(down in the lower world) to Urd's fountain. According to Völuspa (19),
this fountain is situated beneath the ash Ygdrasil. The conclusion drawn
by Gylfaginning by the aid of its Trojan premises is that since Urd's
fountain is situated in the heavens, and still under one of Ygdrasil's
roots, this root must be located still further up in the heavens. The
placing of the root is also done with consistency, so that we get the
following series of wrong localisations:--Down on the earth, Asgard-Troy;
thence up to the heavens the bridge Bifrost; above Bifrost, Urd's
fountain; high above Urd's fountain, one of Ygdrasil's three roots (which
in the mythology are all in the lower world).
Since one of Ygdrasil's roots thus had received its place far up in the
heavens, it became necessary to place a second root on a level with the
earth, and the third one was allowed to retain its position in the lower
world. Thus was produced a just distribution of the roots among the
three regions which in the conception of the middle ages constituted the
universe, namely, the heavens, the earth, and hell.
In this manner two myths were made to do service in regard to one of
the remaining Ygdrasil roots. The one myth was taken from Völuspa,
where it was learned that Mimer's fountain is situated below the
sacred world-tree; the other was Grimnismal (31), where we are told
that frost-giants dwell under one of the three roots. At the time when
Gylfaginning was written, and still later, popular traditions told that
Gudmund-Mimer was of giant descent (see the middle-age sagas narrated
above). From this Gylfaginning draws the conclusion that Mimer was a
frost-giant, and it identifies the root which extends to the frost-giants
with the root that extends to Mimer's fountain. Thus this fountain of
creative power, of world-preservation, of wisdom, and of poetry receives
from Gylfaginning its place in the abode of the powers of frost, hostile
to gods and to men, in the land of the frost-giants, which Gylfaginning
regards as being Jotunheim, bordering on the earth.
In this way Gylfaginning, with the Trojan hypothesis as its
starting-point, has gotten so far that it has separated from the lower
world with its three realms and three fountains Urd's realm and fountain,
they being transferred to the heavens, and Mimer's realm and fountain,
they being transferred to Jotunheim. In the mythology these two realms
were the subterranean regions of bliss, and the third, Nifelhel, with
the regions subject to it, was the abode of the damned. After these
separations were made, Gylfaginning, to be logical, had to assume that
the lower world of the heathens was exclusively a realm of misery and
torture, a sort of counterpart of the hell of the Church. This conclusion
is also drawn with due consistency, and Ygdrasil's third root, which in
the mythology descended to the well Hvergelmer and to the lower world
of the frost-giants, Nifelhel, Nifelheim, extends over the whole lower
world, the latter being regarded as identical with Nifelheim and the
places of punishment therewith connected.
This result carries with it another. The goddess of the lower world, and
particularly of its domain of bliss, was in the mythology, as shall be
shown below, the goddess of fate and death, Urd, also called Hel, when
named after the country over which she ruled. In a local sense, the
name Hel could be applied partly to the whole lower world, which rarely
happened, partly to Urd's and Mimer's realms of bliss, which was more
common, and Hel was then the opposite of Nifelhel, which was solely the
home of misery and torture. Proofs of this shall be given below. But when
the lower world had been changed to a sort of hell, the name Hel, both
in its local and in its personal sense, must undergo a similar change,
and since Urd (the real Hel) was transferred to the heavens, there was
nothing to hinder Gylfaginning from substituting for the queen of the
lower world Loke's daughter cast down into Nifelhel and giving her the
name Hel and the sceptre over the whole lower world.
This method is also pursued by Gylfaginning's author without hesitation,
although he had the best of reasons for suspecting its correctness.
A certain hesitancy might here have been in order. According to the
mythology, the pure and pious Asa-god Balder comes to Hel, that is to
say, to the lower world, and to one of its realms of bliss. But after
the transformation to which the lower world had been subjected in
Gylfaginning's system, the descent of Balder to Hel must have meant a
descent to and a remaining in the world of misery and torture, and a
relation of subject to the daughter of Loke. This should have awakened
doubts in the mind of the author of Gylfaginning. But even here he had
the courage to be true to his premises, and without even thinking of the
absurdity in which he involves himself, he goes on and endows the sister
of the Midgard-serpent and of the Fenris-wolf with that perfect power
which before belonged to Destiny personified, so that the same gods who
before had cast the horrible child Loke down into the ninth region of
Nifelhel are now compelled to send a minister-plenipotentiary to her
majesty to treat with her and pray for Balder's liberation.
