Teutonic Mythology Part 19

Through the same darkness, according to Gorm's saga, one comes to Gudmund's Glittering Plains, where there is a pleasure-farm bearing delicious fruits, while in that Bjarmaland whence the Glittering Plains can be reached reign eternal winter and cold. A river separates the Glittering Plains from two or more other domains, of which at least one is the home of departed souls. There is a bridge of gold across the river to another region, "which separates that which is mortal from the superhuman," and on whose soil a mortal being must not set his foot.

Further on one can pa.s.s in a boat across the river to a land which is the place of punishment for the d.a.m.ned and a resort of ghosts.

Through the same darkness one comes, according to Hadding's saga, to a subterranean land where flowers grow in spite of the winter which reigns on the surface of the earth. The land of flowers is separated from the Elysian fields of those fallen in battle by a river which hurls about in its eddies spears and other weapons.

These statements from different sources agree with each other in their main features. They agree that the lower world is divided into two main parts by a river, and that departed souls are found only on the farther side of the river.

The other main part on this side the river thus has another purpose than that of receiving the happy or d.a.m.ned souls of the dead. There dwells, according to Gorm's saga, the giant Gudmund, with his sons and daughters. There are also the Glittering Plains, since these, according to Hervor's, Herrod's, Thorstein Baearmagn's, and Helge Th.o.r.eson's sagas, are ruled by Gudmund.

Some of the accounts cited say that the Glittering Plains are situated in Jotunheim. This statement does not contradict the fact that they are situated in the lower world. The myths mention two Jotunheims, and hence the Eddas employ the plural form, Jotunheimar. One of the Jotunheims is located on the surface of the earth in the far North and East, separated from the Midgard inhabited by man by the uttermost sea or the Elivogs (Gylf.a.ginning, 8). The other Jotunheim is subterranean. According to Vafthrudnismal (31), one of the roots of the world-tree extends down "to the frost-giants." Urd and her sisters, who guard one of the fountains of Ygdrasil's roots, are giantesses. Mimer, who guards another fountain in the lower world, is called a giant. That part of the world which is inhabited by the G.o.ddesses of fate and by Mimer is thus inhabited by giants, and is a subterranean Jotunheim. Both these Jotunheims are connected with each other. From the upper there is a path leading to the lower. Therefore those traditions recorded in a Christian age, which we are here discussing, have referred to the Arctic Ocean and the uttermost North as the route for those who have the desire and courage to visit the giants of the lower world.

When it is said in Hadding's saga that he on the other side of the subterranean river saw the shades of heroes fallen by the sword arrayed in line of battle and contending with each other, then this is no contradiction of the myth, according to which the heroes chosen on the battle-field come to Asgard and play their warlike games on the plains of the world of the G.o.ds.

In Voluspa (str. 24) we read that when the first "folk"-war broke out in the world, the citadel of Odin and his clan was stormed by the Vans, who broke through its bulwark and captured Asgard. In harmony with this, Saxo (_Hist._, i.) relates that at the time when King Hadding reigned Odin was banished from his power and lived for some time in exile (see Nos. 36-41).

It is evident that no great battles can have been fought, and that there could not have been any great number of sword-fallen men, before the _first_ great "folk" war broke out in the world. Otherwise this war would not have been the first. Thus Valhal has not before this war had those hosts of einherjes who later are feasted in Valfather's hall. But as Odin, after the breaking out of this war, is banished from Valhal and Asgard, and does not return before peace is made between the Asas and Vans, then none of the einherjes chosen by him could be received in Valhal _during_ the war. Hence it follows that the heroes fallen in this war, though chosen by Odin, must have been referred to some other place than Asgard (excepting, of course, all those chosen by the Vans, _in case_ they chose einherjes, which is probable, for the reason that the Vanadis Freyja gets, after the reconciliation with Odin, the right to divide with him the choice of the slain). This other place can nowhere else be so appropriately looked for as in the lower world, which we know was destined to receive the souls of the dead. And as Hadding, who, according to Saxo, descended to the lower world, is, according to Saxo, the same Hadding during whose reign Odin was banished from Asgard, then it follows that the statement of the saga, making him see in the lower world those warlike games which else are practised on Asgard's plains, far from contradicting the myth, on the contrary is a consequence of the connection of the mythical events.

