THE MAIDEN WITH THE

MEAD
A GODDESS OF INITIATION IN NORSE
MYTHOLOGY?
MASTER DISSERTATION IN HISTORY OF RELIGIONS
DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE
UNIVERSITY OF OSLO, SPRING 2004
BY MARIA KVILHAUG

CONTENTS
Prologue...5

1: Introduction..9

2: Sources.14
2.1: The Poetic Edda14
2.2: Divine Poems15
2.3: Heroic Poems.16
2.4: Snorris Edda17
2.5: Other Sources..18
2.6: The Reliability of the Sources.18

3: Terminology and Previous Research.20

3.1: Some terms: Initiation, Sacred Marriage, Shamanism, Mystery Religions.20
3.2: The Maiden with the Mead.27
3.3: Ritual and Initiation Reflected in the Norse Myths31
3.4: The Great Goddess..35

4. Gunnld, Gerdr and the Giantesses40

4.1: Giantesses in the Realms of Death.40
4.2: GUNNLD AND THE MEAD OF POETRY..41
4.3: An underlying Structure of Themes.44
4.4: The Maiden and her Kin: A Realm of Death? .45
4.5: The Initiations and the Arts of dinn49
4.6: dinn as Divine Archetype..51
4.7: Summary: What dinn learns...52
4.8: THE WOOING OF GERDR...56
4.9: The Structure of the themes in Gerdrs story.57
4.10: The Maiden and Her Realm.58
4.11: The Gifts and the Threats.62
4.12: Skrnir as the Experienced Practitioner..62
4.13: Summary and Conclusions to chapter 4.63

5. TheGreat Goddess.67
5.1: FREYIA LEADING THE WAY TO VALHLL71
5.2: Structural Elements in Hyndluljod..73
5.3: Ogress versus Goddess the Life and Death Opposition.75
5.4: MENGLD THE GREAT MAIDEN77
5.5: Structural Elements in Svpdagsml .79
5.6: The Realm of the Dead in the Fjlsvinnsml.82
5.7: The Realm of the Giants in the Fjlsvinnsml..84
5.8: The Realm of the Maidens.85
5.9: Summary and Conclusions to ch.587

6: The Reincarnating Valkyrie90

6.1: A Summary of the Maiden-Stories in theHeroic Poems.93
6.2: The Vision Quest Theme99
6.3: The Vision Theme.102
6.4: The Descending Theme..103
6.5: The Trial Theme.106
6.6: The Maiden Theme..107
6.7: Ogress versus Valkyrie: The Life and Death Opposition107
6.8: The three Worlds of Teaching108
6.9: The Numbers Nine and Three..109

7: Masters of Initiation.112
7.1: The Vlur.112
7.2: Atli, Sinfiotli and Skrnir..114
7.3: The Maternal Uncle.117
7.4: Regin: Dwarf, Smith andThul.118
7.5: dinn119

8: The Mead and the Maiden120

8.1: The Maiden: Encompassing the Three Worlds120
8.2: The Two-Faced Goddess124
8.3: The Great Lover..126
8.4: The Precious Mead128
8.5: The Maiden unearthed: Archaeological Evidence131
8.5: The Ultimate Master of Initiation.134

9: Summary and Conclusions140

Appendixes.146
Appendix I: Hvaml st. 104-110146
Appendix II: Hvaml st. 138-141.147
Appendix III: Vafthrudnisml st. 36-37147
Appendix IV: Ynglinga Saga 6-7..148
Appendix V: Skrnisml st. 10148
Appendix VI: Freyia in Gylfaginning..148
Appendix VII: Hyndluljod st. 1.149
Appendix VIII: Gragaldr st. 1149
Appendix IX: Vlusp st. 20 ..150
Appendix X: Helgakvida Hundingsbani II, st. 43..150
Appendix XI: On Castration150
Appendix XII: Grttasngr st. 10-18151

Bibliography...152

PROLOGUE
I have had the idea of investigating the subject of an initiating goddess in Norse
mythology for many years. There was something there, I knew it, but I did not know
what it was until I sat down to write the initiatory title of the project-to-be. The only
thing I could think that these myths had in common was the image of a maiden
serving mead - and a sacred marriage associated with it.
I was very pleased to realize that this common image was only the tip of the iceberg.
The illustrations I drew myself, looking at photos from Hilda Ellis Davidsons
beautiful book Scandinavian Mythology.
I could not find the Icelandic types required to write Old Norse on my computer, so I
have used:
th for Icelandic
d for Icelandic
for Icelandic
I am very grateful for all help and support: To Ragnfrid Stokke who took the time to
correct my English, to my tutors at the University of Oslo, Sigurd Hjelde and Gunnhild
Rthe. To my parents, friends and family, lots of love.

Crawl to your mother, the Earth;

-she will save you from the void.
Rig Veda 10.18

There Earth shall meet Thorr, her son;

she will show him the kinspeoples way to dinns lands.
Harbardsljod, st. 56, Poetic Edda

1. I have tasted the sweet drink of life, knowing that it inspires good
thoughts and joyous expansiveness to the extreme, that all the gods
and mortals seek it together, calling it honey.
2. When you penetrate inside, you will know no limits(...)
3. We have drunk the Soma; we have become immortal; we have gone to
the light; we have found the gods.(...)
5. The glorious drops that I have drunk set me free in wide space.(...)
11. Weaknesses and diseases have gone; the forces of darkness have fled in terror. Soma has climbed up in us,
expanding. We have come to the place where they
stretch out our life-spans.
12. The drop that we have drunk has entered our hearts, an
immortal inside mortals (...)

Rig Veda, 8. 48

1: Introduction
This dissertation will take as its starting point a recurring theme in the Poetic Edda,
namely the supernatural maiden offering a cup or a horn of precious mead to a hero. This
theme is encountered in the herioc poems of the Poetic Edda, most specifically in the
poem Sigrdrifuml, and in divine poems such as the Hvaml, the Skirnisml, and the
Hyndluljod. The valkyrie who offers the mead in the Sigrdrifuml is said to be a
reincarnation or a continuation of other valkyries met with in the heroic poems of Helgi
Hirvardsson and Helgi Hundingsbani, which makes it necessary to study all these poems
in order to form a complete picture of the Maiden with the Mead. I will also add to my
study the poem Svpdagsml1, because the structure of the poem is comparable to the
structure of the other poems studied in this dissertation. Thus many poems, each with
their own history of research and interpretations, will be touched upon, and I may
obviously not deal with all the details of each poem. The main aim, however, is to detect
a common structure within each of the stories. I wish to show that they are all, in essence,
telling the same tale, even though they all have their particular poetic flavouring, their
own particular contexts and purpose. My desire is to show that behind the different
poetical scenarios, a common mythical pattern is to be observed: that of sacred initiation
centered around the figure of the Great Goddess, who may take many names and shapes.

We will only slightly touch upon the kind of initiation that the poems are dealing with.
Within the limits of this study there is not much room for discussing whether we are
seeing the reflection of initiation to manhood, warriorhood, a secret society, a mystery
cult, kingship or a religious office. Considering the amount of participants and the
diversity between them in the stories, I suspect that the Maiden as initiator is a part of a
general pattern of initiation. The kind of trials and the kind of teachings that the supposed
initiant has to go through will be dealt with through the presentation of the poems, but
since we are covering so many different stories there is not much space for an in-depth
study. Our focuse will be on the structural pattern of themes, as well as on the figure of
1

Svpdagsml is a scholars title for the two poems Gragaldr and Fjlsvinnsml combined (See ch. 5)

10

the Maiden and the mythology surrounding her. I employ the word Maiden rather
than woman or goddess. Firstly, the character in question is in the sources usually
referred to as a mr (pl.f. meyiar), which means a maiden in the sense of a young
woman, usually but not necessarily unmarried. Secondly because her goddess-hood is
ambivalent; she sometimes appears as a giantess, sometimes as a valkyrie. In spite of this,
I maintain that we may speak of a Great Goddess behind these characters, since the
differences in official status (giantess, goddess, valkyrie) is less significant than the
likeness in function. In this I am basing myself on the tradition of Folke Strm and Britt
Mari Nsstrm who identify widely different mythical character as aspects of the same
Great Goddess, as well as Else Mundal who also argues a theory of hypostases, where the
difference between the collective of deities and one singular deity may not always be so
strict within the cult. It is my conviction that it is possible to form a more detailed picture
of the cult of the Maiden goddess and its philosophy through analysis of the patterns and
structures of mythology hiding behind the medieval Icelandic poems.

The motif of a maiden serving mead is also found in many images from the Viking Age,
carved on rock especially memorial stones at burial places or woven on hangings.
The pictorial motif of the maiden with the horn is often interpreted as a valkyrie
(valkyrja, f.) welcoming the dead One-Harrier (einheri, m.) as he arrives in Valhll (f.).
Valhll the Hall of the Chosen Ones - is often understood as a kind of Heaven for
those who die in battle, led by dinn, who in the tradition of Snorri is the ruler of all the
gods. However, the Poetic Edda allows both giantesses and goddesses, as well as
valkyries, to serve the precious mead, the ancient mead, the memory drink, the
adored mead and the poetry-stir to worthy heroes. In none of these stories is it clear
that we are reading about a dead one-harrier and a valkyrie in Valhll. However, the link
to an afterlife is strong since the images are found on burial monuments and within
graves. Michael Enright has shown how womens mead-offering in a hall constituted the
central part of a very common and very significant ritual in all Germanic (and also in
Celtic) societies, a ritual which had nothing to do with the afterlife but rather with
kingship and hierarchical bonding within a warband -a theory that we shall return to in
ch. 3.2. Through a survey of European archaeological finds, Enright has also proven the

11

actual existence of what he calls ladies with a mead-cup, that is, great ladies buried
with liqour-serving device in hand and many associated objects. The continuity and
regularity of these finds shows that the mead-serving high-born woman was an important
person in all Germanic societies for more than a millennia, and Enright questions whether
she be a queen, a noblewoman, or, originally, a kind of priestess. We will come back to
this question in ch. 8.5 with the hope of throwing some more light on the Maiden figure.

Through a study of the symbols of the realm and kinsfolk surrounding the Maiden, we
will see that whether she be goddess, valkyrie or giantess, the essentials remain the same
in all the poems. The symbolism is connected to the world of the dead and may be traced
to the particular death-realm of Hel where eagles, serpents and wolf-dogs devour the
corpses of the dead, where rivers and bridges carry loud sounds, where the fences and
halls are high, and within which, mysteriously, a bright realm of immortality is to be
found. The fact that the symbolism of the Maidens realm resembles Hels is puzzling to
everyone who are brought up to think that there are strict geographical borders between
the Underworld of Hel and the Heaven of dinn, Valhll. One of the resulting
conclusions of my study must be that there are no such geographical borders in the
mythological sphere, and no actual borders between the races of giants, gods or valkyries.
What we are seeing must be aspects or levels of the same reality: The world where the
valkyrie offers life-giving mead to the One-Harrier may be an aspect of the same world
where Hel keeps the bright mead covered by a shield.2 Yet it is a level of this same world
where the hero has overcome the monstruous beings of absolute extinction in death. He
has walked into the realm of death and has come out alive, following the pattern of dinn
the Hel-Blinder and Hermodr who jumps over the gates of death without touching
them3, returning to the world of the living with hidden knowledge. It is the idea of
immortality in one form or another - I believe in close connection to an initiation rite that can be detected within the myths of the Maiden. The Maiden herself appears in
different guises in each of the stories. In those stories which may be placed back in the
beginning of mythical time, where the gods are the heroes who undergo the trials, the

2
3

See Baldrs draumar, st. 7

See Gylfaginning, Faulkes 1987, p. 49-50

12

Maiden is a giantess hidden underground. Later, when human beings follow in the
footsteps of dinn and Freyr, she appears as a dazzling goddess or a valkyrie. One could
almost suspect that through her union with the gods of the ordered world, this primeval
creature becomes an agent of this same world and thus a divine being herself. Not only
may the goddesses be identified with the giantesses through their similar functions, but
the valkyries of the heroic poems illustrate the point of a common reality behind different
names perfectly for they are said to be reincarnations of the same being over and over
again.

Through a study of a common structure in all the different poems that we are considering,
we may draw the main conclusion: a common myth must lie behind the imagery of all
these poems: the myth of a Maiden who dwells in the heart of Misty Hel, and who may
be brought out to marry the worthy hero, a union which includes esoteric knowledge and
perhaps even an alternative to extinction in death. Within this myth we may see traces of
a ritual, cult or ecstatic experience where the devoted hero undergoes trials of
overcoming greed, pride, hate and death in order to learn the arts of healing, eloquence,
manliness and wisdom.

To prove my thesis, I will systematically try to detect significant structural elements that
recur in all or most of these myths. We will see that the pattern detected could very much
resemble a ritual of initiation. We will also throw some light upon what I shall call
Maiden-mythology a mythology of the goddess that I believe may be traced in the
Poetic Edda, but which has been rather unexplored until now. To some degree I will
make use of a philological method where I let the meanings of names and place-names
determine my understanding of the texts.

As for translation of the original texts and names, I have basically used the dictionary
from Old Norse to Norwegian called Norrn Ordbok, as well as Rudolf Simeks
Dictionary of Norse Mythology, and interpretations presented by various scholars in
the secondary sources. In addition to Sophus Bugges rendering of the original texts of
the Poetic Edda, I have used the translations of these texts into English by Carolyne

13

Larrington, and into the Norwegian by Ludvig Holm-Olsen and by Ivar MortenssonEgnund. Since the respective translations differ from each other, I have in some places
found it necessary to do some translation on my own according to my understanding.

14

2: Sources
2.1: The Poetic Edda
My main source will be the Poetic Edda, also known as the Elder Edda. In the year 1643,
an Icelandic bishop called Brynjolf Sveinsson came across an old manuscript containing
poems about gods and legendary heroes, poems largely unknown by the educated people
of those days. Many of the stanzas that Snorri Sturluson had quoted in his prose work
about pagan poetry, the Edda, from 1220-1225 A.D. were recognized, and the bishop
asssumed that Snorris Edda must have been based on this elder, poetic Edda. Brynjolf
himself called the manuscript Smundar Edda, because he believed that the poems must
have been written down by the famous monk Smund the Wise, a belief which has not
been confirmed by later scholars. The Latin name given to the old collection was Codex
Regius, thus named because it was soon sent as a gift to king Fredrik III of Denmark. Not
counting the eight pages that had been torn out of the manuscript, the Codex Regius
contains 29 poems, five of which are also found in another Icelandic manuscript from
about 1300. In this manuscript is also found a poem that is not found in the Codex,
namely the poem Baldrs draumar (or the Vegtamskvida). Both manuscripts have an
older, common origin. Because of the letters and the language, it is believed that the
Codex was written down on Iceland at the end of the 13th century, yet many of the poems
are quoted in Snorris Edda, which was written around 1220.

The poems are based on myth and legends that are older than the settling of Iceland;
some legendary poems include historical characters from the 4th and 5th centuries A.D.
For this reason, many scholars believed that the poems were very old, but in 1871, Edvin
Jessen concluded that the poems were created in the Viking Age and that only some parts
are of older origin. In the form in which they have been transmitted, they are mostly from
the 11th and 12th century, some perhaps even as late as from the 13th century, and most of
them were created in Iceland, although some are of Norwegian origin. During
transmission, scholars assume that changes and innovations have taken place. There are,
for example, three different versions of the poem Volusp, all with rather fundamental
differences from each other. The idea that the poems are not authentic rendering of
15

Pagan myth, however, has been criticized by many scholars who argue that poets were
unlikely to invent mythical imagery that was not recognizable to the listeners already, and
archaeology has shown that a great many myths rendered in the Poetic Edda have their
far older pictorial versions: proving that these myths existed in pre-Christian times.4
2.2: Divine Poems
The Codex arranges the poems systematically in poems about the gods - Divine Poems
and Heroic Poems. The manuscript contains ten Divine Poems, and from other
manuscripts we know of three more poems, thirteen in all. Every poem stands on its` own
and has to be studied separately. The poems are referring to myths, tales about the
fundamental actions of the gods in the beginning of time. According to Ludvig HolmOlsen the original myths that the poems are based on have existed in poetic forms over
the whole Norse-speaking area in pagan times. Parts of the mythology clearly belong to
the common Indoeuropean heritage, and there are some striking similarities to old Indian
religion. Many of the myths may be closely connected to cult and ritual drama, where
human beings would enact the roles of mythical beings. Holm-Olsen states that it has
proven difficult to find the pagan cultic connection to the myths because the poems have
been written down in Christian times and probably undergone some censorship and
changes due to the new religion. The way the poems are presented, they are influenced by
a time that saw the pagan myths as entertainment or material particularly interesting for
scaldir -bards, who would use mythical imagery for their poetic metaphors, the
kenningar.

This view has, however, been disputed by amongst others Mai Elisabeth

Berg who sees the poems as purely literary constructions by Christian medieval poets.6
Yet Else Mundal argues that medieval poets used mythological material in a way that
necessarily had to make sense to his contemporaries, who would be well-versed in the
mythic cosmology.7 Margaret Clunies-Ross argues that Pagan ideas and mythology are
proved to have survived as a living tradition several centuries after the establishment of
Christianity in the North, a view that is also held by Gro Steinsland, who stresses the
4

Clunies-Ross, 1994, p. 16-19, Solli, 2002, p. 199, Mundal, 1974, p. 15-23

This summary isbased on Holm-Olsen,1995 p. 256-260
6
Berg, 2001, p. 15, 20, 26. Berg does believe that myth even still may be conveyed through the poems.
7
Mundal, 1994, p. 63-70
5

16

strength and reinforcement of the old religion during the period of conversion, when
some of the poems were created.8 Scholars such as Einar Haugen and Gro Steinsland
clearly state that genuine pre-Christian paganism may be detected in the poems.9
.
2.3: Heroic Poems
In the traditional songs which form their only record of the past the Germans celebrate an earth-born god
called Tuisto. His son Mannus is supposed to be the fountain head of their race and himself to have
begotten three sons who gave their names to three groups of tribes.10
Tacitus, 80 A.D.

The earliest proof of heroic poetry among Germanic peoples is given by the Roman
historian, Tacitus, about the year 80 A.D., and by Jordanes in the 6th century. From the
centuries that followed we have source material that shows how the Heroic Poetry of the
Edda was a common Germanic heritage. The form is epical and dramatical, mostly
presented in dialogues. The practical details are less important than the inner state of
mind of the characters, their attitudes and their feelings. Changes and innovations in the
oral transmissions have taken place before they were written down. The tales also existed
in the form of legends, which may have formed the background of the poems, since the
short, allusive style of the poems demands that the listeners possess knowledge of more
detailed (prose) stories.
The poems of the two Helgis, which are rather young poems, clearly reflect the cultural
milieu of the Viking Age and are possibly of Danish origin. The compositions as we
know them are probably not older than the 11th century, although the different parts are of
different age.
Through prose interpolation, probably created by the directors of the manuscript, one of
the Helgis is connected to Sigurd the Serpent-slayer through close kinship. The stories of
Sigfried-Sigurd, however, came from the continent to Scandinavia during the 9th century,
when they were already quite old, carrying legendary material from 5th century Europe.

Clunies-Ross, 1994, p. 18-19, Steinsland, 1998, p. 81-84

See ch. 2.7 and. ch. 3.3
10
Mattingly, 1970, p. 102
9

17

Of all the poems, Gripisp is probably the youngest, summing up the whole of Sigurds
story in a prophecy.11

2.4:Snorris Edda
Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241), a famous politician in his days, is today most famous for
his great prose works, the Heimskringla, which contains the history of the Norwegian
kings from their Pagan, divine origins and almost up to Snorris own time, and of that
work which has been called the Younger Edda or the Snorris Edda, which was
composed some time between 1220 and 1225. It is both a thesis and a teaching book
about the Old Norse art of poetry.12 It is divided into a Prologue and three chapters; the
Gylfaginning, the Skldskaparml, and the Httatal. The prologue and the Gylfaginning
cover Norse mythology, whereas the next two chapters are concerned with teaching the
ancient forms of poetry. The Skldskaparml is also rich in mythology, since myths form
the basis for the poetic metaphors (kenningar) that Snorri is teaching.13 The mythology
that Snorri is relating is apparently founded on old poems but also on oral versions in
prose. Clunies-Ross argues that both forms of mythology existed in pre-Christian times.
The allusive nature of Old Norse poems indicates that they only relate the tips of
narrative icebergs and that the audience would already be aquainted with the main part
of the story below the surface.14 This story is supposedly what Snorri is relating, making
it possible for us to understand much more of the poems and what they are alluding to.
Yet Snorri probably had many versions of the same stories, and it is likely that his
accounts do not represent the final, real version, but the most complete of many
versions.15 That Snorris presentation of the mythic material was shaped by his Christian
world-view is visible, for example in the way he omits any explanations of known
sacrificial myths such as dinns hanging on the world-tree and the way the vlva

11

Holm-Olsen, 1995, p. 283-284, 288-299

Clunies Ross, 1987, ch. I
13
Holm-Olsen, 1995, p. 211-220
14
Clunies-Ross, 1994, p. 25
15
Ibid, p. 30
12

18

Gullveig defies death. Many scholars have suggested that Snorri omited these important
mythical events because they were just too alien for his Christian understanding.16
2.5: Other Sources
There is a great wealth of written source material that scholars may use when studying
Norse mythology. The different kinds of Icelandic sagas, the works of Saxo
Grammaticus, contemporary literature from the continent, antique and Arab observations,
as well as scaldic poetry may be used. For this thesis, I have focused mainly on the
Eddas, and, out of concern with space will here refer to other material that has been
directly applied when it seems necessary.

2.7: The Reliability of the Sources

We have already partially touched upon this subject in ch. 2.1 - 2.6. but we shall here
quickly sum up our main standpoint. It is important to bear in mind that, as Gro
Steinsland pointed out, the Norse source-material in general are myths worked upon as
literature. A myth may express the ideology that is, the thoughts and ideas that are
dominant in society or in certain layers of society, of a class or of a group, its selfunderstanding and its world-understanding. One must, however, expect metamorphosis
and transformations of various layers of ideas and be aware of individual, poetic creation.
This means that the myth may have been removed from its original religious context. It is
only through the revealing of and definition of mythological models in the sources, that
one may have a hope of coming close to genuinely pagan beliefs. Through analysis of the
texts, we may be able to detect the pre-Christian ideological contents of the literature,
whereas a cultic frame of reference is far more difficult to reconstruct.17 As we shall see
in ch. 3.2, most scholars, including Steinsland herself, have not refrained from
interpreting the myths within a cultic frame of reference when the evidence seems to be
sufficient. Through careful treatment, it appears possible to detect ideological models,
structures and patterns within the poems. While some have seen the poems as actual
manuscripts of recital or ritual drama, and thus of complete pagan origin, others have
16
17

Clunies-Ross, 1994, p. 32-33, Solli 2002, p. 159

Steinsland, 1991, p. 20

19

suggested remnants or patterns of practice and belief within the poetic creations.
According to Eldar Heide, one could try and interpret myth through looking at the
underlying structure in the myth behind the details. Heide reads mythology much like one
would read a parable. In a parable, it is the structure that carries the meaning, not what
fills out the structure. Variations in myths are thus no longer problematic. Heide builds
his argument on the fact that this approach would be mindful of the rules for Norse poetic
language. A most basic feature of Norse poetry is the endless variation in the expression
of one thing or thought.18 My own perspective is a similar one to those of Heide and
Steinsland; I aim at showing a recurring pattern in the poems that may reflect authentic
pre-Christian myth and even cultic practice.

18

Heide, 1997, p. 92-93

20

3: Terminology and Previous Research

The Poetic Edda as a complete manuscript has a long history of research, and we will be
scrutinizing several very different Eddic poems, each of which also has its very own
history of research. Thus it will obviously be too much for this dissertation to cover the
scholarly history of each poem and of the whole collection of poems. There will also be
many details in the individual poems that we may not give sufficient attention. Some
keywords only will be our focus of investigation: The offering of mead to the hero
theme, the theme of ritual initiation reflected in the myths, and the study of the Maidenfigure in her aspect as giantess, goddess and valkyrie. We will also touch upon some
terms that will be used in this study.

3.1: Some terms: Initiation, Sacred Marriage, Shamanism and Mystery

religions
The term initiation in the most general sense denotes a body of rites and oral teachings whose purpose is
to produce a radical modification of the religious and social status of the person to be initiated. In
philosophical terms, initiation is equivalent to an ontological mutation of the existential condition. The
novice emerges from his ordeal a totally different being.19

Eliade and Adams divide initiation into three categories: puberty rites, which may also
be known as tribal initiation or initiation into an age group, initiation into a secret
society, and initiation connected to mystical vocation. The puberty rites introduce the
novice into the world of spiritual and cultural values, making him or her a responsible
member of society. The initiation requires some more or less dramatic trials: separation
from the family, isolation from society and secret revelations. It often includes a ritual
death, followed by a resurrection or rebirth. Rites of entrance into a secret society
correspond with those of puberty or tribal initiation: seclusion, tortures, death and
resurrection, the bestowal of a new name and the revelation of secret doctrines.
Initiatory death signifies the end of a state of being and the entrance into a new spiritual
state. This procedure is patterned on the model revealed by the gods or mythical
ancestors. Elders or priests, masters of initiation, supervise the rites and convey the
19

Eliade/Adams, 1987, VII, p. 225

21

revelations. As for shamans and medicine men, the initiation consists in ecstatic
experiences through dreams, visions and trances; the instruction may be imparted by a
master of initiation, but may also exclusively be imparted by spirits. Sometimes the
initiation is public and includes rituals, but in many cases the novice is initiated without
rituals: it happens in his or her dreams or ecstatic experiences20. Jens Peter Schjdt has
argued that the universal pattern detected in initiation ritual in fact may be detected in
many other kinds of rituals. It is only when the person undergoing the rituals actually
becomes someone or something else than he/she was before the ritual, is given a new
position, a new social or religious role, that we may actually be speaking of a genuine
initiation ritual.21

Sacred marriage, also called by its Greek term; Hieros Gamos, is the name of a
mythical or ritual union between a god and a goddess, or between a divine and a human
being; most especially a king and a goddess. 22 In early city-states of the Middle East, the
Hieros Gamos ritual was ver common for thousands of years. Hieros Gamos continued as
an unbroken tradition and was the central rite in religious life during the whole time-span
of the state of Sumer, which lasted from 4500 B.C to about 1750 B.C, and, moreover,
continued into the following Babylonian and Hebrew times, influencing Minoan and
Greek rites as well, particularly within mystery cults. The Sumerian ritual was associated
with a descent by the goddess to her sister in the Underworld, where she would become a
corpse and then be resurrected. As Anita Hammer has shown, the preparations for the
descent were identical with preparations for the marriage.23 The model for the ritual was
given in myths, and the ritual itself was performed on stage by a king and a priestess
representing the goddess. The ritual represented the union of the king with the city
goddess, being the visible counterpart of a celestial union. Kingship demanded a sacred
foundation that could be provided only through the omnipotence of the Great Goddess24.

20

Ibid, p. 225-227
Schjdt, 1994, p. 114-115
22
Eliade/Adams, VI, p. 317, 319-320
23
Hammer, 1999, p. 1
24
Eliade/Adams, VI, p. 319-320
21

22

Sacred marriage in some form or another was also known in Scandinavia throughout the
Bronze Age, shown in the rock carvings of that period. According to Camilla Helene Fari
the contexts in which imagery of sexual intercourse from the Bronze Age are found
strongly suggest a religious and cosmological framework. A great part of this imagery is
clearly connected to a larger, official cult ruled by an elite. The sacred marriage imagery
seems to belong to a time when society was becoming increasingly hierarchical. Since the
Scandinavian Bronze Age society had an Indo-European basic structure where the elite
maintained contact with the elites across Europe, Fari assumes that there must be a
connection between the sacred marriage images of Scandinavia and the myths and rituals
of sacred marriage in the Middle East. Fari speaks of a basic myth with great
geographical extent that could have had some influence in Scandinavia. This basic myth
was strongly connected to legitimation of the elite, to the peoples wish for fertility as
well as philosophies around death and resurrection.25 Comparative studies show that the
Norse goddess Freyia shares all her important mythological attributes with the Sumerian
goddess Ishtar/Innanna, and many with other Middle Eastern goddesses who also played
a role in sacred marriage.26 In my opinion, this strengthens Faris thesis of a strong
connection between Middle Eastern and Scandinavian myth and cult.

In his study on fertility cults in connection to sacred kingship, Folke Strm clearly
connects the Middle Eastern traditions with the Norse. Strm finds traces of a cult of the
Great Goddess, intimately related to the sacral king. In his study of Old Norse texts and
the official Uppsala-cult in pagan Sweden, he claims to find traces of ideas such as the
king being identical with the god of fertility in his sexual relation to the Goddess and in
his real or symbolic sacrificial death. Strm connects dinns self-sacrifice in the World
Tree with such a descent to the underworld through sacrifice. 27

Recently, using the Skrnisml as a starting point, Gro Steinsland has shown that a myth
of sacred marriage existed in the Norse society, and that it probably had its ritual
counterparts. The Hieros Gamos myth was very important for the ideology of royal lines;
25

Fari, 2003, p. 20-25

Motz, 1993, p. 111
27
Strm, 1954, p. 6-8, Strm argues that dinn shares many traits with a fertility god on p.62-69
26

23

the king or ruler represented a particular type of being different from others in that he was
descended from a god and a giantess, representatives of cosmic polarity. Steinsland dates
this form of Hieros Gamos back to the 5th century A.D, when royal lines and central rule
achieved greater importance than before; when the ancient custom of sacrificing outside
in groves and bogs was replaced by a cult much more closely linked to the royal houses.
The rituals of initiation into kingship or rulership was connected to a death and
resurrection symbolism, a revelation of esoteric knowledge, and culminated in sacred
marriage, reflecting the ancient myth of the divine ancestral father and the giant ancestral
mother. 28

Brit Solli is the last in a long row of scholars who have argued the existence of
shamanism within the Norse society. That shamanism was known among the Norsespeaking population is clear: shamanism was a central practice among their close
neighbours the Saami. Both sagas and laws testify to the close relationship between the
Norse and the Saami populations. Norsemen would approach Saami shamans or sorcerers
for help and even for teaching.29 In the strictest sense of the term, a shaman is a religious
practitioner operating within the tribes of Siberia, but, as ke Hultkrantz has shown, its
most particular features are to be found also in North America and in Scandinavia among
the Saami.

30

Shamanism was also central in Greenland.31 According to Mircea Eliade,

the shaman is primarily the master of ecstacy an individual who succeeds in having
mystical experiences in the form of a trance where the shamans soul leaves the body and
flies to heaven or the underworlds. He becomes and expert in orienting himself in the
unknown regions that he enters during ecstacy. The descents to the underworld are
usually undertaken to find and bring back a sick persons soul or to escort the soul of the
deceased to its new dwellings. The principal function of the shaman is healing. The
shaman may operate side by side with other religious experts such as sacrificial priests
and with cults of the home.32 Eliades definition makes it possible to apply the term
shamanism on several practices in other parts of the world, especially in Japan, Korea
28

Steinsland, 1991; main theory of her thesis, Steinsland, 2000, p. 48 - 81

Solli, 2002, p. 169-197
30
Hultkrantz, 1978, p. 9-35
31
Demant Jacobsen, 1999, p. 1-17
32
Eliade, 2004, p. 4, Eliade/Adams, XIII, p. 202-207
29

24

and among the Sora tribes in India. Thus, shamanism may occur not only in nomadic
hunting-gathering societies, but also in agricultural and civilized settings. As to our
own subject, where the hero is always married to the supernatural Maiden, it is interesting
to note that the concept of a spirit bride or spirit husband is very common, often
obligatory, in many shamanistic traditions.33

Eliade saw clear traces of shamanism in Norse mythology, particularly in the figures of
dinn and Hermodr. But he, and many scholars after him, argued that there are no traces
of real shamans, that is, human shamans, in the Norse sources.34 In the descriptions of
sances of seidr, Eliade found no soul journeys to heaven or the underworld, and found
that the sances were concentrated mainly on divination, which he regarder as a lower
art. Many have discussed whether seidr and galdr may have been part of a genuine Norse
shamanistic practice. Strmbck, Strm, Hedeager and Solli are all scholars who argue
that they are just that. Steinsland also points out that there are obvious contact points
between shamanism and seidr.35 The problem seems to be one of definition and
interpretation. Using Hultkrantzs definition of shamanism as not only mastery of ecstatic
journeys, but also as an art of calling the spirits, it does indeed seem possible to interpret
some sances of seidr, galdr, as well as other arts such as utiseta (to sit outside in the
night, often on a mound, or in a grove, to call the vttir - spirits) as a form of
shamanism.36 Demant Jacobsen is also among those who argue that shamanism is as
much about mastery over spirits as about soul journeys.37 Hultkrantz shows that, as
opposed to Eliades understanding, divination is both important and highly regarded
within shamanistic traditions, thus again opening up for a fresh understanding of many
Norse divinatory practises. 38 Norse concepts of the soul included what Hultkrantz would
call a free-soul that is a soul which may leave the body and operate outside of it,
often in the shape of an animal. Norse concepts of the hugr, hamr, fylgja and hamingja

33

Eliade and Adams, XIII, p. 202-207

Flood, 1999, p. 157-158, Eliade, 2004, p. 375, 380, 386-387
35
Hedeager 1997, p. 117 Strm 1967, p. 114, Strmbck, Solli, 2002, p. 130, Steinsland,1997, p. 134
36
Solli, 2002, p. 135-140. Hultkrantz, 1978 p. 20. Mundal,1990, p. 311 also translates vttir as spirits.
37
Demant Jacobsen, 1999, p. 5-7, 10, 15
38
Solli, 2002, p. 137, Hultkrantz, 1992, p. 18-19
34

25

could all possibly fit into the free-soul concept that is so crucial to shamanism.39 As for
finding a (human) shaman in Norse society, the vlva (f.pl. vlur) is the latest and most
obvious possible example. Her respected position and role in society and cult, as well as
her art, seidr, are most compatible with other descriptions of shamans. Another candidate
is the male seidmadr, who, at least in the written material, appears to have been more
stigmatized than the female practitioner and often accused of unmanliness. Some have
argued that seidr was a womens business, and that men practising it were regarded as
unmanly simply because they operated in a feminine sphere of work.40 However, the
amount of seidmennir in the sources indicate that the practice was quite common also
among men, and as Solli points out, even the highest god, dinn, practised it without
shame. It is possible that his arts included aspects that the Christian writers could not
accept of a man. As for other and more ancient titles that may have covered the office of
a Norse shaman, Solli suggests the thul and the eril, basing herself on discussions of the

39

The Norse soul-concepts seem compatible with the free-soul postulated by ke Hultkrantz in his study
of North American soul-concepts (and to the Saami). Hultkrantz defines it as the soul active outside the
body. Originally, the free-soul was combined with anormal states of consciousness, such as in dreams or
visions, which is also seen in the Norse material, where a state of sleep or seclusion was connected to the
wandering of the hugr. (Hultkrantz, 1953, p. 241-291). The Norse sources also show a belief in different
kind of souls. The hugr , meaning will, thought, intent, desire, and love, is the inner self of the
human being. The hugr may separate itself from the body and move about on its own. When the soul
moved outside of the body, it would take a hamr, a material shape, often an animal form. The ability to
change hamr and travel on a hamr-journey (fara i hamfrum) was the talent of the few and considered a
capacity that you were born with. Such people were considered particularly versed in magic. The sagas tell
of bards, warriors and vlur (seeresses) who had this ability. The shape-changing was usually connected to
a state of sleep or dreaming. The animal form of a human soul was also called fylgja (f.). Some fylgjur
came in woman form instead of animal form (even if the owner of the soul was male). Else Mundal (1974)
concludes that the woman fylgja was fundamentally different from the animal fylgja. While the animal
fylgja represented a kind of alter ego to the person (and, according to Mundal, not a free-soul) the
woman fylgja (fylgjukona) was considered a kind of guardian spirit, perhaps an ancestral mother, with her
ultimate Strm (1985) has a different approach, sticking to the idea of the animal fylgja as free-soul and
the woman fylgja as something related. Both agree that the fylgjur are connected to the dsir. Simek
translates the fylgjukona as a fetch, although he adds that the literal meaning is following spirit or
perhaps skin, cover. He defines it as the soul of people when it is separate from their bodies. The
fylgjur may be identified with the personified fortune of a person, the hamingja. These are a kind of soullike protective spirits. The word comes from ham-gengja, which originally referred to people who could let
their hamr walk. The idea of the woman fylgja and hamingja is to my view connected to the idea of the
nornir who follow each person through his or her life, as Snorri tells us in his Gylfaginning. They would
appear to be intimately related to the collective of dsir. As Mundal has pointed out, the fylgjur are often
called dsir, especially in poems. She believes that the woman fylgjur originated among the collective of
female spirits or goddesses called the dsir, while the animal fylgja has a different origin.
40

For example Strm, 1954, p. 60, Flood, 1999, p. 146-150, Eliade, 2004, p. 385

26

terms by scholars such as Ottar Grnvik and Bente Magnus.41 Later in this study, we will
meet both a thul and a jarl later version of eril - operating as what may be considered
masters of initiation.

