Scandinavian


The Story of Ragnarok
An axe-age, a sword-age, shields will be gashed: there will be a wind-age and a wolf age before the world is destroyed.

First of all Midgard will be wrenched and racked by wars for three winters. Fathers will slaughter sons, brothers will be drenched in another's blood. Mothers will desert their menfolk and seduce their own sons; brothers will bed with sisters.

Then Fimbulvetr, the winter of all winters, will grip and throttle Midgard. Driving snow clouds will converge from north and south and east and west. There will be bitter frosts, biting winds; the shining sun will be helpless. Three such winters will follow each other with no summers between them.

So the end will begin. Then the children of the old giantess in Iron Wood will have their say: the wolf Skoll will seize the sun between his jaws and swallow her - he will spatter Asgard with gore; and his brother Hati will catch the moon and mangle him. The stars will vanish from the sky.

The earth will stard to shudder then. Great trees will away and topple, mountains will shake and rock and come crashing down, and every bond and ftter will burst. Fenrir will run free.

Eggther, watchman of the giants, will sit on his grave mound and strum his harp, smiling grimly. Nothing escapes the red cock Fjalar; he will crow to the giants from bird-wood. At the same time the cock who wakes the warriors every day in Valhalla, golden combed Gullinkambi will crow to the gods. A third cock, rust red, will raise the dead in Hel.

The sea will rear up and waves will pummel the shore because Jormungand, the Midgard serpent, is twisting and writhing in fury, working his way on to dry land. And in those high seas Naglfar will break loose - the ship made from dean men's nails. The bows and the waist and the stern and the hold will be packed with giants and Hrym will stand at the helm, heading towards the plain Vigrid. Loki too, free from his fetters, will take to the water; he will set sail towards Vigrid from the north and his deadweight will be all that ghastly crew in Hel.

Then the brothers Fenrir and Jormungand will move forward side by side. Fenrir's slavering mouth will gape wide open, so wide that his lower jaw scrapes against the ground and his upper jaw presses against the sky: it would gape still wider if there were more room. Flames will dance in Fenrir's eyes and leap from his nostrils. With each breath, meanwhile, Jormungand will spew venom; all the earth and sky will be splashed and stained with his poison.

The world will be in uproar, the air quaking with booms and blares and their echoes. Then the sons of Muspell will advance from the south and tear apart the sky itself as they, too, close in on Vigrid. Surt will lead them, his sword blazing like the sun itself. And as they cross Bifrost, the rainbow bridge will crack and break behind them. So all the giants and all the inmates of Hel, and Fenrir and Jormungand, and Surt and the blazing sons of Muspell will gather on Vigrid; they will all but fill that plain that stretches one hundred and twenty leagues in every direction.

The gods, meanwhile, will not be idle. Heimdahl will leave his hall, Himinbjorg, and raise the great horn Gjall to his mouth. He will sound such a blast that it will be heard throughout the nine worlds. All the gods will wake and at once meet in council. The Odin will mount Sleipnir and gallop to Mimir's spring and take advice from Mimir there.
Yggdrasill itself will moan, the ash that always was and waves over all that is. Its leaves will tremble, its limbs shiver and shake even as two humans take refuge deep within it. Everything in heaven and in the earth and Hel will quiver.

Then all the Aesir and all the Einherjar in Valhalla will arm themselves. They will don their helmets and their coats of mail, and grasp their swords and spears and shields. Eight hundred fighting men will forge through each each of that hall's five hundred and forty doors. That vast host will march towards Vigrid and Odin will ride at their head, wearing a golden helmet and a shining corslet, brandishing Gungnir.

Odin wil make straight for the wolf Fenrir: and Thor, right beside him, will be unable to help because Jormungand will at once attack him. Frayr will fight the fire giant Surt. And when Surt whirls his flaming blade, Freyr will rue the day that he gave his own good sword to his servant Skirnir. It will be a long struggle, though, before Freyr succumbs. The hound Garm from Gnipahellir will leap at the throat of one-handed Tyr and they will kill one another. The age-old enemies Loki and Heimdahl will meet once more and each will be the cause of the other's death.