The river which is mentioned in Erik Vidforle's, Gorm's, and Hadding's sagas has its prototype in the mythic records. When Hermod on Sleipner rides to the lower world (Gylf.a.ginning, 10) he first journeys through a dark country (compare above) and then comes to the river _Gjoll_, over which there is the golden bridge called the Gjallar bridge. On the other side of _Gjoll_ is the Helgate, which leads to the realm of the dead. In Gorm's saga the bridge across the river is also of gold, and it is forbidden mortals to cross to the other side.

A subterranean river hurling weapons in its eddies is mentioned in Voluspa, 33. In Hadding's saga we also read of a weapon-hurling river which forms the boundary of the Elysium of those slain by the sword.

In Vegtamskvida is mentioned an underground dog, b.l.o.o.d.y about the breast, coming from Nifelhel, the proper place of punishment. In Gorm's saga the bulwark around the city of the d.a.m.ned is guarded by great dogs.

The word "nifel" (_nifl_, the German _Nebel_), which forms one part of the word Nifelhel, means mist, fog. In Gorm's saga the city in question is most like a cloud of vapour (_vaporanti maxime nubi simile_).

Saxo's description of that house of torture, which is found within the city, is not unlike Voluspa's description of that dwelling of torture called Nastrand. In Saxo the floor of the house consists of serpents wattled together, and the roof of sharp stings. In Voluspa the hall is made of serpents braided together, whose heads from above spit venom down on those dwelling there. Saxo speaks of soot a century old on the door frames; Voluspa of _ljorar_, air- and smoke-openings in the roof (see further Nos. 77 and 78).

Saxo himself points out that the Geruthus (_Geirrodr_) mentioned by him, and his famous daughters, belong to the myth about the Asa-G.o.d Thor.

That Geirrod after his death is transferred to the lower world is no contradiction to the heathen belief, according to which beautiful or terrible habitations await the dead, not only of men but also of other beings. Compare Gylf.a.ginning, ch. 46, where Thor with one blow of his Mjolner sends a giant _nidr undir Niflhel_ (see further, No. 60).

As Mimer's and Urd's fountains are found in the lower world (see Nos.

63, 93), and as Mimer is mentioned as the guardian of Heimdal's horn and other treasures, it might be expected that these circ.u.mstances would not be forgotten in those stories from Christian times which have been cited above and found to have roots in the myths.

When in Saxo's saga about Gorm the Danish adventurers had left the horrible city of fog, they came to another place in the lower world where the gold-plated mead-cisterns were found. The Latin word used by Saxo, which I translate with cisterns of mead, is _dolium_. In the cla.s.sical Latin this word is used in regard to wine-cisterns of so immense a size that they were counted among the immovables, and usually were sunk in the cellar floors. They were so large that a person could live in such a cistern, and this is also reported as having happened.

That the word _dolium_ still in Saxo's time had a similar meaning appears from a letter quoted by Du Cange, written by Saxo's younger contemporary, Bishop Gebhard. The size is therefore no obstacle to Saxo's using this word for a wine-cistern to mean the mead-wells in the lower world of Teutonic mythology. The question now is whether he actually did so, or whether the subterranean _dolia_ in question are objects in regard to which our earliest mythic records have left us in ignorance.