Nsstrm suggests that dinns trials on the world tree are not necessarily reflections of
shamanistic intiation; they might as well be compared to the initatory trials of antique
mystery cults. I do not agree that dinns trials have more in common with such cults
than to shamanism. In this study, however, I have come to see a certain similarity
between the hero`s trials and relations to the Maiden supposedly the Great Goddessand those of ancient mystery religions. Originally, mysteries denoted a religious
manifestation that is not open to everyone, but required a special initiation. The word has
later become a technical term for secret cults and ceremonies. It is particularly related to
the Greco-Roman age and Near Eastern religions. The mysteries are special initiation
ceremonies that are esoteric in character, involving the destiny of a deity and the
communication of religious wisdom that enables the initiates to conquer death. Public
processions and sacrifices, dances and music would frame the celebration, which was
held in a closed room. The ceremony in itself was not open to the public. Since the
mysteries were secret, we know very little of the actual content of the rituals, which
centered on initiation. We may only deduce that the central theme was the linking of the
initiate with the destiny of the divinity (very often a goddess), resulting in the hope of
survival after death. Many ethnologists have seen the mysteries as remnants of ancient
rites of passage. The oldest mystery cult is that of Demeter and Kore, known in Eleusis
from the 7th century B.C until the destruction of its shrine by the Goths in 395 A.D. All
classes, even slaves, were admitted to the cult. The initiates were considered blessed with
life in the underworld, while others encountered evil. Other Greek mystery cults were
that of Dionysos, open only to women, and that of Orpheus, who tried to retrieve his dead
bride from the underworld. Strm has seen a similarity between the woman-oriented
dinn-cult and the Dionysus-cult.42 In the Roman age, oriental cults such as those of Isis,
Mithras and Cybele were adapted by Greco-Roman society and became very important as

41
42

Solli, 2002, p. 157-162, 216

Strm, 1954, p. 58-61

27

mystery cults. Cybeles cult involved the castration of male devotees. The cult of Isis was
to become the most influental and important in late Antiquity. The intitiate had to journey
through the lower world and the upper world to be reborn by the grace of Isis, the Great
Goddess.43 Mystical union is the experience of union between a human being or soul and
its divine object, considered the supreme stage of mystical experience. It is found as a
concept in most religions, and in the Greek and Roman mystery religions it was central.
A usual metaphor of mystical union is that of spiritual and heavenly marriage; a marriage
of the soul with the deity. Mystical union may be understood as an experience of ecstacy.
As with the shamans, who need to die in order to wander through the realms of death
and spirits before being reborn, the mystical death and subsequent soul-journey is
crucial in the stages leading to mystical union.44

3.2: The Maiden With The Mead

Is it so hard to imagine that the land beyond the sun is more beautiful than the sun itself, and that Gunnld
may be sitting there on a golden throne, offering immortality to a mortal man? And this after he has
experienced the horror of death and been born again, just as the earth is in Vlusp.
Svava Jacobsdottir

In his book Lady With a Mead Cup, Michael Enright shows how the offering of mead by
a royal or noble lady was part of an ancient Germanic (and Celtic) ritual the purpose of
which was to establish kingly authority and hierarchy within the kings warband. The
queen or lady would enter the hall in a prescribed manner, offering mead to the king with
a formal greeting and giving of advice. Most significant would be her official naming of
the lord and master of the hall during the mead-offering. She would then proceed to the
other warriors in the hall, according to their status, offering the same mead. The ritual,
according to Enright, would be a communal bonding rite between the warriors, but at the
same time an expression of lordship, hierarchy and rank. Through her role in the ritual,
the lady would also act as a delegate for the king, interrogating visitors or newcomers

43
44

Eliade and Adams, X, p. 230-238

Eliade and Adams, X, p. 239-243

28

through her formal greeting, a greeting the visitor would be obliged to respond to, thus
formally asserting his loyalty to the lord.45
Communal drinking had in itself some aspects of a cultic act. Liquor was the medium
through which one achieved ecstacy and thus communion with the supernatural. The
practice was widespread among the Indo-European peoples and seems to have been
closely related to the earliest rites of royal inauguration. It was also closely connected to
the sacred making of oaths. While this has been well-known among scholars, according
to Enright the importance of the role of the lady in the ritual has been neglected. Through
texts, Enright shows how she was perceived very much in connection with the rite. She
was the bearer of the consecrated liquor and the incitor of oaths. Her function was quite
like the diplomat who constructs bonds of allegiance between the outsider and a king and
his court -she was the instrument that sanctified the lords status by naming him as such,
by serving him before all others and by causing each of his retainers to drink after
him.46 She sanctified the status of each warrior, made them all into a band of brothers
which was also a perfectly hierarchical family. Her presence was essential, because the
binding rite that she performed was her particular duty. Her cheering words and gifts
make a harsh life full of conflict and rivalry more bearable. At the same time she was a
tool of her husbands dominance, since it was his power that she symbolized and acted
out as his representative. The queen, through the mead-offering ritual, was a stabilizing
influence.
Enright uses the mead-ritual as a starting point for a discussion of the queens political
role within the warband of Germanic warrior societies. Since we are dealing only with
religion and mythology, Enrights thesis moves beyound our purposes. It is however
useful to note that the idea of an offering of mead by a gold-adorned lady had its
powerful traditions within innumerable Germanic societies from the earliest times up to
the Viking Age. In ch. 8.5, we will further discuss Enrights works as he proceeds to
showing, through an archaeological survey, that the lady with the mead cup was indeed
an important and central character in Germanic societies, and that she might have
originated as a prophetess or a priestess. As we shall see in this study, the mead-offering

45
46

Enright, 1996, p. 1-18

Ibid, p. 22

29

women of the Poetic Edda are supernatural characters and the offering takes place
somewhere apart from the world of humankind. Enright shows how the event had its
counterpart in a common and ancient ritual in the real world. The rite, as Enright
asserts, was, besides being a repeated ritual during important gatherings, essential in
royal inauguration. In fact, the queen and her prophetess ancestor appear to have
played an important political role in royal consecration.47 As Steinsland has shown, the
inauguration ritual in Norse society was also closely connected to a sacred marriage
rite, whether real or symbolic. Thus, mead-offering rituals would in such cases be
accompanied by sacred marriage.

Svava Jacobsdottir focuses on Gunnlds serving of mead to dinn in the Hvaml,

drawing a line between the magical drought of Gunnld and those of Irish legends where
a divine lady or goddess personifying the land offers a crystal cup of red mead to a young
king or hero before they go to bed together. 48 Such a connection between Norse and Irish
/ Celtic traditions is also made by Michael Enright. The lady is either named after the
drink itself, such as Intoxication, or after her function as ruler of the land:
Sovereignty. Only when the young hero accepts the drink and her holy embrace, is he
fit to be king. This authority is granted through sacred marriage. In the Irish sources, the
goddess is seated on a crystal chair, and the drink is emphazised for its (red) color and
intoxicating effect. It is ladled out with a golden ladle and served from a golden cup. The
hero has to swear an oath to the goddess. In the Hvaml, Gunnld is sitting on a golden
chair, from where she ladles out the precious mead and serves it to dinn in a cup. The
drink is called litr in st. 107, meaning color, a fact Jacobsdottir connects to the red
color of the Irish mead. dinn has sworn a sacred ring-oath which Jacobsdottir interprets
as an oath of marriage (which dinn breaks). The intoxicating effect of the drink is
emphazised in the poems st. 13-14 and . According to Jacobsdottir,the drink is not
called poetry mead, only the precious mead. (However, in st. 107, Odrerir is
mentioned, the Poetry Stir which Snorri gives as name for one of Gunnlds three
cauldrons). After drinking it, dinn relates how he has obtained wisdom and become

47
48

Ibid, p. 24
Jacobsdottir, 2002, p. 30-53

30

strengthened with the power of the Earth, bringing the mead up into the shrine of the
Earth (st. 107-108). Jacobsdottir suggests that the Earth is Gunnld herself, personifying
the land which the new king has married. The shrine of Earth may have had its ritual
counterpart in a cave or grave-mound.49 Jacobsdottir questions whether the Gunnld story
was a Norse imitation or adaption of an Irish original, but concludes that it was part of the
Norse tradition. Hieros Gamos was known in Norse society, and the theme of the sacred
drink is also to be found in older Indo-European material. In the Norse sources, the mead
shows up in several places: The mead served by the valkyries appears to have granted
eternal life, and is in Sigrdrifuml also associated with holy embraces. The drink is also
to be found in the name of the maiden Mengld, whose embrace is also sought in the
Fjlsvinnsml. Instead of understanding her name as men-gld, Necklace Pleased,
as is the usual understanding, Jacobsdottir claims that it could be derived from Old
English mengan, to mix, and ld, invitation. The sacred drink would then be implicit in
her name. Jacobsdottir further connects the giantesses Gunnld, Gerdr, the valkyries and
the maiden Mengld through the wall of flame that surrounds them and their enchanted
state. Jacobsdottir completes her essay by showing how the mead or ale from Norse and
Celtic sources has its counterpart in Old Indian religions where Soma plays an important
role as a drink of knowledge and immortality. The herb which was used to make the
drink and which gave it its intoxicating power was the soma. In Sanskrit, the name for the
drink was madhu, a word cognate with mjdr and mead. 50 Holy embraces was a part
of the soma ritual, and in one myth, Indra drinks Soma from the lips of Apala, daughter
of the sun. In another myth, an eagle called Garuda (soma-thief) gives the sacred drink
to the gods. Garuda is really Vac, goddess of the voice, in disguise. The guardian of the
Soma was said to be a serpent. The parallell to Snorris story of dinns theft of the mead
of poetry while in the shape of a serpent and then an eagle is striking.

49

Ibid, p. 40. Symbolic death and re-birth was part of kings consecration in many such societies, and was
associated with the Great Goddess. It was connected to the idea of immortality, which may be found also in
the Norse material.
50

Ibid, p. 48. This connection is also made by Nsstrm, 2001, p. 131, who speaks of a Norse Somatradition, and by Brockington, 1996, p. 16- Mead was used in libation sacrifice, something which is seen in
the Sanskrit word medha; sacrifice.

31

3.3: Ritual and Initiation reflected in the Norse Myths

In his essay on the Edda as ritual, Einar Haugen criticizes philology students who overemphasize the literary quality of the Norse poems. 51 In their literary criticism, many have
overlooked the religious values conveyed in the poetry. Students have criticized the
poems for their repetitiousness, for their stereotyped forms, and the many lists of names
have been considered dry and uninteresting. This, according to Haugen, is because these
students have failed to penetrate behind the poems to the religious faith of those who
composed and performed them. The value of formulaic repetition in creating a mood has
been neglected. The shamanic ecstacy that runs through these poems from one end to
the other, the magic blessings that brought power...52 has not been appreciated.
Consequently, Haugen proposes that the high degree of performance-oriented quality in
the poems must mean that we are close to having something like a text for cultic
occasions in the poems of the Poetic Edda. The Skirnisml, for example, may very well
be seen as a ritual drama promoting fertility.

The idea of the texts of the Edda as reflecting actual ritual is doubtful, as we saw in ch.
2.1, 2.2, and 2.7. Folke Strm believes that the original connection (which he assumes
existed) between myth and cultic ritual has become weakened up to the point of complete
dissolution where the myth takes its own life, making way for a more literary form. What
may have begun as a cultic text is gradually turned into legend and saga. Yet in some
instances, especially when the myth survives as a divine saga or legend, it may be
possible to find the original pattern of cultic drama, a core of ritual, timeless reality.
Strm uses dinns self-sacrifice on the World Tree as an example of what he sees as a
ritual where the king plays the role of the fertility god who dies and is resurrected,
connected to a hieros gamos ritual with the Great Goddess. 53

The stanzas about dinns trials on the world tree, where he hangs, stabbed, without
eating or drinking for nine days, before picking up the sacred knowledge of the runes, has
51

Haugen, 1983, p. 3-21

Ibid, p. 21
53
Strm, 1954, p. 9
52

32

caught the attention of many scholars from an early time. Eliade saw the trial as strikingly
reminiscent of Siberian shamans initiatory trials on the World Tree.54 Solli argues the
same thing, and proceeds to suggest that many so called sacrifices by hanging may have
been quite common as a ritual of initiation: the initiant would not be actually strangled,
but hung up in a tree without food or drink for several days leading to the necessary
trance state induced by pain and suffering which is so common in shamanistic practice.
Following the argument of Ottar Grnvik, she suggests that the one hanging in the tree in
Hvaml st.138-139 is not actually dinn but a thul who identifies himself with the
destiny of the god.55 Jere Fleck suggested that dinns trials during his quest for wisdom
may very well reflect a kind of ascetic mortification of the flesh for the sake of inducing
visions of the unknown, a widely spread practice in many religions.56 Britt Mari
Nsstrm sees the trials of dinn hanging on the world tree within the context of
initiation into a religious office an initiation which reminds her more of Hellenistic
mystery-religions than of shamanism.57 Whatever is our opinion about this subject, we
may get from this discussion the idea of how pagan ritual and religion is being perceived
by scholars in the history of religions as a historical reality hiding behind the medieval
texts.

In her major work about Norse ritual and sacrifice, Nsstrm touches upon the theme of
ritual reflected in myths several times.58 In general, her view seems to be that myths
which on the surface tell quite wild, romantic or funny tales may in reality reflect actual
ritual.59 She shows how Eddic poems like the Hymiskvida in its entirety deals with ritual
eating and drinking, and how the scaldic poem Haustlong is really describing an act of
sacrifice.60 In the Saga of Hrolf Kraki, she singles out elements of ritual initiation into
manhood or a secret society.61

54

Eliade, 2004, p. 379-384

Solli, 2002, p. 154-162
56
Haugen, 1983, p. 20
57
Nsstrm, 2001, p.167-172
58
Nsstrm, 2001
59
Ibid, p. 98
60
Ibid, p. 125-126
61
Ibid, p. 117-118
55

33

Nsstrm appears to be reflecting a general tendency among scholars of Norse mythology when she sees remnants of religious practice within the myths, although most are
careful about suggesting that the poems as we know them are actual manuscripts for
ritual drama. As Holm-Olsen pointed out (see ch. 2.1) it is difficult to decide the age and
authenticity of the poems. However, many are those who have seen at least reflections of
the practices and concepts of ritual in the Edda. Jan de Vries suggested that the myth of
Balders murder was describing an initiation rite for a young warrior. He points out that
death (and resurrection) is part of the trials of initiation.62 Kaaren Grimstad and Edith
Marold63 as well as Lotte Motz64 point to the dwarf Regnns role as a master of initiation
for the young hero Sigurdr, while Grimstad adds the fact that in the Sigurd-story there are
several elder figures who also act in this fashion. Jens Peter Schdt also places the
story of Sigurdr within the framework of a typical initiation ritual where the hero goes
through trials that lead to numinous revelations and a new position in society
afterwards.65 In the Eddic poem Vlundarkvida, Grimstad sees a double initiation: first,
the one undergone by the elf smith Vlundr, suffering captivity, mutilation, and symbolic
death before he is able to soar freely in the air, reborn with increased powers; secondly,
he acts as the master of initiation to the kings sons. Slaying and dismemberment,
Grimstad states, are integral parts in both shamanic and warrior cult initiations66.
Gro Steinsland has argued that myths like the Skrnisml and the Hyndluljod, both of
which will be discussed in this work, reflect an ideology of sacred kingship based on
the heritage of a sacred marriage between a god and a giantess. Since her theories have
met with support and her ideas have been elaborated on the basis of more research, she
has lately argued that both poems may very well reflect rituals of initiation into kingship
through trials in the other world or world of the dead, culminating in sacred marriage. 67
In this context, Solli, who otherwise argues for shamanism, suggests that even kings or
chiefs may have had to undergo shamanistic hanging rituals such as that of the king in
Gautreks saga who (unsuccessfully) tried to let himself be symbolically hanged and
62

Nsstrm, 2001, p. 153 (De Vries, 1955, p. 44 , Arkiv fr Nordisk filologi 70: Der Mythos von Balders
Tod)
63
Grimstad, 1983, p. 187-205
64
Motz, 1983, p. 96
65
Schjdt, 1994, p. 113-123
66
Grimstad, 1983, p. 203
67
Steinsland,1991, Steinsland, 2000, p. 72-73

34

stabbed. Solli supports her argument with the old Nordic concept of the widu-hundaR
the chief in the tree.68 On comparing the myth of Gunnld and dinn with Irish and
Indian sources, Svava Jacobsdottir decides that the myth must be treating the ritual
initiation of a king through sacred marriage. Studying the details of the myth, she tries to
form a picture of the ritual: It must have happened underground, and after trials of
hardship, the young initiate is finally met by the representatives of the otherworld, a lady
on a golden chair who grants him the holy drink and her holy embrace after he has sworn
a most sacred ring-oath. The trials take place in the presence of his masters of initiation.
Finally, Jacobsdottir suggests that the myth encompasses more than just trials of
kingship, since the realm of Gunnld and the drink she conveys may appear to offer an
alternative to death. 69

Einar Haugen criticized the strong focus upon kingship initiation among the scholars of
the Edda. Although many poems may reflect the initiation of kings, to see them only in
the light of kingship ritual is, according to Haugen, to restrict the myths too severely.
Haugen chooses to see the myths rather as part of the whole ceremonial pattern of
Germanic religion in which the king-priest or sacred magician acts out the role of the
gods he tells about. He points out that there is even a word for this kind of practitioner:
the thul, meaning chanter (from thylja to chant) a chanter, a reciter of numinous
wisdom, a sage or a poet.70

68

Solli, 2002, p. 162

Jacobsdottir, 2002, p. 30-51
70
The thul is found in the Poetic Edda as the reciter in the Hvaml st. 111, as a title for the Giant
Vaftrhudnir (an old thul), for the dwarf Regnn (a hoary thul), and for dinn (the master-thul in
Hvaml st. 80, st. 142.) Haugen, 1983, p. 20
69

35

3.4: The Great Goddess

Else Mundal has put forth the question of why the majority of Norse goddesses known
from Snorri and the poets appear invisible in myth and cult. One common explanation
has been that most of the goddess-names were poetic inventions. The poets supposedly
needed goddess-names to use in their poetic metaphors for women. It is true that poets
used the names of goddesses to describe women, but, as Mundal argues, names of
goddesses could not function as a basic word in kenningar if they did not give
associations to goddesses people knew beforehand.71
The poetic metaphors worked because they alluded to already known mythology.
Mundals explanation of the numerous named, but faded goddesses, is that female deities
would mostly be worshipped as a collective. This fact may partly explains why the
individual goddess with the exception of Freyia - disappears as an individual...72
Another, complementing explanation is that the multitude of single, non-married
goddesses, who far outnumber the male gods, did not fit into the patriarchal family
structure that Snorri and his contemporaries tried to impose on the pagan gods. Thirdly,
Mundal argues that concepts of one individual goddess and the female collective merge
into one another. There is no sharp division between the ds (sg.) and the dsir (pl.).73
Mundal draws the line between the ds-dsir and the norns, the valkyries, and the fylgjur,
concluding that where the female deities are concerned, the conceptions of the indivudal
and the collective merge together. To talk about lower female deities when talking
about the collectives of norns, valkyries, fylgjur and dsir is useless seen in this light: they
are as important in the cult as the individual deity, and are not separable from them. Even
the division between human and divine becomes blurred in the case of females: the
valkyries may be described almost as humanbeings, the vlur exist both as real women
and as mythical beings, and even the word gydja means both priestess and goddess.
Mundal suggests that what we are seeing in the collective of female deities are hypostases
of the greater, individual goddesses, such as Freyia and Frigg. And, she argues, if we

71

Mundal, 1990, p. 305

Ibid p. 300
73
Ibid, p. 312
72

36

have hypostases, we will get more goddesses out of one, and the last one will be as real
as the first one.74

Britt Mari Nsstrm defines a Great Goddess as the counterpart of a male high God: she
takes a dominating position, she is independent, rules over fate, and is worshipped by
both men and women. She often appears with many names and shapes, her character is
ambivalent, a feature which often splits her into several beings. She is connected to the
earth, but may also be a goddess of heaven. Her cult is widespread and official. 75
The idea of Mother Earth as the Great Goddess may be limiting. As Jacobsdottir
intervenes, the goddess may be equally connected to heaven and sun, not the least in
Norse mythology, where the connection of sunlight, brightness and the goddess is very
common. 76 I wish to add that the sun in the Norse language is feminine, and in the myths,
the sun is continually referred to as a woman or a goddess, sister of the (male) moon.
This is a fact which appears to have been ignored by many scholars, who sometimes
speak of a Norse Sun God, supposedly Freyr, although there is no reference to a male sun
anywhere in the sources.77 As we shall see, the Maiden, who on some level may represent
the land to whom the king must marry, is also associated with brightness and shine, and
as a valkyrie, her sphere is air and sea. As a giantess, however, she emerges from the
depths of the earth as do Gunnld, Gerdr, Fenja and Menja.
Folke Strm78 and Nsstrm have both in their own ways expressed the idea of a Great
Goddess behind the many shapes and names of female characters that appear in Norse
mythology. Strm presents the dsir as the designation given to a collective of female
deities without known individual names. As Mundal showed (above), these names may
be the ones reflected in poetry. The dsir were the objects of widespread cults of ancient
origin, and they were closely connected to Freyia, the Vanads. The idea of one Great Ds
becomes clear from the name of the central hall of the dsablot (the sacrifice to the dsir);
the Disarsalinn. Dsar here is a genitive sg. which means that we are dealing with the hall
74

Ibid, p. 304
Nsstrm, 1998, p. 79
76
Jacobsdottir, 2002, p. 43
77
For example Dronke, 1997, p. 396-397, Turville-Petre, 1975, p.174
78
Strm, 1985, and 1954
75

37

of the one (great) Ds rather than the hall of the many dsir who received sacrifice at this
important celebration. Strm suggests that it must be Freyia who hides behind the title,
and is supported by Nsstrm, who points out that from the nameless collective of dsir,
one great ds, one Great Goddess, emerges.79
The dsir have their etymylogical origin from old Indian: Dhisan, a goddess who could
take many shapes, then called dhisanas. They were goddesses of wealth and happiness,
and they took care of the sacred drink, Soma, the drink of immortality.80
In Norse mythology, the lines between the dsir, the valkyrior, the fylgjur, and the nornir,
are blurred; much points to a common origin, or that the different designations just
specify the kind of ds that we are dealing with. Dsir were, in general, the guardian
spirits of the clans, and appear to have been particularly close to the head of the clan. The
dsir called valkyrior were the poetical expressions of the warrior ideal of the Viking
ages, with their warlike apparence. Sometimes, the dsir of the clan were called fylgjur,
which means followers.81 It has been discussed whether woman-fylgja could represent
the soul of a person (see ch. 3.1). A person could have a woman fylgja or an animal
fylgja, a form of soul that could travel independently of the body, as could the hugr
(will, thought, soul) and the hamingja (fate, fortune).82 In their function as fatedeciding powers, the dsir were called nornir, who were thought to be present at a child`s
birth to give it a name and decide its fate.83
As Strm and Nsstrm suggested, the goddess Freyia may be the head of all the
different dsir, indeed, she may be the one Great Ds hiding behind the ds of the
Disarsalinn. Strm believes, for example, that the giantess Skadi ndurds - is the
winter-aspect of Freyia the goddess - vanads.84 In her work on the Great Goddess of the
North, Nsstrm identifies Freyia in the same manner, and sees Freyia, as meaning only
Lady, hiding behind most of the feminine deities in the mythology, whose names only
denote the functions she plays in the myth, or refer to a local name for the Lady. Many of
the goddesses in the myth may be identified with Freyia through their character and their
79

Strm, 1997, p. 192-193, Nsstrm, 1998, p. 156

Nsstrm, 1998, p. 146, Strm, p. 192
81
Strm, 1997, p. 194-196
82
Ibid, p. 206
83
Ibid, p. 201
84
Strm, 1954, p. 6
80

38

functions, and Freyia may also be recognized as the Great Valkyrie, the Great Ds, and
even the great old norn, Urdr.85 The only female character whom Nsstrm does not
identify Freyia with are the giantesses. They are seen as something completely different.
Nsstrm even states that the giants are only evil (bare ondskapsfulle).86 She also
believes that the after-death realm of Freyia is completely separated from that of the
giantess Hel.87 However, without hesitating, both Strm and Nsstrm include the
giantesses Gerdr and Skadi among the goddesses, showing how Freyia may hide behind
even these figures.88

Gro Steinsland has shown that giantesses have had an important and positive role in the
mythology. They played the part of ancestral mothers to the royal lines, contributing
primeval creativity and power where the divine ancestral father contributed law and
order. Besides, giants, particularly giantesses such as Skadi and the collective of
giantesses known as the mrnir, are now proven to have received sacrifice and had their
own shrines and cults. This is not, according to Steinsland, because the giantesses were a
kind of old, important goddesses who had become lesser with time. On the contrary,
the giant stock is different from the gods, their polar opposites. Nonethless, they were
important and powerful cosmic characters, and it would be ...remarkable if Norse
tradition should miss any ritual dealing with powers on whom the whole of existence
finally depended. The giants are as necessary to the world as the gods are.89 It is exactly
from this polar opposition between god and giantess that the very power of the sacred
marriage derives.90 Since I have detected Maiden-mythology in poems concerning
both obvious giantesses, goddesses, and valkyries, I find Steinslands theory of extreme
opposition somewhat problematic. The Maiden, whom we shall identify as the Great
Goddess, does exist both in giant and divine form. However, there is a remarkable
difference between the role played by the giantess Maiden and the goddess Maiden: The
giantess is related to the gods only, the goddess-valkyrie deals with human heroes. I think
85

Nsstrm, 1998, p. 177, p.154-178

Nsstrm, 2001, p. 13
87
Nsstrm, 1998, p. 176-177
88
Nsstrm, 1998, p. 85, 112, 114, 122, 139-141, Strm, 1954, p. 6
89
Steinsland, 1986, p. 212-220
90
Steinsland,1991, p. 268-269, p. 278-282, p. 127-129
86

39

this is an important difference which I will touch upon in the chapters concerning the
ogress-Maiden-opposition, without hoping to reach as yet to the absolute depth of this
puzzling problem.

40

4: Gunnld, Gerdr and the Giantesses

In this chapter we shall explore the two main myths of the Poetic Edda where a giantess
plays the role of serving the mead to the hero; that of Gunnld as found in the Hvaml
(and in Snorris Skldskaparml) as well as the myth of Gerdr in the Skirnisml. In the
two poems, a god, dinn and Freyr respectively, plays the heros role of seeking the
giantess with the mead, as opposed to the other poems of this study where the heroes are
young men and the Maiden has, perhaps significantly, become a goddess or a valkyrie.
Much research has been done on all these poems, and within the space of this work I have
little leasure to explore all their implications: we will be concentrating on the common
structural elements in the poems, in order to detect a common mythical concept and a
ritual structure behind the different poetic expressions.
4.1: Giantesses in the Realms of Death
The jotnir (sg.m.jotunn) are always translated into English as giants, while the female,
the gygjar (sg.f.gygr) are called giantesses. However, the actual significance of the
word jotunn seems to be eater, devourer.91 The giants are the primeval beings,
existing before the gods and the ordered world, and are, ultimately, their destroyers.
Giantesses operate as mistresses of the realms of death: Hel rules in Niflheim the misty
World92 where most dead souls have to go even the soul of the god Balder, for whom
tables are decked and mead brewed but hidden - in that dark realm.93 Hels hall is
surrounded by tall gates that must not be touched by the living. Niflheim is filled with
poisonous rivers, with serpents and wolves, animals associated with other giantesses like
Hyrrokkin, Skadi, Hyndla and the wolf-riding, serpent-handling, death-declaring fylgja
that appears in the poem of Helgi Hjrvardsson. Hels brothers are the World Serpent,
who lays coiled around the ordered world (Midgardr,) and the wolf Fenrir who is
destined to devour dinn during Ragnarrk. Niflheim lies to the icy north of the world,
91

Haugen, 1983, p. 18, Simek, 1996, p. 180

Simek, 1996, p. 232; translates Niflheim to Dark World and Niflhel to Dark Hel, although he admits
that the words are derived from OE nifol darl and Latin nebulae; fog, mist. In Norrn Ordbok, the
translation is tkeheim, that is, misty world, my preferred interpretation, although the association with
the realm and darkness is shown through the myths of Hermodr and in Baldrs draumar.
93
Baldrs Draumar, st. 7
92

41

where there is also a giant in eagles disguise whose name is Hrsvelgr, The CorpseSwallower.94 He is the origin of the winds of the world. The realm lies at one of the
roots of the world tree where there is a well infested by serpents, from which many of the
worlds rivers originate. Hel is said to have power over nine worlds. According to Snorri,
Hels face is half pink as life, and half blue as death. Another realm of death is below the
sea, where Rn robbery95 - dwells, catching those who drown in her net. She has nine
daughters, who are often associated with the waves. Through poetic metaphors they are
also connected to gold and poetry. Rns realm is also associated with mead, cauldrons
and decked tables, as we see in the beginning of the Skldskaparml. Steinsland has
shown how the experience of death often is depicted as something of an erotic feast or
even a wedding to the mistresses of death.96

4.2: GUNNLD AND THE MEAD OF POETRY

Gotland, Sweden

Gunnld means Invitation to Battle, a name which according to Simek would be rather
more typical for a valkyrie than for a giantess, suitable for the figure of the valkyrie who
hands out mead.97 The oldest written version of the story is to be found in the Hvaml
poem st. 104-110, where dinn himself tells the story of his conquest. In the stanzas,
which may be read in their entirety in App.I, dinn tells of how he entered the hall of the
old giant Suttungr - speaking so well for himself that he saved his life in that alien
94

Simek, 1996, p.158

Simek, 1996, p. 260
96
Steinsland, 1992, p. 321-322
97
Simek, 1996, p. 124-125
95

42

realm. A lady sitting on a golden throne offers him a precious drink of mead. The lady
is Gunnld, Suttungrs daughter, and her appearance is queen-like. We learn that dinn
had sworn a sacred ring-oath before he had relations with her. The speaking in the hall of
the maidens father, the oath, the ritual offering of mead and the subsequent embrace
between the god and the giantess all seem to indicate a wedding.98 Gunnld proceeds to
help dinn in his effort to get out of the hall of the giants, in fact, he admits that he would
not have been able to escape without her help. Gnawing himself out through the
mountain with the mouth of Rati, risking his head between paths of giants, dinn
manages to return up to Earths old shrine, bringing with him the drink that Gunnld
gave him, Odrerir, or Poetry Stir. dinn concludes the story by naming himself HarmDoer and oath-breaker, for he left Gunnld behind, weeping, and he stole the mead by
treason. He also tells how the frost-ogres ask themselves whether he had died by
Suttungrs hands or had come among the gods.

St. 107 identifies the precious mead as Odrerir, a cauldron of mead whose history Snorri
explains in Skldskaparml. Snorri also asserts that it was this mead that Gunnld gave to
dinn. More to the point, Odrerir was, according to Snorri, the biggest one of the three
cauldrons in which the mead was kept. Thus we have two sources that identifiy
Gunnld`s precious mead with the mead of poetry. It is a mead that is the essence of
the primordeal truce between the two tribes of gods, the Aesir and the Vanir. The mead
contains divine wisdom and all the intelligence of the world. Anyone drinking it will
become a sage and a great poet.99 In Snorris version, a great point is made out of the fact
that dinn manages to escape with the mead inside of himself, to be held forever after in
the divine realm of sgard. The Hvaml version asserts that, because of his troubles and
his relation to Gunnld, dinn could now bring the mead up into the shrine of Earth.

Apparently, most scholars consider the trials of dinn on the world tree as something
completely separate from his sacred marriage to Gunnld.100 However, Odrerir does
indeed appear in a different set of Hvaml stanzas which, to my view, may connect the
98

See ch. 3.2

Faulkes, 1987, p. 62-64.
100
I have not been able to find anyone else who makes this connection.
99

43

two events. St. 138-139 (See App.II) tells the tale of how dinn (or a thul identifying
himself with dinn, see ch.3.1) hangs in a wind-swept tree for nine whole nights,
stabbed, thirsting and starving. He is given to dinn, he is giving self to himself, and,
peering down, he has a vision: screaming, he takes the runes up, falling backwards. As
mentioned in ch. 3.1 and 3.3, dinns trials on the World Tree is generally understood as
a ritual of initiation. But as Schjdt pointed out (ch. 3.1), the initiation is only complete
when the result is that the initiate achieves a new position, status or spiritual level. Thus
the st. 138-139 loose their meaning without the st. 141 which tells of how dinn became
a sage after his trials. In between we have st. 140: explaining how dinn learns nine
powerful charms from a giant, his maternal uncle, and, in the same breath, has a drink of
precious mead, ladled out from Odrerir. Only then he learns to grow, be wise, and be
eloquent.101 To read the trials of dinn as reflecting a ritual of initiation, as most scholars
do, it is necessary to consider all the stanzas from his trials to the result, that is, st. 138 to
st. 141. St. 140 makes it clear that the precious mead, Odrerir, and the learning of galdr
was part of the same ritual as the one where dinn hangs on a tree. Odrerir is certainly
connected to Gunnlds mead, as testified by Snorri and by Hvaml st. 107.