Thor, son of Earth, and gaping Jormungand have met before too; they are well matched. At Vigrid the god will kill the serpent but he will only be able to stagger back nine steps before he falls dead himself, poisoned by the venom Jormungand spews over him.

Odin and Fenrir were the first to engage and their fight will be fearsome. In the end, though, the wolf will seize Allfather between his jaws and swallow him. That will be the death of Odin.

At once his son Vidar will stride forward and press one foot on Fenrir's bottom jaw - and the shoe he will wear then has been a long time in the making; it consists of all the strips and bits of leather pared off all the heels and toes of new shoes since time began, all the leftovers thrown away as gifts for the god. The Vidar will take hold of Fenrir's jaw and tear the wolf apart, so avenging his father.

Then Surt will fling fire in every direction. Asgard and Midgard and Jotunheim and Niflheim will become furnaces - places of raging flame, swirling smoke, ashes, only ashes. The nine worlds will burn and the gods will die. The Einherjar will die, men and women and children in Midgard will die, elves and dwarves will die, giants will die, monsters and creatures of the underworld will die, birds and animals will die. The sun will be dark and there will be no stars in the sky. The earth will sink into the sea.

The earth will rise again out of the water, fair and green. The eagle will fly over cateracts, swoop into the thunder and catch fish under crags. Corn will ripen in fields that were never sown.

Vidar and Vali will still be alive; they will survive the fire and the flood and make their way back to Idavoll, the shining plain where palaces once stood. Modi and Magni, sons of Thor, will join them there, and they will inherit their father's hammer, Mjollnir. And Balder and Hod will come back from the world of the dead; it will not be long before they too, tread the new green grass on Idavoll. Honir will be there as well, and he will hold the wand and foretell what is to come. The sons of Vili and Ve will make up the new number, the gods in heaven, home of the winds.

They will sit down in the sunlight and begin to talk. Turn by turn, they will call up such memories, memories such as are known to them alone. They will talk over many things that happened in the past, and the evil of Jormungand and the wolf Fenrir. And then, amongst the waving grass, they will find gold chessboards, treasures owned once by the Aesir, and gaze at them in wonder.

Many courts will rise once more, some good, some evil. The best place of all will be Gimli in heaven, a building fairer than the sun, roofed with gold. That is where the rulers will live, at peace with themselves and each other. Then there will be Brimir on Okolnir, where the ground is always warm underfoot; there will always be plenty of good drink for those who have a taste for it. And there will be Sindri, a fine hall that stands in the dark mountains of Nidafjoll, made wholly of red gold. Good men will live in these places.

But there will be another hall on Nastrond, the shore of corpses. That place in the underworld will be as vile as it is vast; all its doors will face north. Its walls and roof will be made of wattled snakes, their heads facing inward, blowing so much poison that it runs in rivers through the hall. Oath breakers and murderers and philanderers will wade through those rivers. Nidhogg, too, will outlive the fire and the flood and under Yggdrasill he will suck blood from the bodies of the dead.

The two humans who hid themselves dep within Yggdrasill – some say Hoddmimir's Wood – will be called Lif and Lifthrasir. Surt's fire will not scorch them; it will not even touch them, and their food will be the morning dew. Through the branches, through the leaves, they will see light come back, for before the sun is caught and eaten by the wolf Skoll, she will give birth to a daughter no less fair than herself, who will follow the same sky-path and light the world.

Lif and Lifthrasir will have children. Their children will bear children. There will be life and new life, life everywhere on earth. That was the end; and this is the beginning.