In Saxo's time, and earlier, the epithets by which the mead-wells--Urd's and Mimer's--and their contents are mentioned in mythological songs had come to be applied also to those mead-buckets which Odin is said to have emptied in the halls of the giant Fjalar or Suttung. This application also lay near at hand, since these wells and these vessels contained the same liquor, and since it originally, as appears from the meaning of the words, was the liquor, and not the place where the liquor was kept, to which the epithets _Odraerir_, _Bodn_, and _Son_ applied. In Havamal (107) Odin expresses his joy that _Odraerir_ has pa.s.sed out of the possession of the giant Fjalar and can be of use to the beings of the upper world. But if we may trust Bragar, (ch. 5), it is the drink and not the empty vessels that Odin takes with him to Valhal. On this supposition, it is the drink and not one of the vessels which in Havamal is called _Odraerir_. In Havamal (140) Odin relates how he, through self-sacrifice and suffering, succeeded in getting runic songs up from the deep, and also a drink dipped out of _Odraerir_. He who gives him the songs and the drink, and accordingly is the ruler of the fountain of the drink, is a man, "Bolthorn's celebrated son." Here again Odraerer is one of the subterranean fountains, and no doubt Mimer's, since the one who pours out the drink is a man. But in Forspjalsljod (2) Urd's fountain is also called Odraerer (_Odhraerir Urdar_). Paraphrases for the liquor of poetry, such as "Bodn's growing billow" (Einar Skalaglam) and "Son's reedgrown gra.s.s edge" (Eilif Gudrunson), point to fountains or wells, not to vessels. Meanwhile a satire was composed before the time of Saxo and Sturlason about Odin's adventure at Fjalar's, and the author of this song, the contents of which the Younger Edda has preserved, calls the vessels which Odin empties at the giant's _Odhraerir_, _Bodn_, and _Son_ (Brogaraedur, 6). Saxo, who reveals a familiarity with the genuine heathen, or supposed heathen, poems handed down to his time, may thus have seen the epithets _Odraerir_, _Bodn_, and _Son_ applied both to the subterranean mead-wells and to a giant's mead-vessels. The greater reason he would have for selecting the Latin _dolium_ to express an idea that can be accommodated to both these objects.

Over these mead-reservoirs there hang, according to Saxo's description, round-shaped objects of silver, which in close braids drop down and are spread around the seven times gold-plated walls of the mead-cisterns.

[35]

Over Mimer's and Urd's fountains hang the roots of the ash Ygdrasil, which sends its root-knots and root-threads down into their waters. But not only the rootlets sunk in the water, but also the roots from which they are suspended, partake of the waters of the fountains. The norns take daily from the water and sprinkle the stem of the tree therewith, "and the water is so holy," says Gylf.a.ginning (16), "that everything that is put in the well (consequently, also, all that which the norns daily sprinkle with the water) becomes as white as the membrane between the egg and the egg-sh.e.l.l." Also the root over Mimer's fountain is sprinkled with its water (Volusp., Cod. R., 28), and this water, so far as its colour is concerned, seems to be of the same kind as that in Urd's fountain, for the latter is called _hvitr aurr_ (Volusp., 18) and the former runs in _aurgum forsi_ upon its root of the world-tree (Volusp., 28). The adjective _aurigr_, which describes a quality of the water in Mimer's fountain, is formed from the noun _aurr_, with which the liquid is described which waters the root over Urd's fountain.

Ygdrasil's roots, as far up as the liquid of the wells can get to them, thus have a colour like that of "the membrane between the egg and the egg-sh.e.l.l," and consequently recall both as to position, form, and colour the round-shaped objects "of silver" which, according to Saxo, hang down and are intertwined in the mead-reservoirs of the lower world.

Mimer's fountain contains, as we know, the purest mead--the liquid of inspiration, of poetry, of wisdom, of understanding.

Near by Ygdrasil, according to Voluspa (27), Heimdal's horn is concealed. The seeress in Voluspa knows that it is hid "beneath the hedge-o'ershadowing holy tree."

Veit hon Heimdallar hljod um folgit undir heidvonum helgum badmi.

Near one of the mead-cisterns in the lower world Gorm's men see a horn ornamented with pictures and flashing with precious stones.

Among the treasures taken care of by Mimer is the world's foremost sword and a wonderful arm-ring, smithied by the same master as made the sword (see Nos. 87, 98, 101).