Snorri does not mention dinns sacrifice in his version of the Gunnld story, however,
he does not mention that important event anywhere. As we saw in ch. 2.4, violent ritual
sacrifice, even if symbolic, may simply have been too incomprehensible, too alien or
even too pagan for him to try and explain. Indeed, one does not need Snorris
Skldskaparml version to form a complete picture of one version of the story
independently. The connection between st. 140 and st. 107 through the name of the mead
that dinn drinks, Odrerir, convinces me that there is a strong connection between
dinns self-sacrifice not only with the discovery of the sacred runes, but also with the
learning of charms from an old giant and the ritual drinking and marriage with a lady of
the other world.

101

See appendix II for the original text

44

4.3: An Underlying Structure of Themes

Assuming that the two sets of stanzas from the Hvaml that we have discussed are
indeed connected through the mead-theme, we may form an image of at least one version
of the story, and we may detect an underlying structure:
First, we have what I would call a vision quest- theme. dinn, or the one trying to
resemble him, undergoes trials of hardship, pain and fasting in order to achieve a vision.
Second, we have a vision-theme. The I-person peers down and picks up sacred
knowledge. Third, we have a descending- theme: Our hero descends into the world
within the mountains, filled with the paths of otherworldy creatures, and ruled by giants,
a deadly realm where one risks ones head. Only cleverness (the use of many words,
eloquence), may save the life of the one who descends. My reason for the use of the
world descend is because I believe there is reason to assume that the realm in question
is a kind of Underworld or, indeed, another image of the world of the dead. I will discuss
this below. Four, we have a trial-theme. dinn has to face an old, dangerous giant,
whether it be Suttungr, Gunnlds father, or Bolthorn, his own maternal uncle, who will
only receive him and teach him if he shows himself eloquent and smart enough. After the
learning of nine spell-songs, we are led over to the fifth theme, the Maiden-theme,
which is where the culmination of the heros trials takes place: his meeting with the
queen-like Maiden on her golden throne, her offering of the precious drink, the Poetry
Stir, and her own soul, heart and embrace. The result of the trials and the union with the
Maiden-figure is a knowledge of runes, of charms, and the escape from that deadly realm
which surrounds the Maiden. He also becomes exeedingly wise and eloquent. The
betrayal-theme in the story of dinn and Gunnld is very interesting but there is no space
to discuss it to any extent in this study.

45

4.4:The Maiden and her Kin: A Realm of Death?

Gunnld is seated, queen-like, on a golden throne. She dwells within a place called
Hnitbjrg the Beating Rock.102 And she is a guardian. Hnitbjrg is usually understood
to be a mountain, since bjrg means layers of rock103. Gunnld stays within the rocklayers. This is in accordance with her role as a giantess, since giantesses are frequently
related to rock, stone and mountain. The giantess Hyndla, for example, is said to live in a
rock cave.104 The guardian role is shared with other giantesses: Mdgudr Furious
Battle105- is the guardian of the river Gioll Loud Noise and the bridge Gjallarbru
the Resounding Bridge106 - which lead the way to Hel. In the Helreidr Brynhildar we
see how the entry into Hel`s realm is guarded by an ogress. Is Gunnlds dwelling also a
death-realm?
The Eagle-proof
Gunnld is the daughter of giants. In Snorris version of the story of dinn and Gunnld,
her father, Suttungr, appears as a giant in eagles disguise, much like Hrsvelgr. We
already mentioned this Corpse-Swallower in ch. 4.1, and find the image of death as a
giant-eagle worth scrutinizing, especially since it will show up again in the heroic poems
of chapter 6. The eagle is mentioned as the origin of all winds in dinns ninth question
in the poem Vafthrudnisml, st. 36 and 37 (see App.III). Snorri gives further information
about Corpse-Swallower:
At the northernmost end of heaven there sits a giant called Hrsvelgr. He has eagle form. From his wings
they say wind comes over all men.107

Snorris addition is valuable because it locates Hrsvelgrs residence in the northern end
of heaven. The north is the direction of Niflheim and Hel, the world of the dead. In the
Gylfaginning, Snorri makes Niflheim the opposite part of the south in the primeval
universe, which, logically, must be to the north108. In the Skldskaparml, Hermodr, who

102

Simek, 1996, p. 154

Norrn Ordbok
104
Hyndluljod, st. 1
105
Simek, 1996, p. 220
106
Simek, 1996, p. 111
107
Faulkes, 1987, p. 20
108
Faulkes, 1987, p. 9, 10
103

46

is riding to Hel, has to go north and down109. The Volusp declares that the hall on
Corpse-beach has doors looking to the north, and this is where the great serpent
Nidhoggr sucks the bodies of the dead.110 The eagle Corpse-Swallower, then, must
belong to Niflheim, the Misty World of Hel, where, perhaps, as his name indicates, he
tears at corpses in the same manner as the serpent Nidhoggr and the other uncountable
serpents (such as Svafnir) by the well, Hvergelmir, at the root of Yggdrasill the World
Tree.

Another great eagle connected to Yggdrasil and the heavens, is the unnamed eagle sitting
in the branches of the ash. It is exceedingly wise, yet it keeps an ongoing quarrel with the
serpent Nidhoggr.111. Between its eyes sits a hawk called Vedrfolnir WindDiminisher,112

apparently the wind-creating eagles anti-thesis sitting right in the

middle of its own eyes. Are we, in the eagle of the World Tree, perhaps seeing yet
another image of our wind-creating Hrsvelgr?

Another giant in eagles disguise is Thiazi, father of Skadi, a giantess turned goddess
through marriage among the sir. In the the scaldic poem Haustlng by Thiodolfr af
Kvinir, who lived around the year 900 A.D., Thiazi captures the goddess Idunn.113 Snorri
relates the poem and gives a summary of the story in the Skldskaparml.114 Idunn is the
goddess who knows the age-cure of the sir, that is, she is the keeper of the apples
that give the gods eternal youth. When Thiazi takes her away, the gods grow old and
feeble, and realize that they will die unless Idunn is brought back from the giant world.
Eventually, wearing a falcons disguise, Loki manages to bring her back. He is followed
by Thiazi in the shape of an eagle. The flight in birds disguise with a stolen (or rather
retrieved) treasure from the giant in eagles disguise is quite reminiscent of dinns flight
from Suttungr in eagles shape.
109

Faulkes, 1987, p. 50
Volusp, st. 38, 39
111
Faulkes, 1987, p. 18
112
From vedr, n.: wind, stormy weather, and folna, go pale, go dry, go less (folnan, f., diminishing),
Norrn Ordbok
113
Haustlong, st. 2-13 (Jnsson, 1912)
114
Faulkes, 1987, p.59-61, 86-88
110

47

The giants association with death seems to me obvious: when offered a piece of the holy
meal, it takes the whole steak. It flies off with Loki who is mysteriously stuck to it when
first daring to touch it. The flight, we realize, means the death of Loki, unless he brings
Idunn to the giants world. Yet his escape is only temporary; the theft of Idunn by the
eagle also signifies old age and death for all the gods. The image of the falcon flying
from the eagle reminds me of the image of the eagle with a wind-diminishing hawk in
between its eyes. If we take the eagles daughter, Skadi into account, we will realize that
her name literally means harm, accident, death.115 Skadis association to death is
further enhanced by her pleasure in wolves, mountains, and hunting. The giantesss
presence appears to threaten the divine world itself, whose inhabitants do all they can to
appease her. The link to the eagle in the World Tree is there: Thiazi is first seen sitting in
the top of an enormous tree. The link to Hel is there in the figure of Skadi. Finally, the
link to the corpse-swallowing wind-creator is not lacking either: both Snorri and Thiodolf
make a point out of how the wind is whistling when the Thiazi beats his wings.

It should be added, in this respect, that the serpent-infested well in Niflheim, Hvergelmir,
may be translated as Eagle Cauldron. A number of primeval giants, such as the first
being in the Cosmos, Aurgelmir (Aurr-Eagle),and his descendants Bergelmir (Fruit
Eagleor Clear Eagle)and Thrudgelmir (Power Eagle)have names that may be related
to Eagle116.

A giant in eagles disguise, then, may be a symbol of the devouring world of death. To be
able to take off with the maiden that the eagle guards, it appears to be necessary to kill
it, as Loki and the gods do in the Haustlong. It is tempting to suggest that death itself, in
its all-devouring aspect, is killed when the maiden is rescued. The eagle is also
associated with knowledge, as Snorri observed in the Skldskaparml.

115

Norrn Ordbok
Gelmir the year-old, is a poetic synonym for eagle (Norrn Ordbok) In the first Poem of Helgi
Hundingsbani, the shrieking of eagles is related to Creation. Ber berry or clear, thrud power,
might, (Norrn Ordbok). Aurr may signify resplendant, shining, gold related to liquids(Nsstrm
2001, p.148)

116

48

The Inside of a Mountain or Rock

The inside of a rock, filled with the pathways of giants, where dinn literally risks his
life, may very well denote a realm of death: the burial mound or tomb. As Lotte Motz has
pointed out, stones and boulders of magical endowment was a common concept in the
Norse tradition, believed to be the dwellings of spirits and of the dead.

117

Hilda Ellis

Davidson describes the burial mound and the mound as such as sites where certain people
would go for wisdom and inspiration, and in which would sometimes dwell elves or other
spirit beings that could be sacrificed to. 118 Jacobsdottir translates Hnitbjrg as CollisionCliffs, regarding it as the cliffs which crash together. According to her, they are a
perfect image of the Symplegades of Greek mythology; the cliffs which crash together
around the perilous entrance to the world of the undead, the obstacle that the hero had to
pass if he wished to find treasure in the other world. In the Old Indian epic Mahabharata,
the eagle Garuda (like all soma thiefs) has to pass through a wheel of flame to reach the
soma, Water of Life. The wheel is pictured as golden, razor-sharp reeds that crash
together in the blink of an eye. Jacobsdottir also convincingly shows how the serpentand eagle-symbolisms of dinns disguise in Snorris version have their counterparts in
Indian soma mythology. 119 Our aim here, however, is not to understand the myth in light
of comparative mythology, but to find the meaning within the Norse imagery itself. It is
highly interesting that dinn takes upon himself the very imagery associated with the
powers of death: the serpent and the eagle are both prominent characters in the realm of
Hel.
Noise
There are several allusions to noise in the names just mentioned. Gunnld dwells in the
Beating Rock (or Collision-Cliffs). As we shall discuss below, there is a puzzling
similarity between the meaning of her fathers name and his association with a drink, and
the doings of the giant Mimir, who drinks through a horn called the Resounding Horn.

117

Motz, 1983, p. 6-7

Davidson, 1964, p. 154-157
119
Jakobsdottir, 2002, p. 48-51
118

49

Suttungrs father is called Gillingr which means the Noisy One or Screamer120. His
wife was murdered with a millstone because the dwarf who killed her was weary of her
howling.121 The noise is associated with the realm of death with its barking dogs,
boundary river Loud Noise and its Resounding Bridge. All in all, the main imagery of the
story may all be traced back to Hels realm, and to some degree, to Mimirs Well of
Wisdom.

4.5: The Initiations and Arts of dinn

Above we have seen that dinn learned the official arts of spell-songs or charms (galdr),
the mastery of runes, and the use of eloquence in the ancient realm of the giants and in
connection with a wedding to a giantess. There are reasons to believe that the specific
area of Giant-world that he is visiting is the realm of death, through some symbolic
characters and characteristics which resemble those of Niflheim. Gunnld may indeed be
the mistress of death in disguise, and her embraces usually mean only the pleasures of
death itself.122 dinns escape alive from that realm, carrying with him the hidden and
well-guarded mead of poetry and divine wisdom, means that he is in fact conquering
death. Conquering death, gathering wisdom in the underworld, and returning with the arts
of runes and galdr are not the only wisdom-quests that dinn undertakes. I believe that
one should see all the arts of dinn and his manner of learning them in connection with
each other.
Drink of Memory
Suttungrs name deserves mention. It means Heavy with Drink one would perhaps
assume him to be heavy with the very precious mead of memory and wisdom of which he
is the owner. One other giant is associated with drinking in the mythology, and that is
Mimir, whose name possibly means Rememberer.123 He is full of learning because he
drinks from the Mimisbrunnr the Well of Memory, one of the three wells beneath the
world tree in the heart of the giant world. The well contains wisdom and knowledge.124
120

Simek, 1996, p. 08
Faulkes, 1987, p. 62. The dwarf is the same who killed Kvasir and Gillingr.
122
See ch. 4.1 on how death may be described as a wedding or sexual union with the mistress of death
123
Simek, 1996, p. 216
124
Faulkes, 1987, p. 17
121

50

I believe it is worthwhile to note, here, that the mead served by the Maiden in other
stories is often called the mead of memory (minnisdrikk). Mimir uses the Gjallarhorn
the Resounding Horn - to drink from. dinn paid one of his eyes in order to have a drink
from that well

125

we must assume through the same horn. In the Volusp, st. 28, the

payment of dinns eye is somehow connected to the sad and violent fate of the world,
whereas in the Hvaml, we may get the feeling that dinns breaking of the ring-oath
has terrible, though unmentioned, consequences. This link in itself is thin, but I find that
there is a connection between dinn in Suttungrs realm and in that of Mimir, through the
character of the two giants Suttungr and Mimir, who are both connected with a drink of
wisdom, and both connected with what we shall call dinns initiation. The two giants
may very well be identical. The well of Mimir is generally understood to be situated by a
different root than that of Hel, just as the well of Urdr is thought to be by a third root. I
believe we should not be too geographic in our understandings of the mythic universe.
All the wells have that in common that they are situated at a root of the world tree, and
we will see that the borders between the realms may not be as strict as they seem. We
ought to remember that the runes which dinn picked up while hanging from the world
tree, were indeed first carved into that very tree by Urdr and her norns, as is clearly stated
in Volusp st. 20. Thus, dinn has to move into the world of the norns to pick up the
runes of fate, into the world of the giants to pick up the drink of memory, and, as we will
see, into the world of death in order to drink the precious mead of the Maiden. In every
case, dinn is initiated into sacred knowledge by a well at the root of the world tree, and
in every case the root is connected to a watersource.126

Seidr
Njords daughter was Freya, she was a blotgydja (sacrificial priestess), she was the first who taught the
Aesir to practice seidr, like the Vanir used to.127

That art which contained the most power, that of seidr, was taught to dinn and the
sir gods by the Vanir goddess Freyia. Snorri explains that seidr originally was an art of
the Vanir. Freyia came to the Aesir after the war between the tribes. The art of seidr,
then, is related to the truce meeting between the Aesir and the Vanir. The same is the case
125

Faulkes, 1987, p. 17
Folke Strm, 1954, also identified the three wells with each other through a different kind of argument.
127
Snorres Kongesagaer, 1944, p. 4 (my translation)
126

51

with the mead of poetry, which was created during that very truce, or, according to
another text, originated solely among the Vanir.128 The art of seidr must have come to
the Aesir around the same time as the art of poetry that dinn later brought back from the
Hnitbjrg and Gunnld. We do not know any more details of this myth, but it places
Freyia in a position of teacher and dinn as her student. As we shall see later, Freyia is
identifiable as the Maiden with the Mead and thus with the giantess Gunnld. The links
we have discussed convince me that dinns initiation on the world tree is really
associated both with his learning of seidr from Freyia , runes (from the norns?), galdr
from the old giant, poetry and wisdom from Gunnld, and with Mimirs drink of
Memory.
4.6: dinn as Divine Archetype
It is necessary to note that the main actor in the story is a god even a god of creation.
We also know that the story takes place in the beginning of time, just after the great battle
between the Aesir and the Vanir, before the valkyries enter the cosmic scene. If we
consider the mead strictly as a mead that makes you into a poet, then poetry is one of the
many arts in which dinn is supreme and the first to teach to humankind. 129
Snorris account in the Ynglinga Saga makes dinn stand out as the teacher and inventor
of all the magical arts that priests and priestesses were required to know: eloquence,
battle-frenzy, sorcery against enemies, change-shaping into the hides of animals,
communication with the other worlds, traveling with the free-soul,130 manipulation of
natural elements like fire, wind and sea, the singing of spell-songs, the foretelling of the
future and the opening up of the hidden realms within earth, rock or mound. dinn, the
oldest of gods, is the teacher, meaning something significant: namely that all the arts and
the practicioners just mentioned had a beginning: a divine archetype.

128

Faulkes, 1987, p.62.64: Snorri`s Skldskaparml claims that Kvasir, whose blood became the mead of
poetry, was created from the spit of the two tribes of gods during their truce meeting. But in the
Heimskringla, Snorri claims that Kvasir was the wisest man among the Vanir and that he came to sgardr
together with the Njordr-family.(Snorres Kongesagaer, 144, p. 4). Apparently there were two versions of
the story.
129
See Appendix IV
130
See ch. 3.1 about shamanism and the free-soul.

52

As we discussed in ch. 4.5, dinn appears to have learned his arts by the wells beneath
the world tree. Indeed, other sources indicate that learning religious lore by a water
source was common far into medieval times. As bishop Bjarni Kolbeinsson stated
sometime in the beginning of the 13th century: I never learned the art of poetry by the
water-source. I never performed galdr, and I never sat below a hanged man. What the
bishop, as a good Christian, is not doing is most probably what the pagan would do. In
his statement, we may detect practices that indeed were common for the religious
professional in pre-Christian times, 131 and they do seem to form quite an echo of dinns
actions: learning the art of poetry by the well, singing charms, and sitting below a
hanged man, possibly a way of communicating with the spirits of the dead. Solli has
suggested that the latter practice also could indicate a sitting below a person who is only
symbolically hanged, that is, an initiate who, like dinn, lets himself be hanged and
stabbed but only in a manner that, however dangerously, enables him to achieve
visions and ecstatic experiences.132

As the Hvamal and other sources make clear, dinn did not just invent the arts out of
nothing he obtained them, he aquired them, through practices that set an example for
others to follow. When we read about the exploits of dinn it is my conviction that they
ought to be seen as divine archetypes for later (human) magical behavior.
4.7: Summary: What dinn Learns
Through comparative analysis of the different wisdom quests of dinn, I have
concluded that they may all be linked together. They include a trial of hardship leading to
visions and descents into the lower worlds, where he is taught by supernatural beings.
The teachings and the trials eventually lead to a ritual drinking sance and a sacred
marriage, and, finally, to dinn becoming a great sage. That we are speaking of an
initiation, as defined in ch. 3.1, is confirmed by the result: dinns new state of being.
But what kind of state is he initiated into?

131
132

Hedeager, 1999, p. 9, my translation of the statement from Norwegian

Solli, 2002, p. 159-163

53

Snorris account of dinns arts as summed up above and presented in appendix IV, are
all to be recognized in the various myths of his initiatory trials and may be identified with
arts that we know to be common within Norse society as well as some arts that scholars
are more uncertain about. The known common arts that dinn obtains during his trials
are those of poetry, runes, galdr, esoteric knowledge and seidr. Poetry in Norse society
was a highly respected art and required a profound knowledge of mythical facts in order
to apply poetic metaphors and allusions. The skald the bard - may have had his older
counterpart in the thul, (see ch. 3.3) whose title basically means reciter and refers to a
sage of some kind, specializing in chanting and reciting of poetry? He may be a kind of
priest, or even a shaman (see ch. 3.1). The one telling the tale of the initiation by hanging
on the world tree is speaking from the chair of the thul, and may either be dinn
himself or actually a thul, as discussed in ch. 3.1 and ch. 4.2. Runes are a kind of letters,
but their ethymological significance is hidden knowledge or whisper,133 and they
were related to fate and destiny, as they were first carved by the norns, mistresses of fate.
They were often used for healing and spells and the casting of lots for divination. Galdr
is derived from the verb gala, which means the sound that the rooster makes, denoting a
high-pitched voice.134 It was a way of making spells and had its counterpart in other
magical songs such as the vardlokkur and the seidlti (magic tune). Seidr has an
uncertain ethy-mology, but it may mean to sing, something which connects it to the art
of galdr. Indeed, magical songs were used to call the vttir spirits - to aid in sances of
seidr. Seidr appears to have centered on divination, magic and sorcery. As we saw in ch.
3.1, many are those who have connected the arts of seidr and galdr with a supposed
Norse form of shamanism. Other arts of dinn do indeed resemble shamanism insofar as
he is said to travel with his soul to other countries in order to bring back information
for himself or for others. His descent into the world of Gunnld may be another such tale,
but it may refer to something even more crucial than the gathering of information; it may
include the art of conquering death. This is a quite common theme in the history of
religions and known, among other things, in mystery cults of the goddess.

133
134

Norrn Ordbok
Nsstrm, 2001, p. 57

54

So far, we have not really discussed the drink that the Gunnld offers. Steinsland calls
this kind of drink materialized knowledge.135 As we saw in ch. 3.2, the ritual offering
of mead may have been part of a general welcome into the hall of a ruler, a consecration
into a sacred office, perhaps part of a kingship inaguration, or indeed, of marriage, in this
case sacred marriage since at least one of the partners is divine. None of these
possibilities need exclude the others. The drink is identified as the drink of poetry created
by the truce between the gods (or as coming from the Vanir). It contains hidden wisdom,
all the intelligence of the world, and it will make the drinker a great poet and sage. Seen
in the light of all the trials that dinn has to go through to get the precious draughts, the
drinking and the subsequent marriage appears to be the culmination and the
confirmation.

The Maiden, a giantess, is situated within a realm that bears resemblance to the realm of
Hel, death itself. It is surrounded by obstacles which she helps the hero to conquer.
The hero, in this case a god, undergoes a trial involving fasting and physical hardships, in
which he learns powerful arts: There is a connection between these arts and the art of
seidr through the arrival of Freyia and the Vanir to sgard an event which induces both
the creation of the sacred mead, dinns subsequent trials on the world tree, and Freyias
teaching him the art of seidr. There is also a link to dinns sacrifice of his eye by the
well of Memory. Strm, like myself, sees a parallel in dinns eye-sacrifice and his
hanging, and he also identifies the three wells as really being one and the same.136

Many of the arts of dinn are conveyed by female characters: The mead of knowledge
and poetry is given by Gunnld, the art of seidr is given by Freyia, and the runes that
dinn brings up to Earths sanctuary were, according to Volusp st. 20, originally carved
by the norns Urdr and Verdandi. Thus we see how teacher figures for the god are found
in giantesses, goddesses, and norns, creatures of different realms, linked to each other
through their functions. It is also interesting to note how all of them are associated with
sacred liquids, as we shall see in the following chapters. Only one of dinns mentors is

135
136

Steinsland, 1997, p. 126

Strm, 1954, p. 88-91

55

male; the unnamed giant who is his mothers brother. However, he acts in the manner of
a helper, while the the Maiden is the goal and the initiation itself. As we shall see in the
Gragaldr, the galdr that that the hero is taught is a means to reach the actual goal.
Likewise, dinn is taught the galdr from the unnamed giant before he has a drink from
Poetry Stir. In Snorris version the giant Baugi helps dinn on his way to the drink of
poetry. In fact, these giant figures could very well resemble human mentors in a ritual
setting. Gunnld, the Maiden, appears in a different light, being placed right where the
goal is, its guardian, its conveyer. Her offering of the mead is the consecration, her
embrace the culmination and the step to freedom from death.

dinns trials may be seen in the light of an initiation ritual, as shown by Nsstrm, who
regards them as the initiation trials of a religious professional, much akin to the trials of
initiation in mystic religions.137

dinn as a god is setting an example for others to follow; as Snorri remarked, he taught
the arts to the priests and priestesses, who practiced and taught them on to the people.
Thus we have a thesis on which to build the rest of our study: that the trials and the
teachings, and, indeed, the sacred marriage of dinn in Gunnlds realm, are met with by
humanbeings in his aftermath.

137

Nsstrm, 2001, p.165-173

56

4.8: THE WOOING OF GERDR

Late Viking Age -Detail on

Gosforth cross, Cumbria

Gerdr means Enclosure and is the name of another daughter of giants in the Skrnisml.
The god Freyr sits down in the Hlidskialf, the Opening Watch-Tower,138 usually the
seat of dinn and Frigg, from where he sees into all the worlds. He spots a maiden in the
courts of the giant Gymir and falls violently in love. His servant, Skrnir, -the Shining
One or the Pure One139 offers to woo the maiden for him, if the god will only grant
him the horse that will carry him through the dark, sure, flickering flame, and the
sword which fights by itself against the giants.140 Freyr grants him these treasures, and
his servant sets off towards the realm of the giants on that magical horse.

Skrnir rides through darkness and dewy mountains. St. 10 (see appendix V) clearly states
that his is a very dangerous, nocturnal journey through the world of the thursar were the
too powerful giant may very well take both the horse and its rider. Skrnir encounters
savage dogs outside of the fence surrounding the hall of the Maiden. He asks a herdsman
who is sitting on a mound how to come past the dogs of Gymir. The herdsman,
surprised by the request, does not answer but questions whether Skrnir is dead or about
to die, before he apparently decides that he is neither, and states that there can be no
conversation between him and the daughter of Gymir. It could seem as if one has to be

138

Simek, 1996, p. 152. The meaning is disputed, but could come from hlid, opening, and skialf,
watchtower.
139
Simek, 1996, p. 290, from skirr, clean, clear
140
Skrnisml st. 8

57

dead or dying in order to converse with the giantess. Gerdr, however, who hears the
earth trembling and learns about Skrnirs presence, asks him to come into her halls and
drink inn mera mioth141 - the adored mead - even though she fears that he is her
brothers slayer. Skrnir crosses the fire-fence, and the Maiden asks him if he is elf, or a
god of the Aesir or of the Vanir.

Skrnir responds that he is neither elf, ss, or of the Vanir, and immediately asks her to
become Freyrs bride, offering her eleven apples of gold and the ring that drips nine new
ones like itself every ninth night. Gerdr flatly refuses. She has more than enough gold in
her fathers hall. Skrnir threatens her with the sword, but she again refuses, arguing that
Gymir, her father, could well fight back. Eventually, Skrnir makes use of galdr to curse
her in the most deliberate ways. Suddenly, the maiden changes her mind, welcomes him
and offers him the crystal cup full of ancient mead (hrimclki fullom forns miathar142).
She declares that she will meet Freyr within nine nights, in the breeze-less grove of
Barri.143 Freyr, when he learns about her conditions, does not rejoice, but complains
about the durance of nine whole nights.

4.9: The Structure of Themes in Gerdrs story

As in the story of Gunnld and dinn, we may here detect the same structure of themes.
The poem begins with a (prose) vision quest theme: Freyr sits down in dinns seat, from
where he may look out upon all the worlds. This kind of universal vision from a
special, divine kind of position could hardly resemble anything else than a visionary
experience. The vision theme follows as Freyr lays eyes on a Maiden in a far-off world
whose arms illuminate the oceans and the hills as she walks. She is clearly in another
world, different from that of Freyrs, and may only be seen by him through such
supernatural sight. Then follows a descending theme where not Freyr, but his servant,
who is neither elf or god, moves into the lower worlds. Like dinn, he has to know how
to talk in his encounter with the giant herdsman and the giantess. The trial theme follows
141

Skrnisml, st. 16. Mera is translated as precious (dyrebar) by Holm-Olsen, and as famous by
Larrington. In the dictionary I could only find mra, (from mrd, f.), to honour,, adore, adorn.
142
Skrnisml, st. 37
143
From barr, barley or conifer. Simek, 1996, p. 32

58

as Skrnir moves past the flickering fires and the barking dogs to enter the hall of Gerdr.
He is greeted by her, and thus we proceed to the Maiden theme where she offers him a
drink and, after a duel of words where Skrnir, like dinn, has to show his eloquence,
agrees to marriage while offering a drink.
As Skrnir returns to Freyr with the message, it becomes clear, at least to my mind, that
the descending-, trial- and Maiden- themes will be repeated: Skrnir has made the
initiating journey on behalf of Freyr after the latters visionary experience, but now, Freyr
has to make the journey himself. The Maiden does not pack her belongings to join Skrnir
on his way back to the divine realm. Instead, she decides the conditions of their union:
that Freyr will have to endure nine nights before their meeting in a breezeless grove.
Freyr is right to complain about the durance of those nine nights and worry how he shall
survive even one or three of them, for they are probably as tough as the nine nights of
dinns hanging, and will only culminate in a sacred grove where the winds - of the
eagle Corpse Swallower - do not reach.

4.10:The Maiden and Her Realm

...The raging guard-dogs of Gymir (...) the shepherd on the grave-mound, and, together with the gravemound, contribute to the scenery of the entrance to the world of the dead with its` perpetual tribe of
Cerberus.
Ursula Dronke144

Since we have established Gunnld as dwelling in a realm of death, we must ask

ourselves whether Gerdr also does so. Indeed, she does. The dark, wet road, the trembling
earth, the wall (of fire) that must not be touched, and the barking dogs are all typical
symbols of the world of Hel. The barking dogs motivate a conversation with a shepherd
who sits on a grave-mound. The shepherd assumes that Skrnir must be dead or dying, as
one would usually be when traveling the Hel-Road. When he realizes that Skrnir is a
living soul, he assumes that there may be no meeting with Gerdr. If she is the lady of
death itself, this is a logical assumption.

We are so lucky as to have very detailed descriptions of the Norse world of the dead.
144

Dronke, 1997, p. 390

59

In Snorris story of Hermodr, we are told how Hermodr rides to Hel in order to bring
Baldr back from the world of the dead:
...Hermod rode for nine nights through valleys dark and deep so that he saw nothing until he came to the
river Gioll [Resounding] and rode on to the Gioll bridge. It is covered with glowing gold. There is a maiden
guarding the bridge called Modgud [Furious Battle]. She asked him his name and lineage and said that
there had ridden over the bridge five battalions of dead men. But the bridge resounds no less under just
you, and you do not have the colour of dead men. Why are you riding here on the road to Hel? (...)
Then Hermod rode on until he came to Hels gates. (...) The horse jumped so hard over the gate that it
came nowhere near.145

In the Baldrs draumar we have a similar description, this time, it is dinn who rides to
Hel to obtain intelligence about some dark omens:
2....reid hann nidr thathan Niflhliar til
mtti hann hvlpi theim r or hliu kom.

He rode down to the Misty Hel

he met a dog of Hel on the road

3. Sa var blodugr um briost framan

oc galldrs fodur gol um lngi
Framm reid Odinn folldvgr dundi
hann kom at hfu Hliar ranni

Its breast was bloody

it barked a long time against the father of spell-songs
dinn rode forth, the road beneath him resounded
he came to the High Hall of Hel

4. Th rid Odinn fyrir austan dyr

thar r hann vissi vlv lidi.
Nam hann vittugri valgalldr kveda....146

Then dinn rode to the east of the door

where he knew about a vlvas grave
he sang val-galdr for the wise woman...

Skrnirs journey would easily fit into the pattern shown in these two sources. He rides a
magical steed that has the particular quality of being able to jump through flames the
flames which constitute the fence around Gerdrs hall. So do dinn and Hermodr they
both ride the eight-legged Sleipnir, and a point is made out of how they avoid touching
the gate of Hel. The road is dark and long. The earth trembles when Skrnir arrives, so
does the Resounding Bridge when Hermod rides over it, and dinns road resounds.
Skrnir encounters savage dogs, just like dinn. He has to cross a fiery fence; Hermodr
and dinn have to cross a fence or a gate. The female warden at the Resounding Bridge
remarks that Hermodr does not have the color of dead men, the male warden or mounddweller outside of the hall of Gerd asks Skrnir whether he is dead or marked to die.

145
146

Faulkes, 1987, p. 50
Baldrs Draumar st. 2, 3, 4

60

Gerdrs father is Gymir, which according to Simek could mean Sea.147 Simek suggests
that he is a sea-giant, since he is identified with the sea-giant gir both in the Lokasenna
and in the Skldskaparml 23. gir is the husband of Rn, mistress of death, and is
certainly associated with cauldrons and mead, as shown in the beginning of the
Skldskaparml and in the poem Hymiskvida. In chapter 6.10, we shall see that sea-giants
are connected to the Maiden in her aspect as valkyrie The etymylogical meaning of
Gymir is unclear, but Simek suggests that it could, for example, come from the word
geyma, which means to hide, keep safe. In that case, we are reminded of Suttungr who
hides the mead (and the Maiden) within the rock-layers. For the time being, I would wish
to emphasize that girs realm also is a realm of the dead.
Much else is not to be said about Gerdr, except that she offers ancient or adored mead,
has beautiful, shining arms which shines up all the lands and the sea, and that she is in
possession of lots of gold and an independent mind. She is surrounded by a fence of fire.
All in all, it seems safe to place Gerdr right in the heart of misty Hel.

4.11: The Trials of the Heroes

Freyr is a god and an ancestor of kings, and it is his servant and childhood companion,
the Shining One (or the Clear One or the Pure One), who gets the task of actually
traveling to the other world. The servant asks, one could imagine as if in prayer to the
god, to have a magical horse and a magical sword, which he is granted. The theme of a
chiefs servant actually undertaking the wooing part of the quest for the Maiden will be
recognized in ch. 7.2, where this kind of servant resembles a religious professional. The
Maiden expects him to be an elf, ss or wise Vanir, moving about in the Other Worlds.
The riddle presented when Skrnir presents himself as neither elf nor god, could be
explained by the possibility of him being human.

The magical horse and the sword is something Skrnir shares with the hero Sigurd (ch.6)
with the hero Hermodr and with the god dinn. It is worthwhile to note how the journey
147

Simek, 1996, p. 126, 127

61

to the world of the dead in the Norse material often is pictured on horse-back horses
being a common sacrifice in burial mounds. An older and equally important steed to
the underworld is the (funeral) ship, which we shall see is the more common vehicle in
the Heroic Poems. For women, the journey was often pictured as driving a chart an
image we recognize in Helreidr Brynhildar.148 The magical sword is crucial also in the
stories of the two Helgis, which we shall be studying in chapter 6.
Skrnir, like dinn, has to enter the deadly realm of the powerful giants in order to
encounter the Maiden. It is in the encounter that his trial differs dramatically from that of
dinn, who obviously receives teachings. Skrnir does not appear interested any
teachings at all: he offers gifts to entice the Maiden out of her realm, and when she
refuses he threatens and curses her. He appears successful in his task when Gerdr
suddenly greets him as lad(sveinn149) and offers him the mead. We do not learn
whether Skrnir drinks the mead, and he continues uninterested in teachings, eagerly
asking when she will meet Freyr. Freyrs devastated reaction to her answer is odd.
Perhaps it considered a sign of the immense sexual desire of the fertility god, who cannot
bear to wait for nine nights. I believe, however, that those nine nights really are long: as
long as the nine dark nights that Hermodr had to endure on his way to Hel, and as hard as
the work of nine men that Odin in Snorris version had to finish in the fields of Baugi, as
dangerous as the nine nights that the god hang stabbed, starving and thirsting, on the
world tree. Indeed, Freyrs nights must be as uncertain as the three nights that we will see
that ttarr is granted to learn his sacred genealogy, and as powerful as the nine spellsongs that transport Svpdag to the halls of the goddess.150 The number nine is no
coincidence, it symbolizes something which we can only vaguely deduce from the other
settings in which the number appears. Those particular nine nights shall be concluded in a
breeze-less grove (lund lognfarna151) a place where the winds of the death-eagles
wings do not reach. The theme of conquering death may be subtly revealed in this
allusion.

