Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

67.
THE PSYCHOPOMPS OF THOSE NOT FALLEN BY THE SWORD. LOKI'S
DAUGHTER (THE PSEUDO-HEL OF GYLFAGINNING) IDENTICAL WITH LEIKIN.
The psychopomps of those fallen by the sword are, as we have seen, stately dises,
sitting high in the saddle, with helmet, shield, and spear. To those not destined to fall by
the sword, Urd sends other maid-servants, who, like the former, may come on horseback,
and who, by all indications , are of very different appearance, varying in accordance with
the manner of death of those persons whose departure they attend. She who comes to
those who sink beneath the weight of years has been conceived as a very benevolent dis,
to judge from the solitary passage where she is characterized, that is in Ynglingatal 30
(Ynglingasaga 44), where it is said of the aged and just king Halfdan Whiteleg, that he
was taken hence by the woman, who is helpful to those bowed and stooping (hallvarps
hlífinauma). 44 The burden which Elli (age), Utgard-Loki's foster-mother (Gylfaginning
47), puts on men, and which gradually gets too heavy for them to bear, is removed by this
kind-hearted dis.
Other psychopomps are of a terrible kind. Most of them belong to the spirits of
disease dwelling in Niflhel (see No. 60). King Vanlandi is tortured to death by a being
whose epithet, vitta vættur and tröllkund, shows that she belongs to the same group as
Heiðr, the prototype of witches, and who is contrasted with the valkyrie Hild by the
appellation ljóna liðs bága Grímhildr (Ynglingasaga 13, Ynglingatal 3). 45 The same vitta
vættur came to King Adils when his horse fell and he himself struck his head against a
stone (Ynglingasaga 29). Two kings, who die on a bed of straw, are mentioned in
Ynglingasaga's Thjodolf-strophes (ch. 17 and 47) as visited by a being called in the one
instance Loki's kinswoman (Loka mær), and in the other Hvedrung's kinswoman
(Hveðrungs mær). 46 That this kinswoman of Loki has no authority to determine life and
death, but only carries out the dispensations of the norns, is definitely stated in the
Thjodolf-strophe (norna dóms - ch. 47), and also that her activity, as one who brings the
invitation to the realm of death, does not imply that the person invited is to be counted
among the damned, although she herself, the kinswoman of Loki, the daughter of Loki,
surely does not belong to the regions of bliss.
44 Here Rydberg reads "hallvarps" as the genitive of "hallvarpur," and takes it to mean "he who is bowed
and stooping." Since "varpur" is never used as a noun, an adjective, or an adjectival suffix, the most
obvious way to understand the word is to take it as the genitive of a neutral noun "hallvarp." "Hallr" means
stone, "varp" usually means "a casting, an act of throwing", but it can also mean "hill, mound." Here, it
must mean "stone-mound," i.e. a haugur, burial-mound. Thus the phrase "hallvarps hlífi-nauma" means
"protecting-goddess of the burial mound" or Urd.
45
The entire strophe reads: En á vit /Vilja bróður /vitta véttr /Vanlanda kom/ Þá tröllkund/ um troða
skyldi/ líðs grím-Hildr/ ljóna bága, /og sá brann/ á beði Skútu,/ menglötuðr,/ er mara kvaldi.
The phrase bági liðs ljóna refers to the king; tröllkund grím-Hildr to the female monster, called a mara a
nightmare in the final line; and véttr vitta to the witch. No contrast between the witch and any valkyrie is
implied here, -hildur is a common element in women's names. The strophe reads: "But the wight of sorcery
made Vanlandi visit Vili's brother, when the troll-born night-Hildr trampled the foe of the troop of men.
And he was burned on the bed of river Skúta, the generous one, whom the nightmare tortured."
46 Hveðrung is a byname of Loki; cp. Völuspá 55, where Vidar plunges his sword into the heart of megi
Hveðrungs, Loki's son, Fenrir.