Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

While a terrible winter is raging, the gods, according to Hrafnagaldur Óðins, 3
send messengers, with Heimdall as chief, down to a lower-world goddess (dís), who is
designated as Gjöll's (the lower world river's) Sunna (Sol, sun) and as the distributor of
the divine liquids 4 (Hrafnagaldur Óðins 9, 11) to beseech her to explain to them the
mystery of creation, the beginning of heaven, of Hel, and of the world, life and death, if
she is able (hlýrnis, heljar, heims ef vissi, ártíð, æfi, aldurtila). 5 The messengers get only
tears as an answer. The poem divides the universe into three great divisions: heaven, Hel,
and the part lying between Hel and heaven, the world inhabited by mortals. Thus Hel is
here used in its general sense, and refers to the whole lower world. But here, as wherever
Hel has this general signification, it appears that the idea of regions of punishment is not
thought of, but is kept in the background by the definite antithesis in which the word Hel,
used in its more common and special sense of the subterranean regions of bliss, stands to
Niflhel and the regions subject to it. It must be admitted that what the anxious gods wish
to learn from the wise goddess of the lower world must, so far as their desire to know and
their fears concern the fate of Hel, refer particularly to the regions where Urd's and
Mimir's holy fountains are situated, for if the latter, which water the world-tree, pass
away, it would mean nothing less than the end of the world. That the author should make
the gods anxious concerning Loki's daughter, whom they had hurled into the deep
abysses of Niflhel, and that he should make the wise goddess by Gjöll weep bitter tears
over the future of the sister of the Fenris-wolf, is possible in the sense that it cannot be
refuted by any definite words of the old records; but we may be permitted to regard it as
highly improbable.
Among the passages in which the word Hel occurs in the Poetic Edda's
mythological songs we have yet to mention Hárbarðsljóð 27, where the expression drepa
í Hel is employed in the same abstract manner as the Swedes use the expression "at slå
ihjäl," which means simply "to kill" (It is Thor who threatens to kill the insulting
Harbard); and also Völuspá 43, Fjölsvinnsmál 25, and Grímnismál 31).
Völuspá 43 speaks of Goldcomb (Gullinkambi, the cock which, with its crowing,
wakes those who sleep in Herfather's (Odin's) abode, and of a sooty-red cock which
crows under the earth near Hel's halls. In Fjölsvinnsmál 25, Svipdag asks with what
weapon one might be able to bring down to Hel's home (á Heljar sjöt) that golden cock
Vidofnir, which sits in Mimir's tree (the world-tree), and doubtless is identical with
Goldcomb. That Vidofnir has done nothing for which he deserves to be punished in the
home of Loki's daughter may be regarded as probable. Hel is here used to designate the
3 "Of the age and genuineness of Forspjallsljóð (Hrafnagaldur Óðins), I propose to publish a separate
treatise." -- Viktor Rydberg. This treatise was never published and there is no trace of it in his papers. For
the complete text of Hrafnagaldur Óðins, see Supplement I. When the lower world goddess who occurs
after strophe 8 is recognized as Urd, the difficulties of interpretation are greatly lessened. Most interpreters
see this goddess as Idunn herself, who was said to have fallen out of the world-tree.
4 Rydberg incorrectly understands this goddess to be called "the Sunna of Gjöll," although he correctly
establishes her identity with Urd. In strophe 9, she is correctly referred to as "Gjallar sunnu gátt," the
bearer of Gjöll's sun. The fire of a river, in this case "Gjöll's sun," is a standard kenning for gold, as the
bright metal was often found in rivers. The "bearer" or "tree" (here "doorpost") of gold, is a common
kenning for a woman. Gjöll and sunna were likely chosen as they evoke connotations of their own
associated with Urd. In Strophe 11, she is further described as "veiga selju," the server of mead (strengths).
On this point, see No. 73.
5 "if she knew the origin, duration, and end of heaven, of hel, of the world."