But finally, there comes a point where the courage of consistency
fails Gylfaginning. The manner in which it has placed the roots of the
world-tree makes us first of all conceive Ygdrasil as lying horizontal in
space. An attempt to make this matter intelligible can produce no other
picture of Ygdrasil, in accord with the statements of Gylfaginning, than
the following:
The root over heaven
and over Urd's fountain.
-------------------------+
|
The root over Jotunheim |
and over Mimer's +-----------------------------
well. |
-------------------------+
|
The root over the lower +-----------------------------
world and over | Ygdrasil's trunk.
Hvergelmer's fountain. |
-------------------------+
But Gylfaginning is not disposed to draw this conclusion. On the
contrary, it insists that Ygdrasil stands erect on its three roots. How
we, then, are to conceive its roots as united one with the other and with
the trunk of this it very prudently leaves us in ignorance, for this is
beyond the range of human imagination.
The contrast between the mythological doctrine in regard to the three
Ygdrasil roots, and Gylfaginning's view of the subject may easily be
demonstrated by the following parallels:
_The Mythology._ _Gylfaginning._
1. Ygdrasil has three roots. 1. Ygdrasil has three roots.
2. All three roots are subterranean. 2. One is in the lower world;
a second stands over Jotunheim
on a level with the earth; a
third stands over the heavens.
3. To each root corresponds 3. To each root corresponds
a fountain and a realm in the a fountain and a realm; the
lower world. The lower world realms are the heavens,
consists of three realms, each Jotunheim, and the lower world,
with its fountain and each which are located each under
with its root. its root.
4. Under one of the subterranean 4. Under one of the roots,
roots dwells the goddess that is the one which stands
of death and fate, Urd, over heaven, dwells Urd the
who is also called Hel, and in goddess of fate, and there is
her realm is Urd's fountain. Urd's fountain.
5. Under the other (subterranean)
root dwells Mimer. In his realm is
Mimer's fountain and Mimer's grove,
where a subterranean race of men
are preserved for the future world.
This root may, therefore, be said
to stand over mennskir menn
(Grimnersmal).
It is said that one of the
roots stands over mennskir menn
(Grimnersmal). By this is meant,
according to Gylfaginning, not
the root over Mimer's well, but
the root over Urd's fountain,
near which the Asas hold their
assemblies, for the Asas are
in reality men who dwelt on
earth in the city of Troy.
6. Under the third (subterranean) 6. Under the third (and
root dwell frost-giants. Under only subterranean) root dwell
this root is the well Hvergelmer, the souls of sinners and those
and the realm of the frost-giants who have died from sickness
is Nifelhel (Nifelheim). Under and age. Under this root is
Nifelhel are nine regions of torture. the well Hvergelmer and
the whole lower world. The
lower world is called Nifelhel
or Nifelheim, and contains
nine places of torture.
7. The sister of the Midgard-serpent 7. The sister of the
and of the Fenris-wolf was cast by Midgard-serpent and of the
the gods into the regions of torture Fenris-wolf was cast by the gods
under Nifelhel, and received the into the regions of torture
rule over the places where the under Nifelhel, and received
damned are punished. the rule over the whole lower
world, which consists of
Nifelhel with the nine regions
of torture.
8. The name Hel can be applied to 8. As Hel means the lower
the whole lower world, but means world, and as the sister of the
particularly that region of bliss Midgard-serpent governs the
where Urd's fountain is situated, whole lower world, she is
for Urd is the personal Hel. The meant by the personal Hel.
Loke-daughter in Nifelhel is
her slave and must obey her
commands.
Gylfaginning does not stop with the above results. It continues the chain
of its conclusions. After Hvergelmer has been selected by Gylfaginning
as the only fountain in the lower world, it should, since the lower
world has been made into a sort of hell, be a fountain of hell, and
in this respect easily recognised by the Christian conception of the
middle ages. In this new character Hvergelmer becomes the centre and
the worst place in Gylfaginning's description of the heathen Gehenna.
