attend the entrance of the child into the world, and who have to weave
the threads of the newborn babe into the web of the families and events.
Like Urd and her sisters, they too are called norns. If it is a child
who is to be a great and famous man, Urd herself and her sisters may be
present for the above purpose (see No. 30 in regard to Halfdan's birth).
A few strophes incorporated in Fafnersmal from a heathen didactic poem,
now lost (Fafn., 12-15), speak of norns whose task it is to determine and
assist the arrival of the child into this world. _Nornir, er naudgaunglar
'ro oc kjósa mædr frá maugum._ The expression _kjósa mædr frá maugum_,
"to choose mothers from descendants," seems obscure, and can under all
circumstances not mean simply "to deliver mothers of children." The word
_kjósa_ is never used in any other sense than to choose, elect, select.
Here it must then mean to choose, elect as mothers; and the expression
"from descendants" is incomprehensible, if we do not on the one hand
conceive a crowd of eventual descendants, who at the threshold of life
are waiting for mothers in order to become born into this world, and on
the other hand women who are to be mothers, but in reference to whom
it has not yet been determined which descendant each one is to call
hers among the great waiting crowd, until those norns which we are here
discussing resolve on that point, and _from_ the indefinite crowd of
waiting _megir_ choose mothers _for_ those children which are especially
destined for them.
These norns are, according to Fafn., 13, of different birth. Some are
Asa-kinswomen, others of elf-race, and again others are daughters of
Dvalin. In regard to the last-named it should be remembered that Dvalin,
their father, through artists of his circle, decorated the citadel,
within which a future generation of men await the regeneration of the
world, and that the mythology has associated him intimately with the
elf of the morning dawn, Delling, who guards the citadel of the race of
regeneration against all that is evil and all that ought not to enter
(see No. 53). There are reasons (see No. 95) for assuming that these
dises of birth were Honer's maid-servants at the same time as they were
Urd's, just as the valkyries are Urd's and Odin's maid-servants at the
same time (see below).
To the other class of Urd's maid-servants belong those lower-world beings
which execute her resolves of death, and conduct the souls of the dead to
the lower world.
Foremost among the psycho-messengers (psycho-pomps), the attendants of
the dead, we note that group of shield-maids called valkyries. As Odin
and Freyja got the right of choosing on the battlefield, the valkyries
have received Asgard as their abode. There they bring the mead-horns to
the Asas and einherjes, when they do not ride on Valfather's errands
(Völuspa, 31; Grimnersmal, 36; Eiriksm., 1; Ulf Ugges. Skaldsk., 238).
But the third of the norns, Skuld, is the chief one in this group
(Völuspa, 31), and, as shall be shown below, they for ever remain in the
most intimate association with Urd and the lower world.
65.
ON THE COSMOGRAPHY. THE WAY OF THOSE FALLEN BY THE SWORD TO
VALHAL IS THROUGH THE LOWER WORLD.
The modern conception of the removal of those fallen by the sword to
Asgard is that the valkyries carried them immediately through blue space
to the halls above. The heathens did not conceive the matter in this
manner.
It is true that the mythological horses might carry their riders through
the air without pressing a firm foundation with their hoofs. But such a
mode of travel was not the rule, even among the gods, and, when it did
happen, it attracted attention even among them. Compare Gylfaginning,
i. 118, which quotes strophes from a heathen source. The bridge Bifrost
would not have been built or established for the daily connection between
Asgard and Urd's subterranean realm if it had been unnecessary in the
mythological world of fancy. Mane's way in space would not have been
regarded as a road in the concrete sense, that quakes and rattles when
Thor's thunder-chariot passes over it (Haustl., Skaldsk., ch. 16), had
it not been thought that Mane was safer on a firm road than without one
of that sort. To every child that grew up in the homes of our heathen
fathers the question must have lain near at hand, what such roads and
bridges were for, if the gods had no advantage from them. The mythology
had to be prepared for such questions, and in this, as in other cases, it
had answers wherewith to satisfy that claim on causality and consistency
which even the most naïve view of the world presents. The answer was: If
the Bifrost bridge breaks under its riders, as is to happen in course of
time, then their horses would have to _swim_ in the sea of air (_Bilraust
brotnar, er their á bru fara, oc svima i modo marir_--Fafn., 15., compare
a strophe of Kormak, Kormak's Saga, p. 259, where the atmosphere is
called the fjord of the gods, _Dia fjördr_). A horse does not swim as
fast and easily as it runs. The different possibilities of travel are
associated with different kinds of exertion and swiftness. The one method
is more adequate to the purpose than the other. The solid connections
which were used by the gods and which the mythology built in space are,
accordingly, objects of advantage and convenience. The valkyries, riding
at the head of their chosen heroes, as well as the gods, have found solid
roads advantageous, and the course they took with their favourites was
not the one presented in our mythological text-books. Grimnersmal (str.