148

Ellis Davidson, 1964, p. 154,

Skrnisml st. 37
150
See Hyndluljod, Svipdagsml, and ch. 5
151
Skrnisml, st. 39
149

62

4.11: The gifts and the threats

She does not capitulate because he has frightened her, but because she sees some truth in what he says.
(...) he has painted the alternative very well. 152

A few words on the gifts and the threats that the Maiden receives are perhaps necessary.
Steinsland has shown how the gifts: apples and ring, and the wand that Skrnir uses to
curse with, all resemble royal symbols that may connect the myth to kingship (and thus
sacred marriage). 153 Nsstrm, moreover, sees the three methods used to conquer Gerdr
as representing the three Indo-European functions (as described by Dumezil) in society.
Gold and riches represent the third function: that of the peasants, the sword he uses to
threaten her represent the warrior function, while the magical wand and the curses
represent the first, priestly function. 154 The curses are perhaps the most puzzling aspect
of the myth: they take up a great part of the poem and are extremely aggressive. But as
Ursula Dronke has suggested, Skrnir with his curses is only really summing up what
Gerdr may in fact expect if she stays in the Underworld: separation from society, despair
and longing, relations only to ogres and the world of the dead. With the curses, Gerdr is
shown the two opposite worlds between which she may choose: the world of the dead
with its devouring monsters and suffering, and the world of divine life, and love. 155 Also
Clunies-Ross has argued that Skrnirs curse functions to remind Gerdr of what is at
stake in her refusal to cooperate.156 One image is particularly interesting to this study,
since Gerdr, in st. 28, is told that she will be more famous than the guardian of gods,
where she is gaping behind the fences of Hel. Thus she is imaged as a guardian of Hel
unless she lets herself be taken out of that realm.

152

Dronke, 1997, p. 395

Steinsland, 1991
154
Nsstrm, 1998, p. 140
155
Dronke, 1997, p. 395. Dronke perceives Gerd to symbolize the Earth who is woken up from the death
of winter by the shining ray (Skirnir) of the Sun god (Freyr). This understanding of the myth used to be
very common, but has been disputed by amongst others Gro Steinsland, 1991, and others. See appendix..
156
Clunies-Ross, 1994, p. 140
153

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4.12: Skrnir as the experienced Practitioner, Freyr as the Initiate

I understand Skrnirs journey to be the initiatory journey of an experienced practitioner
on behalf of the god or the one who represents the god - in order to woo the Maiden.
When the Maiden has given her terms and her consent, Skrnir, carrier of the magical
wand and the treasures of the gods, goes back to his master who has had the initial vision,
and tells him the message. I believe that it is only then that the actual initiation
experience begins, symbolized in the nine nights Freyr will have to endure before
culminating in the consecrating act of Sacred Marriage .

As we noted, Skrnir does not himself appear to receive any teachings, but returns
hurriedly back to his lord-friend, telling him the terms of the Maiden. This is when I
assume that the real trials begin: the trials of Freyr himself, the king-god. They shall last
for nine whole nights, where even the first will be unbearably long. The suffering will
only finish when Freyr has reached that breezeless grove of the Maiden. It seems
reasonable to assume that Freyr would have to follow a similar path to that of Skrnirs
descent.

4.13: Summary of and Conclusions to Chapter 4

In this chapter, I have argued that dinns trials on the world tree is directly linked to his
encounter with Gunnld, and that Gunnld dwells in a realm that resemble that of Hels,
or more generally, a realm of death. Steinsland has shown that there exists a multitude of
pre-Christian ideas about the after-life so that our geographical assumptions which
strictly place the realm of Hel here and other realms there in the manner of Snorris
descriptions may not be covering the whole of Norse conceptions about death. One image
which, until Steinsland pointed it out, has been largely neglected, is the fact that death
often is depicted as a sexual encounter or marriage with a supernatural lady, often
identifiable as Rn or Hel, although mentioned by other names.157 dinns descent into
157

Steinsland, 1992, p. 319-332

64

the death-realm of Gunnld is not only connected to his nine-nights self-sacrifice, but
also to the initiation into his major arts: runes, charms, esoteric knowledge,soul-flight,
seidr, and poetry (eloquence). Through his method of learning the descent into and the
escape alive from the realm of death, he also learns a way of conquering death,
bringing back with him sacred knowledge and talents symbolized in the precious mead.
He has help from the Maiden figure. Through comparative analysis such as that of Svava
Jacobsdottir, it is possible to link dinns experience to kingship inauguration as well.
However, the initiation seems to be of a more general character that would easily apply to
several religious practitioners in the Norse society. I have argued that dinns quest is
primordeal and archetypical: it creates a mythical pattern for others to follow.

In the Codex Regius, the first who apparently follows dinns example is the Vanir god
Freyr, who, significantly, sits down in dinns own seat in order to have cosmic vision.
Much like dinn, he peers down and detects the object of his desire: the Maiden, this
time in the shape of Gerdr. In the dinn-Gunnld section, I detected a structure of
themes involving a vision quest theme, a vision theme, a descending theme, a trial theme
and a Maiden theme. I have argued that the Freyr-Gerdr story follows a very similar
structural pattern and that the contents of each theme in the latter story also resemble the
contents of the former to a significant degree.

The main difference between the Gunnld and Gerdr stories is, to my view, the emphasis,
the outcome, and the existence of a second character in Gerdrs case. The Gunnld story
tones down the marriage theme on behalf of the teaching theme, and dinn operates by
himself. The marriage theme certainly exists, and we learn that dinn breaks his ringoath and betrays Suttungr and Gunnld in the end. The marriage or sexual union is the
means by which dinn achieves what he is really there for: the mead of poetry, of divine
knowledge. The mead appears to function as a symbol for all the arts that dinn learns.
Emphasis in the story is on dinns trials and the outcome: his becoming a sage, bringing
a sacred treasure from the Underworld into the divine realm or to the shrine of Earth.

65

The Gerdr story focuses much more strongly on the marriage theme. The main aim is to
convince the giantess to leave her realm, marry the god and become one among the
syniur, the goddesses. From other sources we know that there existed a tradition in
which Gerdr really became Freyrs wife and that they had a son who became the founder
of a royal line. Steinsland has shown how the union represents a sacred marriage myth
which helped to legitimize a royal line, and how it is significant that the marriage is
between a god and a giantess, two polar forces in the universe creating something entirely
new and powerful, a king figure. The myth possibly also formed a model for rituals of
kingship inauguration.158 While the initiation of dinn resembles those of priests,
shamans, mystics or ascetics as much as those of rulers, the initiation of Freyr, folkvaldi
goda the gods chief of the people159 - seems to point more clearly in the direction of
kingship inauguration in connection to sacred marriage. But the religious practitioner is
not out of the picture; he appears, in my opinion, in the character of Skrnir, who
somehow makes way for the young god-king, and in the structural pattern that the
initiation follows, which resembles that of dinns to a significant degree.

Finally, something must be said about the Maiden. Gunnld and Gerdr, not to say the
myths surrounding them, resemble each other closely in function. They dwell in a realm
of giants that may be identified with a realm of death. They are strongly protected by
physical obstacles and giant fathers. They are both giantesses being wedded to gods.
They both have power over a precious, ancient mead, which they serve to their hero in a
welcome. They are both associated to gold (golden chair, golden treasures). Gerdr is
associated to bright, illuminating shine, something we shall see that she shares with the
other Maiden-figures. They are both the focal point of a similar tale of initiation. Their
stories follow much the same thematic structure. Their fates depart from each other in the
way they are treated by the gods who woo them: Gunnld is deprived of her whole
soul, and left weeping behind. Gerdr is, in order to kaupa fridr buy peace - invited to
stay in sgardr as a goddess among goddesses, an invitation she eventually, however
reluctantly, accepts.

158
159

See ch. 3.1 on Sacred Marriage

Skrnisml st. 3

66

The difference is puzzling but not enough to confuse our thesis. In both cases, a point is
made out of the life-death-opposition. dinn could not have escaped Suttungrs deadly
halls without the help of Gunnld. Her realm is that of death, and through her love and
gifts (and perhaps the knowledge dinn achieves during his quest), she provides a way
for him to fly away. The frost-giants ask themselves whether dinn died at Suttungrs
hands or whether he is (alive) among the gods: We know the answer, and it is Gunnld
who caused the happy outcome. As I have pointed out before, the embrace of the mistress
of death did in fact mean death itself. dinn escaped through her help, however
unwittingly she provided it.

In the case of Gerdr, the structure takes a new turn which is to be evolved in the
subsequent stories of the human initiants of the following chapters. Through Skrnirs
curses, we see how Gerdr is shown the two possible turns of her fate: She may become a
dweller of the Underworld, a grotesque ogress at the gates of Hel. Such a figure is in fact
known from the myths elsewhere and must have been an existing tradition in the concepts
of the Underworld. Gerdr may decide to be that, or to become a goddess, a wife of the
constantly rejuvenated gods, the opposite of residence among the dead. When Gerdr is
made aware of the options, she decides to take Freyr as her lover, but it is up to him to
find her through a nine nights trial. Their meeting in the breezeless grove may very well
represent something similar to dinns flight and subsequent dwelling among the gods:
a place of no death.

67

5: The Great Goddess

In this chapter, we shall explore the Maiden-myth of the poems Hyndluljod, the
Gragaldr and the Fjlsvinnsml. The two latter poems are usually studied together as
the so-called Svpdagsml since they seem to be connected with each other.160 The
poem Fjlsvinnsml has been transmitted through a rather late manuscript from the 17th
century, and most 20th century scholars have disregarded the poem as a late medieval
poem not to be reckoned among the real Edda-poems but rather as a fairy tale imported
from the continent, perhaps Celtic in origin. In his study of the poem, Eldar Heide shows
how the poem must be counted among the old Divine Poems and that it is an important
source to Nordic mythology, even a key to the understanding of cosmology in the old,
pre-Christian religion. The mythical pattern of the Fjlsvinnsml is comparable to other
more commonly accepted sources to Norse mythology. Heide chooses to study the
Fjlsvinnsml as a separate poem, the way it is presented in the source-material, since it
is possible to read it as a complete lay in itself even though the Gragaldr appears to be
closely related.161 I agree with Heide that both poems are no more fairy-tale-like than
other Edda poems, and no less pagan in origin. But I disagree with Heide when he
maintains that the Gragaldr has no function in the Fjlsvinnsml. Heide admits that the
two poems may form part of the same story, even if they are two separate lays.162 As
Lotte Motz has argued earlier, the combination of the poems into a Svpdagsml makes
sense since the charms of Gragaldr could appear to be describing an initiation ritual.163
In fact, the Gragaldr and the Fjlsvinnsml together fit perfectly into the pattern of
Maiden-mythology that we are discovering in other Edda poems, which means that
they must reflect the same older mythical reality hiding behind the Gerdr-, Gunnld-,
Freyia- and valkyrie-stories. Even if the two poems may be read separately from each
other, I find it fruitful to read both together as a Svpdagsml, since Fjlsvinnsml

160

In 1856, Sophus Bugge and Svein Grundtvig decided that the poems Gragaldr and Fjlsvinnsml must
be understood together as a bigger poem: the Svipdagsml -a title constructed by these scholars. This view
is basically founded on how a very similar story appears in a 16th century Danish fairy tale; the Ungen
Svejdal (Grundtvig, 1996(1856). Their theory is commonly accepted today. Heide, 1997, p. 12
161
Heide, 1997, p. 38-44, 50-51
162
Heide, 1997, p. 39,40
163
Motz, 1975, p. 135

68

without the Gragaldr looses the initiatory vision-quest theme and trials under
guidance from a master (in this case a female) that lead Svpdag to the high hall of the
Maiden where the ultimate trial begins. Even when read on their own, the two poems
reveal parts of the same Maiden-mythology that we find in the Hvaml and in the
Skrnisml. Read together, the two poems as separate parts of one story follow the
pattern of other Maiden-stories perfectly.

Mengld is not known from other sources than the jointed Svpdagsml, but she shares
many characteristics with Freyia. Scholars have mainly identified her through her name,
which is supposed to be derived from men necklace, gold or treasure - and gld, which
is supposed to be a derivation of gladr bright, clear, light, joyful, happy or
quick.164 Many scholars have assumed that the name indicates the One Who takes
Pleasure in Jewels.165 Since Freyia is associated with jewels and gold, especially a
certain bright necklace called the Brisingamen the Fiery Necklace,166 the name
Mengld itself lends to the identification of the two figures. Mengld, moreover, is
situated behind a dangerous fence which will only open for the right one, a feature she
shares with Freyia (and, indeed, with Gerdr). Menglds hall is also very beautiful, and
the story about her is a love story, fitting into the pattern of our popular idea of Freyia as
a goddess of love. Besides, Mengld is waiting and yearning for her long lost husband,
just like Freyia (and Gunnld). Mengld is surrounded by maidens, nine in number. As
we know, Freyia is associated with a kind of maidens called the valkyries, who, as we
shall see in ch. 6, usually appear in a collective of nine.

The meaning of Menglds name is, however, challenged by Svava Jacobsdottir. She
argues that the name could be derived from OE mengan to mix, and ld
invitation or drink (like the ld in Gunnld). Thus the name indicates the invitation
to a mixture a drink. This is in accordance with the mead-serving goddess of the Irish
sources, who often takes her name from the drink she serves.167 In the interpretation

164

Norrn Ordbok. Simek, 1996, p. 210

Simek, 1996, p. 210
166
Simek, 1996, p. 44-45. Either from brisa to shine, or from brsingr, fire
167
Jacobsdottir, 2002, p. 45
165

69

Invitation to a Drink we are perhaps perceiving a tradition of a Maiden who is not only
associated with, but even identified with, the precious mead. In ch. 8 we will discuss the
vlva Gullveig in the light of Maiden-mythology. Her name may be translated as Golden
Drink.

Menglds goddess-hood is also challenged by Eldar Heide, who argues that her
character is that of a giantess.168 In my study, the opposition giantess vs. goddess is not
overly problematic since the Maiden figure, as we shall argue, covers both giantess-,
goddess- and valkyrie-hood.

The authenticity of the Hyndluljod has also been questioned by scholars. The poem tells
of how ttarr descends to an Underworld to learn about his ancestry. But after being
told of what may be accepted as a human, legendary ancestry, his teacher, a giantess who
has much in common with a volva, proceeds to reveal cosmic secrets of a visionary
nature much like those of the poem Volusp. Since ttarr has descended with the goddess
in order to obtain knowledge of his ancestry, most scholars have been rather puzzled
about the nature of the teachings. Larrington and Simek among many others claim that
the stanzas 29-44 constitute an interpolation of an entirely different poem, namely what
Snorri mentions as the Volusp in skamma The Short Prophecy of the Vlva.

169

However, Steinsland argues that the poem Hyndluljod is complete in itself, and that the
esoteric nature of the teachings is part of ttarrs ancestry he is actually learning that
everything gods, giants, humans, and a great Being, are his ancestry that everything
that appears separated and different, are in fact one. 170 My position is similar to that of
Steinsland; I believe the st. 29-44 form a logical part of the revelations.

In the Svpdagsml and in the Hyndluljod we are met with goddess-figures in a role
very similar to that of the giantess Maidens in the previous chapter. Freyias goddesshood is unquestionable, she is counted among the most powerful and high-ranking
syniur goddesses - in sgard. However, she was not originally an synja. Like Gerdr,
168

Heide, 1997, p. 160

Larrington, 1996, p. 253, Simek, 1996, p. 169
170
Steinsland, 1991, p. 244-251
169

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she entered sgardr from another tribe. Freyias tribe is the Vanir, whose origin is
unknown. Just as the perpetual enmity between the Aesir and the giants, there used to be
enmity between the Aesir and the mysterious Vanir. Just as Freyr tried to buy peace
(frid at kaupa171) with Gerdrs clan, the giants, by inviting Gerdr as his wife to sgardr
and to subsequent goddess-hood,172 the Aesir try to buy peace with the almost victorious
Vanir through an exchange of hostages. Among the hostages from the Vanir is Freyia and
her family. Freyia teaches seidr - the art of the vlur - to dinn, and is a blotgydja a
sacrificial priestess/goddess. The truce between Freyias people and dinns also results
in the creation of the mead of poetry with its subsequent need for a quest to retrieve the
mead from the giants as told in the story of Gunnld. As Nsstrm has shown, sources
independent from that of Snorri regard Freyia as a wife or concubine of dinn.173 Snorri,
who neatly systematizes the divine world, regards Frigg as dinns wife, while Freyia is
married to someone called dr. Most scholars assume that dr is dinn,174 and that
Frigg and Freyia at some point in history were one and the same goddess, Frija.175 Snorri
relates how dr suddenly disappeared, and that Freyia was left behind weeping, much the
same way as Gunnld was. Indeed, there is also a story of how dinn, gone traveling, left
his wife Frigg for so long that she took other husbands.176 Freyias story does not finish
with passive weeping either, for she started to travel the world wearing different shapes
and names, leaving behind her tears of pure red gold everywhere she went.177 In fact, as
Nsstrm has pointed out, Freyias name is actually a title, not a name, meaning Lady,
much in the same manner that a great god may be called simply the Lord. Through
comparative analysis of features and characteristics, Nsstrm has shown that the great
Lady may hide behind a large number of female deities, even norns and giantesses (see
ch. 3.4).

One part of the dinn-Freyia relationship is particularly interesting and puzzling. We are
not told how the arrangement came to be, but the Grimnisml st. 14 reveals that Freyia,
171

Skirnisml st. 19
Snorri counts Gerdr among the goddesses in Skldskaparml (Faulkes, 1987, p.59)
173
Nsstrm, 1998, p. 89-91
174
Simek, 1996, p. 250, Nsstrm, 1998, p. 90
175
Ellis-Davidson, 1998, p. 10, Nsstrm, 1998, p. 136, Simek, 1996, p. 94
176
Ynglinga saga 3, Gyldendal, 1944, p. 4
177
Gylfaginning (Faulkes, 1987, p. 30)
172

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residing in the ninth world, receives the dead souls of the einherjar the chosen dead.
She decides which of the einherjar (one-harriers) shall sit in her beautiful hall of
friendship, and which shall go on to dinns Valhll to become eternal warriors in
service of the gods. Significantly, she shares the einherjar with dinn - not the other way
around. It is clearly Freyia and not dinn who is in control of the choice. This
information links Freyia to the valkyries on one side, since they are the spirits who hover
above the battle-field choosing who shall fall and taking their souls with them to Valhll.
The Grimnisml information, which is repeated by Snorri in the Gylfaginning, makes it
natural to assume that the valkyries were as much maids of Freyia as of dinn, since they
must have taken the souls to the goddess first. On the other side, the information above
also links Freyia to Hel, the giantess who receives the dead, and who rules in nine worlds.
Other sources also establish Freyia as a mistress of death, such as the girl of the saga who
cries out that she will not eat until she sups with Freyia, meaning that she will starve
herself to death.178 (See app. VI for Snorris information about Freyia).

5.1: FREYIA LEADING THE WAY TO VALHLL

As remarked above, Freyia would receive dead souls, keep some for herself in her serene
and beautiful halls of the ninth world, and send others on their way to dinns Valhll
the Hall of the Chosen. Just how this happened is not known, but the Hyndluljod may
give an indication. The poem begins with a speech which sounds rather like an invocation
(see app.VII). The goddess, Freyia, is trying to wake up her sister, her girlfriend,
Hyndla, who lives in a rock cave. We learn that it is the darkest of darkness itself, and
that Freyia wishes to ride to Valhll and to the holy shrines. Freyia asks Hyndla to saddle
one of the wolves of her stables and ride with Freyia and her choice of steed, a great boar.

Hyndla of the rock cave, the perfect image of a giantess, does wake up, but she sneers at
Freyias request. It is not a boar that Freyia is riding, it is a man in boar-shape. Her
boar is really ttarr, Freyias verr lover or husband. Even so, argues Freyia, ttarr
has always believed in goddesses, and colored red the altars of sacrifice until the rock
178

Egils saga Skallagrmssonar, Lie, 1970, p.188

72

turned to crystal. Thus, he has behaved in a manner which deserves help and attention.
His wish is to have his heritage, namely the gold of Valland the Land of the Chosen.
He has wagered this gold with a certain Angantyr, and now he is in dire need of counsel
about his lineage.

The fact that ttarr is presented as a devout worshipper of goddesses seems to convince
the giantess. She and Freyia dismount from their respective steeds, the wolf and the boar,
and sit down to count up ttarrs ancestral lineage. Hyndla starts by counting up the
lineages of great men and women, of the gods, of the giants, of the vlur and the vitkar
(wisards). Throughout her rhythmic account, she keeps asserting that all are your
kinsmen, addressing ttarr as the ignorant,the one who has never been away from
home (heimski). Eventually, Hyndla reveals the greatest of secrets: That there is one
being greater than all of those accounted for, born by nine giant maidens. This being,
which we know to be Heimdall (the Illuminating World179), encompasses everyone
else. Finally, Hyndla reveals some of the reasons behind the end of the world which is to
come and indicates a new beginning.

When Hyndla has sung her song of sacred ancestry, Freyia asks Hyndla to give the ale
of memory (minnis aul180) to ttarr so that he can remember her words on the third
morning when he and Angantyr shall reckon up their lineage. Hyndla, however, refuses,
saying that she wishes to sleep, and tells Freyia to run off into the night like the goat
Heidrn runs with the rams. In the next stanza, she repeats the comparison of Freyia and
Heidrn, adding that Freyia runs wildly about full of desire, and that many are those who
have run about her skirts. The stanzas appear insulting, and Freyia responds that she will
surround this place with the fire of troll-women (elldi of ividiu181) and that Hyndla will
never come out unburned. Hyndla responds that everybody wishes to save their lives, but
that the ale Freyia serves to ttarr is full of poison. Freyia has the final word, declaring

179

Simek, 1996, p. 135

Hyndluljod, st. 45
181
Hyndluljod, st. 48
180

73

that the giantesss words of bad luck shall have no effect, that ttarr shall drink the
precious drink (dyrar veigar182), and that all gods shall help him.

5.2: Structural Elements in Hyndluljod

The vision quest theme of the Hyndluljod is apparent in the allusion to ttarrs
previous sacrificial activity, which led the goddess to appear and help him. We may not
know what kind of effect blood sacrifice may have been expected to have on its
practitioner, but it is not unlikely that it could induce a state of mind open to the
supernatural powers. This is possibly shown through the fact that ttarr in some way or
other actually becomes the sacrifice. The sacrifice is followed by his descending into the
underworld in the shape of a boar. The boar was sacred to the Vanir, usually associated
with Freyr. One of Freyias names, Syr (sow), however, also associates his sister with
pigs. The pigs were important sacrificial animals. They were considered very powerful
in the Hyndluljod, st. 38, we hear that Heimdall was strengthened by the blood of the
sacrificial boar, together with the power of the earth and the sea. I find it likely that
ttarr represents the sacrificial boar on its way to the realm of the dead. This element
links ttarr to dinn, who sacrificed himself in order to obtain the knowledge of the
runes of fate, powerful spell-songs and a drink of Poetry Stir.

The vision theme must be that ttarrs activities cause the goddess to appear, changing
him into a steed for herself.

The descending theme is obviously when Freyia rides ttarr the boar into the darkness of
darkness itself, where she wakes up the maiden of the rock cave and ask for her help. The
utter darkness, the sleeping giantess and the wolves that she rides are all features of the
realm of the dead.183

182

Hyndluljod, st. 50
See passage about dinns and Hermodrs underworld journeys in ch. 4.4 , and about giantesses riding
wolves in ch. 4.1
183

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The trial theme is not as clear as in the previous examples. dinn is directly faced with
giants such as Suttungr and Baugi, whom he has to overcome in cleverness, as well as a
mountain which is not easy either to enter or to escape from. Skrnir has to overcome
barking dogs and a fence of fire, and the threat of the giant Gymir is alluded to. In
ttarrs case, the fence of fire is mentioned, but only as Freyia threatens to surround
Hyndla with it at the end of the poem. From other sources we know that Freyia indeed
was surrounded by high walls, even if it is not mentioned in this poem. The trial takes a
different form: ttarrs wish is to get to Valhll (st. 1) and to have the gold of Valland (st.
9), the hall of- and the land of the Chosen Dead, but the gold of that realm is being
wagered with a person called Angantyr. Steinsland assumed that Angantyr is ttarrs
opponent as future king.184 I take a different standpoint, based on the information that
ttarrs main aim is, in the poem, stated to be Valhll, not kingship. Angan means
pleasure, and tyr is a word for god. The god of pleasure is ttarrs primary
opponent and challenge on his path to the hall of the Chosen, and may only be overcome
through knowledge of esoteric lore that identifies ttarr with every kind of being in the
universe, ultimately revealing that they are all one. It is not uncommon in the history of
religions for spiritual insight and liberation to be placed in opposition to the pleasures of
the material world. Only through the knowledge of the underworld presided over by the
giantess-volva, the lady of rocks and wolves, darkness and wilderness, and, crucially,
through the drink that makes him capable of remembering what he has learned on the
third day, may ttarr have a chance in the wager.

The second trial is to obtain the knowledge from the reluctant giantess, who is persuaded
to chant her sacred lore, but not to give him the important mead of memory. We are
closing in on the theme of the dinn-Gunnld story again: how to get to the mead. Only
through the love and care of the Maiden will that be possible. That, through sacrifice and
devotion, ttarr had already achieved.

184

Steinsland, 1991, p. 256

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The Maiden theme surface in the fact that Ottarr is Freyias verr, which means man,
lover or husband, and in Freyias declaration that she will offer Ottar the precious mead,
the mead of memory.

5.3: Ogress versus Goddess the Life and Death Opposition

At the end of the poem, Freyia and the giantess stand out against each other: the giantess
who, although being the very source of sacred knowledge, can only offer destruction and
forgetfulness, promises death and accidents, whereas the goddess promises the drink of
memory and the help of all divine beings. In fact, Freyia personifies the alternative to
what Hyndla represents, surrounding the ogress of death with a magical fire and offering
a drink that makes the hero capable of remembering what he learned in the underworld
while dead, in the shape of the sacrificed boar. Like Brynhild the valkyrie tells the
ogress of death to sink so that she may be with Sigurd in eternity185, Freyia puts fire to
the giantess who can promise few fair things (fer thu ftt af mer fridra kosta186). The
opposition between Freyia and Hyndla is also symbolized in their steeds. Hyndla rides a
wolf, the wolf being, in Norse mythology, always a representative of the giant,
destructive forces, the devouring, hungry animal. Freyia, however, rides a boar, the pig
being the very symbol of wealth, hunger satisfied, and sacrificial power. In the
opposition, we are reminded of Gerdrs choice: life as an ogress in Hel or life as a divine
bride in sgard. Freyia, it seems, represents the latter option.

Steinsland has interpreted ttarrs quest for his heritage as a part of kingship
inauguration the king must prove that he has a royal, divine and giant lineage.187
Although, as we have seen in ch. 4, the initiations presided over by the Maiden figure
may include initiation to kingship, I believe that the heritage in question is of a more
general religious nature, implied in the intention of going to Valhll or Valland stated in
st. 1 and st. 9, as well as in the teachings and the challenge of Angantyr. ttarr needs

185

See ch. 6.7

Hyndluljod, st. 46
187
Steinsland, 1991, p. 256-259
186

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good lessons to have his heritage- the heritage of all creatures in the universe. Here,
only the knowledge of sacred inter-connectedness with all things appears sufficient to
overcome the rule of pleasure. This, apparently, is necessary to claim the treasures of the
Land of the Chosen Ones, the alternative to extinction in death.

77

5.4: MENGLD THE GREAT MAIDEN

Image on Bronze Age burial lid, Denmark

...hon hr rdr ok rikir hefir
eign ok audslum.188

...she is the lord here, and has in her dominion

lands and rich halls.

The poem Gragaldr begins with the son (sonr) standing by the gates of death
invoking his long dead mother Gra (to grow, thrive)189 who had told him to wake her
up if in need (see app. VIII). The son explains his mission: his stepmother has sent him
on the unknown way (er kvmtki veit) to meet Mengld.190 Gra declares that the way
is long and heavy, and that the soul will have to yearn for a long time, but if he obtains
the goal of his quest, luck will follow.191 The son asks his dead mother to chant good
galdr (charms) for him, to save her child (bjarg thu, modir! megi;) for he fears that he
will never come back from the quest, being too young.192

Gra, then, chants nine charms for him. If he feels that he is carrying a heavy burden on
his shoulders, he shall shake it off, himself leading himself (sjalfr leid thu sjlfan thik). If
he feels insecure and unsafe, Urdr, the oldest norn, shall lead the evil away from his
paths. If he encounters fatally dangerous rivers, they shall turn away from his path
188

Gragaldr st. 7-8

Simek, 1996, p. 120
190
It is the stepmother-theme which has been the strongest argument for understanding Svipdagsml as
a fairy-tale. However, the theme only exists in the Gragaldr, which means that, read separately, the
Fjlsvinnsml has no stepmother-theme at all. Even if read together, the stepmother theme is also to be
found in the Skirnisml, a poem most accepted as a rendering of true myth.
191
Gragaldr st. 1-4. Mengld being mentioned in the poem makes the link to Fjlsvinnsml quite
obvious.
192
Gragaldr st. 5
189

78

towards Hel, and he shall walk on dry land. If he meets enemies on his way, their minds
shall be turned towards friendship. If he is fettered and bound, Gras release-galdr
shall open up any lock and loosen every knot. If he encounters a storm at sea, the winds
and waves shall calm down for him. Cold shall not bite him. A dead Christian woman
on the misty, dark roads shall not harm him. Eventually, when he encounters the great,
spear-strong giant, the son shall have wit and eloquence enough in his heart and his
mouth to face the giant. In the end, Gra advises him to never himself seek bad luck, for
then harm will not find him, and to remember the words of his mother - if he pays
attention to her words, honor and luck will follow.193
Gragaldr ends there, and we have to turn to Fjlsvinnsml for the continuation.194 The
boy has, mysteriously, arrived at the outer settlements (utan garda) of the giants and
thurses. Suddenly someone asks him what kind of troll he is, standing in the outer courts,
moving back and forth around the fatally dangerous fire(httan loga). The one who
asks is the giant Fjlsvidr Very Wise or Much Knowing - undoubtedly the wise
giant Gra mentioned in her last charm. (Fjl also indicates magically versed).

195

Very Wise is not particularly hospitable, telling the boy to return along the slippery
roads (urgar brautir).

The boy, however, declares that he is eager to meet again the pleasure of his eyes, and
that he believes he will enjoy staying in the golden hall (gullna sali). Very Wise asks him
who he is, and the boy replies that his name is Wind-Cold, son of Spring-Cold, son of
Many-Cold. Both coolness and the wind are symbols of death. Wind-Cold asks who the
lord is who has in his dominion the lands and precious halls: Very Wise declares that it is
the maiden Mengld who is the lord, as quoted above.196

Now follows a long dialogue between our hero Wind-Cold and the giant Very Wise.
Wind-Cold asks and Very Wise answers, but Wind-Cold has to know how to question.
193

Gragaldr, st. 6-16

This is if we understand the Fjlsvinnsml as a continuation of the Gragaldr, as a Svpdagsml
195
Simek, 1996, p. 84, Heide, 1997, p. 8. Strm, 1954, and most others, translated fjl in the Reginsml as
trollkunnig versed in magic, sorcery.
196
Translations of name in Heide, 1997, p. 8, and in Norrn Ordbok
194

79

During this conversation, we learn about Mengld, her realm, and the trials that WindCold has to overcome to be reunited with the Maiden. After realizing that the trials may
not be overcome at all, Wind-Cold asks if there is anyone so blessed that he may sleep in
Menglds arms. Very-Wise answers that only Svpdag may be so blessed: The
Suddenly Dawning Day.197 This is when Wind-Cold reveals his true name: he is
Svpdag - and is allowed to enter the hall of Mengld as her long lost husband. He is
welcomed with a speech about the long years of yearning caused by his absence, which
he explains: He was kept away by the words of Urdr fate - and by the winds that led
him along cold roads. The allusions to fate, winds and cold roads again bring death to
mind. Mengld gives Svpdag the kiss of welcome and declares that they will be
together for all eternity.
5.5: The Structural Elements of Svpdagsml
The vision quest theme is represented in the first stanza of Gragaldr, as Svpdag,
described as the son, invokes his mother at the doors of death (daudra dura). The
invocation bears some resemblance to the invocation Freyia uses to wake up the sleeping
giantess in the underworld.198 We could imagine that the doors of death where he
performs the invocation are by the wise womans burial mound. This idea is strengthened
by the fact that Gra declares that she is standing on an earth-fastened stone while she
sings her charms. Sitting on a burial mound was in fact a known practice in Norse
society, a part of the practice of utiseta and a means of obtaining secret knowledge from
the beyond (see ch. 3.1).

The vision theme manifests itself as the long dead woman rises from her grave and
speaks to her son. The waking of a dead woman is known from another Eddic poem,
namely the Baldrs draumar, where dinn, using charms of the Chosen Dead
(valgaldr), wakes up a dead vlva buried to the east of the gates of Hel. The vlva then
reveals the meaning of Baldrs dreams of bad omens. One could imagine that a similar
197

Simek, 1996, p. 307. Heide, 1997, points out theories of other possible origins of the name on p. 26-27,
particularly a link to Svipall, one of dinns names. In fact, the revelation of Wind-Colds real name in the
poem comes only in st. 47
198
See appendix VII and VIII

80

scene took place before the ancient vlvas chanting of her prophecies in the Vlusp,
since the volva in that case is said to sink at the end of her speech. Similarly, the vlva
of Baldrs draumar wishes to sleep. There is indeed some similarity to Hyndla, who
also is woken as she sleeps in the center of the realm of the dead, and who also states a
wish to go back to sleep. Hyndla is considered a giantess, yet parts of her speech is
counted as the short Vlusp and are indeed quite similar to the real Vlusp. Hyndla
could be said to be both a giant representative of Hel, and a dead or sleeping vlva.
Gras joint giant- and vlva- identity is strengthened by an account of Snorris in the
Gylfaginningr, where a vlva called Gra chants galdr to heal Thorrs leg. This vlva is
the wife of a giant. It is perhaps more than a ghost that Svpdag is approaching. It is
possible that Svpdags mother is a vlva of mythical, giant origin. It is possible that
she represents a mythic figure of many names who has been largely ignored by scholars. I
am suggesting the existence in the Norse cosmology of a sleeping giantess-vlva who
encompassed many more characters than just Gra: such as Hyndla, Hyrrokkin, Hel and
the vlva who was raised among giants before the beginning of time, as revealed in the
Vlusp. Even if my idea of Gra should be proven wrong, we may maintain that the
vision theme is present when a creature from beyond the grave, a supernatural creature
with knowledge of charms and of the way to reach Mengld, manifests herself and
speaks to the living.

The descending theme is present both in the Gragaldr and in the Fjlsvinnsml.
Standing at the doors of death and speaking to the dead is in itself a feat of descent to
the world of the dead. In the Fjlsvinnsml, Svpdag is discovered in the outer
settlements (utan garda), which indicates the giant world (such as far-away Utgardr)
and, more specifically, the realm of the dead, as we shall argue in the following chapter.

