demons. Before each gate stand several who in looks and conduct seem
to symbolise the sins over whose perpetrators they keep guard. Outside
of one of the caves of torture Gorm's men saw club-bearers who tried
their weapons on one another. Outside of another gate the keepers
amused themselves with "a monstrous game" in which they "mutually gave
their ram-backs a curved motion." It is to be presumed that some sort
of perpetrators of violence were tortured within the threshold, which
was guarded by the club-bearers, and that the ram-shaped demons amused
themselves outside of the torture-cave of debauchees. It is also probable
that the latter is identical with the one called Geitir's. The name
_Geitir_ comes from _geit_, goat. Saxo, who Latinised _Geitir_ into
Götharus, tells adventures of his which show that this giant had tried
to get possession of Freyja, and that he is identical with Gymer, Gerd's
father. According to Skirnersmal (35), there are found in Nifelhel
goats, that is to say, trolls in goat-guise, probably of the same kind
as those above-mentioned, and it may be with an allusion to the fate
which awaits Gymer in the lower world, or with a reference to his
epithet _Geitir_, that Skirner threatens Gerd with the disgusting drink
(_geita hland_) which will there be given her by "the sons of misery"
(_vélmegir_). One of the lower-world demons, who as his name indicates,
was closely connected with Geitir, is called "Geitir's Howl-foot"
(_Geitis Guýfeti_); and the expression "to thrust anyone before Geitir's
Howl-foot" thus has the same meaning as to send him to damnation.
Continuing their journey, Gorm and his men came to Geirrod's _skúti_ (see
No. 46).
We learn from Saxo's description that in the worlds of torture there are
seen not only terrors, but also delusions which tempt the eyes of the
greedy. Gorm's prudent captain Thorkil (see No. 46) earnestly warns his
companions not to touch these things, for hands that come in contact with
them are fastened and are held as by invisible bonds. The illusions are
characterised by Saxo as _ædis supellectilis_, an expression which is
ambiguous, but may be an allusion that they represented things pertaining
to temples. The statement deserves to be compared with Solarljod's
strophe 65, where the skald sees in the lower world persons damned, whose
hands are riveted together with burning stones. They are the mockers at
religious rites (they who _minst vildu halda helga daga_) who are thus
punished. In the mythology it was probably profaners of temples who
suffered this punishment.
The Nastrands and the hall there are thus described in Völuspa:
Sal sá hon standa
sólu fjarri
Náströndu á
nordr horfa dyrr;
fellu eitrdropar
inn um ljora,
Sá er undinn salr
orma hryggjum.
Sá hon thar vada
thunga strauma
menn meinsvara
ok mordvarga
ok thanns annars glepr
eyrarúna;
thar saug Nidhöggr
nái framgengna,
sleit vargr vera.
"A hall she saw stand far from the sun on the Nastrands; the doors opened
to the north. Venom-drops fell through the roof-holes. Braided is that
hall of serpent-backs."
"There she saw perjurers, murderers, and they who betrayed the wife of
another (adulterers) wade through heavy streams. There Nidhog sucked the
_náir_ of the dead. And the wolf tore men into pieces."
Gylfaginning (ch. 52) assumes that the serpents, whose backs, wattled
together, form the hall, turn their heads into the hall, and that
they, especially through the openings in the roof (according to Codex
Ups. and Codex Hypnones.), vomit forth their floods of venom. The
latter assumption is well founded. Doubtful seems, on the other hand,
Gylfaginning's assumption that "the heavy streams," which the damned in
Nastrands have to wade through, flow out over the floor of the hall.
As the very name Nastrands indicates that the hall is situated near a
water, then this water, whether it be the river _Slidr_ with its eddies
filled with weapons, or some other river, may send breakers on shore
and thus produce the heavy streams which Völuspa mentions. Nevertheless
Gylfaginning's view may be correct. The hall of Nastrands, like its
counterpart Valhal, has certainly been regarded as immensely large. The
serpent-venom raining down must have fallen on the floor of the hall, and
there is nothing to hinder the venom-rain from being thought sufficiently
abundant to form "heavy streams" thereon (see below).