21; see No. 93) informs us that the breadth of the atmospheric sea is too
great and its currents too strong for those riding on their horses from
the battlefield to wade across.
In the 45th chapter of Egil Skallagrimson's saga we read how Egil saved
himself from men, whom King Erik Blood-axe sent in pursuit of him to
Saud Isle. While they were searching for him there, he had stolen to
the vicinity of the place where the boat lay in which those in pursuit
had rowed across. Three warriors guarded the boat. Egil succeeded in
surprising them, and in giving one of them his death-wound ere the latter
was able to defend himself. The second fell in a duel on the strand.
The third, who sprang into the boat to make it loose, fell there after
an exchange of blows. The saga has preserved a strophe in which Egil
mentions this exploit to his brother Thorolf and his friend Arinbjorn,
whom he met after his flight from Saud Isle. There he says:
at thrymreynis thjónar
thrir nökkurrir Hlakkar,
til hásalar Heljar
helgengnir, för dvelja.
"Three of those who serve the tester of the valkyriedin (the warlike Erik
Blood-axe) will late return; they have gone to the lower world, to Hel's
high hall."
The fallen ones were king's men and warriors. They were slain by weapons
and fell at their posts of duty, one from a sudden, unexpected wound, the
others in open conflict. According to the conception of the mythological
text-books, these sword-slain men should have been conducted by valkyries
through the air to Valhal. But the skald Egil, who as a heathen born
about the year 904, and who as a contemporary of the sons of Harald
Fairhair must have known the mythological views of his fellow-heathen
believers better than the people of our time, assures us positively that
these men from King Erik's body-guard, instead of going immediately
to Valhal, went to the lower world and to Hel's high hall there. He
certainly would not have said anything of the sort, if those for whom
he composed the strophe had not regarded this idea as both possible and
correct.
The question now is: Does this Egil's statement stand alone and is it
in conflict with those other statements touching the same point which
the ancient heathen records have preserved for us? The answer is, that
in these ancient records there is not found a single passage in conflict
with Egil's idea, but that they all, on the contrary, fully agree with
his words, and that this harmony continues in the reports of the first
Christian centuries in regard to this subject.
All the dead and also those fallen by the sword come first to Hel. Thence
the sword-slain come to Asgard, if they have deserved this destiny.
In Gisle Surson's saga (ch. 24) is mentioned the custom of binding
Hel-shoes on the feet of the dead. Warriors in regard to whom there was
no doubt that Valhal was their final destiny received Hel-shoes like all
others, _that er tidska at binda mönnum helskó, sem menn, skulo á ganga
till Valhallar_. It would be impossible to explain this custom if it had
not been believed that those who were chosen for the joys of Valhal were
obliged, like all others, to travel _á Helvegum_. Wherever this custom
prevailed, Egil's view in regard to the fate which immediately awaited
sword-fallen men was general.
When Hermod betook himself to the lower world to find Balder he came,
as we know, to the golden bridge across the river _Gjöll_. Urd's
maid-servant, who watches the bridge, mentioned to him that the day
before five _fylki_ of dead men had rode across the same bridge.