The Norse Creation Myth

Burning ice, biting flame; that is how life began. In the south is a realm called Muspell. That region flickers with dancing flames. It seeths and it shines. No one can endure it except those born into it. Black Surt is there; he sits on the furthest reach of that land, brandishing a flaming sword; he is already waiting for the end when he will rise and savage the gods and whelm the whole world with fire.

In the north is a realm called Niflheim. It is packed with ice and covered with vast sweeps of snow. In the heart of that region lies the spring Hvergelmir and that is the source of eleven rivers named the Elivagar; they are cool Svol and Gunnthra the defiant, Fjorm and bubbling Fimbulthul, fearsome Slid and storming Hrid, Sylg, Ylg, broad Vid and Leipt which streaks like lightning, and freezing Gjoll.

Between these realms there once stretched a huge and seeming emptiness; this was Ginnungagap. The rivers that sprang from Hvergelmir streamed into the void. The yeasty venom in them thickened and congealed like slag, and the rivers turned into ice. That venom also spat out drizzle- an unending dismal hagger that, as soon as it settled turned into rime. So it went on until all the northern part of Ginnungagap was heavy with layers of ice and hoar frost, a desolate place haunted by gusts and skuthers of wind.

Just as the northern part was frozen, the southern was molten and glowing, but the middle of Ginnungagap was as mild as hanging air on a summer evening. There, the warm breath drifting north from Muspell met the rime from Niflheim, it touched it and played over it, and the ice began to thaw and drip. Life quickened in those drops, and they took the form of a giant. He was called Ymir.

Ymir was a frost giant; he was evil from the first. While he slept, he began to sweat. A man and a woman grew out of the ooze under his left armpit, and one of his legs fathered a son on the other leg. Ymir was the forefather of all frost giants, and they called him Aurgelmir.

As more of the ice in Ginnungagap melted, the fluid took the form of a cow. She was called Audumla. Ymir fed off the four rivers of milk that coursed from her teats, and Audumla fed off the ice itself. She licked the salty blocks and by the evening of the first day a man's hair had come out of the ice. Audumla licked more and by the evening of the second day a man's head had come. Audumla licked again and by the evening of the third day the whole man had come. His name was Buri.

Buri was tall and strong and good-looking. In time he had a son called Bor and Bor married a daughter of Bolthor, one of the frost giants. Her name was Bestla and she mothered three children, all of them sons. The first was Odin, the second was Vili, and the third was Ve.

All this was in the beginning, before there were waves of sand, the sea's cool waves, waving grass. There was no earth and no heaven above; only Muspell and Niflheim and, between them, Ginnungagap.

The three sons had no liking for Ymir and the growing gang of unruly. brutal frost giants, as time went on, they grew to hate them. At last they attacked Ymir and killed him. His wounds were like springs; so much blood streamed from them, and so fast, that the flood drowned all the frost giants except Bergelmir and his wife. The embarked in their boat – it was made out of a hollowed tree trunk – and rode on a tide of gore.

Odin and Vil and Ve hoised the body of the dead frost giant onto their shoulders and carted it to the middle of Ginnungagap. That is where they made the world of his body. They shaped the earth from Ymir's flesh and the mountains from his unbroken bones; from his teeth and jaws and the fragments of his shattered bones they made the rocks and boulders and stones.

Odin and Vili and Ve used the welter of blood to make landlocked lakes and to make the sea. After they had formed the earth, they laid the rocking ocean in a ring right around it. And it is so wide that most men would dismiss the very idea of crossing it.

The three brothers raised Ymir's skull and made the sky from it and placed it so that its four corners reached to the ends of the earth. They set a dwarf under each corner, and their names are East and West and North and South. The Odin and Vili and Ve seized on the sparks and glowing embers from Muspell and called them the sun and moon and stars; they put them high in Ginnungagap to light the heaven above and earth below. In this way the brothers gave each star its proper place; some were fixed in the sky, others were free to follow the paths appointed for them.