Saxo's description of the hall in Nastrands--by him adapted to the realm
of torture in general--is as follows: "The doors are covered with the
soot of ages; the walls are bespattered with filth; the roof is closely
covered with barbs; the floor is strewn with serpents and bespawled with
all kinds of uncleanliness." The last statement confirms Gylfaginning's
view. As this bespawling continues without ceasing through ages, the
matter thus produced must grow into abundance and have an outlet.
Remarkable is also Saxo's statement, that the doors are covered with the
soot of ages. Thus fires must be kindled near these doors. Of this more
later.
77.
THE PLACES OF PUNISHMENT (_continued_). THE HALL IN NASTRANDS.
Without allowing myself to propose any change of text in the Völuspa
strophes above quoted, and in pursuance of the principle which I
have adopted in this work, not to base any conclusions on so-called
text-emendations, which invariably are text-debasings, I have applied
these strophes as they are found in the texts we have. Like Müllenhoff
(_D. Alterth._, v. 121) and other scholars, I am, however, convinced that
the strophe which begins _sá hon thar vada_, &c., has been corrupted.
Several reasons, which I shall present elsewhere in a special treatise
on Völuspa, make this probable; but simply the circumstance that the
strophe has ten lines is sufficient to awaken suspicions in anyone's
mind who holds the view that Völuspa originally consisted of exclusively
eight-lined strophes--a view which cannot seriously be doubted. As we now
have the poem, it consists of forty-seven strophes of eight lines each,
one of four lines, two of six lines each, five of ten lines each, four of
twelve lines each, and two of fourteen lines each--in all fourteen not
eight-lined strophes against forty-seven eight-lined ones; and, while all
the eight-lined ones are intrinsically and logically well constructed, it
may be said of the others, that have more than eight lines each, partly
that we can cancel the superfluous lines without injury to the sense, and
partly that they look like loosely-joined conglomerations of scattered
fragments of strophes and of interpolations. The most recent effort to
restore perfectly the poem to its eight-lined strophes has been made
by Müllenhoff (_D. Alterth._, v.); and although this effort may need
revision in some special points, it has upon the whole given the poem a
clearness, a logical sequence and symmetry, which of themselves make it
evident that Müllenhoff's premises are correct.
In the treatise on Völuspa which I shall publish later, this subject will
be thoroughly discussed. Here I may be permitted to say, that in my own
efforts to restore Völuspa to eight-lined strophes, I came to a point
where I had got the most of the materials arranged on this principle, but
there remained the following fragment:
(1) Á fellr austan (1) Falls a river from the east
um eitrdala around venom dales
söxum ok sverdum, with daggers and spears,
Slidr heitir sú. Slid it is called.
(2) Sá hon thar vada (2) There saw she wade
thunga strauma through heavy streams
menn meinsvara perjurers
ok mordvarga murderers
ok thanns annars and him who seduces
glepr eyrarúnu. another's wife.
These fragments make united ten lines. The fourth line of the fragment
(1) _Slidr heitir sú_ has the appearance of being a mythographic addition
by the transcriber of the poem. Several similar interpolations which
contain information of mythological interest, but which neither have the
slightest connection with the context, nor are of the least importance
in reference to the subject treated in Völuspa, occur in our present
text-editions of this poem. The dwarf-list is a colossal interpolation
of this kind. If we hypothetically omit this line for the present, and
also the one immediately preceding (_söxum ok sverdum_), then there
remains as many lines as are required in a regular eight-line strophe.