Consequently all these dead are on horseback and they do not come
separately or a few at a time, but in large troops called _fylki_,
an expression which, in the Icelandic literature, denotes larger or
smaller divisions of an army--legions, cohorts, maniples or companies
in battle array; and with _fylki_ the verb _fylkja_, to form an army or
a division of an army in line of battle, is most intimately connected.
This indicates with sufficient clearness that the dead here in question
are men who have fallen on the field of battle and are on their way to
Hel, each one riding, in company with his fallen brothers in arms, with
those who belonged to his own _fylki_. The account presupposes that men
fallen by the sword, whose final destination is Asgard, first have to
ride down to the lower world. Else we would not find these _fylkes_ on a
Helway galloping across a subterranean bridge, into the same realm as had
received Balder and Nanna after death.
It has already been pointed out that Bifrost is the only connecting
link between Asgard and the lower regions of the universe. The air was
regarded as an ether sea which the bridge spanned, and although the
horses of mythology were able to swim in this sea, the solid connection
was of the greatest importance. The gods used the bridge every day
(Grimnismal, Gylfaginning). Frost giants and mountain-giants are anxious
to get possession of it, for it is the key to Asgard. It therefore
has its special watchman in the keen-eyed and vigilant Heimdal. When
in Ragnarok the gods ride to the last conflict they pass over Bifrost
(Fafnersmal). The bridge does not lead to Midgard. Its lower ends were
not conceived as situated among mortal men. It stood outside and below
the edge of the earth's crust both in the north and in the south. In the
south it descended to Urd's fountain and to the thingstead of the gods
in the lower world (see the accompanying drawing, intended to make these
facts intelligible). From this mythological topographical arrangement it
follows of necessity that the valkyries at the head of the chosen slain
must take their course through the lower world, by the way of Urd's
fountain and the thingstead of the gods, if they are to ride on Bifrost
bridge to Asgard, and not be obliged to betake themselves thither on
swimming horses.
[Illustration]
There are still two poems extant from the heathen time, which describe
the reception of sword-fallen kings in Valhal. The one describes the
reception of Erik Blood-axe, the other that of Hakon the Good.
When King Erik, with five other kings and their attendants of fallen
warriors, come riding up thither, the gods hear on their approach a
mighty din, as if the foundations of Asgard trembled. All the benches of
Valhal quake and tremble. What single probability can we now conceive as
to what the skald presupposed? Did he suppose that the chosen heroes came
on horses that swim in the air, and that the movements of the horses
in this element produced a noise that made Valhal tremble? Or that it
is Bifrost which thunders under the hoofs of hundreds of horses, and
quakes beneath their weight? There is scarcely need of an answer to this
alternative. Meanwhile the skald himself gives the answer. For the skald
makes Brage say that from the din and quaking it might be presumed that
it was Balder who was returning to the halls of the gods. Balder dwells
in the lower world; the connection between Asgard and the lower world is
Bifrost: this connection is of such a nature that it quakes and trembles
beneath the weight of horses and riders, and it is predicted in regard
to Bifrost that in Ragnarok it shall break under the weight of the host
of riders. Thus Brage's words show that it is Bifrost from which the
noise is heard when Erik and his men ride up to Valhal. But to get to
the southern end of Bifrost, Erik and his riders must have journeyed in
Hel, across Gjoll, and past the thingstead of the gods near Urd's well.
Thus it is by this road that the psychopomps of the heroes conduct their
favourites to their final destination.
In his grand poem "Hákonármal," Eyvind Skaldaspiller makes Odin send
the valkyries Gandul and Skagul "to choose among the kings of Yngve's
race some who are to come to Odin and abide in Valhal." It is not said
by which road the two valkyries betake themselves to Midgard, but when
they have arrived there they find that a battle is imminent between
the Yngve descendants, Hakon the Good, and the sons of Erik. Hakon is
just putting on his coat-of-mail, and immediately thereupon begins the
brilliantly-described battle. The sons of Erik are put to flight, but
the victor Hakon is wounded by an arrow, and after the end of the battle
he sits on the battlefield, surrounded by his heroes, "with shields cut
by swords and with byrnies pierced by arrows." Gandul and Skagul, "maids
on horseback, with wisdom in their countenances, with helmets on their
heads, and with shields before them," are near the king. The latter hears
that Gandul, "leaning on her spear," says to Skagul that the wound is to
cause the king's death, and now a conversation begins between Hakon and
Skagul, who confirms what Gandul has said, and does so with the following
words:
Rida vit nú skulum,
kvad hin rika Skagul,
græna heima goda
Odni at segja,
at un mun allvaldr koma
á hann sjálfan at sjá.