No doubt because the old dragon, which is hurled down into the abyss
(Revelation, chap. 20), is to be found in the hell-fountain of the
middle ages, Gylfaginning throws Nidhog down into Hvergelmer, which it
also fills with serpents and dead bodies found in Grimnismal (Str. 34,
35), where they have no connection with Hvergelmer. According to Völuspa
it is in Nastrands that Nidhog sucks and the wolf tears the dead bodies
(_náir_). Gylfaginning follows Völuspa in speaking of the other terrors
in Nastrands, but rejects Völuspa's statements about Nidhog and the wolf,
and casts both these beasts down into the Hvergelmer fountain. As shall
be shown below, the Hvergelmer of the mythology is the mother-fountain of
all waters, and is situated on a high plain in the lower world. Thence
its waters flow partly northward to Nifelheim, partly south to the
elysian fields of heathendom, and the waves sent in the latter direction
are shining, clear, and holy.
It was an old custom, at least in Iceland, that booths for the
accommodation of the visitors were built around a remote thing-stead,
or place for holding the parliament. Gylfaginning makes its Trojan Asas
follow the example of the Icelanders, and put up houses around the
thing-stead, which they selected near Urd's fountain, after they had
succeeded in securing by Bifrost a connection between Troy and heaven.
This done, Gylfaginning distributes as best it can the divine halls and
abodes of bliss mentioned in the mythology between Troy on the earth and
the thing-stead in heaven.
This may be sufficient to show that Gylfaginning's pretended account of
the old mythological cosmography is, on account of its making Troy the
starting-point, and doubtless also to some extent as a result of the
Christian methods of thought, with which the author interpreted the
heathen myths accessible to him, is simply a monstrous caricature of the
mythology, a caricature which is continued, not with complacency and
assurance, but in a confused and contradictory manner, in the eschatology
of Gylfaginning.
My chief task will now be to review and examine all the passages in the
Elder Edda's mythological songs, wherein the words Hel and Nifelhel
occur, in order to find out in this manner in which sense or senses
these words are there employed, and to note at the same time all the
passages which may come in my way and which are of importance to the myth
concerning the lower world.
57.
THE WORD HEL IN LINGUISTIC USAGE.
The Norse Hel is the same word as the Gothic _Halja_, the Old High German
_Hella_, the Anglo-Saxon _Hellia_, and the English Hell. On account of
its occurrence with similar signification in different Teutonic tongues
in their oldest linguistic monuments, scholars have been able to draw the
conclusion that the word points to a primitive Teutonic _Halja_, meaning
lower world, lower world divinity. It is believed to be related to the
Latin _oc-cul-ere_, _cel-are_, _clam_, and to mean the one who "hides,"
"conceals," "preserves."
When the books of the New Testament were for the first time translated
into a Teutonic tongue, into a Gothic dialect, the translator, Ulfilas,
had to find some way of distinguishing with suitable words between the
two realms of the lower world mentioned in the New Testament, Hades and
Gehenna (_geen a_).
Hades, the middle condition, and the locality corresponding to this
condition, which contains both fields of bliss and regions of torture,
he translated with Halja, doubtless because the signification of this
word corresponded most faithfully with the meaning of the word Hades. For
Gehenna, hell, he used the borrowed word _gaiainna_.
The Old High German translation also reproduces Hades with the word
_Hella_. For Gehenna it uses two expressions compounded with Hella. One
of these, Hellawisi, belongs to the form which afterwards predominated
in Scandinavia. Both the compounds bear testimony that the place of
punishment in the lower world could not be expressed with Hella, but
it was necessary to add a word, which showed that a subterranean place
_of punishment_ was meant. The same word for Gehenna is found among the
Christian Teutons in England, namely, Hellewite; that is to say, _the_
Hellia, that part of the lower world where it is necessary to do penance
(_vite_) for one's sins. From England the expression doubtless came to
Scandinavia, where we find in the Icelandic _Helvíti_, in the Swedish
_Hälvete_, and in the Danish _Helvede_. In the Icelandic literature it
is found for the first time in Hallfred, the same skald who with great
hesitation permitted himself to be persuaded by Olaf Trygveson to abandon
the faith of his fathers.
Many centuries before Scandinavia was converted to Christianity, the
Roman Church had very nearly obliterated the boundary line between the
subterranean Hades and Gehenna of the New Testament. The lower world had,
as a whole, become a realm of torture, though with various gradations.