It is further to be remarked that among all the eight-lined Völuspa
strophes there is not one so badly constructed that a verb in the
first half-strophe has a direct object in the first line of the second
half-strophe, as is the case in that of the present text:
Sá hon thar vada
thunga strauma
menn meinsvara
ok mordvarga
ok thann's annars glepr
eyrarúnu;
and, upon the whole, such a construction can hardly ever have occurred in
a tolerably passable poem. If these eight lines actually belonged to one
and the same strophe, the latter would have to be restored according to
the following scheme:
(1) Sá hon thar vada
(2) thunga strauma
(3) menn meinsvara
(4) ok mordvarga;
(5) .......
(6) .......
(7) thann's annars glepr
(8) eyrarúnu.
and in one of the dotted lines the verb must have been found which
governed the accusative object _thann_.
The lines which should take the place of the dots have, in their present
form, the following appearance:
á fellr austan
um eitrdala.
The verb which governed _thann_ must then be _áfellr_, that is to say,
the verb _fellr_ united with the preposition á. But in that case _á_ is
not the substantive _á_, a river, a running water, and thus the river
which falls from the east around venom dales has its source in an error.
Thus we have, under this supposition, found that there is something
that _fellr á_, falls on, streams down upon, him who seduces the wife
of another. This something must be expressed by a substantive, which is
now concealed behind the adverb _austan_, and must have resembled it
sufficiently in sound to be transformed into it.
Such a substantive, and the only one of the kind, is _austr_. This
means something that can _falla á_, stream down upon; for _austr_ is
_bail-water_ (from _ausa_, to bail), waste-water, water flowing out of a
gutter or shoot.
A test as to whether there originally stood _austr_ or not is to be found
in the following substantive, which now has the appearance of _eitrdala_.
For if there was written _austr_, then there must, in the original text,
have followed a substantive (1) which explained the kind of waste-water
meant, (2) which had sufficient resemblance to _eitrdala_ to become
corrupted into it.
The sea-faring Norsman distinguished between two kinds of _austr_:
_byttu-austr_ and _dælu-austr_. The bail-water in a ship could be removed
either by bailing it out with scoops directly over the railing, or it
could be scooped into a _dæla_, a shoot or trough laid over the railing.
The latter was the more convenient method. The difference between these
two kinds of _austr_ became a popular phrase; compare the expression
_thá var byttu-austr, eigi dælu-austr_. The word _dæla_ was also used
figuratively; compare _láta dæluna ganga_, to let the shoots (troughs)
run (Gretla, 98), a proverb by which men in animated conversation are
likened unto _dælur_, troughs, which are opened for flowing conversation.
Under such circumstances we might here expect after the word _austr_ the
word _dæla_, and, as venom here is in question, _eitr-dæla_.
_Eitr-dæla_ satisfies both the demands above made. It explains what sort
of waste-water is meant, and it resembles _eitr-dala_ sufficiently to be
corrupted into it.
Thus we get _á fellr austr eitrdæla_: "On (him who seduces another
man's wife) falls the waste-water of the venom-troughs." Which these
venom-troughs are, the strophe in its entirety ought to define. This
constitutes the second test of the correctness of the reading.
It must be admitted that if _á fellr austr eitrdæla_ is the original
reading, then a corruption into _á fellr austan eitrdala_ had almost
of necessity to follow, since the preposition _á_ was taken to be
the substantive _á_, river, a running stream. How near at hand such
a confounding of these words lies is demonstrated by another Völuspa
strophe, where the preposition _á_ in _á ser hon ausaz aurgom forsi_ was
long interpreted as the substantive _á_.
We shall now see whether the expression _á fellr austr eitrdæla_ makes
sense, when it is introduced in lieu of the dotted lines above:
Sá hon thar vada
thunga strauma
menn meinsvara
ok mordvarga;
(en) á fellr austr
eitrdæla
thann's annars glepr
eyrarúna.
"There saw she heavy streams (of venom) flow upon (or through) perjurers
and murderers. The waste-water of the venom-troughs (that is, the
waste-water of the perjurers and murderers after the venom-streams had
rushed over them) falls upon him who seduces the wife of another man."
Thus we get not only a connected idea, but a very remarkable and
instructive passage.