"We two (Gandul and Skagul) shall now, quoth the mighty Skagul, _ride
o'er green realms_ (or worlds) _of the gods_ in order to say to Odin that
now a great king is coming to see him."
Here we get definite information in regard to which way the valkyries
journey between Asgard and Midgard. The fields through which the road
goes, and which are beaten by the hoofs of their horses, are _green
realms of the gods_ (worlds, _heimar_).
With these green realms Eyvind has not meant the blue ether.
He distinguishes between blue and green. The sea he calls blue
(_blámær_--see Heimskringla). What he expressly states, and to which we
must confine ourselves, is that, according to his cosmological conception
and that of his heathen fellow-believers, there were realms clothed in
green and inhabited by divinities on the route the valkyries had to
take when they from a battlefield in Midgard betook themselves back to
Valhal and Asgard. But as valkyries and the elect ride on Bifrost up to
Valhal, Bifrost, which goes down to Urd's well, must be the connecting
link between the realms decked with green and Asgard. The _grænar heimar_
through which the valkyries have to pass are therefore the realms of the
lower world.
Among the realms or "worlds" which constituted the mythological
universe, the realms of bliss in the lower world were those which might
particularly be characterised as the green. Their groves and blooming
meadows and fields of waving grain were never touched by decay or frost,
and as such they were cherished by the popular fancy for centuries after
the introduction of Christianity. The Low German language has also
rescued the memory thereof in the expression _gróni godes wang_ (Hel.,
94, 24). That the green realms of the lower world are called realms of
the gods is also proper, for they have contained and do contain many
beings of a higher or lower divine rank. There dwells the divine mother
Nat, worshipped by the Teutons; there Thor's mother and her brother and
sister Njord and Fulla are fostered; there Balder, Nanna, and _Hödr_
are to dwell until Ragnarok; there Delling, Billing, Rind, Dag, Mane,
and Sol, and all the clan of artists gathered around Mimer, they who
"smithy" living beings, vegetation, and ornaments, have their halls;
there was born Odin's son Vale. Of the mythological divinities, only
a small number were fostered in Asgard. When Gandul and Skagul at the
head of sword-fallen men ride "o'er the green worlds of the gods," this
agrees with the statement in the myth about Hermod's journey to Hel, that
"fylkes" of dead riders gallop over the subterranean gold-bridge, on the
other side of which glorious regions are situated, and with the statement
in Vegtamskvida that Odin, when he had left Nifelhel behind him, came to
a _foldvegr_, a way over green plains, by which he reaches the hall that
awaits Balder.
In the heroic songs of the Elder Edda, and in other poems from the
centuries immediately succeeding the introduction of Christianity, the
memory survives that the heroes journey to the lower world. Sigurd
Fafnersbane comes to Hel. Of one of Atle's brothers who fell by Gudrun's
sword it is said, _i Helju hon thana hafdi_ (Atlam., 51). In the same
poem, strophe 54, one of the Niflungs says of a sword-fallen foe that
they had him _lamdan til Heljar_.
The mythic tradition is supported by linguistic usage, which, in such
phrases as _berja i Hel_, _drepa i Hel_, _drepa til Heljar_, _færa til
Heljar_, indicated that those fallen by the sword also had to descend to
the realm of death.