The trial theme is described in more detail in the Svpdagsml than in any of the other
poems. In the Gragaldr, we learn that Svpdags main aim is to reach Mengld, just as
we learned, in the Hyndluljod, that ttarrs main aim is to reach Valhll. In both cases, an
old wise woman of the world of the dead is approached for the purpose of seeking
teaching and help. Svpdag expresses fear, anguish and doubt, he is too young, it is too

81

far, the stepmother who forced him onto the quest was harm-wise (lvisa). (In fact, the
stepmother theme was subtly present also in the Skrnisml, where the prose introduction
declares that it was Skadi, Freyrs stepmother, who made Skrnir approach Freyr in order
to help him. Skadi could be said to be harm-wise, since her name itself means
harm.199) Gra agrees with Svpdag that the way is long and difficult and that he will
have to yearn for a long time quite like Freyr, who yearned for his beloved during nine
insufferable nights. But Gras nine charms will help Svpdag on his way. Nine charms
were also given to dinn by his maternal uncle before the drinking of the precious
mead in Hvaml st. Gras charms, which she gives to the lad, could, as Motz
suggests, be describing an initiation ritual. As we saw above, the charms do indicate
obstacles on the way and how, both through cunning and magic, to conquer them. The
charms make him ready for the big trial, namely the meeting with the giant warden and
the impenetrable walls of the Maiden. During the conversation with the giant, we learn so
much about the realm of the Maiden that there is not space to discuss it in detail within
this study. As Eldar Heide has argued, the poem provides crucial information about the
Norse cosmos.200 Svpdag learns about these important secrets and about how to enter
Menglds hall. It turns out, through a long dialogue, that it is downright impossible, no
matter what he tries to do. It is only when it occurs to the young man to ask who is so
blessed that he may sleep in Menglds soft embrace that the solution reveals itself. It is
only the right one, the one that had already been married to the great maiden
(tjodmra),201 the one whose name is Svpdag, who may be so blessed. Once Svpdag
remembers his true identity as Menglds husband and calls himself by his true name, the
Maiden herself lets open the doors and receives her long lost beloved with a kiss. I use
the word remember because, until then, the poems themselves do not reveal his real
name. Only after having studied the realm of the Maiden, where the Mimameidr tree
of memory - is situated, Wind-Cold declares himself to be Svpdag, long lost on
slippery roads. In st. 5, Wind-Cold declares that he would like to see again the halls of
Mengld, meaning that he obviously remembers them from before. Yet in the beginning
of the Gragaldr, the boy shows no signs at all of remembering that he has actually been
199

Norrn Ordbok
Heide, 1997
201
Fjlsvinnsml, st. 35
200

82

married to the Mengld whom he is about the seek. An important part of Svpdags trial,
it seems, is to remember his true identity the husband of the Great Maiden.

The Maiden theme is revealed through the marriage and love between Svpdag and
Mengld. The offering of a drink could be present in Menglds name, if we should
choose to follow Jacobsdottirs interpretation of the name as Invitation to a Drink.
Moreover, as we will argue in the following chapter, Mengld is sitting at the foot of the
world tree, where the three wells of the world are situated. The tree is called Mimameidr
here, the Tree of Remembering, and alludes to the giant Mimir, who drinks from the
well that contains intelligence and memory about all the worlds, that dinn coveted so
much.

5.6: The Realm of the Dead in Fjlsvinnsml

The realm that Svpdag is visiting is described in great detail, and we only have room to
discuss the most essential features that may identify the realm of the dead. Menglds
hall is surrounded by a terrible-looking fence with a horrific gate. The gate is called
Thrymgjll the Loud Resounding One202 - a name which immediately brings to mind
the Resounding bridge and river on the way to Hel.203 Every traveller who tries to move it
will be stuck to it. The image of being stuck to something in the giants realm is common:
In the Gylfaginning, Loki is stuck the the walls of the hall of the giant Geirrd, caught
and put into a chest. In the poem Haustlong, cited in the Skldskaparml, Loki finds
himself stuck to the giant in eagles disguise after trying to hit him. In both cases, Loki is
faced with certain death. As we argued in ch. 4.4, the giant in eagles disguise is a
representative of death. Menglds gate is made by the three sons of Slblindi the
Sunblind as we know, the sun is not seen in Niflheimr.204 The symbol of death is
present in the nature of that gate: a world that one gets stuck in forever when once
entered, a world where there is no way out.

202

Simek, 1996, p. 330. From thrymr, m. loud noise, and gjll, f., Resounding noise
See ch. 4.10
204
Volusp st. 41
203

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The fence is called Gastropnir, which according to Heide means Guest-Strangler.205

According to Simek, the - ropnir part of the word could really be rofnir to be torn
asunder. Both meanings make sense: any guest in the realm of the dead may expect to
die. That fence is made of the limbs of Leirbrimir, who could be identified with Ymir
from whose limbs the gods fashioned the world itself.206 If this is the case, it may follow
that the fence is the fashioned, divinely ordered word itself, or at least made of the same
substance. In Baldrs draumar, a point is made of how dinn avoids the gates of Hel. In
the story of Hermodr in the Skldskaparml, a similar point is made of how Hermodrs
horse Sleipnir jumps over the gates of Hel without touching them.

The image of the death-realm is completed by the fact that two ferocious, barking dogs
are guarding the gate. We recall from ch. 4.10 that barking, blood strained dogs were a
feature of Hels and of the giantess Gerdr. The dogs names are Gifr and Geri, both names
meaning Greedy.207 Although they are dogs, their names are those of wolves and
giantesses, a combination often found in connection with death.208 These two dogs will,
as long as the world last, guard the eilifu -the eternal ones. 209
Menglds grandfather is Svafrthorinn, from svafr which is derived from sofa to
sleep, and thorinn, which means courageous, brave.

210

I find this family relation

205

Heide, 1997, p. 8
Leir- means clay or something made out of clay. The concept of a leirjtunn Clay-Giant- existed in
the Norse vocabulary. Brimir probably comes from brim, n., (or brimi, n.) which means the movement of
waves against land, although brimi, m., means fire (Simek, 1996, p. ) Brimir is an alternative name for
Ymir in the Volusp stanzas 9 and 37; as we know, the world itself was fashioned out of the limbs of Ymir.
Yet, Snorri in the Gylfaginning claims that Brimir is the name for the room where the gods hold a drinking
feast. Simek, however, believes that Snorri has misinterpreted and that Brimir is the name of the giant who
owns the hall where the gods drink (ibid, p.) The hall is explicitly said to be a bjrsal an ale-hall, in the
Volusp 37. If Brimir is identical with Ymir, there is to my view no contradiction in his identity also with
the great drinking hall it is not diffiucult to imagine the world itself as a great banquet for the gods.
206

207

Simek, 1996, p. 108, 106

Such as the giantess riding a wolf who pushes Balders funeral ship out to sea, another giantess riding a
wolf who signals the death of Helgi Hirvardsson, or the giantess who gives birth to wolves that will
destroy the world in the Volusp. Einar Sveinsson (1975, p. 29-37) pointed out the fact that the dog-names
belonged to wolves and giantesses.
209
Actually, the text says ellifu, which could only mean eleven. Bugge (1867), p. 345, suggests that it
must really be a form of eilifr, which means eternal. Mortensen Egnund (1993), p. 217, translates into
myane the maidens.
210
Simek, 1996, p. 305: Simek believes that the meaning of svafr as sleep hardly makes sense and that it
really should be Svefnthorn, sleeping thorn. In my opinion the name as it is makes sense if understood as
Courageous Sleep(er) insofar as sleep may be understood as death. This will be discussed in ch. 6.
208

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important because the valkyries, as we shall see in the chapter 6, are connected to similar
names or family relations with names indicating sleep, which, ultimately, indicates death.

Finally, during the dialogue between Svpdag and the wise giant, we learn that one
woman keeps the weapon that will make it possible to enter Menglds hall. Her name is
Sinmara, the pale mare (as in nightmare)211, and she is the consort of Surtr (Acidous)
who will one day be the death of Freyr. The oldpale giantess keeps the Lvateinn
locked with nine iron locks. As Heide has suggested, Sinmara and Hel are the same.212
5.7: The Realm of the Giants in the Fjlsvinnsml
Inside the forbidding and well-guarded fence, there is a great tree, spreading out over the
land. It is called the Mimameidr, the tree of Mimir. Mimir is the giant under the world
tree who drinks from the well of memory and wisdom with the Resounding Horn. If we
remember Suttungrs association both with the realm of death and with the giant Mimir in
ch. 4.4, this location of Mimirs tree is quite interesting. The tree is described in stanza 20
in a way that makes it possible to identify it with Yggdrasill -the world tree itself. Few
know from what roots it has sprung, and what is eating it up slowly. The same kind of
description is found in the Grimnisml 34 and 35, about the Yggdrasill. The Mimameidr
has a special attribute: its seeds may be thrown on a fire, to relieve women sick during
pregnancy, and in order to see what has been hidden. It is generally acknowledged that
Mimameidr is another name for Yggdrasill.213 In the top of the Mimameidr, a rooster is
seated, all glowing with gold in the top of Yggdrasill the bird is an eagle. In Norse
poetry, there is nothing unusual about calling one thing by a different name, and the eagle
in particular is a bird often named by other kinds of birds.214 The allusion to Mimir is
very interesting. According to Snorri, the World Tree has three different roots, each
reaching into a well. One is situated in Hels realm, a well infested with serpents, the
origin of the rivers of the world. Another is situated in the realm of giants, where the well
is guarded by the giant Mimir. In that well intelligence, wisdom and memory of all the
211

Simek, 1996, p. 285

Heide, 1997, p. 173-174
213
Strm, 1993, p. 97, Simek, 1996, p. 216.
214
Skldskaparml (Faulkes, 1987, p. 137)
212

85

worlds is contained. The third root is situated in the realm of the gods. The well at the
third root is called after its guardian, Urdr, the oldest of the norns. From this well, the
Urdarbrunnr, Urdr waters the tree so that it may stay eternally green. From this well,
ultimately, the dew that falls into the valleys of the world is derived. By this root and this
well, the maidens Urdr, Verdandi and Skuld, the three original norns, shape the lives of
the living. The gods and goddesses hold court and counsel by the well of the norns, and
the rainbow bridge between the worlds leads there. The water has an obvious healing,
rejuvenating, renewing and transformative function: it keeps the World Tree from rot and
decay, and it is so holy that all things that come into that well go out as white as the
membrane called the skin that lies round the inside of an eggshell.215 There are many
more norns, who have their origin first in Urdr, then in the trio of Urdr, Verdandi and
Skuld. These norns visit everybody who is born, follow them through their lives and
shape their fate.216

In the Fjlsvinnsml, we are subtly presented to each of the three realms (with their
attached roots and wells with different functions), only they are not separated from each
other in the manner Snorri describes. They seem to be aspects of each other. We have
pointed out the features of Hel and the features of the giant world through the situation in
utan garda, its giant warden and the tree of Mimir. Now we must turn to the world
beyond the ferocious fences, where the ferocious dogs will guard the eternal ones for
ever, the world below the tree of Mimir.
5.8: The Realm of the Maidens
In the Fjlsvinnsml 9 and 11, the maidens realm is said to be sown with the gods
(med godum sat).217 What is interesting about this is that we have already learned that
we are in the Outer Settlements - the giants realms. This does not seem to affect the
divinity of the realm. Mengld is described as sun-bright and named as a great
maiden (tjodmra). She is surrounded by nine maidens at the foot of the great tree.

215

Faulkes, 1987, p.19

216

See ch. 3.1

217
Fjlsvinnsml st. 9

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There she sits, completely still, in utter silence.218 Her brightness is in accordance with
that of the other maidens: Gunnlds golden throne, Gerdrs gold and arms that shine
across the world, Freyias fiery necklace and golden tears, and as we shall soon see, the
immense rays and shine that unfailingly accompany the valkyries. Luminiscence,
brightness and goldenness may have be common ways of describing women in a
flattering manner, yet it is also very much a part of the structure of the Maidenmythology and should not be overlooked. The placing of Mengld and her maidens at
the foot of the World Tree is important: norns, goddesses of fate, are situated at the foot
of the world tree Yggdrasil.

Menglds hall is golden, situated within the Gastropnir fence, and is surrounded by
flames. Its name is Hyrr The Shining One,219 shivering on the tips of swords and
knifes. About its beauty people may only know through its fame indicating how
unusual it is to go there and live to tell of it.

There is a hill there called the Lyfjaberg the Mountain of Medicine, and there,
Mengld sits.220 The Mountain of Medicine may be climbed by any sick woman, and she
will be healed from life-long sorrows. By the knees of the dreaming lady, nine maidens
sit together, and their names are Hlif (Life) and Hlifthrasa (Life-Seeker), Thjodvarta,
Bjrt (Bright), Blid (Amiable), Blidr again, Frid (Peace), Eir (otherwise known as a
goddess of healing and medicine) and rboda.221 These maidens will save anyone in
need, only they sacrifice to them.

As I was arguing in the previous section, Fjlsvinnsml presents us to each of the three
worlds. The world of the maidens and the Great Maiden by whose knees they sit is
divine. It is placed at the top of a mountain, and at the same time at the foot of the World
Tree. It is a place of healing, love and help. It is situated in the midst of the world of the
218

thruma in st. 35 is usually translated as dreaming, that is, Mengld is dreaming. But the word actually
means to remain quiet or silent on one spot, as Heide, 1997, p. 121 points out.
219
Simek, 1996, p. 170
220
Hyfjaberg is recognized as a mistake for Lyfjaberg, Mountain of Medicines, usually translated in
Norwegian as Lkjedomsberget (Mountain of Healing) since, as Heide, 1997, p. 10, points out, the
actual meaning of medicine in Norwegian makes it sound like it is a farmacy.
221
Translation taken from Norrn Ordbok and Simek, 1996

87

dead, which is situated in the midst of the world of the giants. At the same time, it offers
bright and loving promises. Nsstrm has argued that the norn Urdr is identifiable with
Freyia. Strm identifies Urdr with Hel, and Hel with Freyia.222 Hyrr could be a
representation of Freyias beautiful after-death realm, her Field of People and Hall of
Friendship. That places Hyrr in the ninth of the divine realms. However, if Hyrr is
rather, or at the same time, a presentation of the norns realm, then it is situated in the
center and court of sgardr, the divine realm.

In the story of Mengld, we, for the first time in this study, see a collective of maidens
surrounding one great Maiden. The group could represent the brdkonur the women
accompanying the bride while she awaits the groom, and thus an emphasis on the
marriage motif in the story. Yet I find in the image a striking resemblance to the valkyries
who travel in troops led by one who is more splendid than all the others. This is a link to
the next chapter, where we shall discuss the valkyries. It is also worthwhile, here, to
recall the theories of Strm and Nsstrm of a Great Ds emerging from a collective of
dsir, a ds identified, ultimately, as the Lady, the Great Goddess Freyia.
5.9: Summary and Conclusions to ch. 5
....at thu ert komin, mgr! til minna sala.223

...That you have returned, man, to my halls!

In this chapter, I have argued that Freyia and Mengld are identical with each other and
moreover that, through their functions and the structure of their stories, they may be
identified with the giantesses Gerdr and Gunnld as represented in ch. 4.

The structure of each myth is similar to each other. It is possible to detect a pattern of
themes such as 1) the Vision Quest Theme, 2), the Vision Theme, 3) a Descending
Theme, 4) Trial Theme, and 5) a Maiden Theme. Each theme in each myth resembles the
other themes of the other myths on a fundamental level.

222
223

Strm, 1954
Fjlsvinnsml, st. 49

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The Maidens are placed in a protected spot within a realm that is identifiable as Niflhel.
However, the Maidens represent an alternative to the bone-sucking monsters of Hels
extinguishing realm. The alternative is represented by how dinn with the help of
Gunnld dug his way out of the mountain of the giants and returned to the divine realm
with the precious mead inside himself, taking upon himself the features of death, eagle
and serpent, and using them to escape, flying, to freedom. It is present in the choice to
which Gerdr is presented, either to be a wife of the gods in possession of their most
sacred treasures, or to be an ogress gaping behind the gates of Hel. It is also alluded to in
the grove that the winds do not reach the winds, as we know, originate in the realm of
the dead, with the all-devouring eagle Corpse Swallower. It is present in the contrast
between Hyndla, who offers poison and forgetfulness, and Freyia, who offers love and
memory which may lead the hero to the heavenly afterlife in Valhll. Finally, it is present
in the contrast between Menglds eternal love on the Mountain of Medicine and in the
pale giantess Sinmara, who keeps the only weapon that could make it possible to get past
the ferocious guard dogs, locked behind nine iron locks.

Each poem is different, but, as I see it, complementary. Each fills in gaps of information
about the Myth of the Maiden with the Mead. Fjlsvinnsml adds very much to our
understanding of the Norse cosmos. I argue that the three roots and the three wells of the
World Tree may be seen as three aspects of the same reality. This alludes to my argument
in ch. 4.5: namely that dinn learns by all the three wells simultaneously. The same
appears to be the case with Svpdag.

The poems also reveal a kind of love and loss story within the myth. It could appear
that dinn was the first to approach the Maiden, who was then a giantess and who, after
the marriage and dinns betrayal, was left behind in the giants realm. Gunnlds
weeping for dinn is reflected in Freyias weeping for dr and in Menglds longing for
her long lost husband. dinn appears to regret his treatment of Gunnld, Freyr longs
himself sick for Gerdr, and Menglds returning husband declares that she was not the
only one to suffer, that they have been separated by cold winds and slippery, dark paths,
all symbols that may belong to the realm of death. There are several indications that

89

Svpdag, through the workings of the mortal realms, has forgotten his original
relationship to Mengld. A theme of original union and subsequent loss and forgetfulness
seems to be present in the myth of the Maiden. ttarr faces the danger of forgetting
everything he learned in the Underworld unless Freyia and all the gods help him. In
Fjlsvinnsml, the World Tree is called the Tree of Remembering, and Svpdag acts as if
he only has a vague memory of the golden halls in the beginning, recognizing both the
Maiden and himself only at the end of the poem. The climax of his lessons may be this
fact: that the he and the Maiden have always been united in their souls. We are reminded
of the image of the reincarnated hero and the valkyrie who is either reincarnated or only
sleeps until her re-born hero finds her and wakes her up a theme we shall discuss in the
next chapter.

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6: The Reincarnating Valkyrie

Detail on standing stone

Early Viking Age, Gotland, Sweden

There are still others [among the goddesses] whose function is to wait in Val-hall, serve drink and look
after the tableware and drinking vessels.(...) These are called valkyries. Odin sends them to every battle.
They allot death to men and govern victory. Gunn and Rota and the youngest norn, called Skuld, always
ride to choose who shall be slain and to govern killings.(...) 224

In the Gylfaginning, as quoted above, Snorri Sturluson gives the image that has had great
influence on our image of the valkyries that of serving maids in Valhll and supervisors
over battle. They ride to battle, choosing who shall win and who shall die, thus their title,
valkyria, from val the chosen or the slain, and kjosa to choose. They are the
Choosers of the Chosen (Slain), the maidens of dinn, and they bring the dead souls
to his warriors paradise, Valhll Hall of the Chosen (Slain) after battle. In Valhll,
warriors are served mead by the valkyries, mead milked from the goat Heidrn who
stands on the roof of Valhll, eating from the great tree there, the Lradr. The way the
tree is described by Snorri renders it obvious that the tree is no other than the World Tree
itself.225 So the mead that the valkyries give the One-Harriers to drink is drawn directly
from the tree of life itself, the very same tree that the oldest norn waters every morning.
The water comes from the well that makes anyone who bathes in it come out shining
white (see ch. 5.7 about the transformative power of Urdrs well). Moreover, the goats
224

Faulkes, 1987, p. 31
The tree can be no other than the world tree, for alongside the goat Heidrun, a stag also stands and feeds
from the same tree, and its horns drip a liquid into the well of Hel, Hvergelmir, which we know to be
located at one of the roots of the world tree. Text in Faulkes, 1987, p. 33

225

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name means bright rune.226 Runes (rn, f.pl. rnar) were a kind of letters used by
Germanic peoples, including the Vikings, but their name means secret or hidden
knowledge.227 It seems logical that the secrets contain the hidden knowledge of destiny,
since they were first inscribed by the norns, mistresses of fate.

228

Both Strm229 and

Nsstrm230 regarded the norns, valkyries and other dsir as creatures more or less
identical to each other; while the norns allot fate in general, the valkyries seem more
specialized for the fate of battles. Snorri counted the youngest norn, Skuld, among the
valkyries, as quoted above. In the Hyndluljod, the goat Heidrn is compared to Freyia, a
comparison I believe is far from irrelevant. The comparison is presented in the guise of
an insult referring to Freyias promiscuity. However, if we consider what Heidrn
actually represents, we realize that the insult provides information about Freyia that
reaches far beyond moral judgement about the goddesss sexual transgressions: The
goddess is compared to the goat whose name means bright hidden knowledge, from
whose udders flow the sacred mead of the valkyries. This mead has its ultimate beginning
in the well of Urdr, whose waters will transform anyone who bathes in it into something
new, shining and transparently white, whose waters will keep the World Tree itself from
rot and decay. Heidrn is the transmitter of that mead, and Heidrn is comparable to
Freyia. Now, Nsstrm has argued that Freyia may be called the Great Valkyrie231, and
indeed, Snorri describes how she rides to battle.232 In the Grmnisml, st. 14, Freyia is
described as the receiver of einherjar, the dead souls, and it is told that she chooses the
slain (chosen) every day, keeping half to herself and sending half to dinn. The exact
words used are val hon kyss, val and kyss (kjosa) being the same words that compose the
word valkyria. As we shall see in this chapter, the valkyries operate in a collective of
maidens, but only one Great Valkyrie stands out. It is not impossible that we are
meeting Freyia in one of her many guises, and we shall see that the reincarnating valkyrie
fits neatly into our now well-known Maiden-mythology.

226

From heidr (adj.) clear, bright (Norrn Ordbok)

Norrn Ordbok
228
Vlusp st. 20
229
Strm, 1954
230
Nsstrm, 1998, p. 177-178
231
Ibid, p. 164
232
Gylfaginning, see appendix VI
227

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As mentioned in ch. 2.3, the different Heroic Poems are of different ages and origins, yet
the editors of the Edda, perhaps basing themselves on common tradition, must have
linked them together so as to form part of a very long family saga. As Alv Kragerud has
argued, it seems likely that the way the editors presented the poems was in accordance
with tradition. According to Kragerud, the primary motif of the Helgi poems is to convey
the pre-Christian belief in reincarnation. The reincarnation theme has been largely
ignored by scholars or dismissed as a mistake by the editor(s) of the Codex Regius.
Kragerud, however, argues that the poems were made in order to show just how
reincarnation occurs. The notes of the editor(s) function as integrating parts of the
legendary material that the poems are based on. There is no reason to assume that the
editors were wrong when they explained the poems they were writing down; on the
contrary, the editor(s) belonged to a traditional chain of frodi knowledgeable - men
and women among whom the legendary traditions behind the poems were still very much
alive. There is little reason to believe that the idea of reincarnation was a late addition
from the Christianized editor(s) rather than a pre-Christian concept. Besides, Kragerud
argues that the idea of reincarnation is confirmed in the poems themselves, the last stanza
of the poem of Helgi Hjrvardsson conveys the idea that he will come back to the
world, and the valkyrie recognizes her hero in the poem of Helgi Hundingsbani.233 In my
opinion, the theme of reincarnation is important in the poems, but more important is the
way the the poems convey an underlying Maiden-mythology behind these apparent
sagas of love and revenge. From my point of view, the reincarnation theme is a natural
part of the theme of the Maiden with the Mead. We have seen how Svpdag returns to
his Maiden after having been separated for a long time due to winds and fate: possibly,
they have been separated by the death of the former Svpdag. How the very young
Svpdag could have been married to the Maiden a long time ago could perhaps be
explained through the idea of reincarnation transmitted by the Heroic Poems.

233

Kragerud, p. 3-54

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6.1: A Summary of the Maiden-stories in the Heroic Poems

The poem Helgakvida Hjrvardssonar relates the stories of King Hjrvardr and of his
son Helgi Hjrvardsson and their relationship to supernatural women. Hjrvardr hears
rumours about a beautiful maiden called Sigrlinn in a far off country, and sends his earls
son Atli out to woo her for him. Atli spends a winter with the girls father, king Svafnir,
but has no luck. Later, Atli retires to a grove, where a bird speaks to him, demanding
shrines, temples and sacrificial cattle in return for its help in obtaining the maiden. The
story proceeds with Atli taking the king up on a mountain from where they may look
down into Svvaland. Next, Atli takes the king with him to a rivers edge, where the king
falls asleep. In the middle of the night, Atli crosses the river into Svvaland, finds the
maiden Sigrlinn accompanied by another maiden, lof, hidden in a house guarded by a
giant eagle which is Earl Frnmarr in disguise. He is the father of lof. Atli kills the
earl in eagles shape and returns to Hjrvardr with the maiden Sigrlinn as a bride to the
king, and her friend, earl Frnmarrs daughter lof, as his own bride.

Hjrvardrs and Sigrlinns son grows up fair-looking, but no name will stick to him, he
speaks little and socializes less. He is sitting on a haugr a (burial) mound when a
company of nine valkyries rides past. The leader of the valkyries, Svva, gives him a
name, Helgi, which means the sacred one234, and incites him to seek a special sword
which lies on the Islet of Victory235 in order to rule the Fields of Shining Light236.
This first meeting makes Helgi intent on becoming a warrior, finding the sword that
Svva revealed to him. Svva is said to protect him in battle. Later, Helgi kills a giant
called Hrodmarr Ocean of Non-Peace,237 and then another one called Hati Hate.
While still in Hatafjord, the Fjord of Hate, the ship is threatened by an ogress, Hatis
daughter with Rn called Hrimgerdr, Frosty Enclosure. All the men are asleep except

234

Larrington, 1996, p. 114

Sigarsholmr
236
Rdullsvollir
237
Hrodi, m. means enmity, lack of peace, quarrel, storm. Hrodaligr disgusting, enemy-minded. But
hrodr means honorable, good fame. Marr means ocean(Norrn Ordbok). In the light of Hrodmarrs giant
successor Hati, I found the interpretation unpeace of the hrod- in his name logical. Hate and
Unpeace
235

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Atli the earls son, who accompanies Helgi and his men. Atli engages the ogress in a duel
of words in which is revealed that Atli was castrated in the past and that only the
protection of Svva and her valkyries are preventing the ogress from drowning the ship.
As Helgi lives happily with his valkyrie wife, who continues riding air and sea, Helgis
older half-brother Hedinn meets an old giantess riding a wolf, using serpents as reins. The
ogress asks Hedinn to accompany her, but he refuses. The ogress warns him that this will
have a terrible outcome. Later, Helgi is killed by the Frekasteinn, the Rock of Greed.238
He asks Svva to marry his brother Hedinn, who loves her and who had even sworn to
have her, but she flatly refuses. I agree with Kragerud that the last stanza of the poem
does not reveal that Svva accepted Hedinn as husband. On the contrary, the last stanza is
Helgis promise of returning to avenge himself. The prose ending of the poem declares
that Helgi and Svva were reborn.

The first and second poems of Helgi Hundingsbani relates the story of the valkyrie
Sigrn and Helgi, son of Sigmundr Volsung. The two poems complement each other. The
first relates how a norn at the birth of Helgi fastened a special fate-thread northwards,
bidding it to hold forever. Sigmundrs son grows up a prince and harsh warrior, and
manages to break the Peace of Frodi (Frodafridr). According to Snorri, the frodafridr
was a time long ago, of peace and plenty, of friendship and happiness, when no one stole
from nor killed one another. A golden ring could lie forever in the fields without no one
picking it up, so little greed was there, and no one bothered with revenge. This was under
the reign of king Frodi, whose name could mean wisdom.239 As Helgi is busy killing
and winning battles, nine maidens approach from the Mountains of Flames and the
Fields of Heaven while lightning and rays of fire surround them.240 Helgi asks them if
they would like to come to him, but the leader of the valkyries, Sigrn, declares that she
has no time to lose drinking beer with men when there are more important matters to
attend to. She asks him to save her from her hideous suitor by killing him as well as
defeating her own family, who is trying to forceher into the undesired marriage. During

238

Freki: the greedy one. Frekleikr, m., greediness (Norrn Ordbok)

Frodr wise, knowledgeable (Norrn Ordbok)
240
Logafell, from loga (ad.) flaming, burning or loga (f.), log (n.) torch, light. Himinvangar:
Fields of Heaven (Norrn Ordbok)
239

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the journey to the battle-place, Helgi is assisted by his half-brother, Sinfitli, who in a
discourse somewhat similar to that of Atli and Hrimgerdr leads a duel of words with one
of the representatives of the enemy, in which it is revealed that Sinfitli was castrated in
the past. In the battle that follows, Sigrn and her shield maidens descend and protect
their hero, who wins.
The second poem relates the same story in a different way. Helgi is said to be named after
Helgi Hjrvardsson. The first meeting between the valkyrie and Helgi takes place after he
has been to battle, while feasting on raw meat with his warriors. Sigrn from Sefafjll
approaches on horseback, and we are told that she is Svva reborn. She asks Helgi what
he is doing, and he tries to explain the bloody sight of himself and his men. Sigrn
declares that she already knows, and that she has not been far away. When she saw him,
she recognized him as Helgi. Declaring her love with a kiss, she asks him to kill her
unwanted suitor, and the same events take place as in the first poem. However, the
second poem allows the story to continue after the victorious battle. Helgi and Sigrn
meet on the field of slain men after the battle of Frekasteinn therock of greed, where
most of Sigrns kinsmen lie dead. Helgi is dozing off, dead tired, beneath the Arasteinn
Eagle`s Rock - when she embraces him. The two are married, but Sigrns brother
avenges his kin by slaying Helgi with dinns spear in the Fjturlundr, the Grove of
Fetters. He rides to Sigrn on the Sefafjll to tell her the news. Sigrn meets the dead
Helgi in his burial mound, where the two drink the precious mead before sleeping
together in the grave. Helgi goes on to Valhll. The couple is said to be reincarnated as
Helgi and Kra as told in Kraljod, a poem that is lost to us. However, the Grpissp
identifies the valkyrie Sigrdrifa as the maiden who has slept since Helgi died, and her
hero is Helgis younger brother, Sigurdr, born after Helgis death.241

The prose interpolation in the Poetic Edda called Fr Dauda Sinfitla tells the story of
Sinfitlis death, and then proceeds with how Sigurdr was born. Sigurdrs father
Sigmundr, who was also father to Helgi Hundingsbani and Sinfitli, dies in battle with
the Hundings, his late sons enemies. Sigurdrs mother marries again and Sigurdr grows
up with her and his step-fathers family.
241

Nsstrm, 1998, p. 164 also identifies Sigrdrifa and Brynhildr with the former valkyries

96

The Grpissp relates how the young Sigurdr approaches his maternal uncle Grpir, who
ruled countries and was wiser than all and could see the future. Grpir is persuaded to
tell Sigurdr his whole fate, and the poem functions as a synopsis of the Sigurdr-saga.

Reginnsml relates how the young Sigurdr meets Reginn in the stables of his stepgrandfather. Reginn is a dwarf, but he is wise and has a hard hugr (mind, intent, soul),
and he knows about sorcery. He fosters Sigurdr and teaches him. He tells Sigurdr about
the story of the red gold of the gods, taken from the dwarf Andvari and now kept by the
great serpent Fafnir. Reginn declares that the gold is his fathers heritage, and asks
Sigurdr to help him slay the serpent, who is Reginns own brother. Fafnir is really a
giant, and his name means embracer. Reginn forges a sword called Gramr Anger,
which bites through anything. Sigurdr declares that he has to do his duty as a prince and
son before he can go on Reginns quest, and Reginn follows Sigurdr as he sets out to
avenge his father against the Hundings. On the sea journey they are overtaken by a storm.
In the midst of the storm they see a man standing quietly on a rock in the ocean. As he
enters the ship, the storm quiets. The man presents himself with several names indicating
that he is really the god dinn, and gives Sigurdr important counsels. At the end of the
poem, Sigurdr slays the Hundings and Reginn praises his warriors deeds, much in the
manner of a royal bard.

Fafnisml relates how Sigurdr slays the great serpent Fafnir with the aid of Reginn. As
the serpent dies, he reveals secrets, answers questions and gives counsel to Sigurdr.
Sigurdr comes back from the slaying apparently a new man. When Reginn tries to praise
his warriors deeds, Sigurdr replies that many men are courageous who never reddened
their sword in another mans chest. Reginn is alarmed by Sigurdrs new attitude, but, still
regarding Sigurdr as his apprentice, orders him to roast the heart of Fafnir. Reginn drinks
Fafnir`s blood and goes to sleep while Sigurdr works with the roasting. But as he is
roasting the heart, a drop of blood falls down on his finger, which Sigurdr licks, and
suddenly he can understand the speech of birds. The birds tells him that Reginn will
betray him, and that he should take the gold of Fafnir and ride up to the Hindarfell the

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Mountain of Obstacles242 - where a beautiful shield maiden a valkyrie - is to be found.

She is sleeping because dinn punished her for choosing differently than he wished.
Sigurdr slays Reginn, gathers the treasures of the serpent on his horse`s back, and rides
on.

Sigrdrifuml relates how Sigurdr rides up on the Mountain of Obstacles, where the earth
trembles and flames reach up to the sky, a place few would have the courage to enter.
Sigurdr, surrounded by the shine of the gold of the gods, rides through a wall of fire.
Inside the fire-fence is a hall made of shields, and as Sigurd enters the hall he finds a
warrior in full armour. Taking off the helmet of the warrior, he realizes that the warrior is
a woman. The armour has grown into her body, and Sigurdr has to cut her loose. As she
wakes up, liberated from the armor, she speaks to Sigurdr and asks him to present
himself. He explains who he is, and she declares that she has been sleeping for a long
time, and that everybody has suffered for that reason. dinn caused her deep sleep with
his galdr. She presents herself as Sigrdrifa, a valkyrie, and continues her tale of her
disagreement with dinn about the fate of some warriors which led to her imprisonment.
Sigurdr then asks her to teach him wisdom from all the worlds. Sigrdrifa responds,
praising day, night, gods, goddesses and the holy earth, and praying for eloquence,
intelligence and healing hands in life. After the prayer, she offers him the minnis aul the
drink of Memory, declaring that the ale is filled with power, manliness, sung songs and
blessing words, good galdr and runes of pleasure. She proceeds to counting up all the
kinds of runes that Sigurdr needs to know and how to use them. The counting evolves
into the tale of how dinn found the runes, where they came from, how he held the head
of Mimir and spoke wise words, and how he cut the runes loose to flow into the worlds of
gods, elves, the vanir and humankind. In the end, Sigrdrifa asks whether Sigurdr would
like speech or silence from her. He has a choice, but fate is still laid out for him.
Sigurdr declares that he is not afraid of knowing his fate even if it is death, and chooses
her wise words and counsels as long as he lives. Sigrdrifa grants him eleven pieces of
advice about behavior.

242

From hindr, n.: Obstacle? Turville-Petre,1975, p. 199, interpreted the meaning as the Hind-Mountain,
from hind, f.: hind.

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The poems that follow relate the events around Sigurdrs death from different angles.
Only the Grpissp (mentioned above) gives a coherent summary of why Sigurdr had to
die. The story may also be found in Snorris Skldskaparml and in the Volsunga Saga.
Apparently, Sigurdr had sworn oaths to Sigrdrifa, but as he rides down from her
mountain, he forgets all his oaths and his great love for the valkyrie. Unwittingly
breaking his oaths, he is married to beautiful Gudrun, whose mother knows more about
Sigurdr`s past than he now knows himself. The mother, Grimhildr, asks Sigurdr to help
his brother-in-law, Gunnarr, to seek the maiden Brynhildr. It becomes clear that
Brynhildr is just another name for Sigrdrifa. Sigurdr takes Gunnarr up onto the Mountain
of Obstacles, but Gunnarrs horse refuses to enter the fire, and Sigurdrs horse refuses to
carry Gunnarr. This is when Sigurdr changes shape with Gunnarr, so that he can enter the
hall of the Maiden in the shape of another man. He sleeps with Brynhildr as if she were
his mother, for three nights, with an unsheated, poisonous sword between them. Later,
Brynhildr comes as a bride to king Gunnarr, but as she discovers how she has been
tricked into marrying an unworthy man, her revenge is terrible, ending with Sigurdrs
death. Brynhildr takes her own life.