Regions of bliss were no longer to be found there, and for Hel in the
sense in which Ulfilas used Halja, and the Old High German translation
Hella, there was no longer room in the Christian conception. In the
North, Hel was therefore permitted to remain a heathen word, and to
retain its heathen signification as long as the Christian generations
were able or cared to preserve it. It is natural that the memory of this
signification should gradually fade, and that the idea of the Christian
hell should gradually be transferred to the heathen _Hel_. This change
can be pretty accurately traced in the Old Norse literature. It came
slowly, for the doctrine in regard to the lower world in the Teutonic
religion addressed itself powerfully to the imagination, and, as appears
from a careful examination, far from being indefinite in its outlines, it
was, on the contrary, described with the clearest lines and most vivid
colours, even down to the minutest details. Not until the thirteenth
century could such a description of the heathen Hel as Gylfaginning's be
possible and find readers who would accept it. But not even then were the
memories (preserved in fragments from the heathen days) in regard to the
lower world doctrine so confused, but that it was possible to present a
far more faithful (or rather not so utterly false) description thereof.
Gylfaginning's representation of the heathen Hades is based less on the
then existing confusion of the traditions than on the conclusions drawn
from the author's own false premises.
In determining the question, how far Hel among the heathen Scandinavians
has had a meaning identical with or similar to that which Halja and
Hella had among their Gothic and German kinsmen--that is to say, the
signification of a death-kingdom of such a nature that it could not
with linguistic propriety be used in translating Gehenna--we must first
consult that which really is the oldest source, the usage of the spoken
language in expressions where Hel is found. Such expressions show by the
very presence of Hel that they have been handed down from heathendom, or
have been formed in analogy with old heathen phrases. One of these modes
of speech still exists: _i hjäl_ (slå ihjäl, svälta ihjäl, frysa ihjäl,
&c.), which is the Old Norse _i Hel_. We do not use this expression in
the sense that a person killed by a weapon, famine, or frost is relegated
to the abyss of torture. Still less could the heathens have used it in
that sense. The phrase would never have been created if the word Hel had
especially conveyed the notion of a place of punishment. Already in a
very remote age _í Hel_ had acquired the abstract meaning _to death_, but
in such a manner that the phrase easily suggested the concrete idea--the
realm of death (an example of this will be given below). What there is
to be said about _í Hel_ also applies to such phrases as _bida Heljar_,
to await Hel (_death_); _buask til Heljar_, to become equipped for the
journey to Hel (to be shrouded); _liggja milli heims ok Heljar_, to lie
between this world and Hel (between life and death); _liggja á Heljar
thremi_, to lie on Hel's threshold. A funeral could be called a _Helför_
(a Hel-journey); fatal illness _Helsótt_ (Hel-sickness); the deceased
could be called _Helgengnir_ (those gone to Hel). Of friends it is said
that Hel (death) alone could separate them (Fornm., vii. 233).
Thus it is evident that Hel, in the more general local sense of the word,
referred to a place common for all the dead, and that the word was used
without any additional suggestion of damnation and torture in the minds
of those employing it.
58.
THE WORD HEL IN VEGTAMSKVIDA AND IN VAFTHRUDNERSMAL.
When Odin, according to Vegtamskvida, resolved to get reliable
information in the lower world in regard to the fate which threatened
Balder, he saddled his Sleipner and rode thither. On the way he took he
came first to Nifelhel. While he was still in Nifelhel, he met on his way
a dog bloody about the breast, which came from the direction where that
division of the lower world is situated, which is called Hel. Thus the
rider and the dog came from opposite directions, and the former continued
his course in the direction whence the latter came. The dog turned, and
long pursued Odin with his barking. Then the rider reached a _foldvegr_,
that is to say, a road along grass-grown plains. The way resounded under
the hoofs of the steed. Then Odin finally came to a high dwelling which
is called _Heljarrann_ or _Heljar rann_. The name of the dwelling shows
that it was situated in Hel, not in Nifelhel. This latter realm of the
lower world Odin now had had behind him ever since he reached the green
fields, and since the dog, evidently a watch of the borders between
Nifelhel and Hel, had left him in peace. The high dwelling was decorated
as for a feast, and mead was served. It was, Odin learned, the abode
where the _ásmegir_ longingly waited for the arrival of Balder. Thus
Vegtamskvida:
2. Ræid hann (Odin) nidr thathan
Niflhæljar til,
mætti hann hvælpi
theim ær or hæliu kom.
