdrasil stands
for ever green (Völuspá), and in whose silver-white waters swans swim; and the sacred
thing-stead of the Aesir, to which they daily ride down over Bifröst. North of the
mountain roars the weapon-hurling Slíður, and doubtless is the same river as that in
whose "heavy streams" the souls of nithings must wade. In the North, sólu fjarri 1 stands,
also at Nastrond, that hall, the walls of which are braided of serpents (Völuspá). Thus Hel
is described as an Elysium, Niflhel with its subject regions as a realm of unhappiness.
Yet a few words about Hvergelmir, from and to which "all waters find their way."
This statement in Grímnismál is of course true of the greatest of all waters, the ocean.
The myth about Hvergelmir and its subterranean connection with the ocean gave our
ancestors the explanation of ebb- and flood-tide. High up in the northern channels the
bottom of the ocean opened itself in a hollow tunnel, which led down to the "kettleroarer,"
"the one roaring in his basin" (this seems to be the meaning of Hvergelmir: hverr
= kettle; galm = Anglo-Saxon gealm, a roaring). When the waters of the ocean poured
through this tunnel down into the Hades-fountain there was ebb-tide; when it returned
water from its superabundance, there was flood-tide (see Nos. 79, 80, 81).
Adam of Bremen had heard this tunnel mentioned in connection with the story
about the Frisian noblemen who went by sea to the furthest north, came to the land of
subterranean giants, and plundered their treasures (see No. 48). On the way up some of
the ships of the Frisians got into the eddy caused by the tunnel, and were sucked with
terrible violence down into the lower world. 2
Charlemagne's contemporary, Paul Diaconus, relates in his history of the
Longobardians that he had talked with men who had been in Scandinavia. Among
remarkable reports which they gave him of the regions of the far north was also that of a
maelstrom, which swallows ships, and sometimes even casts them up again (see Nos. 15,
79, 80, 81).
Between the death-kingdom and the ocean there was, therefore, one connecting
link, perhaps several. Most of the people who drowned did not remain with Ran. Ægir's
wife received them hospitably, according to the Icelandic sagas of the Middle Age. She
had a hall in the bottom of the sea, where they were welcomed and offered sess ok rekkju
(seat and bed). 3 Her realm was only an ante-chamber to the realms of death (Kormákr,
Sonatorrek). 4
1 "far from the sun"
2 "Et ecce instabilis Oceani Euripus, ad initia quædam fontis sui arcana recurrens, infelices nautas jam
desperatos, immo de morte sola cogitantes, vehementissimo impetu traxit ad Chaos. Hanc dicunt esse
voraginem abyssi, illud profundum, in quo fama est omnes maris recursus, qui decrescere videntur,
absorberi et denuo remnovi, quod fluctuatio dici solet" (De situ Daniæ, ed. Mad., p. 159).
3 Fornaldarsagas, Friðþjófs saga ins frækna ch. 3, "til Ránar skal fara," shall fare to Ran, "þeim er lifa
skyldu, / en Rán gætir/ röskum drengjum,/ siðlaus kona,/ sess ok rekkju," but Rán, immoral woman, gives
seat and bed to valiant men; "sitja at Ránar" to sit at Ran's, Fornmanna Sagas VI, Haralds Hardrada Saga,
ch. 105.
4 Sonatorrek is by Egil Skallagrímsson, thus this is two references, one by Egil and one by Kormak. Thus
far, I am unable to find a reference to Rán in the numerous loose verses of Kormak.