The Helreid Brynhildar tells the tale of how Brynhildr rides into Hel, where she is met by
an ogress. The ogress calls Brynhildr the goddess of gold from Valland and asks what
she is doing in this dark realm when she ought to be weaving in her own. It becomes
clear from the ogresss hostile words that Brynhildr is not supposed to be in that rocky
realm and that she has acted wrong causing the death of men. This is certainly a puzzling
remark about a valkyrie, who is supposed to cause death through choosing. The only
explanation for this is to reconsider our idea of the valkyrie. Sigurdr is residing in Hel
because of Brynhildr, and that is wrong. His relation to the valkyrie should have had a
different outcome. Brynhildr defends herself by explaining the cause of her actions,
laying the blame on her brother Atli and on the wise king, who tricked her sisters and
herself by stealing their bird hides a long time ago. It would seem that dinn hides
behind the characters of Atli and the wise king. At the end of her speech, she declares

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that she has been underestimated and that she will follow her heart, being with Sigurdr
for all eternity. She tells the ogress to sink.

The Oddrnargrtr tells the tale of how Brynhildrs younger sister, Oddrn from
Hlsey the wind shielded island - fell in love with Gunnarr after the deaths of Sigurdr
and Brynhildr. She offered the drinking horn to Gunnarr, but her relations opposed the
match and Gunnarr could not fight them. As he is taken captive by her brother Atli,
Gunnarr is thrown into a pit of poisonous serpents. He manages to keep the serpents back
by playing on a harp with his toes (his hands are bound). The music is so beautiful that
everybody who hears it has to weep, and the tones reaches far away to the wind shielded
island, where it is finally heard by Oddrn. Oddrn rides the fastest she can to save her
beloved, but just as she reaches the pit, her brothers mother, an ogress, has taken the
shape of a serpent, crawled into the pit and given Gunnarr the fatal bite.
6.2: The Vision Quest Theme
the Great Taiga, the Heart Taiga
I do climb it, I do scale it
spirit recluse, spirit recluse
my staff tingles, the tender pine
Have you not seen Alans mothers
- the ancestors of our shaman
born in new shape
born with miraculous power
oh mothers mine, oh mothers mine243

Sitting in a certain grove (lund nokkurn), as Atli does when he speaks to the bird, may
certainly be part of a vision quest. Groves were sacred to the Germanic peoples, often
used as shrines and sanctuaries. The sanctity of the grove is ancient. Even as early as 80
A.D., the Roman historian Tacitus, whose accounts about the Germanic tribes is
considered one of our most reliable Antique sources,244 testified that groves were holy
places, to which the Germans applied the name of deities to that hidden presence which
is seen only by the eye of reverence.245 Sacrifices and rituals took place there, and no
one could enter unless bound with a cord. The grove, Tacitus asserts, is the center of their
243

Siberian shaman song. A Taiga is a snowclad mountaintop. Diszegi, 1968, p. 264-265

Nsstrm, 1998, p. 17, Simek, 1996, p. 309
245
Mattingly, 1970, p.109
244

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whole religion, from time immemorial. It is regarded as the cradle of the people and the
dwelling place of the supreme god. Later on, Tacitus reveals how the shrine of Nerthus,
Mother Earth, was situated in a grove on an island. Groves appear quite frequently as
mythical places in Eddic poetry. Sitting in a grove, especially when the result is
communication with a bird who demands shrines, temples and sacrifice in order to assist
in an important matter, would appear to me an obvious example of a vision quest.

Helgi Hjrvardsson sits on a haugr a mound - when nine valkyries ride past, changing
his fortune forever. Sitting on a burial mound was a way of gaining wisdom and
inspiration in the Viking Age.246 In the Poetic Edda, it could appear that dinn is sitting
on a burial mound when he sings galdr to wake up a dead vlva in Baldrs Draumar, and
and that Svpdag does the same when he invokes his dead mother in Gragaldr. Mounds
could, for example, contain elves, who would heal in return for sacrifice.247 Burial
mounds and mounds in general were places of sacrifice to powerful ghosts or elves.248 In
the Volsunga Saga, king Rerir sits on a mound when the valkyrie Hljod appears in the
shape of a crow to give him an apple of fertility from dinn as an answer to a prayer to
Frigg. In this case, Helgi receives the vision of nine supernatural maidens while sitting on
a mound. He probably sat there in order to obtain a vision.

Atli took his king up on a mountaintop in order to see Svvaland. Sigurdr slew the
serpent on a mountain and encountered the valkyrie on another. Mountains are often
associated with female supernatural beings. Gunnld was said to dwell within the deadly
rock-layer much like other giantesses such as Hyndla, the ogress in Helreid Brynhildar,
and in the poem Grottasngr, two giantesses reveal how they grew nine winters within
the mountain. Mengld sits in silence on the Mountain of Healing whereas Sigrdrifa
sleeps on the Mountain of Obstacles. Sigrlinn shows the way to the Shining Hills, and
Sigruns dwelling is Sefafell, another mountain, and she descends from The Mountain of
Flames. According to Motz, mountains and rocks were associated with a kind of

246

Davidsson, 1990, p. 155, Hedeager, 1999, p. 9, Solli, 2002, p., Strm, Motz,
Ex.: Kormks saga, Davidsson, 1990, p. 156
248
Nsstrm, 2001, p. 89-91
247

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Germanic priesthood, as well as with the world of the dead.249 In another Scandinavian
tradition, the Saami, the idea of a Sacred Mountain was central within the lore of their
shamans, and especially connected to the residence of helping spirits. It was also
considered a dwelling for the dead.250 In Siberian shamanism, mountains or the master
spirit of the mountain - play the role of initiating shamans.251 It is indeed a sacred
mountain (hlog fioll) that Sigurdr ascends in his quest for the serpents gold and the
Maiden, as shown in Fafnisml st. 26.

Svvaland, watched from the mountaintop,

belongs to a realm of death, as we shall see in ch. 6. and is an Other World. To climb a
mountain in order to see such a realm must be counted as a vision quest.

Atli also takes his king to a riverside where he sleeps while Atli crosses it. The river is a
border to Svvaland which, as already remarked, is an Other World. In Norse Mythology,
rivers frequently function as borders between realms. In Fr Dauda Sinfitla we meet the
river as a border to the world of the dead. Sleeping by a river in order to cross it in the
dark of night, entering the Other World must be seen as a vision quest.

Hjrvardr has to sacrifice cattle in order to obtain his goal. The sacrifice helps Atli find
his way to the Maiden. Helgi Hundingsbani also butchers cattle, eating the meat raw
when the valkyries arrive. We remember how ttarr sacrificed to Freyia before
descending into the Other World. Sacrifice may be counted as a means of obtaining the
necessary vision and power to enter the Other World.

Helgi rests beneath the Arasteinn Eagles Rock- when the valkyrie appears. Knowing
the symbolic significance of the eagle as a force in the realm of the dead (see ch. 4. 4), we
may detect the deeper meaning of such a place. Another place where Helgi meets his
Maiden is while staying the night in Brunavg. Bruna means edge, so the name could
be translated as the Bay of the Edge. Both places could signify a very special place or
even state of mind where the hero is present at the borders of the Other World. These
events could also be counted within the vision quest theme.
249

Motz, 1983, p. 7, 87-91, 95-97, 100-104

Bckman, 1975, p. 88-91, Hultkrantz, 1992 (b), p. 140, Pollan, 2002, p. 29, Steinsland, 1992, p. 320
251
Diszegi, 1968, p. 55
250

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Finally, the drinking of a mythical serpents blood in order to induce visions, as

Reginn and Sigurdr do, may also be regarded as a vision quest. The serpent, who reveals
knowledge about the other worlds and about fate, is obviously a powerful creature, and so
is its blood and heart. Reginn falls asleep after drinking the blood, and we do not know
what kind of effect it has on him. According to Strm, it was assumed that a person who
could change shape or travel with the soul would be asleep or dreaming when the hugr
the free-soul - detached itself from the body (see ch.3.1). That the blood would have
some kind of magical effect seems obvious: Sigurdrs immediate reaction is to
understand birds speech and communicate with birds who can tell him what is hidden
and advise him in his actions.
6.3: The Vision Theme
The vision theme is closely tied to the vision quest theme, and some of the visions have
been alluded to in the previous chapter. Speaking birds may be counted as a vision, as in
the cases of Atli and of Sigurd. So is the vision from the top of a mountain into another
world. Helgi Hjrvardsson obtains the vision of nine valkyries, with one more splendid
than all the others, who speak to him and reveal, among other things, his name and the
location of a magical sword. Helgi Hundingsbani sees three times nine maidens ride
down from the heavens, surrounded by lightning and flames, their byrnies spattered with
blood: southern red goddesses, directing his future. On another occasion, the leader of
these shield maidens approaches him while he is dozing off, embracing and kissing him.
In all the poems, emphasis is laid on the immense rays and luminiscence that surround
the valkyries, comparing them to the sun. Sigrdrifas hall is surrounded with flames
reaching up to heaven, and her mountain shines with rays of light. They ride through air
and sea, descending from the heavens. We are reminded of Freyrs vision of the Maiden
with the arms that lights up sea and mountain, the golden chair of Gunnld, Freyias fiery
necklace and golden tears, and the Shining Hall of sunbright Mengld. Gerdr and
Mengld have that in common with Sigrdrifa: their residence is surrounded by a fence of
fire. Gunnld and Freyia are also surrounded by immense obstacles.

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6.4: The Descending Theme

Atli spends a winter with king Svafnir, Sigrlinns father. Svafnir literally means the One
Who Puts to Sleep. Simek believes that this is a poetic way of saying death.252 Svafnir
is one of the names of dinn,253 as well as the name of one of the serpents that live in the
well of Hel.254 The Hel-serpent Svafnir and dinn-Svafnir, the god of the dead, contribute
to the idea of king Svafnirs realm as a realm of the dead. King Svafnir and Sigrlinns
realm is called Svvaland. Svva also means to Put to Sleep, indicating the same thing
as the name of the king: death. In Sleep-Putting Country, Atli encounters a giant in
eagles disguise. In ch. 4.4, we discussed the symbolic significance of such a creature,
identifying it with the eagle Corpse Swallower who dwells in the northernmost reaches of
Hel.

Sigrn dwells on Sefafjll. Sefa means to calm down or have mercy. It could also be
a genitive form of sefi, m., which is a synonym for hugr, m., that is, the soul, intent, will,
mind, desire or thought of a person. The name of Sigrns dwelling is either Mount
Calm Down, which would be in accordance with the above Svva and Svafnir (calming
down being associated with falling asleep), or Souls Mountain. Sigrns relationship
to death becomes clear when she meets Helgi in his burial mound, comparing herself to
the hungry hawks of dinn, and describing in detail the lovely sight of hot and bloody
corpses. She talks as if she was about to devour her beloved (see app. X). Sleeping in his
dead arms further indicates death, since, in the Norse sources, death is often depicted as
an embrace of the mistress of the dead.255

252

Simek, 1996, p. 305

Grimnisml, Hrafnsml and the thulur.
254
Skldskaparml, Faulkes, 1987, p. 137
255
Steinsland, 1992, p. 320-322
253

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The Great Serpent

The serpent is linked with the giants, and with the snakes that inhabit the world of death and are its
symbols. Beside him we must set the fiery dragon of northern mythology, emerging from the depths of the
earth, from rocks, caves, or burial mounds of the dead.
Hilda Ellis Davidson256

Last but not least we must consider the great serpent that Sigurd slays, whose blood
makes it possible for him to understand the speech of birds and to cross the Mountain of
Obstacles. Fafnir means the embracer, indicating that he is coiling himself around
something in this case the gold of the gods and of the dwarf Andvari. Now what other
great serpents do we know in the Norse mythology? Two come immediately to mind: the
serpent mentioned several times already; the Nidhggr and the Midgardsormr (World
Serpent, also known as the Jormundgandr.257 Nidhggr dwells in the well of Hel,
Hvergelmir, together with uncountable snakes, as described in the Vlusp:
(...) thar saug Nidhggr ni framgengna
sleit vargr vera (...)258

(...) There Nidhogg sucks the bodies of the dead

wolves tear the corpses(...)

We meet Nidhoggr again in the last stanza of the same poem:

Thar kemr inn dimmi dreki fljugandi
nadr frnn nedan fr Nidafjllum;
berr ser i fjdrum flygr vll yfirNidhggr ni
N man hon skkvask 259

There comes the dark dragon flying

the shining serpent up from Dark Moon Mountains
carries in its feathers flying across the earth the corpses, Nidhogg
Now she will sink down

We know, then, of Nidhggr, that it sucks the corpses in Niflheim, and that it carries
corpses in its feathers as it flies across the earth in the new world after Ragnarok.

Of the Midgardsormr World Serpent - we know a bit more. It is the brother of Hel,
goddess of death, and of the great wolf Fenrir (Greed). The serpent lies coiled around
the ordered cosmos. As Heide points out, the Midgardsormr may appear not to be
entirely destructive, in fact it might be the very bond that keeps the world together.260

256

Davidson, 1990, p.139

From jrmun-( a name for dinn) meaning great, and gandr, m. a name for the magic wand (cult
staff) of witches and the vlur, or meaning sorcery. Simek, 1996, p. 179-180, Norrn Ordbok
258
Vlusp st. 38, 39
259
Vlusp st. 66
260
Heide, 1997, p. 107
257

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Ellis Davidson establishes the Germanic fiery dragon as the guardian of the burial
mound, brooding over his treasure in a megalithic stone chamber inside a burial
mound.

261

The dragon in particular is associated with the graves of the dead, and

Davidson points out that the fire-spitting dragon is a natural image of devouring death,
swallowing up the dead body and its treasures with greedy fire. Although the dragon in
Norse poetry is pictured as a great serpent, it is easy to recognize the dragon. Both in
England and Scandinavia, the dragon-serpent came to be regarded as the guardian of the
grave mound, watching over its treasures. The name Nidhggr, she adds, means Corpse
Tearer, leaving little doubt as to the image of the devourer of corpses. The serpentdragon Fafnir, Davidson claims, is a typical example, and it has left its mark in the
serpentine ornament and recurring snake-motif upon memorial stones raised over the
dead. The snake as symbol of the world of the dead is as recurrent in the art as in the
literature of the north. Like Davidsom, I too believe that Fafnir should be seen in the light
of the two monsters, Nidhggr and the Midgardsormr. Both the World Serpent and
Fafnir are pictured as coiled around something precious, the Earth and the gold of giants
and gods. Fafnir meaning Embracer further strengthens the comparison. Both
Nidhggr and the World Serpent are related to death, the one by its dwelling place, the
other by its brotherhood to Hel. The World Serpent seems to play yet another role that
of holding the known, ordered world in one piece. When Thorr tries to catch it in the
Hymiskvida, the world shakes, and even the great giant Hymir is struck with terror,
preventing the kill.

As with the eagle, the great serpents represent great cosmic figures related to the realm of
death. Both figures are also crucial to the maintenance of the known world: the eagle
creates the winds of the world, the serpent holds it together. Just like the eagle had to die
so that Atli could take the maiden out of Put-to-Sleep-Country, the serpent has to die so
that Sigurdr can find his maiden and release her from the spell of sleep. In addition, the
killing of the serpent means a killing of the limits of the human world, represented by
the serpent who with its body forms a frontier between the ordered Midgardr and the
unknown Utgardr; thus numinous knowledge is revealed.
261

Davidson, 1990, p. 159. About the serpents, p. 159-162

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6.5: The Trial Theme

The heroes have to overcome the monsters of the Other World. We have already touched
upon the significance of killing the serpent which opens the way to the Maiden. Sigurdr
also has the wit to obtain knowledge from the dying monster. Just like the eagle is said to
be exceedingly wise, the serpent reveals cosmic secrets when it is overcome. Atli has to
kill the eagle to release the Maiden, which is the same theme as that of Sigurdr. Helgi
Hjrvardsson has to defeat the giants of Non-Peace, Hate, the ogress Frosty
Enclosure, and win a battle by the Rock of Greed. He fails the last test, but is reborn
as Helgi Hundingsbani. This Helgi, however, breaks the Peace of King Wisdom in the
beginning of his career. Later, he wins the battle of the Rock of Greed. He dies by
dinns decree, however, but is united with his valkyrie bride in the grave and is allowed
to enter Valhll. Many of the battles could appear to have to do with proper conduct.
Indeed, many of Sigrdrifas important counsels have to do with right behavior, and
Sigurdr has the rather un-viking-like realization that there is no need to kill to prove
ones courage. The two Helgis test of defeating non-peace, hate and greed quite
speaks for itself. Hrimgerdr is a daughter of Rn, the mistress of the bottom of the sea,
who makes people drown. That, and her name, which means Frosty Enclosure,
certainly indicates death. Helgi, with the help of Atli, defeats what this ogress represents.
He does die, but he is reborn, and later reunited with the Maiden and allowed an afterlife
as a warrior for the gods. Defeating the ogress could represent an alternative to extinction
in death. There are indeed more monsters in these stories that could be discussed, but the
examples just mentioned should suffice to show that the hero faces trials of proper
conduct and how to trick death through following the valkyrie who protects him.

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6.6: The Maiden Theme

In each of the cases summarized in ch. 6.1, the hero is married to or loves the valkyrie. In
Helgi Hundingsbanis, Sigurdrs and Gunnarrs case, the offering of mead is mentioned.
Helgi receives the precious drink in the grave, and apparently drinks it together with
Sigrn. Sigurdr receives the memory drink as a prelude to Sigrdrifas teachings about
the runes, their use and their origin. The drink is mixed with the magical powers of
charms, runes and songs. Sigurdr learns how to heal, how to help women in childbirth,
how to calm storms, how to turn enemies into friends, how to speak eloquently, and so
forth. Later he is given practical advice about how to behave, and the choice of listening
to his valkyries counsel or not. In Gunnarrs case, the drink is just mentioned as a
symbol of his amorous relationship to Oddrn. The Maiden theme is prominent in all the
stories, and particularly detailed and informative in the Sigrdrifuml.

6.7: Ogress versus Valkyrie; the Life and Death Opposition

The ogress Hrmgerdr declares that the only thing which saves Helgi and his men from
drowning is the protection of the valkyries. Above, I argued that Hrmgerdr with her
frosty embrace was a representative of extinction in death. The valkyrie is the opposite.
In the poem of Helgi Hundingsbani, the heros forthcoming death is announced by an
encounter with an ogress riding a wolf using serpents as reins. The opposition surfaces
again in the Helreid Brynhildar, where Brynhildr encounters an ogress on the way to Hel.
The ogress declares that Brynhildr has nothing to do in this realm, being from Valland
the Land of the Chosen - and a goddess of gold, and besides, that she is pursuing
another womans man. The other woman would, in my opinion, not necessarily mean
Sigurds human wife, but Hel, to whom Sigurdr now belongs. However, Brynhildr,
through eloquence, argues her way into Hel, making the ogress sink as she declares that
she will be with Sigurdr for all eternity. It could appear that Brynhildr chooses to reside
in Hel with Sigurd. However, the sinking of of the ogress and the declaration could
equally well mean that she actually saves Sigurdr from Hel. This idea seems to be
strengthened by the case of Oddrn and Gunnarr. Oddrn dwells at Hlsey, the wind

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shielded island,262 where, we may guess, the winds of the eagle Corpse Swallower do
not reach. Gunnarr has always been a weak man in the spiritual sense, unable to cross the
fire of the valkyrie and letting another man do it for him, hiding the truth from everybody
else until it leads to disaster. But his love for the valkyrie is sincere and wins him the love
of the younger sister Oddrn. However, Gunnarr is unable to conquer her vicious
kinsfolk. In the poems of the Helgis, we see that the valkyries kinsmen must be regarded
as the heros enemy, just as they are in the stories of dinn and Freyr. They are
representatives of the hostile world of the giants and the forces of death. Oddrn, perhaps
as a consequence of Gunnarrs failings, is far away from Gunnarr when he is thrown into
the snake-pit the perfect image of devouring death if we recall the Vlusps
description of Hels snake-infested well. When Oddrn hears the beautiful strains of his
music, she rides as fast as she can, but not fast enough. It is too late now; Gunnarr has
become the victim of the ogress of death.
The same sad theme is touched upon in the Helgakvida Hjrvardssonar. Hedinn, Helgis
brother, meets an ogress mounted on a wolf, using serpents as reins. We have seen that
such an ogress is the perfect image of Hel. Steinsland has suggested that Hedinn, when he
refuses to walk with the wolf-woman, refuses initiation, for initiation takes you to the
depths of death itself.263 I agree with this view; what Hedinn is refusing when seeing the
horrible creature is the company and teachings of an ogress much like Hyndla, who
taught ttarr. This is also an explanation of why and even an argument for - the
disputed fact that Sigrn refuses Hedinn and decides to wait for Helgis reincarnation.
The Maiden will only open her arms to the worthy, the initiated.

6.8: The three Worlds of Teaching

In chapter 4.5, I argued that dinns trials on the world tree encompassed not only his
learning of runes, but also his learning of galdr by a wise giant and his union with
Gunnld, who offered him the precious mead of wisdom, eloquence and poetry. His
journey to Mimirs well of wisdom must have been a part of the same scenario. I argued
262
263

From hl place shielded from the wind. A dwelling of Aegir the sea-giant in Skldskaparml.
Steinsland, 1997, p. 146

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that the three wells at which he learned the well of Mimir, the well of Urdr (the runes
were, ultimately, inscribed by the norns), and the well of Hel (Gunnlds realm) - are
really one and the same well, or aspects of each other. Fjlsvinnsml, as argued in ch. 5.7
to ch. 5.10, could appear to confirm this thesis, since the three worlds beneath the World
Tree the realm of giants (the giant Fjlsvidr and the tree of Mimir), of the dead (barking
dogs), and of the gods/norns (Mengld and her maidens) - appear in one and the same
setting, as if they were just layers wrapping themselves around each other. The
Sigrdrifuml would appear to strengthen this thesis further. Here, the knowledge of runes
is certainly combined with the offering of mead by the Maiden, and dinn holding
Mimirs head is mentioned in the same stanzas that describe his discovery and liberation
of the hidden runes.

6.9: The Numbers Nine and Three

The number nine and sometimes the number three three are mentioned throughout all the
Maiden-stories of ch. 4, 5 and 6. The number nine is obviously important in Norse
mythology and usually in connection with feminine entities. The vlva of Vlusp
simultaneously remembers nine worlds and nine giantesses (or troll-women) before the
present World Tree rose from the ground. The vlva Hyndla relates how nine giant
maidens simultaneously gave birth to Heimdallr the Illuminating World. Rn, the
giantess ruler at the bottom of the sea, is the mother of the nine daughters of Aegir the
sea-giant. In all these cases, the number nine is certainly in connection to giantesses.

However, the number occurs also in association with valkyries. In the poem Solarljod, st.
79, we even hear of the otherwise unknown nine rune-carving daughters of Njrdr.264
Njrdr is otherwise known as the father of Freyia. He resembles Aegir insofar as both are
associated with the sea, and in the fact that he does not (originally) belong to the tribe of
divine Aesir.
264

Hr ru rnar, er ristit hafa / Njardar dtr nu. Solarljod, st. 76. The poem is a Norse, but Christian
visionary poem (Nsstrm, 1998, p. 171) reflecting a transition period where pagan imagery still had a
strong impact on poetry. Bugge, 1965, p. 357-370

110

In the Heroic Poems, the milieu is strikingly maritime. The heroes travel by and fight at
sea and often fight sea monsters (such as Hrodmarr, Hati and Hrimgerdr). Perhaps this is
simply reflecting the Viking Age in which these poems were created. Yet as we have
mentioned in the beginning of ch. 4, the ocean itself is often imagined as a realm of
death, ruled by Rn, Aegir and their nine daughters.

It is interesting that the valkyrie Oddrns dwelling is Hlsey. In Skldskaparml, Aegir

is said to live on Hlsey, and even to have the name of Hl himself the Wind-Shielded.
One could almost get the impression that the valkyries usually nine in number somehow have come to resemble the nine daughters of Aegir or are a different aspect of
them. The association to the sea is obvious in the poems of the valkyries. Since Freyia,
Njrdrs - the god of winds and waves - daughter, is so intimately connected to the
valkyries specialized norns (see ch. 3.4) - it is curious that at least one poet had the
notion of Njrdrs nine daughters, who in the Solarljod obviously represent norns.

The number nine in itself makes it necessary to consider whether the group of nine
valkyries is connected to the nine primeval giantesses. This is interesting to our thesis
which aims at showing how the Maiden hides behind both giant and divine beings. We
may look back at the Maiden Gerdr in ch. 4.10 and consider how her father Gymir has
been identified with Aegir. As Mundal, Strm and Nsstrm have argued (ch. 3.4), the
collective of dsir (a term covering goddesses, norns, valkyries, fylgjur, even giantesses)
and the one great Ds are identical. The number nine used to describe the collective of
valkyries or giantesses - refers to something crucial in the mythology of the Maiden.

Within the context of Maiden-mythology, the number is repeated in dinns nine-day

trial on the World Tree, in Freyrs nine long nights of waiting, in Svpdags nine galdr
and in Menglds nine maidens. The valkyries, as we have seen, always appear nine in
number, or, alternatively, three by nine. The importance of the number nine is repeated in
Snorris version of the Gunnld story, where dinn does the work of nine thralls on the
fields of the giant Baugi (The Ring). Three draughts were necessary for dinn to fill

111

himself up with mead from all the three cauldrons, after spending three nights with
Gunnld. The number three repeated three times is the number nine. According to Strm,
the number nine symbolizes the stage between life and death.265 The number three also
appears in the amount of time ttarr has to learn his lessons in the Underworld and in the
number of nights Sigurdr spends with Brynhildr. The number three is also associated with
female beings; the three thurse maidens who instigated the creation of humankind, and
the three norns who carved the runes of fate in the beginning of time. It is impossible to
decide exactly what the number nine means in Norse cosmology, but our study of
Maiden-mythology may give us a clue as to what it means within the context of initiation.

We are starting to see that a theme of immortality in one form or another appears to be
present in the Maiden stories. To look for an explanation about the nine days nine
maidens theme, we should glance back at the idea of the nine primeval giantesses as
worlds. The Norse cosmos know of many worlds realms (heimar). The Grmnisml
accounts for about twelve worlds. Some of these worlds are higher even than those of the
gods; they belong to the light-elves. Some of these worlds, we may assume, are not
subject to the force of death: for Hel rules only in nine worlds. As the story of Hermodr
shows, the road to Hel takes nine days. It is no coincidence that Freyia rules in the ninth
world. That is perhaps the uppermost or shall we say the innermost - realm where death
is a rule. We have several times touched upon the idea of a realm of immortality located
in the heart of darkest Hel, a theme perhaps repeated in the place Hlsey, a place of no
winds right in the middle of the giants ocean. There, Freyia, the Great Maiden,
receives the dead, but within Maiden-mythology at least, she does not receive any dead.
She receives the chosen, the worthy, and their afterlife is different from that of Heldwellers.

265

Strm, 1954, p.84. Strm uses the poem Solarljod as an example, where a person sits nine days on the
norna stli the chair of the norns- before he is taken to the realm of the dead by a horse. Strm compares
this with Hermodr traveling nine nights before he reaches the gates of Hel.

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7: Masters of Initiation
Margaret Clunies Ross has argued that myth is rarely, if ever, merely an explanation of
religious usage. It has independent life even when closely associated with ritual and
needs to be considered a cognitive system in its own right that has its own
communicative and affective dimensions.266 Approaching the theme of myths relation
to ritual, Clunies criticizes the functionalists concentration upon the social relevance of
myth to the relative neglect of intellectual and communicative aspects.267 I agree that
myth may be read on its own and understood on its own terms without necessarily tying it
up to concrete ritual behavior. In ch. 8, I will further explore some of the numinous
meanings of the Maiden myths outside of the context of ritual. However, as we saw in ch.
3.3, many scholars have been able to detect patterns or themes within Norse myths and
sagas that would seem to reflect actual ritual. In chapter 4, 5 and 6, I have shown how I
perceive a single, underlying structure of themes behind several different Divine and
Heroic Poems. Conclusively, I will argue that the structure follows a pattern comparable
to that of a typical initiation as described in the Encyclopedia of Religions (ch. 3.1). In
the context of initiation, Eliade here speaks of masters of initiation, elders or religious
professionals of different types who will guide and teach the neophyte. In this chapter, we
will explore the teacher and helper figures that appear in the Maiden myths, asking
outselves whether these characters have counterparts in the real world of Norse
religious practice. If they do, their role as teachers and guides in the poems could very
well reflect the role of religious practitioners during rituals or experiences of initiation.

7.1: The Vlur

In the poems Hyndluljod and Gragaldr, we meet three supernatural female beings.
Hyndla is a giantess residing within the rock-layers of Hel, Gra is the ghost of a woman
who knows charms (galdr), and Freyia, we know, is a goddess often associated with love
and fertility, but also with magic and death. However, all three of them have strong
associations to the vlur, sg.f. vlva women who are known to have roamed the Norse
266
267

Clunies Ross, 1994, p. 14

Ibid, p. 15

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societies functioning as sibyls and practitioners of seidr and galdr, among other things.
Not much is known about the real vlur, but the association to seidr and divination is
very clear from sagas such as Eiriks Saga Rauda and rvar-Odds saga. Snorris
Ynglinga Saga makes it clear that vlur were associated with black magic as well. A
vlva could be capable of moving beyond her body and acting in geographically distant
places. One vlva was also known to be able to fill the bay with fish in times of dire need.
The vlur would carry staffs, from which their title derives vl means staff. Simek
interprets the title as wand-bearer.268 A mythical vlva is mentioned in the Vlusp,
where she is associated with seidr and gandr, as well as with a sacrifice which we shall
discuss in ch. 8.3 as a possible trial of initiation for the vlva. The vlvas main art was
seidr, an art which in rvar-Odds saga included nightly preparatory rituals and,
according to Eiriks Saga Rauda, included the calling of spirits by a magical song. The
ritual described in the saga has been discussed as an example of shamanism, a theme we
touched upon in ch. 3.1. In that section, we observed that Britt Solli, using ke
Hultkrantzs definition of shamanism, argued that the sance of seidr in Eiriks Saga
could be interpreted as an example of Norse shamanism. Others, like Jan Peter Flood,
have argued that the lack of a drum is an argument against shamanism in the Eiriks Saga
ritual.269 To this argument, I would argue that Wilmos Dioszegi observed the existence of
several so-called staffed shamans during his ethnographical study in Siberia. The use of
a staff instead of a drum was very common among female shamans, who by the help of
the staff alone could enter the desired trance a feat observed and filmed by Dioszegi
himself. Male shamans would often use a staff before they acquired the drum, but some
would stick to the staff most of their lives.270 Floods drum argument against
shamanism in Norse society thus becomes irrelevant in the light of more information
about classical Siberian shamanism. Whether the vlva was a Norse version of a
staffed shaman or not, she was certainly an important and respected personage in Norse
society and is to be considered among the last of the Pagan practitioners in Scandinavia.
These wise women were specialists in seidr and probably in galdr which, as Nsstrm

268

Simek, 1996, p. 367

. Solli, 2002, p. 131, and Steinsland, 1997, p. 134, assume that the vlur actually had drums. But in his
dissertation, Flood, 1999, p. 130 argues that there is no evidence for this.
270
Diszegi, 1968, p. 229-241, p. 255, p. 309
269

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ans Solli have shown, are closely related to each other.271 Now, Freyia the goddess was
the first divine teacher of seidr, that art which, according to Snorri, contained the most
power although it implied some unmanly behavior in the case of male practitioners. 272
This fact in itself could probably make of Freyia a vlva, however divine. Gra, on her
side, performs galdr, an art also associated with seidr and the vlur. Besides, a Gra is
encountered in the Gylfaginningr, where she is explicitly called a vlva who heals by
galdr. In the case of Hyndla, her speech of sacred ancestry takes upon itself escatalogical
dimensions much in the manner of Vlusp, and is indeed called the Short Vlusp by
Snorri. This title would certainly identify Hyndla as a vlva.273 Now, the three ladies
should be regarded as supernatural creatures in the poems; however, the role they play as
teachers, advisers, and guides on the way through the Underworld would certainly befit
that of a master of initiation. It is not completely impossible that real vlur played such
roles in rituals and trials of initiation. Certainly, the rvar-Odds saga relates that the
vlva Heid had apprentices with her, both female and male.

7.2: Atli, Sinfitli and Skrnir

Atli is the son of king Hirvardrs earl. It is he who woos Sigrlinn for the king, spending
a winter in the realm of Svafnir. It is he who listens to birds speech in the grove and
carries the message of sacrifice to the king. Again, it is he who takes the king up to the
mountaintop and to the river, from where Svvaland may be reached, and he who enters
this realm of sleep or death while guarding the king by the riverside at night, bringing
back the Maiden. All the actions of Atli contain the seeking of visions and the journey
into the Other World, as well as the magical ability to understand birds speech. Tacitus
explained that Germanic tribes read omens in birds and other phenonema, and that this
was particularly related to sacred groves, an art undertaken by kings or priests.274 We may
remember that it is only after Sigurdr has come quite far in his initiation that he may
understand birds speech, a prelude to his learning about healing, magic and eloquence. It
271

Nsstrm, 2001, p. 57, Solli, 2002, p. 131

Ynglinga saga 7, Gyldendal 1944, p. 6
273
Steinsland, 1997, p. 135 speaks of a volve-gyger (vlva-giantess) as an initiator.
274
Mattingly, 1970, p. 109
272

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is noteworthy that Atli is the son of the earl. English earl and Norse jarl is derived
from the Old Nordic word erilaR, supposedly indicating priest, rune-master,
magician, showing the original sacral function of what should later develop into the
title earl (jarl).275 In st. 20 of the Poem of Helgi Hjrvardsson, Atli is mocked for
having been castrated. This is a feature Atli shares with Sinfiotli, Helgi Hundingsbanis
elder brother.

Sinfitlis role in Helgi Hundingbanis poem is somewhat vague, but the importance of
his character in the tradition is testified in the Fr Dauda Sinfitla and in the Volsunga
Saga. The latter saga reveals that Sinfitli, after proving that he can bear excruciating
pains, was sent by his mother to the forest to live with his father (and mothers brother)
Sigmundr Volsung and share his exile. Sinfitli shows his ability to handle poisonous
serpents without fear, and the father-uncle and son start living like wolves and actually
changing into wolves shapes, howling like wolves and understanding the sounds. In the
shape of wolves, they attack the men of an evil king whenever they can. In this state of
being, they are able to understand the messages of weasels and ravens, and learn about
healing arts from the animals. They also have to stay in an underground dwelling when
the time comes to shed the wolf-skins, which they then burn. After being restored to
society, Sinfitli accompanies his father-uncle when he marries and begets Helgi
Hundingsbani. Both the fact that Sinfitli is the child of a brother and sister, and his
experiences while in exile in the forest, make Sinfitli a very marginal and special
character. Although the son of a king and queen, he never appears to aspire to kingship
himself. Sinfitli comes to take the role as assistant to Helgi, accompanying his younger
brother and prince on his warriors quest. He leads the initial argument of insults
before the battle against Sigrns kinsmen, the giants. During this argument it is revealed
that Sinfitli too, is castrated. (See app. XI). When Sinfiotli dies, as related in Fr Dauda
Sinfitla, his father-uncle Sigmundr carries his oldest sons corpse on his back until he
reaches a river -the shores of Hel- where a ferryman takes possession of the body while
Sigmundr returns to the living.