Near the gorgeous horn Gorm's men see a gold-plated tooth of an animal and an arm-ring. The animal tooth becomes a sword when it is taken into the hand.[36] Near by is a treasury filled with a large number of weapons and a royal robe. Mimer is known in mythology as a collector of treasures. He is therefore called _Hoddmimir_, _Hoddropnir_, _Baugregin_.

Thus Gorm and his men have on their journeys in the lower world seen not only Nastrand's place of punishment in Nifelhel, but also the holy land, where Mimer reigns.

When Gorm and his men desire to cross the golden bridge and see the wonders to which it leads, Gudmund prohibits it. When they in another place farther up desire to cross the river to see what there is beyond, he consents and has them taken over in a boat. He does not deem it proper to show them the unknown land at the golden bridge, but it is within the limits of his authority to let them see the places of punishment and those regions which contain the mead-cisterns and the treasure chambers. The sagas call him the king on the Glittering Plains, and as the Glittering Plains are situated in the lower world, he must be a lower world ruler.

Two of the sagas, Helge Th.o.r.eson's and Gorm's, cast a shadow on Gudmund's character. In the former this shadow does not produce confusion or contradiction. The saga is a legend which represents Christianity, with Olaf Trygveson as its apostle, in conflict with heathenism, represented by Gudmund. It is therefore natural that the latter cannot be presented in the most favourable light. Olaf destroys with his prayers the happiness of Gudmund's daughter. He compels her to abandon her lover, and Gudmund, who is unable to take revenge in any other manner, tries to do so, as is the case with so many of the characters in saga and history, by treachery. This is demanded by the fundamental idea and tendency of the legend. What the author of the legend has heard about Gudmund's character from older saga-men, or what he has read in records, he does not, however, conceal with silence, but admits that Gudmund, aside from his heathen religion and grudge towards Olaf Trygveson, was a man in whose home one might fare well and be happy.

Saxo has preserved the shadow, but in his narrative it produces the greatest contradiction. Gudmund offers fruits, drinks, and embraces in order to induce his guests to remain with him for ever, and he does it in a tempting manner and, as it seems, with conscious cunning.

Nevertheless, he shows unlimited patience when the guests insult him by accepting nothing of what he offers. When he comes down to the sea-strand, where Gorm's ships are anch.o.r.ed, he is greeted by the leader of the discoverers with joy, because he is "the most pious being and man's protector in perils." He conducts them in safety to his castle.

When a handful of them returns after the attempt to plunder the treasury of the lower world, he considers the crime sufficiently punished by the loss of life they have suffered, and takes them across the river to his own safe home; and when they, contrary to his wishes, desire to return to their native land, he loads them with gifts and sees to it that they get safely on board their ships. It follows that Saxo's sources have described Gudmund as a kind and benevolent person. Here, as in the legend about Helge Th.o.r.eson, the shadow has been thrown by younger hands upon an older background painted in bright colours.

Hervor's saga says that he was wise, mighty, in a heathen sense pious ("a great sacrificer"), and so honoured that sacrifices were offered to him, and he was worshipped as a G.o.d after death. Herrod's saga says that he was greatly skilled in magic arts, which is another expression for heathen wisdom, for fimbul-songs, runes, and incantations.

The change for the worse which Gudmund's character seems in part to have suffered is confirmed by a change connected with, and running parallel to it, in the conception of the forces in those things which belonged to the lower world of the Teutonic heathendom and to Gudmund's domain. In Saxo we find an idea related to the antique Lethe myth, according to which the liquids and plants which belong to the lower world produce forgetfulness of the past. Therefore, Thorkil (Thorkillus) warns his companions not to eat or drink any of that which Gudmund offers them. In the Gudrun song (ii. 21, 22), and elsewhere, we meet with the same idea. I shall return to this subject (see No. 50).

[Footnote 35: Inde digressis dolia septem zonis aureis circ.u.mligata panduntur, quibus pensiles ex argento circuli crebros inseruerant nexus.]

[Footnote 36: The word _biti_= a tooth (cp. bite) becomes in the composition _leggbiti_, the name of a sword.]