The earth was round and lay within the ring of the deep sea. Along the strand the sons of Bor marked out tracts of land and gave them to the frost giants and the rock giants; and there, in Jotunheim, the giants settled and remained. They were so hostile that the three brothers built an enclosure further inland around a vast area of the earth. They shaped it out of Ymir's eyebrows, and called it Midgard. The sun warmed the stones in the earth there, and the ground was green with sprouting leeks. The sons of Bor used Ymir's brains as well, flung them up into the air and turned them into every kind of cloud.

One day, Odin and Vili and Ve were striding along the frayed edge of the land, where the earth meets the sea. They came across two fallen trees with their roots ripped out of the ground; one was an ash, the other an elm. Then the sons of Bor raised them and made from them the first man and woman. Odin breathed into them the spirit of life; Vili offered the sharp wits and feeling hearts; Ve gave them the gifts of hearing and sight. The man was called Ask and the woman Embla and they were given Midgard to live in. All the families and nations and races of men descended from them.

One of the giants living in Jotunheim, Narvi, had a daughter called Night who was dark eyed, dark haired and swarthy as the rest of her family. She married three times. Her first husband was a man called Naglfari and their son was Aud: her second husband was Annar and their daughter was Earth, and her third husband was shining Delling who was related to the sons of Bor. Their son was Day and, like all his father's side of the family, Day was radiant and fair of face.

The Odin took Night and her son Day, sat them in horse-drawn chariots, and set them into the sky to ride around the world every two and a half days.´Night leads the way and her horse is frosty-maned Hrimfaxi. Day's horse is Skinfaxi; he has a gleaming mane that lights up the sky and earth alike.

A man called Mundilfari living in Midgard had two children and they were so beautiful that he called his son Mani and his daughter Sunna; Sunna married a man called Glen. Odin and his brothers and their offspring the Aesir, were angered at such daring. They snatched away both children and placed them in the sky to guide the chariots of the sun and the moon – the constellations made by the sons of Bor to light the world of the sparks of Muspell.

Mani leads the way. He guides the moon on its path and decides when he will wax and wane. He does nottravel alone, as you can see if you look into the sky; for Mani plucked two children from Midgard, Bil and Hjuki, whose father is Vidfinn. They were just walking away from the well Byrgir, carrying between them the water cask Soeg on the pole Simul, when Mani swooped down and carried them off.

Sunna follows behind. One of her horses is called Arvak because he rises so early, and the other Alsvid because he is immensely strong. The Aesir inserted iron-cold bellows under their sholder-blades to keep them cool. Sunna always seems to be in a great hurry, and that is because she is chased by Skoll, the wolf who is always snapping and growling close behind her. In the end he will catch her. And the wolf that races in front of Sunna is called Hati: he is after Mani and will run him down in the end. Both wolves are the sons of an aged giantess who lived in Iron Wood, east of Midgard.

After the sons of Bor had made the first man and woman, and set Night and Day, Moon and Sun in the sky, they remembered the maggots that has squirmed and swarmed in Ymir's flesh and crawled out over the earth. Then they gave them wits and the shape of men, but they live under the hills and mountains in rocky chambers and grottos and caverns. These man-like maggots are called dwarfs, Modsognir is their leader and his deputy is Durin.

So the earth was fashioned and filled with men and giants and dwarfs, surrounded by the sea and covered by the sky. The the sons of Bor built their own realm of Asgard – a mighty stronghold, a place of green plains and shining palaces high over Midgard. The two regions were linked by Bifrost, a flaming rainbow bridge; it was made of three colours with magic and great skill, and it is wonderfully strong. All the Aesir, the guardians of men, crossed over and settled in Asgard. Odin, Allfather, is the oldest and greatest of them all; there are twelve divine gods and twelve divine goddesses, and a great assembly of other Aesir. And this is the beginning of all that has happened, remembered or forgotten, in the regions of the world.

