Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

That these last ideas have been influenced by Christianity would seem to be sufficiently
clear. Nor do we find a trace of Syria, India, and Paradise as soon as we leave this saga and pass
to the others, in the chain of which it forms one of the later links. All the rest agree in
transferring to the uttermost North the land which must be reached before the journey can be
continued to the Glittering Plains and Odainsakur. Hervör's saga says that the Glittering Plains
and Odainsakur are situated north of Halogaland, in Jotunheim; Bosi's saga states that they are
situated in the vicinity of Bjarmaland. The saga of Thorsteinn Bæjarmagn says that they are a
kingdom subject to Geirrod in Jotunheim. Gorm's saga in Saxo says it is necessary to sail past
Halogaland north to a Bjarmia ulterior in order to get to the kingdoms of Gudmund and Geirrod.
The saga of Helgi Thorisson makes its hero meet the daughters of Gudmund, the ruler of the
Glittering Plains, after a voyage to Finmarken. Hadding's saga in Saxo makes the Danish king
pay a visit to the unknown but wintry cold land of the "Nitherians," when he is invited to make a
journey to the lower world. Thus the older and common view was that he who made the attempt
to visit the Glittering Plains and Odainsakur must first penetrate the regions of the uttermost
North, known only by hearsay.
Those of the sagas which give us more definite local descriptions in addition to this
geographical information all agree that the region which forms, as it were, a foreground to the
Glittering Plains and Odainsakur is a land over which the darkness of night broods. As just
indicated, Erik Vidforli's saga claims that the stars there are visible all day long. Gorm's saga in
Saxo makes the Danish adventurers leave sun and stars behind to continue the journey sub Chao.
Darkness, fogs, and mists envelop Hadding before he gets sight of the splendidly-clad proceres
who dwell down there, and the shining meadows whose flowers are never visited by winter. The
Frisian saga in Adam of Bremen also speaks of a gloom which must be penetrated before one
reaches the land where rich giants dwell in subterranean caverns.
Through this darkness one comes, according to the saga of Erik Vidforli, to a plain full of
flowers, delicious fragrances, rivers of honey (a Biblical idea, but see Nos. 89, 123), and
perpetual light. A river separates this plain from the land of the spirits.
Through the same darkness, according to Gorm's saga, one comes to Gudmund's
Glittering Plains, where there is a delightful garden 13 bearing delicious fruits, while eternal cold
and winter reign in that Bjarmaland from where the Glittering Plains can be reached. A river
separates the Glittering Plains from two or more other domains, of which at least one is the home
of departed souls. There is a bridge of gold across the river to another region, "which separates
that which is mortal from the superhuman," and on whose soil a mortal being must not set his
foot. Further on one can pass in a boat across the river to a land which is the place of punishment
for the damned and a resort of ghosts.
According to Hadding's saga, one comes through the same darkness to a subterranean
land where flowers grow in spite of the winter which reigns on the surface of the earth. The land
of flowers is separated from the Elysian fields of those fallen in battle by a river which hurls
about spears and other weapons in its eddies.
These statements from different sources agree with each other in their main features.
They agree that the lower world is separated into two primary divisions by a river, and that
departed souls are found only on the farther side of the river.
13 Here the Swedish word is lustgård. Anderson translated it as "pleasure-farm." The word itself means paradise, and
occurs in the phrase Edens lustgård, the Garden of Eden.