NIÖRD.
We have already seen how the Æsir and Vanas exchanged hostages after
the terrible war they had waged against each other, and that while
Hoenir, Odin’s brother, went to live in Vana-heim, Niörd, with his two
children, Frey and Freya, definitely took up his abode in Asgard.
“In Vana-heim
Wise powers him created,
And to the gods a hostage gave.”
LAY OF VAFTHRUDNIR (Thorpe’s tr.).
As ruler of the winds, and of the sea near the shore, Niörd was given
the palace of Nôatûn, near the seashore, where we are told he stilled
the terrible tempests stirred up by Ægir, god of the deep sea.
“Niörd, the god of storms, whom fishers know;
Not born in Heaven--he was in Van-heim rear’d,
With men, but lives a hostage with the gods;
He knows each frith, and every rocky creek
Fringed with dark pines, and sands where sea fowl scream.”
BALDER DEAD (Matthew Arnold).
He also extended his special protection over commerce and fishing,
which two occupations could be pursued with advantage only during
the short summer months, of which he was in a measure considered the
personification.
[Sidenote: God of summer.]
Niörd is represented in art as a very handsome god, in the prime of
life, clad in a short green tunic, with a crown of shells and seaweed
upon his head, or a broad-brimmed hat adorned with eagle or heron
plumes. As personification of the summer, he was invoked to still the
raging storms which desolated the coasts during the winter months. He
was also implored to hasten the vernal warmth and thereby extinguish
the winter fires.
As agriculture was practiced only during the summer months, and
principally along the fiords or sea inlets, Niörd was also invoked for
favorable harvests, for he was said to delight in prospering those who
placed their trust in him.
Niörd’s first wife, according to some authorities, was his sister
Nerthus, Mother Earth, who in Germany was identified with Frigga, as we
have seen, but in Scandinavia was considered a separate divinity. He
was, however, obliged to part with her when summoned to Asgard, where
he occupied one of the twelve seats in the great council hall, and was
present at all the assemblies of the gods, withdrawing to Nôatûn only
when his services were not required by the Æsir.
“Nôatûn is the eleventh;
There Niörd has
Himself a dwelling made,
Prince of men;
Guiltless of sin,
He rules o’er the high-built fane.”
LAY OF GRIMNIR (Thorpe’s tr.).
In his own home by the seashore, Niörd delighted in watching the gulls
fly to and fro, and in observing the graceful movements of the swans,
his favorite birds, which were held sacred to him. He spent many an
hour, too, considering the gambols of the gentle seals, which came to
bask in the sunshine at his feet.
[Sidenote: Skadi, goddess of winter.]
Shortly after Idun’s recovery from Thrym-heim, and Thiassi’s death
within the bounds of Asgard, the assembled gods were greatly surprised
and dismayed to see Skadi, the giant’s daughter, appear one day in
their midst, demanding satisfaction for her father’s death. Although
the daughter of an ugly old Hrim-thurs, Skadi, the goddess of winter,
was very beautiful indeed, in her silvery armor, with her glittering
spear, sharp-pointed arrows, short white hunting dress, white fur
leggings, and broad snowshoes, and as she confronted the gods they
could not but recognize the justice of her claim, and offered the usual
fine in atonement. Skadi, however, was so very angry that she at first
refused this compromise, and sternly demanded a life for a life, until
Loki, wishing to appease her wrath, and thinking that if he could only
make those proud lips unbend enough to smile the rest would be easy,
began to play all manner of pranks. Fastening a goat to himself by
an invisible cord, he went through a series of antics, grotesquely
reproduced by the goat; and this sight was so very comical that all the
gods fairly shouted with merriment, and even Skadi was seen to smile.
Taking advantage of this softened mood, the gods pointed to the
firmament where her father’s eyes glowed like radiant stars in the
northern hemisphere. They told her they had placed them there to show
him all honor, and finally added that she might select as husband any
of the gods present at the assembly, providing she were content to
judge of their attractions by their naked feet.