3. Sa var blodugr
urn briost framan
ok galldrs födur
gol um læengi.
4. Framm ræid Odinn,
foldvægr dundi,
ban kom at hafu
Hæliar ranni.
7. Her standr Balldri
of brugginn miödr.
Ok ásmegir
i ofvæno.
Vegtamskvida distinguishes distinctly between Nifelhel and Hel. In Hel
is the dwelling which awaits the son of the gods, the noblest and most
pious of all the Asas. The dwelling, which reveals a lavish splendour, is
described as the very antithesis of that awful abode which, according to
Gylfaginning, belongs to the queen of the lower world. In Vafthrudnersmal
(43) the old giant says:
Fra iotna runom Of the runes of giants
oc allra goda and of all the gods
ec kann segia satt, I can speak truly;
thviat hvern hefi ec for I have been
heim um komit: in every world.
nio kom ec heima In nine worlds I came
fyr Niflhel nedan, below Nifelhel,
hinig deyja or Helio halir. thither die "halir" from Hel.
Like Vegtamskvida, so Vafthrudnersmal also distinguishes distinctly
between Hel and Nifelhel, particularly in those most remarkable words
that thither, _i.e._, to Nifelhel and the regions subject to it, _die_
"halir" from Hel. _Halir_ means men, human beings; applied to beings in
the lower world _halir_ means dead men, the spirits of deceased human
beings (cp. Allvism., 18, 6; 20, 6; 26, 6; 32, 6; 34, 6, with 28, 3).
Accordingly, nothing less is here said than that deceased persons who
have come to the realm called Hel, may there be subject to a second
death, and that through this second death they come to Nifelhel. Thus
the same sharp distinction is here made between life in Hel and in
Nifelhel as between life on earth and that in Hel. These two subterranean
realms must therefore represent very different conditions. What these
different conditions are, Vafthrudnersmal does not inform us, nor will I
anticipate the investigation on this point; still less will I appeal to
Gylfaginning's assurance that the realms of torture lie under Nifelhel,
and that it is wicked men (_vândir menn_) who are obliged to cross the
border from Hel to Nifelhel. So far it must be borne in mind that it was
in Nifelhel Odin met the bloody dog-demon, who barked at the Asa-majesty,
though he could not hinder the father of the mighty and protecting
sorceries from continuing his journey; while it was in Hel, on the other
hand, that Odin saw the splendid abode where the _ásmegir_ had already
served the precious subterranean mead for his son, the just Balder. This
argues that they who through a second death get over the border from
Hel to Nifelhel, do not by this transfer get a better fate than that to
which Hel invites those who have died the first death. Balder in the one
realm, the blood-stained kinsman of Cerberus in the other--this is, for
the present, the only, but not unimportant weight in the balance which is
to determine the question whether that border-line which a second death
draws between Hel and Nifelhel is the boundary between a realm of bliss
and a realm of suffering, and in this case, whether Hel or Nifelhel is
the realm of bliss.
This expression in Vafthrudnersmal, _hinig deyja or Helio halir_, also
forces to the front another question, which as long as it remains
unanswered, makes the former question more complicated. If Hel is a realm
of bliss, and if Nifelhel with the regions subject thereto is a realm of
unhappiness, then why do not the souls of the damned go at once to their
final destination, but are taken first to the realm of bliss, then to
the realm of anguish and pain, that is, after they have died the second
death on the boundary-line between the two? And if, on the contrary, Hel
were the realm of unhappiness and Nifelhel offered a better lot, then why
should they who are destined for a better fate, first be brought to it
through the world of torture, and then be separated from the latter by a
second death before they could gain the more happy goal? These questions
cannot be answered until later on.
59.
THE WORD HEL IN GRIMNERSMAL. HVERGELMER'S FOUNTAIN AND ITS
DEFENDERS. THE BORDER MOUNTAIN BETWEEN HEL AND NIFELHEL. THE
WORD HELBLOTINN IN THORSDRAPA.
In Grimnersmal the word Hel occurs twice (str. 28, 31), and this poem is
(together with Gylfaginning) the only ancient record which gives us any
information about the well Hvergelmer under this name (str. 26, ff.).