The memory of valkyries, subordinate to the goddess of fate and death,
and belonging with her to the class of norns, continued to flourish in
Christian times both among Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians. Among the
former _välcyrge_, _välcyrre_ (valkyrie) could be used to express the
Latin _parca_, and in Beowulf occur phrases in which _Hild_ and _Gud_
(the valkyries _Hildr_ and _Gunnr_) perform the tasks of _Vyrd_. In
Atlamal (28), the valkyries are changed into "dead women," inhabitants
of the lower world, who came to choose the hero and invite him to their
halls. The basis of the transformation is the recollection that the
valkyries were not only in Odin's service, but also in that of the lower
world goddess Urd (compare Atlamal, 16, where they are called norns), and
that they as psychopomps conducted the chosen Heroes to Hel on their way
to Asgard.
66.
THE CHOOSING. THE MIDDLE-AGE FABLE ABOUT "RISTING WITH THE
SPEAR-POINT."
If death on the battle-field, or as the result of wounds received on
the field of battle, had been regarded as an inevitable condition for
the admittance of the dead into Asgard, and for the honour of sitting
at Odin's table, then the choosing would under all circumstances have
been regarded as a favour from Odin. But this was by no means the case,
nor could it be so when regarded from a psychological point of view (see
above, No. 61). The poems mentioned above, "Eiriksmál" and "Hakonarmal,"
give us examples of choosing from a standpoint quite different from that
of favour. When one of the einherjes, Sigmund, learns from Odin that
Erik Blood-axe has fallen and is expected in Valhal, he asks why Odin
robbed Erik of victory and life, _although_ he, Erik, possessed Odin's
friendship. From Odin's answer to the question we learn that the skald
did not wish to make Sigmund express any surprise that a king, whom
Odin loves above other kings and heroes, has died in a lost instead of
a won battle. What Sigmund emphasises is, that Odin did not rather take
unto himself a less loved king than the so highly appreciated Erik, and
permit the latter to conquer and live. Odin's answer is that he is hourly
expecting Ragnarok, and that he therefore made haste to secure as soon as
possible so valiant a hero as Erik among his einherjes. But Odin does not
say that he feared that he might have to relinquish the hero for ever, in
case the latter, not being chosen on this battlefield, should be snatched
away by some other death than that by the sword.
Hakonarmal gives us an example of a king who is chosen in a battle in
which he is the victor. As conqueror the wounded Hakon remained on the
battlefield; still he looks upon the choosing as a disfavour. When he had
learned from Gandul's words to Skagul that the number of the einherjes is
to be increased with him, he blames the valkyries for dispensing to him
this fate, and says he had deserved a better lot from the gods (_várun
thó verdir gagns frá godum_). When he enters Valhal he has a keener
reproach on his lips to the welcoming Odin: _illúdigr mjók thykkir oss
Odinn vera, sjám ver hans of hugi_.
Doubtless it was for our ancestors a glorious prospect to be permitted to
come to Odin after death, and a person who saw inevitable death before
his eyes might comfort himself with the thought of soon seeing "the
benches of Balder's father decked for the feast" (Ragnar's death-song).
But it is no less certain from all the evidences we have from the heathen
time, that honourable life was preferred to honourable death, although
between the wars there was a chance of death from sickness. Under these
circumstances, the mythical eschatology could not have made death from
disease an insurmountable obstacle for warriors and heroes on their way
to Valhal. In the ancient records there is not the faintest allusion to
such an idea. It is too absurd to have existed. It would have robbed
Valhal of many of Midgard's most brilliant heroes, and it would have
demanded from faithful believers that they should prefer death even
with defeat to victory and life, since the latter lot was coupled with
the possibility of death from disease. With such a view no army goes
to battle, and no warlike race endowed with normal instincts has ever
entertained it and given it expression in their doctrine in regard to
future life.
The absurdity of the theory is so manifest that the mythologists who
have entertained it have found it necessary to find some way of making
it less inadmissible than it really is. They have suggested that Odin
did not necessarily fail to get those heroes whom sickness and age
threatened with a straw-death, nor did they need to relinquish the joys
of Valhal, for there remained to them an expedient to which they under
such circumstances resorted: they risted (marked, scratched) themselves
with the spear-point (_marka sik geirs-oddi_).