275

Nsstrm, 2001, p. 69

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Atli, Sinfitli and finally Skrnir, whom we encountered in ch. 4.8 - 4.13, all share a
common trait: they all master the art of venturing into the Other World. There is one
character in the history of religions whose main task, according to Eliade, is the travelling
into the other worlds with his soul: the shaman. The shaman does so through so called
techniques of ecstacy, means by which he enters a state of trance through which his
soul may leave his body and fly into the other spheres of existence, such as the worlds of
the dead and of the spirits. Atli and Skrnir both have the role of wooing the Maiden for
their royal friends: Atli woos Sigrlinn for king Hjrvardr, Skrnir woos Gerdr for Freyr
the King of Men. They both return to their lords with the messages from the Other
World. In Atlis case, he finally succeeds in bringing back the Maiden for his king (and
even a maiden for himself!). Sinfitli does not woo the Maiden for Helgi Hundingsbani,
but like Atli does for Helgi Hjrvardsson, he accompanies his lord-brother to the world of
the Maidens kinsmen, the giants. That world could certainly also be said to be an Other
World than the normal. The information about castration in the past, in Sinfiotlis case
undertaken by three thursa-meyiar thurse maidens - is puzzling and can not be
explained with any certaintly. It does bring to mind, however, the idea of unmanliness
associated with seidr. Indeed, the great god of seidr, dinn, calls himself Ialk the
Gelding, in Grimnisml st. 49, and is also called so in the Gylfaginning. Seidr has
often been disputed as a kind of Norse shamanism, but it has not been proven that the
practitioners of seidr were experts of soul-journeying, as Atli, Sinfitli and Skrnir could
appear to be. The techniques of ecstacy could easily be read into Atlis vision quest in a
grove, on a mountain top or by a river at night, into Sinfitlis shape changing, dwelling
in the wilderness, learning healing from birds, and handling serpents. It could also be
perceived in Sigmundrs accompanying Sinfitli to the shores of death, a very common
task for a shaman.276 The activities of these three characters certainly are remindful of
those of classical shamans, and, through the castration theme, we do see a possible link to
their arts and the practice of seidr. Except for the vlva, who cannot be proven to travel
into the other worlds, it has been difficult for scholars to find any traces of real
shamans in Norse society, a splendid argument against shamanism in Norse religion. I
suggest, however, that the figures of Atli, Sinfitli and Skrnir reflect both a practice
276

Eliade, 2004, p. 205-214: The Shaman as Psychopomp

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which resembles shamanism, and a more general religious office, in service of royal
patrons. In the three figures we may be seeing an echo of the much-disputed Norse
shaman, or at least a priestly character strikingly similar to one.

7.3: The Maternal Uncle

The Hvaml reveals that dinn was taught nine powerful charms by the son of
Bolthorn, Beslas father. Besla, as we know from Snorri, was dinns giantess mother.
That makes Bolthorns son a giant and dinns maternal uncle. He is obviously wellversed in spells and connected to the journey dinn undertakes while hanging on the
world tree. Another maternal uncle met with in the Maiden myths is Grpir, who is
wiser than everyone else and prescient, ruling over many lands. Sigurdr seeks his uncle
for advice and divination. As with the vlur and the three Other World-experts above, a
link to seidr may once again be suggested, since divination appears to have been one of
the major purposes of seidr. According to Nsstrm, seidr is the form of divination that
we meet in old Scandinavian religion.277 The image of the maternal uncle may hold
ancient symbolic implications. Tacitus declared that most Germanic peoples considered
the maternal uncle as responsible for his sisters children as the father in some tribes the
maternal uncle was even more important.278 Sigmundr also has a role as teacher for the
young Sinfiotli in the Volsunga Saga. He is Sinfiotlis father, but at the same time his
maternal uncle. Sigmundrs journey to the river of death, carrying Sinfiotlis corpse, is
certainly a very typical shamanistic feat.

277
278

Nsstrm, 2001, p. 57
Mattingly, 1970, p. 118

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7.4: Reginn: Dwarf, Smith and Thul

...we would expect also to find examples in the literature of dwarfs acting as initiation masters, and this is
in fact the case. Perhaps the most famous example in Old Norse tradition is the dwarf Reginn, foster father,
educator, and initiation master for Sigurdr (...) Reginn may be seen as Sigurdrs main initiator, but, as
Marold points out, there are several other figures, such as Gripir, Hnicarr or Filnir, and the old man with
the beard in the Volsunga saga, who advise and guide the hero through his various trials.279

In Fafnisml st. 34, Reginn is called nn hra thul the hoary thul. A thul is an ancient
designation of a religious office, connected to the verb thylja, which means to mumble,
recite, chant.280 The thul is also mentioned in the Hvaml st. 111, where is also
mentioned a thularstol the chair of the thul- placed by the well of Urdr, from where
an I - person (the thul) declares that he will recite the sacred lessons that he has heard in
the Hall of the High One by the norns well. The main lesson that the thul relates is the
nine-night trial on the World Tree, described in I form as if it were the thul himself who
experienced them. The possibility of the thul being the actual initiant on the World Tree,
and not dinn, has led some scholars to suggest that the thul was a kind of shaman.281 If
we dismiss this theory, the name and function of the thul would at least reflect a bard-like
sacral office: a priestly character whose task is to recite in sacral connections. Indeed,
Reginn does act like a bard both in the Reginnsml st. 26 and in the Fafnisml st. 23,
praising the warriors deeds of his prince.

In addition to his identity as thul, Reginn is said to be a dwarf in the prose introduction to
Reginnsml, and shown as a smith in the prose interpolation between the poems st.14
and 15. Lotte Motz has put forward the thesis that the dwarfs of Norse myths, as well as
the smith-figures of Germanic legend, are the poetical memory of a very ancient type of
priesthood connected to artisanry, craftsmanship, and grave-tombs. The dwarfs, who also
are smiths, resemble such a priesthood through their functions in the stories, pictured as a
race of (apparently mostly unmarried) men dwelling in rock and mounds, not seldom
burial mounds, forging treasures for gods and men, thus being in the service of the divine
and human ruling dynasties. In addition, they play the role of healers and teachers, wellversed in magic and mythical lore. They frequently change shape into animals, they are
279

Grimstad, 1983, p. 195

Nsstrm, 2001, p. 70. Haugen, 1983, p. 20
281
Solli, 2002, p. 157
280

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the temporary keepers of the mead of poetry, and through their names, we learn that they
are closely associated with chanting and reciting. They appear as sages, possessing
knowledge of the past and of the future. They fit right into the pattern of a pagan priest,
being craftsmen at the same time. The combination is, according to Motz, not at all
unknown in the history of religions. The fact that the Norse word for dwarf, dvergr, does
not denote a short stature, but a physical damage, and that the German word for smith,
schmied, does not denote a metalworker, but a creator, convinces Motz of her own
thesis. The damage alluded to in the word dvergr could refer to a mutilation during
initiation, a concept reflected in the myth of dinn tearing out his eye for the sake of a
draught of the mead of wisdom.282 Both Motz and Kaaren Grimstad consider Reginn a
typical master of initiation in the story of Sigurdr.283 His role as Sigurdrs teacher and
guide in the poems in which, as we have shown, the structure of themes may indicate a
tale of initiation, convinces me that this is the case.
7.5: dinn
In chapter 4.6, we concluded that dinn as god of creation played the role of divine
archetype in the many stories of his initiation. Such a divine archetype is the role model,
the example, for the humanbeings who wish to undertake similar trials in order to learn
similar lessons. We have noted shamanistic traits in dinn and in his initiation, as well as
in the masters of initiation described above. Diszegi emphasizes the role of the
shaman ancestor in Buryat shamanism where the the shaman ancestor the first of all
shamans - is in fact the main master of initiation appearing in the neophytes dreams and
visions.284 In the Reginnsml, dinn miraculously appears in the middle of the stormy
ocean, counseling Sigurdr on his way. dinn, the god who first undertook the trials of
initiation in the beginning of time, thus plays the role of a master of initiation, quite in the
manner in which a shaman ancestor would direct the shaman neophyte.

282

Motz, 1983, Introduction, p.1-12, p.87-121

Grimstad, 1983, p. 187-205
284
Diszegi, 1968, p. 110-114
283

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8: The Mead and the Maiden

8.1: The Maiden: Encompassing the Three Worlds
Giantess, goddess and valkyrie - as we have shown in the previous chapter, a Maiden
figure offering mead to the hero after trials of initiation encompasses all three functions.
The giants, the devourers, are usually understood as the enemies of the gods,
representatives of the chaos before the gods ordered the world, and the ultimate
destroyers of the gods. However, as Steinsland has shown, giants, particularly giantesses,
were also objects of cult and sacrifice.285 The giantesses do play an ambigous role in
Norse mythology, being the mothers, wives, and lovers of the gods. In the Grttasongr
(see appendix XII), two giantesses called Fenja (Heath Dweller) and Menja
(Necklace-Bearer)286 tell their own story. Growing up nine winters deep within the
earth, the giantesses finally emerge, shaping the rocks and then throwing the fast
rotating rock boulder into the hands of humankind. The giantesses proceed to moving
among the armies of men, allotting victory to some and death to others. When they come
into the possession of king Frodi, they start grinding peace and plenty, making possible
the Frodafridr the Peace of Wisdom (see ch. 6.1), until they realize that they are being
abused. This realization, combined with the memory of their glorious past, incites the
giantesses to grind once again invasion, war and unpeace, as a warning to Frodi to wake
up and listen to their ancient tales.

Fenja and Menja would actually seem to play the roles of valkyries and of norns, from
the way they allot victory and death, moving among the warriors, and from the way they
grind the fate of the world. Their giantess-hood is explicitly stated in the beginning of
the poem and identifiable in their having formerly dwelled far beneath the ground.
Gunnld and Gerdr also dwelled far beneath the rock layers, but Gerdr is invited out of
that realm and into the divine one through marriage. As we have seen, Gunnld and
285
286

Steinsland, 1986, p. 212-220

Simek, 1996, p. 79-80, 211

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Gerdr could appear to be identical since both stand out as the same Maiden character.
According to the Grottasngr, as soon as the giantesses emerge, they become like
mistresses of fate.

What, then, is the usual relationship between valkyries and giants? In ch. 6.4, we saw that
the valkyries were situated in a realm of the dead before they were discovered and taken
out of there by heroes such as Atli and Sigurdr. The realm is recognizable both through
its names, its rulers and the symbols of giant in eagles disguise and great serpent.
Among other known valkyries, there is Hljod in the Volsunga saga, the daughter of the
giant Hrmnir the Frosty One.287

In ch. 6.9, we saw that there was a certain

resemblance between the collectives of valkyries and giantesses as related to giant

fathers. It could certainly appear as if the valkyries were daughters of giants. The
valkyries also have giant suitors.

The valkyries are often identified as a specialized type of norns. The norns, as the
valyries, have a questionable past. In the Volusp st. 8, three tussameyiar thurse
maidens (giantesses) - powerful and much knowing, emerge while the (male) gods are
having fun in their recently ordered cosmos. The arrival of the three female
representatives of the older, giant world mysteriously causes the gods to create the dwarfs
and the humans. As soon as the humans are created and the World Tree is presented in
the poem, the theme of three maidens is repeated, only this time, the maidens are
identified as norns, Urdr, Verdandi and Skuld, allotting the fate of men, carving runes
into the wood. We do not, of course, know for certain that the three giantesses of st. 8 are
identical with the three norns of st. 20. In my opinion, such identification appears logical.
Both events instigate major changes in the universe having to do with destiny. In the
Vaftrhudnisml st. 49, we hear of Mogthrasirs Maidens, owning three rivers that flow
through the world. They are hamingjor and travel through the world, even through they
were born among giants. A hamingja is considered the personified fate of a person. The
word comes from ham-gengja, which originally referred to people who could make their
hamr their soul independent of their body walk, yet this understanding appears to
287

Simek, 1996, p. 158: The one covered with hoar-frost. Volsunga saga 1, Byock, 1999, p.36

122

have vaned, and hamingja was understood as fortune giver in the late Viking age, thus
closely associated with fate.288 Thus, the hamingja could be compared with the fylgja,
which has also been identified as the soul when it is separate from the body.289 The fylgja
was also considered a kind of guardian spirit, often seen in dreams or by people with
supernatural powers. It could appear either as an animal or as a woman.290 Else Mundal
has shown that there is a fundamental difference between the animal fylgjur and the
woman ones.291

The idea of a woman guardian spirit (see ch. 3.1), is combined with the idea that the
fylgja and the hamingja control the persons fate. In the Gylfaginning, Snorri relates how
everybody has a norn who is present at the individuals birth and who decides his or
her fortune through life. These norns (of the individuals) come from the well of Urdr,
the oldest norn. Snorri apparently understood these norns of the individuals as aspects
of the original cosmic norns. In my opinion, the norn of the individual that Snorri
mentions, the hamingja and the fylgja are overlapping concepts. Turville-Petre counts
the valkyries among the other dsir such as hamingjor and fylgjur as guardian spirits.292
The valkyrie, a kind of norn, certainly fits into the picture of guardian spirit, since she
follows and protects her hero and in many ways directs his life, as we saw in the case of
the twoHelgis, where the valkyries appear to remind the hero of his duties and guide his
way. Turville-Petre and Strm (see ch. 3.1) have made connections between the fylgjur
dsir and the soul-concept. This is a very disputable theme,293 but that the valkyrie dsir
could be associated with the soul in some way or other does seem to be apparent in the
theme of reincarnation where, as Kragerud showed, a big point is made of how the hero
and the valkyrie belong together even after death and into the next life. A similar theme
was touched upon in the story of Mengld. The idea of the valkyrie-Maiden as perhaps
- the heros own soul would certainly give us a new understanding of Maiden mythology.
288

Simek, 1996, p. 129

Simek, 1996, p. 96
290
Strm, 1985, p. 205-206
291
Mundal, 1974
292
Turville-Petre,1975, p. 221-235. Ellis-Davidson, 1998, p. 177 believes the concept of valkyries as
guardian spirits belongs to an older tradition.
293
Else Mundal, 1974, criticizes such notions in her work on the fylgjur of Norse literature because they
seem very difficult to prove on the basis of the sources themselves.
289

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If that was the case, it could seem as if the point of all the trials is that the hero has to
wake up the sleeping valkyrie of his soul.

Apart from this last possibility, we are aware that there could be a very strong connection
between the valkyrie-norn, the fylgjur and the hamingjor. They are all associated with
fate, and they could fit neatly into the picture of individuals norns mentioned by Snorri.
Thus, the hamingjor who are associated with the three great rivers and who travel
through the worlds, could be norns and/or valkyries. In Vaftrhudnisml st. 48, the
question about Mogthrasirs maidens is who are the maidens who journey in troops,
wise in spirit, over the sea? (Hveriar ro their meyiar er lith a mar yfir - frodgediath ar
fara?). The valkyries of the Heroic Poems are also described as a collective of maidens
riding air and sea. Indeed, the norns and the valkyries are often depicted in this
dynamic manner. In the Volusp st. 33, the valkyries are seen, as they emerge for the first
time in history, as ready to ride the world. In the first poem of Helgi Hundingsbani,
norns arrive at Helgis birth and perform a dance-like, dynamic action of throwing and
fastening the threads of fate. The Hrbardsljod st. 18, tells of maidens who dig the
ground out of the valleys, spinning threads of the sand. (Among them is one, the linen
white, whom dinn greatly desired). All in all, I believe that Mogthrasirs maidens
could be identified as norns or valkyries, and, importantly, they were born among
giants.

As the Maiden figure hides behind stories of giantesses wooed by the gods in the
beginning of time, and behind stories of the later valkyries wooed by men who were
blessed by the gods, we could detect the myth of a once-giantess who became a goddess,
a goddess capable of appearing in many shapes at one and the same time, spinning the
fates of the individuals. We should not forget that the valkyries as well as fylgjur and
hamingjor - are often called dsir, a name used also of goddesses such as Freyia
(vanads). As remarked in ch. 3.4, the name ds is derived from old Indian Dhisana, a
goddess who was one goddess and many goddesses at the same time. When appearing as
many, their name was the dhisanas. As Strm and Nsstrm have argued, the same type
of concept is shown in the Norse tradition through the existence of a Disarsalinn, a

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building used during the great ritual gathering in honor of the dsir, where the king had to
be present. Although the dsir were a collective of female deities, the hall was dedicated
to the one Ds, probably the Great Goddess.

The implication of a Great Goddess, here called the Maiden who is a giantess in origin,
opens up for many more discussions. I will here mention only two, both of which have
been touched upon throughout this study. One: the theory of the three wells that are really
one. Two: the ogress-goddess opposition. The latter leads me to a conclusion that has to
do with the well-known promiscuity of the Great Goddess Freyia.

8.2: The Two-Faced Goddess

8. Mgr fann ammo mioc leitha ser,
hafdi hafda hundrud no;
enn annor gecc algullin fram
brnhvit bera biorveig syni

The son found Grandmother horrible to look at

Nine hundred heads the old one had
But another came forth, all golden
Bright-browed, she brought strong drink to her son
Hymiskvida st. 8

In ch. 6.7, I argued that the poems Hvaml, Fjlsvinnsml and Sigrdrifuml suggest that
the three wells of norns (gods), Mimir (giants) and Hel (Death) are the same, or aspects
of each other. The hero learns at all the three wells simultaneously. The Maiden holds
residence in Hel and is a teacher of runes (the norns), and the descent to her world is
associated with Mimirs tree and well of memory. A giant always guards the Maiden,
whether he be her father or her warden. One of these giants, Suttungr, was compared to
Mimir in ch. 4. The Maiden encompasses the three worlds where the hero receives sacred
knowledge and sacred marriage.

Since the Maiden appears to reside in Hel, or rather in a special, bright place deep in the
heart of dark Hel, it is reasonable to question what kind of relation she has to the lady of
the dead. Since she is a giantess of origin, it is not unlikely that she, in one aspect, is Hel.
We have shown how the Maiden is shown in opposition to an ogress of death,
representing an alternative. The Skrnisml poem could give us a clue as to what exactly

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is the relation between the Maiden and the ogress; there, Gerdr is shown two alternative
modes of existence, one as an ogress gaping behind the gates of death, deprived of the
company of all but hideous ogres, another as a divine bride in possession of the most
precious treasures of the gods. It is clear that the ogress and the divine bride are one and
the same Gerdr. Of course, we know that Gerdr married Freyr and became equal with the
goddesses, but it is useless, in my opinion, to read myth as if it were linear history. Gerdr
is much more than a girl pressed into marriage with a god under threat of becoming an
ogress. Gerdr is one of the names behind which the Maiden hides, and her marriage to
Freyr should be read symbolically. In other settings, the Maiden is married to dinn, to
ttarr, to Svpdag, to Helgi, to Sigurdr, to Gunnarr - and in each case, she is shown in
opposition to the ogress of death, her alternative mode of being. As Hilda Ellis-Davidson
has pointed out, it is not unusual for the Great Goddess to appear both as an old hag and a
beautiful maiden.294 Svava Jacobsdottir shows how, in the Irish sources that are
equivalent to the Norse Maiden myths, the Maiden herself often appears as an old hag
until the hero agrees to marry her. Through an analysis of both Irish and Indian sources,
Jacobsdottir concludes that more than kingship inauguration was involved, the idea of an
immortal existence must also have been present in the myth of the mead-offering lady.295
The image of Hel that Snorri provides us with in the Gylfaginning is extremely valuable,
for he tells us that the face of the mistress of the dead is blue as death on one side, pink as
life on the other.296 The symbolism should be obvious; Hel is both life and death. The
simplest explanation of the heros trials in the Maidens realm could be this: When
visiting the Underworld with all its monsters and trials, the hero must marry the rosycheeked face of Hel, the Maiden, in order to return to the world alive. The experience or
ritual of marriage with the Maiden could carry in itself more implications still, such as the
possibility of a hope of an alternative after-life in dinns Valhll, where warriors are
continually revived so they may serve the gods or in Freyias friendly and serene
Folkvangr rather than extinguishment in the dark, serpent-infested Misty Hel. Obviously,
as we have shown in the previous chapters, the marriage also included esoteric teachings
that would enable the hero to function as a healer, poet, sorcerer, a religious professional
294

Ellis-Davidson, 1998, p. 22
Jacobsdottir, 2002, p. 51
296
Gylfaginning, Faulkes, 1987, p. 27
295

126

and even as a king. In the Hyndluljod, we see that a wolf-riding giantess, whom Freyia
addresses as sister and girlfriend in the beginning of the poem, is the conveyer of
secrets. In other cases, such as in the Sigrdrifuml, the bright valkyrie is the teacher.
There is certainly no strict border between the ogress and the Maiden the two faces of
the goddess.

8.3: The Great Lover

asa oc alfa, er her inni ero
hverr hefir thinn hr verith! 297

..of every god and elf in here

each has been your lover!

Gro Steinsland has argued that the idea of death held great variety in the Norse
sources.298 One idea often ignored by scholars, who, like Snorri, prefer to order the
mythic cosmos into neat geographical lines and human-like family relations (the land of
the dead here, the land of giants there, this goddess the wife of that god, this of another),
is the experience of death as an erotic journey of pleasure.299 Through poetry, dying is
imagined as a feast and a marriage or erotic union with the mistress of death. (In
womens case, it would appear to be conceived as a feast, like the girl who wanted to
sup with Freyia in the Egils saga). Above, we suggested that Hel and Freyia, or the
ogress and the Maiden, are two faces of the same entity. Freyia, of course, is known as a
receiver of the dead in her own right her link to Hel is shown through the Maidenmythology that we have been analyzing in this study. Now, Freyia is often presented as
goddess of love. This title, it seems, stems from the fact that Freyia is perceived as
promiscuous. In the Lokasenna, she is accused of sleeping with every elf and god in the
hall of Aegir the sea-giant, and even with her own brother Freyr. In the Gylfaginning,
Snorri can tell us that she liked romantic poems and that she was accessible to people
concerned with love. Another source, the Flateyiarbk, relates how Freyia, there the wife
of dinn, slept with four dwarfs in order to have the beautiful necklace Brisingamn.
This information, apparently, has been enough to classify Freyia along with Aphrodite
and Venus as goddess of sex and love. However, the accusations of promiscuity are
297

Lokasenna st. 30
Steinsland, 1992, p. 319-332
299
Ibid, p. 319
298

127

something Freyia shares with all the other goddesses in the Norse pantheon, and her roles
as receiver of the dead, of being a vlva or a sacrificial priestess are rather more
particular and prominent in her character. Medieval Christian interpretators may have
focused on the immoral behavior of the pagan goddess, and failed to realize the meaning
and the depth of her loving embrace. If we look back to the Lokasenna, we must
remember that the gods are feasting in Aegirs hall. That hall is a realm of death. Aegir is
the giant of the sea. Freyia is also associated with the sea through her name Mardll
Illuminating Ocean.300 Aegirs wife is Rn, who catches the drowned ones in her net.
Dying at sea was associated with a feast in Rns and Aegirs hall, and by climbing
Rns bed. When Freyia, receiver of the dead, has been the lover of every elf and ss in
that hall, it is a piece of information that reaches beyond Lokis superficial accusal of
promiscuity. Her embrace is death. In her role as Maiden, she embodies the alternative
to the net of Rn and the serpents of Hel. Her love provides her lover with a new
beginning. And as Nsstrm has argued, her person embodies all the goddesses, - in that
case, she cannot be other than the lover of all the gods.

Golden Plate, Roman Iron Age, Uppland, Sweden

300

Simek, 1996, p. 202 : the one who illuminate the sea, or who makes the sea swell

128

8.4: The Precious Mead

The drink of precious mead (drykk hins dyra miadar), the ale of memory (minnis
aul), the Poetry Stir (Odrerir), thus is the drink called that the Maiden offers to the
hero. It seems possible to decode where the drink comes from, mythically. First and
foremost, the Maiden is associated with the three wells below the World Tree, as
suggested in ch. 8.1. Now we know that dinn obtained a drink from the well of the giant
Mimir, the drink of memory and wisdom, by sacrificing one of his eyes. By hanging nine
days on the World Tree, he achieved the runes, which were carved by the norns who
dwell at Urdrs well, and he received the precious drink of Poetry Stir. All evidence
suggest that he received it from Gunnld in the realm of the dead. The drink appears to be
somehow connected with the three wells and the three worlds beneath the World Tree.
We do not know how, but Gylfaginning and the Grmnisml give a clue. In the
Grmnisml st. 36, the valkyries are named who give ale to the einherjar the OneHarriers. In st. 25, we learn that the fair mead that never diminishes is milked
(presumedly by the valkyries) from a goat called Heidrn. As Else Mundal has pointed
out, this goat has a sentral function in the continuation of life in Valhll and is thus very
important for the safety of the divine cosmos, whose defenders the One-Harriers are
supposed to be.301 Standing on the roof of Valhll, Heidrn (whom we earlier identified
with Freyia) eats from the tree Lradr while filling a whole vat of mead every day,
enough to keep the One-Harriers eternally revived and feasting. Next to the goat stands a
stag who also feeds on the tree, and from its horns drops fall down into Hvergelmir, Hels
serpent-infested well. Since Hvergelmir is situated at the foot of the World Tree, it
becomes obvious that the tree Lradr is the World Tree itself, from which the goat
Heidrn eats. The mead of Heidrn is directly linked to the well of Hel through the st. 25
and 26; obviously, the eating produces the precious liquids from the goats udders and the
strange drops from the stags horns. The goats mead goes to the eternally living OneHarriers, the stags liquid falls into Hel. Both liquids are taken from the World Tree.
Now, from where is the World Tree nourished? Snorri tells us that it is nourished by the
norn Urdr, who waters the tree every morning with water from her sacred well at the
heart of the divine world. That well from which the tree is watered, has the effect of
301

Mundal, 1992, p. 241

129

revival and renewal, even transformation; anyone who bathes in it comes out shining and
transparently white. The water keeps the tree from decay. Ultimately, the mead of the
One-Harriers, served by the valkyries, is taken from that well of renewal. Something,
obviously, is given back to the well of Death by the stag standing next to the goat, a
symbolism too intricate to be discussed here. Turning our focus back to the goat, we are
reminded that her name means Bright Hidden Knowledge, and that she is compared to
Freyia in the Hyndluljod. The comparison makes sense since we have established Freyia
as the Great Valkyrie, the one to whom the valkyries take the One-Harriers before the
goddess allots seats in her own hall and in dinns.

From this information, we learn that the mead is connected to the three wells and that it is
somehow drawn from them through the leaves of the World Tree by an entity who has
the shape of a goat but who could equally well be the Great Goddess. The mead has a
transformative effect and keeps the drinkers eternally alive. It is associated with hidden
knowledge. It is associated with memory and knowledge. Through the Maidenmythology, we learn that it is strongly associated with memory of what is taught in the
Other Worlds, that it conveys secrets of the cosmos, the knowledge of runes, fate, healing
and poetry. As Sigrdrfa said, it is filled with good charms and runes of pleasure,
manliness and power. It is offered by a goddess to a man who is her lover. The goddess
may also be an aspect of his soul or his individual fate.

Much more is not revealed in the poems themselves. From ch. 3.2, we recall that Svva
Jacobsdottir compared Snorris version of the myth of Gunnld with an Old Indian myth
of Soma, sacred drink of the Vedic religion. Soma was also known as madhu (honey)
which is etymologically connected to the Norse mjd mead. In some myths, soma was
in possession of the dhisanas, which would certainly link Indian myth to Norse myth,
where the mead is in possession of the dsir. A whole book (the ninth) is dedicated to
soma in the Rigveda, and the hymns are many thousands of years old.302 According to
Brockington, a belief in an intoxicating beverage of the gods, a kind of honey or mead,
probably goes back to the Indo-European period. Brockington also draws a parallel
302

Brockington, 1996, p. 7

130

between the Indian legends of the eagle and Soma, the nectar-bringing eagle of Zeus, and
dinn in eagles shape fetching mead. The preparation and the offering of soma was a
feature of Indo-Iranian worship, known in Iran as haoma. As a deity, Soma is a sage, a
poet, a seer, stimulating thoughts and inspiring hymns. As a drink, it invigorates the gods,
and is conceived as conferring immortality on gods and men and is called amrta, the
draught of immortality.303 The drink also produced ecstacy and was used by ascetics
for inspiration. The ecstacy it caused could soar into the atmosphere, into the company of
gods, enable one to see everything and go anywhere.304 In a list of universal polarities,
Soma is placed against Agni alongside with moon, death and the female as
opposed to sun, life and the male.305 Within the schools of Kundalini Yoga, Soma
is placed in the topmost cakra, being the quintessence of the body, its nectar of
immortality.306

As Michael Enright has argued, ritual drinking has its origins in an Indo-European past.
The soma and the haoma and the nectar of Greek myth are met with again in the myth
and culture of the Celts and of the Germans. According to Enright, the particulars of
Germanic ritual drinking originated in the Celtic ones. We recall that Jacobsdottir
compared Norse myth to Irish ones. Enright shows how the Celtic and Germanic
traditions were connected during the Celtic Iron Age. The Celtic and Germanic sources
show that ritual drinking was strongly associated with a woman and/or with a goddess, as
was the case in many Old Indian myths.

303

Ibid, p. 16-17
Ibid, p. 75
305
Ibid, p. 129
306
Ibid, p. 156
304

131

8.5: The Maiden Unearthed: Archaeological Evidence

Michael Enright looks to European archaeology when trying to trace the history of the
Germanic liquor ritual with its lady with a mead cup at its center. Going back as far
as the fifth century B.C, Enright traces burials of great, high ranking Germanic ladies
buried with wine-strainer, spoon-sieves and ladles in hand. Close to these obvious liquorserving devices are cauldrons, cups and drinking horns. Sometimes the cauldron contains
remnants of a drink, either made of barley or honey and always with a wide variety of
herbs and fruits. These ladies were buried in such a way as to suggest both her respected
functions as distrubutor of drink as well as her high social status. Males are also buried
with drinking devices, but only the women are left with spoon-sieves and devices for
serving the drink in their hands. The devices are left in their hands and in their belt
alongside the keys that conveys their status as lady of the household. It becomes obvious
from the rich burials that the status of great ladies was symbolized by their serving of
drink. The evidences of lady with a mead cup and liqour ritual are trans-regional and
pan-Germanic, reaching from southern Europe to Scandinavia and lasting for at least a
millennium. The control and distribution of alcoholic drink was closely linked with highborn women. Enright sees a link between the lady, the drink and fictive kinship. This
because the ladies are very often accompanied by a kind of drinking vessel called either
Ringgefsse or Drillingsgefsse. The vessels are too elaborate to have ever been suitable
for ordinary usage. From inscriptions, it is clear that these were ritual vessels used for the
creation of fictive brotherhood and sisterhood.307 The Ringgefsse design found in
Germanic graves has its origin in the eastern Mediterranian, where they have been
connected with fertility cults and the idea of a mystic marriage with a goddess.

308

The

Drillingsgefsse are found among many cultures throughout the world and were already
being crafted in the late Neolithic. The vessels were used for liquor that would run
simultaneously through three different cups, and are connected to the Celto-Germanic
triple mother goddesses through finds in shrines and temples dedicated to these
Mothers. The Ringgefsse consist of three cups/vessels standing on one ring. All the
cups are connected to each other so that the same liquor runs through the three vessels at
307
308

Enright, p. 107
Ibid, p. 107

132

the same time. It is of course a bit speculative, but I am certainly reminded of Gunnlds
keeping three vessels containing the same mead that dinn drank from after swearing a
ring-oath. The link between the vessels to women and a mothers cult continues into
the migration period. Enright argues that the finds confirm later texts indicating that
women among the Germans were regarded as having a special responsibility for the
public ritual creation of brotherhood.

309

Scholars agree that the vessels possess a

pronounced religious or magical significance. Enright draws a line from the women and
the vessels to a goddess cult, more specifically a cult of a prophetic goddess which
emphasizes reverence for a staff-bearing prophetic goddess.310 I have underlined the last
words because they are extremely interesting in the light of the next chapter. Enright
speaks of a prophetic womens cult which possessed the same attributes in all regions
of Germania. The countours and subtleties of the cult are unclear, but the archaeological
finds reveal that the connection with women and various peculiar looking staffs and
containers have long traditions in southern Germany going back at least to the fifth
century B.C. and perhaps into European pre-history. The cult staffs accompany the
ladies of the mead and the ritual vessels, as well as spinning and weaving equipment
which, as Enright shows, links the woman to fate and divining. The staff, as well as the
spoon-sieve and the vessel, must (...) have had a symbolic association with leading
women.311 The staffs are always found in womens or girls graves, together with other
objects which could easily be interpreted as magical. The links between women, staffs
and cultic drinking vessels are manifold and ancient. Enright argues that the association
with prophecy and the magical arts and high ranking women was constant for more than
a millennium in the Germanic world. Neither the antiquity, continuity, intensity nor
popularity of the woman/liquor/prophecy complex can now be seriously doubted.312 In
Germanic society, the concept of aristocratic femininity was strongly correlated to the
distribution of liquor. The association of women and liquor and ritual drinking has its
natural explanation in the fact that brewing ale and preparing mead were the peculiar
tasks of women. But the archaeological evidence also demonstrates that prophecy was a

309

Ibid, p. 108
Ibid, p. 113
311
Ibid, p. 114
312
Ibid, p. 125
310

133

crucial part of the mead-cup motif. The links to staffs and magical objects should also
lead us to ask whether the distributor of liquor was also a prophetess. Enright argues that
archaeological evidence demonstrates the answer as positive.

Enrights approach is historical and sociological, trying to explain the archaeological

evidence of the existence of professional, high-ranking ladies who serve mead and
carry staff and spindle whorls by their function in society. Primarily, Enright argues that
the lady had an important role within the warband where she established brotherhood and
hierarchy through ritual offering of drink. The lady who stands out as a queen in late
Migration period (such as the time of the Beowulf poem), has her equivalent in
prophetesses who operated alongside kings in early Germanic society, who originated
as tribal matrons. For the present thesis, Enrights summary of archaeological finds is
valuable because it shows the antiquity and popularity of the idea of a magical female
and the ritual serving of mead. Enright sticks to his sociological explanation, of which he
has proof, yet he admits that there are subtleties within the religion of the staff-bearing
womens cult (and thus, the mead-serving womens) which are difficult to interpret.
Enright emphasizes the continuity, the antiquity of this wide-spread cult. My own
interpretations and conclusions about Maiden-mythology lead me to assume that the
imagery of the Maiden with the mead in the myths somehow reflects at least some part of
this cult. Since I have interpreted Maiden-mythology as centered around initiation rites, I
cannot agree with Enright that the only main purpose of the Lady with mead was to
establish brotherhood and hierarchy in the warband. It certainly was one of the purposes,
while the teaching and initiation into sacred knowledge must have been another. The
existence of ladies serving mead ritually in actual Germanic society would indicate that
the Maiden of the myths had her human counterparts. The other objects, such as the cult
staff, the spindle-whorl related to fate and divination, and the magical objects (probably
kept in pouches) indicate that she was a religious professional. There is only one woman
character in the Norse sources who is definitely connected to the carrying of staffs and
the art of divination and sorcery, and that is the vlva.