The verb _vada_ is not used only about persons who wade through a
water. The water itself is also able to _vada_ (cp. _eisandi udr vedr
undan_--Rafns S. Sveinb.), to say nothing of arrows that wade _i fólk_
(Havam., 150), and of banners which wade in the throng of warriors.
Here the venom wades through the crowds of perjurers and murderers.
The verb _vada_ has so often been used in this sense, that it has also
acquired the meaning of _rushing_, _running_, _rushing through_. Heavy
venom-streams run through the perjurers and murderers before they fall
on the adulterers. The former are the venom-troughs, which pour their
waste-water upon the latter.
We now return to Saxo's description of the hall of Nastrands, to see
whether the Völuspa strophe thus hypothetically restored corresponds
with, or is contradicted by, it. Disagreeable as the pictures are which
we meet with in this comparison, we are nevertheless compelled to take
them into consideration.
Saxo says that the wall of the hall is bespattered with liquid filth
(_paries obductus illuvie_). The Latin word, and the one used by Saxo
for venom, is _venenum_, not _illuvies_, which means filth that has
been poured or bespattered on something. Hence Saxo does not mean
venom-streams of the kind which, according to Völuspa, are vomited by
the serpents down through the roof-openings, but the reference is to
something else, which still must have an upper source, since it is
bespattered on the wall of the hall.
Saxo further says that the floor is bespawled with all sorts of impurity:
_pavimentum omni sordium genere respersum._ The expression confirms the
idea, that unmixed venom is not meant here, but everything else of the
most disgusting kind.
Furthermore, Saxo relates that groups of damned are found there within,
which groups he calls _consessus_. _Consessus_ means "a sitting
together," and, in a secondary sense, persons sitting together. The word
"sit" may here be taken in a more or less literal sense. _Consessor_,
"the one who sits together with," might be applied to every participator
in a Roman dinner, though the Romans did not actually sit, but reclined
at the table.
As stated, several such _consessus_, persons sitting or lying together,
are found in the hall. The benches upon which they sit or lie are of
iron. Every _consessus_ has a _locus_ in the hall; and as both these
terms, _consessus_ and _locus_, in Saxo united in the expression
_consessuum loca_, together mean rows of benches in a theatre or in a
public place, where the seats rise in rows one above the other, we must
assume that these rows of the damned sitting or lying together are found
in different elevations between the floor and ceiling. This assumption
is corroborated by what Saxo tells, viz., that their _loca_ are
separated by leaden hurdles (_plumbeæ crates_). That they are separated
by hurdles must have some practical reason, and this can be none other
than that something flowing down may have an unobstructed passage from
one _consessus_ to the other. That which flows down finally reaches the
floor, and is then _omne sordium genus_, all kinds of impurity. It must
finally be added that, according to Saxo, the stench in this room of
torture is well-nigh intolerable (_super omnia perpetui fætoris asperitas
tristes lacessebat olfactus_).
Who is not able to see that Völuspa's and Saxo's descriptions of the hall
in Nastrands confirm, explain, and complement each other? From Völuspa's
words, we conclude that the venom-streams come from the openings in the
roof, not from the walls. The wall consists, in its entirety, of the
_backs_ of serpents wattled together (_sá er undinn salr orma hryggjom_).
The heads belonging to these serpents are above the roof, and vomit their
venom down through the roof-openings--"the ljors" (_fellu eitrdropar inn
um ljóra_). Below these, and between them and the floor, there are, as
we have seen in Saxo, rows of iron seats, the one row below the other,
all furnished with leaden hurdles, and on the iron seats sit or lie
perjurers and murderers, forced to drink the venom raining down in "heavy
streams." Every such row of sinners becomes "a trough of venom" for the
row immediately below it, until the disgusting liquid thus produced falls
on those who have seduced the dearest and most confidential friends of
others. These seducers either constitute the lowest row of the seated
delinquents, or they wade on the floor in that filth and venom which
there flows. Over the hall broods eternal night (it is _sólu fjarri_).