50.

a.n.a.lYSIS OF THE SAGAS MENTIONED IN NOS. 44-48. THE QUESTION IN REGARD TO THE IDENTIFICATION OF ODAINSAKER.

Is Gudmund an invention of Christian times, although he is placed in an environment which in general and in detail reflects the heathen mythology? Or is there to be found in the mythology a person who has precisely the same environment and is endowed with the same attributes and qualities?

The latter form an exceedingly strange _ensemble_, and can therefore easily be recognized. Ruler in the lower world, and at the same time a giant. Pious and still a giant. King in a domain to which winter cannot penetrate. Within that domain an enclosed place, whose bulwark neither sickness, nor age, nor death can surmount. It is left to his power and pleasure to give admittance to the mysterious meadows, where the mead-cisterns of the lower world are found, and where the most precious of all horns, a wonderful sword, and a splendid arm-ring are kept. Old as the hills, but yet subject to death. Honoured as if he were not a giant, but a divine being. These are the features which together characterise Gudmund, and should be found in his mythological prototype, if there is one. With these peculiar characteristics are united wisdom and wealth.

The answer to the question whether a mythical original of this picture is to be discovered will be given below. But before that we must call attention to some points in the Christian accounts cited in regard to Odainsaker.

Odainsaker is not made identical with the Glittering Plains, but is a separate place on them, or at all events within Gudmund's domain. Thus according to Hervor's saga. The correctness of the statement is confirmed by comparison with Gorm's and Hadding's sagas. The former mentions, as will be remembered, a place which Gudmund does not consider himself authorized to show his guests, although they are permitted to see other mysterious places in the lower world, even the mead-fountains and treasure-chambers. To the unknown place, as to Balder's subterranean dwelling, leads a golden bridge, which doubtless is to indicate the splendour of the place. The subterranean G.o.ddess, who is Hadding's guide in Hades, shows him both the Glittering Fields (_loca aprica_) and the plains of the dead heroes, but stops with him near a wall, which is not opened for them. The domain surrounded by the wall receives nothing which has suffered death, and its very proximity seems to be enough to keep death at bay (see No. 47).

All the sagas are silent in regard to who those beings are for whom this wonderful enclosed place is intended. Its very name, _Acre-of-the-not-dead_ (_Odainsakr_), and _The field-of-the-living_ (_Jord lifanda manna_), however, makes it clear that it is not intended for the souls of the dead. This Erik Vidforle's saga is also able to state, inasmuch as it makes a definite distinction between _Odainsaker_ and the land of the spirits, between _Odainsaker_ and Paradise. If human or other beings are found within the bulwark of the place, they must have come there as living beings in a physical sense; and when once there, they are protected from perishing, for diseases, age, and death are excluded.

Erik Vidforle and his companion find on their journey on Odainsaker only a single dwelling, a splendid one with two beds. Who the couple are who own this house, and seem to have placed it at the disposal of the travellers, is not stated. But in the night there came a beautiful lad to Erik. The author of the saga has made him an angel, who is on duty on the borders between Odainsaker and Paradise.

The purpose of Odainsaker is not mentioned in Erik Vidforle's saga.

There is no intelligible connection between it and the Christian environment given to it by the saga. The ecclesiastical belief knows an earthly Paradise, that which existed in the beginning and was the home of Adam and Eve, but that it is guarded by the angel with the flaming sword, or, as Erik's saga expresses it, it is encircled by a wall of fire. In the lower world the Christian Church knows a Hades and a h.e.l.l, but the path to them is through the gates of death; physically living persons, persons who have not paid tribute to death, are not found there. In the Christian group of ideas there is no place for Odainsaker.

An underground place for physically living people, who are there no longer exposed to aging and death, has nothing to do in the economy of the Church. Was there occasion for it among the ideas of the heathen eschatology? The above-quoted sagas say nothing about the purposes of Odainsaker. Here is therefore a question of importance to our subject, and one that demands an answer.

51.

GUDMUND'S IDENt.i.tY WITH MIMER.