134

8.6: The Ultimate Master of Initiation

21. That man hon flkvig fyrst heimi,
er Gullveig geirum studdu
ok i hll Hrs hana brendu;
thrysvar brendu thrysvar borna,
opt, sjaldan, tho hon enn lifir.

She remembers the first war in the world

when Gullveig was hoist on the spears
and in the High Ones hall they burned her
three times they burned the three times born
often, not seldom; yet she still lives!

22. Heidi hana htu, hvars til hsa kom,

vlu velsp, vitti hon ganda
seid hon hvars hon kunni,
seid hon hugleikin,
var hon angan illrar brudar.314

She was called Heidr when she came to the settlements

the prophecy-wise volva, she knew how to make spells
She performed seidr wherever she could
With ecstatic (crazed) mind/soul, she performed seidr313
She was always sought by wicked women.

In the Vlusp st. 21 and 22, the first war in the world, that between Aesir and Vanir, is
associated with the arrival of a vlva called Gullveig and then Heidr. She is burned three
times in the hall of dinn, and survives every time. She proceeds to operate in society as
a wandering figure performing seidr and teaching it to the women. Somehow, this is
connected with the war which had as its the ultimate consequence that Njrdr, Freyr and
Freyia took up residence as gods among the Aesir. Freyia teaches seidr to dinn, the
mead of poetry is created and lost, with the subsequent quest undertaken by dinn in
order to retrieve the mead from Gunnld. Thus, our subject of the Maiden is intimately
connected with the Aesir-Vanir war and its mysterious instigator, the vlva Gullveig.

Many interpretations have been presented as to the nature of Gullveig-Heidr. Nsstrm

declares that Freyia herself must be hiding behind the names, and that her function here is
to infiltrate the stronghold of the Aesir with witchcraft, and even if they try to kill her,
she returns, continuing her destructive plan, first and foremost through demoralizing the
women. Already while operating within the Aesirs fortress, the Vanir gods break down
the fences of the gods, entering with their galdr - songs of victory. Gullveig, Nsstrm
decides, must mean Gold-thirst, which shows her greed for gold, while Heidr is simply
a common name for a sorceress.315

313

In the Codex Regius the lines are seid hon kuni/ seid hon leikinn which would, according to Strmback,
2000, mean she knew seid, she performed seid ecstatically (crazed). The Swedish term used by
Strmbck for my ecstatically is frryckthet.
314
Volusp, st. 21-22
315
Nsstrm, 1998, p. 68, p. 91, p. 128

135

Clunies-Ross also identifies Gullveig with Freyia through her role as vlva (practitioner
of seidr) and of sacrificial priestess (Gullveig, Clunies-Ross argues, is sacrificed) and the
connection between her operations before the war and her arrival at the end of it.
Gullveig and Freyia perform the same mythological functions. The reasons for the violent
treatment of Gullveig have to do with what she represents in relation to the Aesir. The
Norse cosmos is divided into polarities where male and female is one of them. The Aesir
are fundamentally male, representing the ordered and reasoned world. Gullveig is female
and a master of sorcery, which makes her appear threatening to the Aesir. According to
Clunies-Ross, she offers herself and her arts to the Aesir, but they will have none of it.
Their stabbing her with spears is a symbolical penetration leading to death rather than the
kind of penetration leading to fertility desired by Gullveig and the Vanir. The treatment
of Gullveig led to the war apparently the Vanir were angry on behalf of their
kinswoman.316

According to Steinsland, Gullveig may represent the three stages of the cosmic process of
time; that she is killed three times and born three times may mean that she is present in
each of the stages: the three norns by the well beneath the tree, Urd, Verdandi and Skuld,
testify with their names a model of time divided into three.317

As I see it, the problem with such interpretations as those above is that they go very far
beyond what is ever actually said in the text. Snorri does not mention the Gullveig story
with a word, just as he omitted the sacrifice of dinn. The Gullveig myth may, as
Clunies-Ross has suggested, like the sacrifice of dinn simply have been too pagan for
him. Thus we really do not know why Gullveig was sacrificed, stabbed and burned. The
terrible treatment of the mysterious woman has obviously made scholars puzzled and
appalled, causing a need to explain why (she was greedy, she was a witch, she
threatened the male order, she demoralized the women). Both Nsstrm and CluniesRoss also seem to forget that in the Vlusp, it is dinn and not the Vanir who starts the
war, which make the explanation about the Vanir getting angry about the treatment of
316

Clunies-Ross, 1994, p. 204

Steinsland, 1991, p. 290. Urdr is made of verda- to become, while verdandi means becoming, and
skuld marks the future form of the word.
317

136

their kinswoman rather awkward. Steinslands interpretation aims at a deeper

understanding of the symbolism of the stanzas, but it does not explain how Gullveig
suddenly appears under a new name and operating as a religious professional, a vlva,
just after her sacrifice.

Nsstrm sticks to the common notion that Gullveig means greed for gold, denoting the
evil character of this woman, an idea which is also seen in Rudolf Simeks dictionary,
where she is said to be the personified greed for gold. Turville-Petre was among the
scholars who first presented this idea. Apparently, this is the common understanding
among scholars today.318 However, as Simek and Clunies-Ross recognize: the literal
meaning of the name is simply Golden Drink, Golden Intoxication, or GoldPower.

319

None of these interpretations actually denotes greed at all. Gold is not

always associated with greed in Norse mythology; on the contrary, the Skldskaparml
shows that gold is often associated with poetry and numinous wisdom. The three possible
interpretations of her name that are literal translations, not conjectures, are rather in
accordance with the image of the Maiden with the Mead, who is all golden, serving a
mead of power. To assume that her name indicates greed for gold is actually an
assumption that has no foundation except in the scholars wish to explain why Gullveig
deserved her bad treatment.

As we have argued, Gullveigs treatment did not lead to the Vanir, her people, declaring
war, but to dinn throwing his spear against the enemy (the Vanir) after a counsel with
the other gods about who should have the sacrifice. We do not know what sacrifice
they are arguing about, but in my opinion, it is not unlikely that it is that of Gullveig. And
this is where we should take a closer look at the sacrifice. It is not necessary to make
conjectures about what reasons lay behind the stabbing and burning of Gullveig and who
did it. The important information is right there in the poem itself. The important
information is that Gullveig defied death. She was burned to ashes three times, and

318

Simek, 1996, p. 122. Turville-Petre, 1975, p. 159. Various scholars such as Mllenhof, Krause, Nordal
and Turville-Petre have explained the name as the drunkenness of gold, hence the madness and corruption
caused by this precious metal (Clunies-Ross, 1994, p. 204)
319
Simek, 1996, p. 122, Clunies-Ross, 1994, p. 204

137

reborn every time. Gullveig is presented as a woman who defies the lot of all mortal
creatures: death. Hoist on a spear, burned three times, she comes out alive, reborn. In my
opinion, the trials undergone by Gullveig reflect dinns trials on the world tree. My idea
seems strengthened by the fact that, after her trials of death, she is presented as a
practitioner of seidr in the society, or more generally, as a religious functionary,
something that would logically follow any such death-trial initiation. Her new name is
Heidr, meaning Bright One or Shining One.320 This is also in accordance to the
Maidens usual bright, beaming, golden characteristics.

Gullveig could be a goddess, and she might have become one after her trial. Gullveig as
Heidr is said to be a vlva - a type of office that certainly existed in the Norse society;
thus, we could be seeing a person, a woman, who challenges the gods monopoly on
immortality as the first human being in the world to do so. The quest for immortality is
certainly not unknown in the history of religions, and defying death is known in its most
violent forms among the initiation trials of shamans and mystics all over the world. The
gods, of course, are terrified; one of their creatures, a mortal, has conquered death itself.
(Such divine terror of human potential is known from many myths across the world, such
as in the Genesis and in the Popol Vuh).

That is one interpretation. Another would be to see Gullveig as an equally supernatural

creature as the gods from the start. The gods and giants of Norse cosmology are, after all,
not eternally immortal, although they stay young for aeons due to the apples of the
goddess Idunn ( another face of the Maiden? ) Gullveig shows an art that dinn
coveted, the art of changing fate of conquering death. The art is closely connected to
seidr, which not only encompassed divination as a foretelling of the future, but also
functioned as operative divination where the future, fate itself, could be altered.321 Fate,
ultimately, is death for all mortals. Seidr in its most advanced aspect could have been a
means to change that ultimate fate.

320

Simek, 1996, p. 135: Heidr, f. means light, beaming, or fame. The masculine noun heidr means
heath, honour. The light-meaning semantically fits Gullveigs name best, according to Simek.
321
Nsstrm, 2001, p. 62, argues that seidr and divination could be active and operative where the
practitioner could realize his or her desires through divine help if she/he had sufficient magical power.

138

This would more easily explain dinns subsequent action of throwing a spear against
the Vanir, thus starting the war. dinns throwing a spear at someone is an action that
represents a kind of magical power the god possessed that would dedicate those warriors
to himself as future inhabitants of Valhll. 322 He wanted Gullveig and her associates to
come to sgardr. The war led to the trio of Njrdr, Freyr and Freyia entering the Aesirs
world, and dinn got what he wanted: Freyias teachings of seidr. When Clunies-Ross
argues that Gullveig was killed because the Aesir did not want the sorcery she
represented, she must have ignored the fact that dinn himself caused the war that led to
the possibility of his learning exactly what Gullveig represented, and that he eagerly
enough learned it and taught it to the other gods, who must have been quite interested,
too.

Thus, the aggression against Gullveig emerges in a different light. We do not have to
look for aggressors, nor for their reasons. The they who stab and burn her could be
just like the they who did not give the stabbed and hanged dinn drink nor food
they could be those who assisted the initiate in her and his trials. That it happens in the
halls of the High One indicates that dinn observes the trial and desires the same
abilities. Both dinns and Gullveigs death-trials and sacrifices lead to their becoming
operating professionals: Gullveig becomes a wandering vlva performing seidr and
teaching the women, dinn becomes a much-sought sage whose words and actions lead
to more words and more actions, and who teaches the priests.

In her study on Sumerian mythology around the sacred marriage of the Great Goddess,
Anita Hammer points out that, while the older Sumerian religion knows of a female
culture hero, namely Inanna, who undertakes a journey to the realm of the dead and
other tasks that shape culture, later Greek and Teutonic mythologies only know of male
culture heroes.323 This is the common conception, and scholars have argued how the
Norse ordered, human and divine world is conceived of as male in essence, whereas the

322
323

Clunies-Ross, 1994, p. 206

Hammer, 1999, p. 83

139

world of giants is female in its essence. This would explain why the culture hero is
always a male - the representative of this side is usually male - while the representative
of the other side is a female.324 However, it could appear as if dinn, Freyr and all the
heroes had their predecessor when it comes to trials of initiation and the conquest of
death. And she was not a male.

324

Clunies-Ross,1994, p. 128-129, Heide, 1997, p. 58-61

140

9: Summary and Conclusions

Throughout this study, I have argued the existence of a Maiden mythology hidden
behind the texts of the Poetic Edda. Maiden mythology is revealed through a common
structure of themes, a pattern that may be traced in widely different poems from the
Hvaml to the Heroic Poems. The center of this mythology is the Maiden, a
supernatural young woman who receives a god or hero in her hall and offers him a cup or
a horn of precious mead, a drink of memory. The offering is accompanied by a
marriage between the Maiden and the hero. Before being granted the drink and the
embrace of the Maiden, however, the hero has to undergo some fierce trials beginning
with vision quests, visions, and a descent into the realm of the dead.

In ch. 3.1, I explained the term initiation, basing myself on Eliades Encyclopedia of
Religion. Whether the initiation be part of a puberty rite or an initiation into a secret
society or a mystical vocation (such as shamanism), the initiation usually includes
isolation from society, secret revelation, and a ritual death followed by resurrection or
rebirth. As Schjdt has pointed out, it is important that the one undergoing these trials
actually receives a new position in society or cult after that, in order to call it an
initiation. In Maiden mythology, the hero descends into the underworld, receives secret
revelations, and returns to the living. Several of the poems, such as the Hvaml and the
Hyndluljod, indicate that the hero experienced a very severe ritual death involving the
sacrifice of himself. Many of the poems, particularly the Hvaml and the poems of
Sigurd also indicate that the hero returned from the trials a sage, a poet, a healer, even a
king. It appears that the Maiden-mythology reflects the typical basics of initiation rituals
into a sacred office.

I have frequently touched upon the kind of initiation ritual that is revealed, without
arriving at any certain conclusions. The indications in the myths are varied at best. My
main aim, as stated in the Introduction, is not to decide what the hero is initiated into, but
to prove that the pattern, the structure of themes, exists, and thus, a Maiden mythology

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reflecting initiation. Our study has, however, made it possible to get a vague idea about
the nature of the initiations.

Firstly, the initiation is centred around the Maiden figure, whom we have identified as the
Great Goddess. The initiation culminates in marriage. Since the Maiden is a goddess, we
are talking about a sacred marriage, a Hieros Gamos as defined in ch. 3.1. Sacred
Marriage is closely connected to kingship inauguration in many ancient cultures, and was
known in Scandinavia during the Bronze Age, probably an idea imported from the great
civilisations of the south such as the Sumerian, where sacred marriage was the central
ritual of the religion. In Scandinavia, sacred marriage appears to have had a new boom
from around the fifth century A.D, when the Germanic tribes started to constitute little
kingdoms. From comparative sources such as the Sumerian and the Irish, the sacred
marriage of the king and the goddess had to do with the consecration of a king by the
Great Goddess of the land: only through her authorisation may a king enter his sacred
office.

From the studies of Steinsland, it seems clear that sacred marriage was closely connected
to kingship and it would seem as if the king had to undergo trials of initiation before
claiming the throne. However, I have frequently referred to the nature of the teachings in
Maiden mythology and had to conclude that the myths of the Maiden seem to cover a
lot more than kingship initiation. The art of healing, poetry, galdr, seidr, magic, sorcery
and journeys into the Underworld were hardly the unique domain of the king in Norse
nor in Germanic society. In ch. 7, I showed that so-called masters of initiation were
present at the trials, and that they could be identified with actual religious professionals
operating in Scandinavia and Germania in pre-Christian times. These masters could not
have been ignorant about the trials and teachings of the neophyte; on the contrary, we
would assume that they were experts. They would become experts only by going through
the same kind of trials beforehand.

In some cases, these experts would appear to be working in the service of kings, such as
Atli, Sinfiotli and Skrnir. The relationship between kingship and the Maiden is visible in

142

the Heroic Poems, were the heroes are royal princes. The focus in the Heroic Poetry is
not so much on kingship, however, as on the continuity of the relationship between the
hero and the valkyrie through lives and deaths. The theme could very well be about the
journey of the soul through different lives, as Kragerud suggested, and, as I suggested,
about the valkyrie perhaps being the actual divine, immortal soul of the hero. This does
not outrule the importance of kingship and sacred marriage, but it could show that the
union with the Maiden is a far broader and more universal theme than that of kingship.

Looking back to masters of initiation such as the Atli figure, we will recall that Atli not
only brings a Maiden back to the king, but also a Maiden for himself. Atli is certainly not
a king, but an earls son, earl being the echo of an ancient religious office. Thus, the
marriage to a Maiden from the Other World is not restricted to kings. Atlis expertise has
to do with journeying in the Other World, journeys that begin with vision quests and
visions of a thoroughly ecstatic character. We should not ignore the ecstatic nature of the
heroes experiences. The vision quests and visions followed by journeys to a different
realm, a realm of giants and of the forces of death, are vividly described and I, at least, do
not get the impression that these are descriptions of organized, routinized ritual. I am
convinced that, if these myths reflect actual practice, that practice must have been of a
highly ecstatic character. The ecstacy is not induced only among royal candidates. It
would rather appear to have been part of the religious practice of Old Norse cult,
performed by professionals the initiated.

I have pointed out the likeness to shamanism, yet it is impossible to decide whether we
are dealing with shamanism in its strictest, classical sense or something that only
resembles it in greater or lesser degree. Shamanism was certainly known and even used
by the Norse population, who lived very close to the shamanistic Saami, whom they
apparently approached for help in magical matters. In ch. 7.5, I pointed out the likeness
of dinns role as divine archetype and the role of Siberian ancestral shamans. dinn
is certainly the most shaman-like character in the Norse sources, if we should believe
Snorris descriptions of the god in the Ynglinga saga. I have touched upon the subject of
shamanism in the Norse sources quite often, because I believe it is too prominent to be

143

ignored, particularly in the context of Maiden-mythology. As far as I have been able to

investigate, the classical shamans relations to great female divinities is a subject rather
more prominent than Eliade ever suspected, but this is a subject which reach beyond the
scope of this thesis. In any case, shamanism in some way appears to have had some
influence on Norse mythology, whether it be because there were shamans in Norse
society, practitioners who resembled classical shamans to some degree, or perhaps the
influences were only remnants of a distant past. In the Encyclopedia of Religions, Eliade
gives the impression that many scholars believe shamanistic rituals and tribal initiations
were the structural and mythical origins of different kind of ritual behavior such as the
type detected in Antique mystery cults.

While shamanism certainly could involve marriage to supernatural beings, such a union
is also known from mystery religions, as described in ch. 3.1. Such religions also
involved a journey (how ritualized or how personally experienced we do not know)
through the Underworld, leading to a mystic union with the primary deity, very often the
Great Goddess. This kind of initiation also involved esoteric teachings, and one of its
central ideas had to do with overcoming death: how to earn a blessed existence after
death. The emphasis on the life-death opposition in the Maiden mythology (as seen in the
ogress-Maiden polarity) could in fact resemble mystery religions. We know for a fact that
Germanic religions were influenced by Celtic and (often through them) other IndoEuropean religions such as the Greek and the Mediterranian ones, so that a link to
Antique mystery religion would not be an impossibility. Michael Enright has pointed out
that the emerging Germanic warrior tribes were greatly influenced by Celtic culture and
religion at the end of the Celtic Iron Age (which started from about 500 B.C.). Enright
shows that the ideology of the lady with a mead cup and the German liquor ritual was
borrowed from the Celtic upper classes when Germanic tribes evolved their own class
hierarchy. The Celts again were certainly influenced by Mediterranian culture through
mercenaries and merchants. This period is the same that saw a wide variety of mystery
cults in the Mediterranian. In fact, the way the Maiden mythology is conveyed certainly
indicates a degree of secrecy and mystery: it has to be deciphered through intricate
symbols and is never explained or presented in complete. All in all, Maiden mythology is

144

not restricted to covering consecration of kingship. It appears that the Maiden will teach
anyone who seeks her through the realm of death and who has the power to withstand
that realm.

As to the idea that Maiden mythology reflects cultic practice, we have the archaeological
evidences pointed out by Enright, as referred to in ch. 8.5. The Maiden with the Mead
had her living counterpart in the world of Germanic tribal society. She was a woman
holding a spoon sieve or other equipment for the ladling and serving of mead, and she
was buried with cauldrons which designs were often of great antiquity and elaboration,
and of obvious cultic purpose. She was also buried with jewellery showing her high rank,
equipment for spinning and weaving which was forever associated with divination and
fate-magic in the Germanic world. Finally, she would often have a staff which was
exclusively for women of her rank, identified as a cult staff by the archaeologists, as
well as objects that she had carried in a pouch in her belt. She has been found in burial
sites from before the birth of Christ up to the last pagan strongholds in Scandinavia. Her
cult was old and of great continuity and popularity. Her grave always holds a special
position in the burial site, showing her as a revered and important person: in one site she
is at the center with all the other graves laid in a half-moon formation around her. The
finds strongly suggest a religious function, and Enright identifies the women as the
prophetesses who held such authority in early Germanic societies. He also sees the
connection between them and a goddess cult. According to Enright, the queens offering
mead in later medieval literature were their descendants.

Michael Enright has argued that the (non-religious) literary evidence shows that the
living Mead-Ladys main function was to establish brotherhood and social positions
through a ritual in the kings hall. This would appear to be true, and reminds me of the
idea of Freyia arranging seats in the hall. The arrangement of seats was important in
Norse and Germanic society, showing the exact social position of each individual.
Freyias arrangement of seats takes place, however, in an afterlife-realm. Extending our
idea of the living Mead-Lady to the supernatural Maiden figure, we see that the Maiden,
first and foremost, initiates and consecrates. Perhaps, reflecting how the living Mead-

145

Lady established the social positions of men within a warband by the chieftains table,
the Maiden established the spiritual (and thus social, religious) position of the neophyte.

Regarding the possibility of an actual ritual setting behind the Maiden mythology, the
womens staffs could perhaps indicate the involvement of women much like those who
would later be recognized in Norse written sources as the vlur. Indeed, the number nine
would further associate the vlur with Maiden-mythology; The vlva of Eiriks saga was
the last in a company of nine sisters, and the vlva of rvar Odds saga had nine
apprentices of either sex in her following. Gullveig died three times and was reborn three
times; a three by three count resulting in the number nine. A ritual enactment of the myth
could, at some point in history, easily have involved a vlva both as master of initiation,
as suggested in ch. 7.1, and as the representative of the goddess herself, ladling out the
precious mead and offering her cup and her embrace to the consecrated.

146

Appendixes
Appendix I to chapter 4.2: Hvaml st. 104-110
104. Enn aldna iotun ec sotta,
nu em ec aptr um kominn,
ft gat ec thegiandi thar;
margom orthom melta ec i minn frama
i Suttungs slom.

To the old giant I went

now I have come back again
Little I would have got there, without speaking
many words I used to my advantage
In the hall of Suttungr

105. Gunnlad mer um gaf gullnom stli

drycc ins dyra miathar; ill ithgiold
let ec hana eptir hafa
sins ins heila hugar
sins ins svara seva

Gunnld gave me, from her golden throne

the precious drink of mead; a poor payment
I let her have in return
for her whole soul325
for her burdened spirit

106. Rata munn letomc rms um f

oc om griot gnaga; yfir oc undir
stodomc iotna vegir, sva hetta ec hafdi til

I made a way for myself with the auger`s mouth

and gnawed through the mountain; above and underneath
were the paths of the giants; thus I risked my head

107. Vel keyptz litar hefi ec vel notith

fss er frothom vant; thviat drerir
er nu upp kominn alda vs iartha

he well-bought thing I have well enjoyed

The wise lack for little; for Poetry Stir
has now come up here, to Earths old sanctuary

108. Ifi er mer , at ec vera en kominn

iotna gordom or, ef ec Gunnladar ne nytac,
ennar godo kono, theirrar er lagdomc arm yfir

I doubt that I would have come back

from the halls of giants, if I had not used Gunnld
- that good woman, whom I put my arms around

109. Ens hindra dags gengo hrimthursar

Hava rths at fregna, Hava hallo i;
at Balverci theur spurdo,
ef hann veri med barndom cominn
etha hefdi hanom Suttungr of sit

From the next day on the frost-ogres went

to ask advice from the High One, in the High One`s hall
about Harm-Doer they asked
if he had come among the binding powers [the gods]
or if he had died by Suttungrs hands

110, Bugeith dinn hygg ek at unnit hafij

Hvat skal hans trygdom trua?
Suttung svikinn hann let sumbli fra
oc grotta Gunnlado.

A ring-oath, I believe that dinn swore

who can now trust his words?
he stole Suttungrs drink by treason
and made Gunnld weep

325

hugr: soul, spirit, will, intent, desire, thought, heart, love

147

Appendix II to chapter 4.2:

Hvaml st. 138-141

138. Veit ec at ec hecc vindga meidi a

netr alla nio, geiri undathr
oc gefinn Odni, sialfr sialfom mer
a theim meithi, er mangi veit
hvers hann af rtom renn

I know that I hung in the wind-swept tree

nine whole nights, stabbed with spears
and given to dinn, given self to myself
on that tree of which few know
from where its roots run

139.Vith hleifi mic seldo

ne vith hornigi, nysta ec nithr,
nam ec up rnar,
opandi nam, fell ec aptr thadan

No bread was given to me

they brought no horn - I peered down
I took up the runes
screaming I took them, then I fell back there

140. Fimbulliod no nam ec enom ;

fregia syni Balthorns, Bestla fathir
oc ec dryc of gat ens dyra miathar
asinn Odreri

Nine powerful spell-songs I learned from

the famous son of Bolthorn, Bestlas father
and I had a drink of precious mead
served from Poetry Stir

141. Tha nam ec frovaz

oc frothr vera, oc vaxa oc vel hafaz;
ord mer af ordi orz leitadi
verc mer af verki verks leitadi

Then I learned to be wise

and to be learned; and grow, and to live well
words from words found more words to me
deed from deeds found more deeds for me

Appendix III to chapter 4.4: Vafthrudnisml st. 36-37 about the Eagle
Corpse Swallower and the Origin of the Winds in the World
36.dinn quad:
Segdu that ith niunda, allz thik svinnan queda,
oc thu, Vafthrudnir, vitir:
hvadan vindr um komr, sv at ferr vg yfir?
e menn hann sialfan um si?

dinn spoke:
Tell me the ninth, all say you are wise
and you, Vafthrudnir, know:
From where comes the wind that
moves across waves which men never see in itself?

37. Vafthrudnir quad:

Hrsvelgr heitir, er sitr a himins enda,
iotunn i arnar ham;
af hans vengiom queda vind koma
alla menn yfir.

Vafthrudnir spoke:
He is called Corpse-Swallower, who sits
at the end of heaven a giant in eagles body
From his wings, it is said, the wind blows
over all human beings.

148

Appendix IV to chapter 4.6: Snorri about all the arts of dinn dinn
as divine archetype
6. It has been said, and it should be true, that when s-dinn and with him the diar [gods] came to the
Northern countries, they took up and taught the sports that people have been practicing a long time
afterwards. dinn was the greatest, and from him they learned the sports, for he knew them first, all of
them, at least most of them. (...) he spoke so well and so smoothly that everybody who heard what he said,
thought that to be the only truth. He said everything with rhyme, just like people now speak forth what is
called poetry; he and his sacrificial priests are called verse-smiths, for it was with them that the art came up
to the Northern countries. dinn could do this during a battle, that his enemies became blind or deaf or
filled with terror, and their weapons did not bite more than sticks, but his own men went without armor and
were crazy like dogs or wolves, they bit their shields, were strong as bears or oxen; they killed all the
people, and neither fire nor iron could harm them that is called to go berserk.
7. dinn could change shape; then his body lay like dead or sleeping, but he himself was bird or fourlegged animal, fish or serpent, and could travel in an instant to distant countries, in his own service or for
the sake of others. He could also do other things, only with words could he quench a fire, calm the ocean
and turn the wind wherever he wanted. (...) He had with him the head of Mimir, it told him the news from
all the worlds beyond; sometimes he woke up the dead from the earth or sat below a hanged man (...) He
had two ravens, which he had taught to speak, and they flew widely across the lands and told him the news.
From all this he became greatly wise.
All these arts did he teach to others through runes and through a kind of songs called galdr [spell-songs]
(...) dinn knew that sport which contains the greatest power, and he practiced it himself; it is called seidr,
and from it he could know the destinies of people, and things that had yet to happen, and he could give to
people death or accident or bad health, he could take the wit or the power from people and give to others.
But this sorcery implies a lot of unmanliness for those who practice it, so that men-folk could not practice it
without shame, and they taught it to the priestesses.
dinn (,.,) knew songs that could get everything to open up for him; earth and mountain, rock and
mounds, and he bound with words those who dwelled in there, entered and took what he wanted.[my
outlining](...) Most of his arts he taught to the sacrificial priests, and they were next to him in wisdom and
magical arts.(...) (Snorres Kongesagaer, 1944, p. 5, 6 my translation from the Norwegian)

Appendix V to chapter 4.8: Skrnisml st.10: Skrnir speaks to his

Horse about the Dark and Dewy Road the Giant World and the too
Powerful Giant
Skrnir melti vith hestinn:
10, Myrct er ti, mal queth ec ocr fara
vrig fioll yfir
thursa thioth yfir
badir vith comumc, eda ocr bada tecr
sa inn amatki iotunn

Skrnir said to the horse:

It is dark outside, I say it is time for us to go
over the dewy mountain
to rush over the thurses worlds:
we will both come back, or the too powerful giant
will take us both

149

Appendix VI: to chapter 5: What Snorri says about Freyia in the Gylfa-

ginning

Niord of Noatun had afterwards two children. The son was called Freyr and the daughter Freyia. They were
beautiful in appearance and mighty. (...) Freyia is the most glorious of the Asyniur [goddesses]. She has a
dwelling in heaven called Folkvangar, and wherever she rides to battle she gets half the slain, and the other
half dinn, as it says here: There is a place called Folkvang,[People`s Field] and there Freyia is in charge
of allotting seats in the hall. Half the slain she chooses each day, and half has dinn.
Sessrumnir [Seat-Roomer], her hall, it is large and beautiful. And when she travels she drives two cats
and sits in a chariot. She is the most approachable one for people to pray to, and from her name is derived
the honorific title whereby noble ladies are called frovur (noble ladies) She is very fond of love songs. It is
good to pray to her concerning love affairs.326
Freyia is highest in rank [among the goddesses] next to Frigg. She was married to someone called
Od[Poem, Ecstacy, Spirit] (...) Od went on long travels, and Freya stayed behind weeping, and her
tears are red gold. Freya has many names, and the reason for this is that she adopted various names when
she was traveling among stranger peoples looking for Od. She is called Mardoll [Dazzling Ocean] and
Horn [Flax], Gefn [Bestower], Syr [Sow]. Freya owned the Brising`s [Flame`s] necklace. She is
known as Lady of the Vanir [Vanads]327

Appendix VII to chapter 5.1: First stanza of Hyndluljod Freyias

invocation
Freyia quad:
1.Vaki mr meyia, vaki min vina
Hyndla systir! er i helli byr;
nu er rauckr rauckra,
rida vit skulum til Valhallar
ok til vess heilags.

Freyia spoke:
Wake up, maid of maidens, wake up my girlfriend
She-Dog, sister! Who lives in the rock cave!
Now is the darkness of darkness itself
We ought to ride to Val-hall
and to the holy sanctuaries.

Appendix VIII to chapter 5. : First stanza of Gragaldr Svpdags

invocation
Sonr kvad:
1.Vaki th, Gra! vaki th, gd kona!
vek ek thik daudra dura;
ef th that mant, at thu thinn mg bdir
til kumbldysjar koma.

326
327

The son spoke:

Wake up, Gra! Wake up, good woman!
I wake you by the doors of death;
if you remember that you told your son
to go to the burial mound.

Faulkes, 1987, p. 24
Faulkes, 1987, p. 29-30. The translations of the names are taken from Simek, 1996, and Norrn Ordbok.

150

Appendix IX to chapter 6: Volusp st. 20 on the Three Norns from

the Well of Urdr (Carving the Runes of Fate into the World Tree)
Thadan koma meyiar
margs vitandi
Thrjr, r theim sal
er undr tholli stendr
Urd htu eina, adra Verdandi
skru a skdi
Skuld ina thridju;
Thr lg lgdu, thr lf kuru
alda brnum, rlog segja

from there (The Well of Urdr) come the maidens

who know much
three, from that hall
which stands beneath the tree
Urdr (Origin) is the one called, the other Verdandi(Becoming)
they cut (runes) in the wood
Skuld (Debt) the third
they made the laws, they chose lives
for the children of the ages, to decide fate

Appendix X to chapter 6.4: Helgakvida Hundingsbani II st. 43: Sigrn

Compares Herself to the Hungry Ravens of dinn
Nu em ec sva fegin fyndi ocrom
sem tfrekir Othins haucar, er val vito,
varmar bradir, etha daugglitir dagsbrn si

Now I am as happy at our meeting

like the hungry hawks of Odin when they know slaughter
hot food, or, dew [=blood] -drenched they see the dawn

[They then drink the precious drink (dyrar veigar) and sleep together in the burial mound before Helgi
goes back to Valhall. Both Helgi and Sigrun are said to be reincarnated.]

Appendix XI to chapter 7.2: Helgakvida Hjrvardssonar st. 20 on Atlis

castration
20. Gneggia mundit thu, Atli!
ef thu geldr ne verir,
brettir sinn Hrimgerdr hala;
(...)

You would have neighed, Atli!

if you were not castrated,
Hrimgerdr is raising up her tail;
(...)

and Helgakvida Hundingsbani I st. 40 on Sinfiotlis castration

Gudmund quad:

Gudmund said:

40. Fadir varattu fenrisulfa,

ollom ellri
sva at ec muna, sizt dik geldo
fyr Gnipalundi tursameuiar.
Torsnesi

40. You did not father the Fenris-wolves

even if you are older than all of them
As far as I remember, you were castrated
in the Gnipa-Grove by thurse-maidens, a
at the Peak of Thorr

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Appendix XII to chapter 8.1: Grottasngr st. 10-18: The song of the
giantesses Fenja (Heath-Dweller) and Menja (Necklace-Bearer)
10. Komia Grotti or gria fialli
ne sa hinn harthi hallr or iorthu
ne moli sva mr bergrisa
ef vissi vitt vetr til hennar

The Mill-Stone would not have emerged from the gray mountains
nor would the hard stone block have come out of the earth
Nor would the rock-giants` maidens have grinded
if we had not known about the Mill-Stone`s design

11. Vr vetr niu vorum leikur

aufligar alnar firir iord nethan;
stothu meyiar at meginverkum
frthum sialfar setberg or stad

Nine winters we sisters grew

playing within the depths of the earth
the maidens desired to commit great deeds
we ourselves moved the flat-topped rock on its way

12. Velltum grioti of gard risa

sva at fold firir for skialfandi;
sva slongum vit snudga steini,
hofga halli at halir tocu

We rolled the boulder from the giant`s court

so that the earth went forth, shaking
Thus we turned the fast revolving stone
and gave to men`s hands the hard boulder

13. En vit sithan a Svitthiodu

framvisar tvr i folk stigum
sneiddum brynjur en brutum skioldu
gengum i gegnum
graserkiat lit

But later we, in the Svitjod-land [Sweden]

the prophetic two, towards the multitudes we moved
we cut armor, we broke shields
we traveled through
the gray-clothed armies [the dead (my remark)]

14. Stethum stilli, studdum annan(...)

We overthrew one, supported another (...)

15. Framm heldum thvi thau misseri

at vid kappum kenndar vorum(...)

We continued this for various seasons

so we became well-known for our deeds (...)

16. Nu erum komnar til konungs husa

Now we have come to the house of the king
miskunnarlausar oc at mani hafthar (...) treated without mercy, and held like slaves (...)
17. (...) nu muna hondum hvild vel gefa
adr fullmalit Frotha thycki

(...) now our hands may not rest

until Frodi thinks it is fully grounded

18. Hendr skolo hlda hardar trionor

vapm valdreyrug, vaki thu, Frothi!
Vaki thu Frothi! ef thu hlytha vill
songum ockrum oc sagum fornum.

Hands shall hold the hard shafts

weapons blood-stained; wake up now, Frodi!
wake up now, Frodi, if you wish to listen
to our songs and our ancient tales.

152

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Bugge, Sophus, ed. (1867 / 1965): SMUNDAR EDDA HINS FRDA
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