What there is of light, illuminating the terrors, comes from fires (see
below) kindled at the doors which open to the north (_nordr horfa dyrr_).
The smoke from the fires comes into the hall and covers the door-posts
with the "soot of ages" (_postes longæva fuligine illitæ_).
With this must be compared what Tacitus relates concerning the views and
customs of the Germans in regard to crime and punishment. He says:
"The nature of the crime determines the punishment. Traitors and
deserters they hang on trees. Cowards and those given to disgraceful
debauchery they smother in filthy pools and marshes, casting a _hurdle_
(crates) over them. The dissimilarity in these punishments indicates a
belief that crime should be punished in such a way that the penalty is
visible, while scandalous conduct should be punished in such a way that
the debauchee is removed from the light of day" (_Germania_, xii.).
This passage in _Germania_ is a commentary on Saxo's descriptions, and on
the Völuspa strophe in the form resulting from my investigation. What
might naturally seem probable is corroborated by _Germania's_ words: that
the same view of justice and morality, which obtained in the camp of the
Germans, found its expression, but in gigantic exaggeration, in their
doctrines concerning eschatological rewards and punishments. It should,
perhaps, also be remarked that a similar particularism prevailed through
centuries. The hurdle (_crates_) which Saxo mentions as being placed
over the venom- and filth-drinking criminals in the hall of Nastrands
has its earthly counterpart in the hurdle (also called _crates_),
which, according to the custom of the age of Tacitus, was thrown over
victims smothered in the cesspools and marshes (_ignavos et imbelles et
corpore infames cœno ac palude injecta insuper crate mergunt_). Those
who were sentenced to this death were, according to Tacitus, cowards and
debauchees. Among those who received a similar punishment in the Teutonic
Gehenna were partly those who in a secret manner had committed murder
and tried to conceal their crime (such were called _mordvorgr_), partly
debauchees who had violated the sacredness of matrimony. The descriptions
in the Völuspa strophe and in Saxo show that also in the hall of the
Nastrands the punishment is in accordance with the nature of the crime.
All are punished terribly; but there is a distinction between those who
had to drink the serpent venom unmixed and those who receive the mixed
potion, and finally those who get the awful liquid over themselves and
doubtless within themselves.
In closing this chapter I will quote a number of Völuspa strophes, which
refer to Teutonic eschatology. In parallel columns I print the strophes
as they appear in Codex Regius, and in the form they have assumed as the
result of an investigation of which I shall give a full account in the
future. I trust it will be found that the restoration of _á fellr austan
um eitrdala_ into _á fellr austr eitrdæla_, and the introducing of these
words before _thanns annars glepr eyrarúna_ not only restores to the
strophe in which these words occur a regular structure and a sense which
is corroborated by Saxo's eschatological sources and by the _Germania_
of Tacitus, but also supplies the basis and conditions on which other
strophes may get a regular structure and intelligible contents.
_Codex Regius._ _Revised Text._
A fellr austan
um eitrdala
sauxom oc sverthom
slithr heitir su.
Stod fyr nordan Stód fyr nordan
a nitha vollom a Nida völlum
salr or gulli salr or gulli
sindra ettar. Sindra ættar;
enn annar stod enn annar stod
a okolni a Ókólni,
bior salr iotuns bjorsals jötuns,
en sa brimir heitir. en sá Brimir heitir.
Sal sá hon standa Sal sá hon standa
solo fiárri sólu fjarri
na strondu a Náströndu á,
northr horfa dyrr nordr horfa dyrr;
fello eitr dropar fellu eitrdropar
inn um lióra inn um ljóra,
sa er undinn salr sa er undinn salr
orma hryggiom. orma hryggjum.
(38) Sa hon thar vada Sa hon thar vada
thunga strauma thunga strauma
menn meinsvara menn meinsvara
oc mordvargar. oc mordvarga;
oc thann annars glepr en á fell austr
eyra runo eitrdæla
thar sug nithhauggr thanns annars glepr
nái fram gegna eyrarúnu
sleit vargr vera
vitoth er en etha hvat.
