This goddess was mentioned in Section IX. It is the third form of earth
in its relation to Odin. Thus the lay of Vegtam, in the Elder Edda:
Rind a son shall bear
In the wintry halls,
He shall slay Odin’s son
When one night old.
He a hand will not wash,
Nor his hair comb,
Ere he to the pile has borne
Balder’s adversary.
Odin’s repeated wooing of this maid is expressed in Hávamál, of the
Elder Edda, as follows:
The mind only knows
What lies near the heart;
That alone is conscious of our affections.
No disease is worse
To a sensible man
Than not to be content with himself.
That I experienced
When in the reeds I sat
Awaiting my delight.
Body and soul to me
Was that discreet maiden:
Nevertheless I possess her not.
Billing’s lass[45]
On her couch I found,
Sun-bright, sleeping.
A prince’s joy
To me seemed naught,
If not with that form to live.
Yet nearer night, she said,
Must thou, Odin, come,
If thou wilt talk the maiden over;
All will be disastrous
Unless we alone
Are privy to such misdeed.
I returned,
Thinking to love
At her wise desire;
I thought
I should obtain
Her whole heart and love.
When next I came,
The bold warriors were
All awake,
With lights burning,
And bearing torches:
Thus was the way to pleasure closed.
But at the approach of morn,
When again I came,
The household all was sleeping;
The good damsel’s dog
Alone I found
Tied to the bed.
Many a fair maiden,
When rightly known,
Toward men is fickle:
That I experienced
When that discreet maiden I
Strove to win:
Contumely of every kind
That wily girl
Heaped upon me;
Nor of that damsel gained I aught.
This is clearly the same story as is related by Saxo Grammaticus, as
follows: Odin loves a maiden, whose name is Rind, and who has a stubborn
disposition. Odin tried to revenge the death of his son Balder. Then he
was told by Rosthiof that he with Rind, the daughter of the king of the
Ruthenians, would beget another son, who would revenge his brother’s
death. Odin put on his broad-brimmed hat and went into the service of
the king, and won the friendship of the king, for as commander he put a
whole army to flight. He revealed his love to the king, but when he
asked the maiden for a kiss, she struck his ear. The next year he came
as a smith, called himself Rosterus, and offered the maiden a
magnificent bracelet and beautiful rings; but she gave his ear another
blow. The third time he came as a young warrior, but she thrust him away
from her so violently that he fell head first to the ground. Finally he
came as a woman, called himself Vecha, and said he was a doctress. As
Rind’s servant-maid, he washed her feet in the evening, and when she
became sick he promised to cure her, but the remedy was so bitter that
she must first be bound. He represented to her father that it, even
against her wish, must operate with all its dissolving power, and
permeate all her limbs before she could be restored to health. Thus he
won the maiden, as some think, with the secret consent of her father.
But the gods banished Odin from Byzantium, and accepted in his place a
certain Oller, whom they even gave Odin’s name. This Oller had a bone,
which he had so charmed by incantations that he could traverse the ocean
with it as in a ship. Oller was banished again by the gods, and betook
himself to Sweden; but Odin returned in his divine dignity and requested
his son Bous, whom Rind bad borne, and who showed a great proclivity for
war, to revenge the death of his brother. Saxo Grammaticus relates this
as confidently as if it were the most genuine history, not having the
faintest suspicion as to its mythical character.
Saxo’s Rosthiof is mentioned in the Elder Edda as Hross-thiofr
(horse-thief), of Hrimner’s (the frost’s rime’s) race. Saxo’s Vecha is
Odin, who in the Elder Edda is called Vak. The latter portion of the
myth is not given in Hávamál, and were it not for faithful Saxo we
should scarcely understand that portion of the Elder Edda which was
quoted above. But with the light that he sheds upon it there is no
longer any doubt. Rind is the earth, not generally speaking, but the
earth who after the death of Balder is consigned to the power of winter.
Does not the English word _rind_ remind us of the hard-frozen crust of
the earth? Defiantly and long she resists the love of Odin; in vain be
proffers her the ornaments of summer; in vain he reminds her of his
warlike deeds, the Norseman’s most cherished enterprise in the
summer-season. By his all-powerful witchcraft he must dissolve and as it
were melt her stubborn mind. Finally she gives birth to Vale, the strong
warrior.
In the incantation of Groa, in the Elder Edda, this is the first song
that the mother sings to her son:
I will sing to thee first
One that is thought most useful,
Which Rind sang to Ran;[46]
That from thy shoulders thou shouldst cast
What to thee seems irksome:
Let thyself thyself direct. (Be independent!)
What is it that seems so irksome to Rind and Ran, and that both cast
from their shoulders in order to become independent? It is the ice. When
Rind had thrown it off she requested the sea-goddess Ran to do likewise.
The Greeks have a myth corresponding somewhat to this. The god of the
heavens, Zeus, comes down in the rain into Hera’s lap; but when she
resisted his entreaties Zeus let fall a shower of rain, while she was
sitting on the top of a mountain, and he changed himself to a
nightingale (a symbol of spring-time). Then Hera compassionately took
the wet and dripping bird into her lap. But look at the difference! Hera
soon gives way and pities, but our Norse Rind makes a desperate
resistance. It repeatedly looks as if Odin had conquered, but the maid
reassumes her stubborn disposition. How true this is of the climate in
the northern latitudes! Rind is not inapplicable to our Wisconsin
winters.
Such is the physical interpretation of Odin’s relation to Frigg and
Rind. Heaven and earth are wedded together; and upon this marriage earth
presents itself in two forms: fruitful and blest, unfruitful and
imprisoned in the chains of cold and frost. As the king of the year Odin
embraces both of them. But Odin is also the spiritual (_aand_) king, who
unites himself with the human earthly mind. He finds it crude and
uncultured, but susceptible of impressions. Pure thoughts and noble
feelings are developed, which grow into blooming activities. But then
comes back again the unfeeling coldness and defiant stubbornness which
take possession of the mind, shutting out the influence of truth upon
the mind. It is a sad time when doubt and skepticism and despair every
night lay their leaden weight upon the poor man’s soul. However to the
honest seeker of truth it is only a transitory state of trial. A wise
Providence takes him with tender and patient hands again to his bosom.
He sends down showers of blessings or misfortunes upon him. With his
mild breath he melts the frozen heart, and it at once clothes itself
with garlands of divinest hues. With all his charms he touches the
wintry _rind_ that encases us, and the mind stands forth unmanacled and
free. What to the year is light summer and dark winter is to us bright
and gloomy periods of our existence, that succeed each other in their
turn, advancing or impeding our spiritual development, which must
continue forever. This is also contained in the myth about Odin and
Rind, nay, it is the better half.