Blindfolded, so that she could see only the feet of the gods standing
in a circle around her, Skadi looked about her until she saw a pair of
beautifully formed feet. She felt sure they must belong to Balder, the
god of light, whose bright face had charmed her, and she designated
their owner as her choice.
But when the bandage was removed, she discovered to her secret chagrin
that she had chosen Niörd, to whom her troth was plighted, and with
whom she nevertheless spent a very happy honeymoon in Asgard, where all
seemed to delight in doing her honor. This time passed, however; Niörd
took his bride home to Nôatûn, where the monotonous sound of the waves,
the shrieking of the gulls, and the cries of the seals so disturbed
Skadi’s slumbers that she finally declared it was quite impossible for
her to remain there any longer, and implored her husband to take her
back to her native Thrym-heim.
“Sleep could I not
On my sea-strand couch,
For screams of the sea fowl.
There wakes me,
When from the wave he comes,
Every morning the mew (gull).”
NORSE MYTHOLOGY (R. B. Anderson).
Niörd, anxious to please his new wife, consented to take her to
Thrym-heim and dwell there with her nine nights out of every twelve,
providing she would spend the remaining three with him at Nôatûn; but
when he reached the mountain region, the soughing of the wind in the
pines, the thunder of the avalanches, the cracking of the ice, the roar
of the waterfalls, and the howling of the wolves appeared to him as
unbearable as the sound of the sea had seemed to his wife, and he could
not but rejoice when his time of exile was ended, and he once more
found himself domiciled at Nôatûn.
“Am weary of the mountains;
Not long was I there,
Only nine nights;
The howl of the wolves
Methought sounded ill
To the song of the swans.”
NORSE MYTHOLOGY (R. B. Anderson).
[Sidenote: Parting of Niörd and Skadi.]
For some time, Niörd and Skadi, who are the personifications of summer
and winter, alternated thus, the wife spending the three short summer
months by the sea, and he reluctantly remaining with her in Thrym-heim
during the nine long winter months. But, finding at last that their
tastes would never agree, they decided to part forever, and returned to
their respective homes, where each could follow the occupations which
custom had endeared.
“Thrym-heim it’s called,
Where Thjasse dwelled,
That stream-mighty giant;
But Skade now dwells,
Pure bride of the gods,
In her father’s old mansion.”
NORSE MYTHOLOGY (R. B. Anderson).
Skadi now resumed her wonted pastime of hunting, leaving her realm
again only to marry the semi-historical Odin, to whom she bore a son
called Sæming, the first king of Norway, and the supposed founder of
the royal race which long ruled that country.
According to other accounts, however, Skadi eventually married Uller,
the winter-god. As Skadi was a skillful markswoman, she is represented
with bow and arrow, and, as goddess of the chase, she is generally
accompanied by one of the wolf-like Eskimo dogs so common in the North.
Skadi was invoked by hunters and by winter travelers, whose sleighs
she guided over the snow and ice, thus helping them to reach their
destination in safety.
Skadi’s anger against the gods, who had slain her father, the storm
giant, is an emblem of the unbending rigidity of the ice-enveloped
earth, which, softened at last by the frolicsome play of Loki (the heat
lightning), smiles, and permits the embrace of Niörd (summer). His
love, however, cannot hold her for more than three months of the year
(typified in the myth by nights), as she is always secretly longing for
the wintry storms and her wonted mountain amusements.
[Sidenote: Worship of Niörd.]
As Niörd was supposed to bless the vessels passing in and out of port,
his temples were situated by the seashore; it was there that the oaths
in his name were commonly sworn, and his health was drunk at every
banquet, where he was invariably named with his son Frey.
As all aquatic plants were supposed to belong to him, the marine sponge
was known in the North as “Niörd’s glove,” a name which was retained
until lately, when the same plant has been popularly called the
“Virgin’s hand.”