(35) Hapt sa hon liggia Hapt sá hon liggja
undir hvera lundi undir hveralundi
legiarn lici lægjarnliki
loca atheckian. Loka áthekkjan;
thar sitr Sigyn thar saug Nidhöggr
theygi um sinom nái framgengna,
ver velglyiod sleit vargr vera.
vitoth er en etha hvat. Vitud ér enn eda hvat?
Thar kná Vala
vigbönd snúa,
heldr várn hardgör
höpt or
thörmum;
thar sitr Sigyn
theygi um sínum
ver vel glýgud.
Vitud ér enn eda hvat?
78.
THE PLACES OF PUNISHMENT. (_continued_). LOKE'S CAVE OF
PUNISHMENT. GYLFAGINNING'S CONFOUNDING OF MUSPEL'S SONS WITH
THE SONS OF SUTTUNG.
Saxo (_Hist. Dan._, 429 ff.) relates that the experienced Captain Thorkil
made, at the command of King Gorm, a second journey to the uttermost
North, in order to complete the knowledge which was gained on the
first journey. That part of the lower world where Loke (by Saxo called
Ugartilocus) dwells had not then been seen. This now remained to be done.
Like the first time, Thorkil sailed into that sea on which sun and stars
never shine, and he kept cruising so long in its darkness that his supply
of fuel gave out. The expedition was as a consequence on the point of
failing, when a fire was suddenly seen in the distance. Thorkil then
entered a boat with a few of his men and rowed thither. In order to find
his way back to his ship in the darkness, he had placed in the mast-top a
self-luminous precious stone, which he had taken with him on the journey.
Guided by the light, Thorkil came to a strand-rock, in which there were
narrow "gaps" (_fauces_), out of which the light came. There was also a
door, and Thorkil entered, after requesting his men to remain outside.
[Illustration: THE PUNISHMENT OF LOKE.
(_From the painting by M. E. Winge._)
Loke, in Norse Mythology, was the god of destruction and of evil. His
father was the giant Farbauti, and his mother was Laufey (Leafy Isle),
so that he had two natures and was therefore both friend and enemy of
the gods. For his many evil deeds he was finally seized and bound by the
gods with chains in a loathsome cave. As a further punishment there was
set above him a poisonous serpent that drooled venom upon his face that
burned like fire. To save him from this torture his faithful wife, Sygn,
shared his captivity and held a bowl to catch the dripping poison until
Loke was freed at Ragnarok, when he and Heimdal fought and slew each
other. He had the further distinction of being handsomest of the male
deities.]
Thorkil found a grotto. At the fire which was kindled stood two
uncommonly tall men, who kept mending the fire. The grotto had an inner
door or gate, and that which was seen inside that gate is described by
Saxo in almost the same words as those of his former description of the
hall at the Nastrands (_obsoleti posies_, _ater situ paries_, _sordidum
tectum_, _frequens anguibus pavimentum_). Thorkil in reality sees the
same hall again; he had simply come to it from another side, from the
north, where the hall has its door opening toward the strand (_nordr
horfa dyrr_--Völuspa), the pillars of which, according to Saxo's previous
description, are covered with the soot of ages. The soot is now explained
by the fire which is kindled in the grotto outside the hall, the grotto
forming as it were a vestibule. The two gigantic persons who mend the
fire are called by Saxo _aquili_.
In Marcianus Capella, who is Saxo's model in regard to style and
vocabulary, persons of semi-divine rank (_hemithei_) are mentioned who
are called _aquili_, and who inhabit the same regions as the souls of
the dead (_lares_ and _larvæ_--Marc. Cap., i., ii. Compare P. E. Müller,
not., _Hist. Dan._, pp. 68, 69). Aquilus also has the signification,
_dark_, _swarthy_, Icel. _dökkr_.