And all that has happened, and all the regions of the world, lie under the branches of the ash Yggdrasill, greatest and best of trees. It soars over all that is, its three roots delve into Asgard and Jotunheim and Niflheim, and there is a spring under each. A hawk and eagle sit in it, a squirrel scurries up and down it, deer leap within it and nibble at it, a dragon devours it, and it is sprinkled with dew. It gives life to itself, it gives life to the unborn. The winds whirl round it and Yggdrasill croons or groans. Yggdrasill always was and is and will be.

The Norse Constellations



By Jonas Persson
jonas.persson @ physics.org
http://www.digitaliseducation.com/resources-norse.html

Most people have some knowledge of the Greek mythology and that the western constellations come from them. As a Scandinavian it is natural to think about the Norse mythology and constellations. This is an attempt to shed some light on the Norse constellations.

One thing to remember is that we do not know a lot of the names and constellations they used. Despite a rich oral and written tradition, very little has been preserved, which is why the material is meagre. There are two major problems: the use of Latin and Greek/Roman names during the medieval period, and the Romanticism in the19th century, where “new” names and tradition arose. Even today the ”New Age” movement invents new names and traditions. It is therefore important to look for reliable (?) sources.

Our main source of Norse mythology comes from the Eddas, the poetic Edda and prosaic (Snorre Sturlason’s) Edda. But there exist other sources with surprisingly few references to the sky, considering the mastery of the Norse navigation and seamanship; this indicates a fair knowledge of astronomy for navigation.

Observations of the stars and the sun are important for navigation, but also as a way of telling time. Local landmarks are used in combination with observations to tell the time. But one notices that the Vikings were aware of the difference of “sun-time” and “star-time”. The existence of a Norse calendar is mentioned in the Icelandic chronicle “Íslendingabók”, where a calendar reform around AD955. A calendar used from the 8th century till the 12th century, when the Julian calendar where introduced. It is likely that the Icelandic calendar where based on astronomical observations.

We find in the Icelandic literature a man, Odd Helgason, ”Star-Oddi”, who had a reputation as a skillful astronomer. A text supposedly originating from him includes the winter- and summer solstices [1]. The text shows his astronomical skills, which shows a tradition for astronomical observations, something that lost its importance with an increased literacy and an increased number of foreign and Icelandic books. Here we find an encyclopaedic text on Astronomy which has survived [2].


Stars and constellations in the Eddas
In Völuspa the origin of the stars and planets are mentioned, as well as their end at Ragnarök. The world was created from the body of the giant Ymer. His skull forms the firmament and is held in place by four dwarves, where sparks from Muspellheim form the stars. Their place in the sky was determined by the gods and some were given paths they will roam.

In prosaic Edda, which is a textbook on writing poetry, we find more stories where stars are mentioned. As in the Greek mythology, stories explain how they ended up in the sky.

In Skáldskaparmál, the story of Tjatse is told. Tjatse managed, with the assistance of Loki, to kidnap Idun, the keeper of the apples of youth, from Asgard. Loki managed to save her but was pursued by Tjatse, who got killed. Tjatse's daughter Skade came and demanded compensation for her father. The compensation included among other things a husband. In addition Odin or Thor placed Tjatse's eyes in the sky; we do not know which stars they are.

The other story where a star or constellation is mentioned is in the epilogue of the fight between Thor and the giant Hrungne. Thor was injured in the fight, and a small piece of stone got stuck in his head. In order to get it out, he sought help from a Vala, a type of oracle, named Groa. When Thor felt that the stone were coming out, he told Groa that he helped her husband Aurvandil, to escape from the land of the giants. During the escape Aurvandil froze his big toe, which Thor broke off and threw into the sky to become a star or a constellation, Aurvandil's toe. This made Groa so happy that she forgot her magic, and Thor still has that piece of stone in his head.

There exist a number of possible candidates of “Aurvandils toe.” Rigel is one possibility, as “Orion” is associated with Thor in other myths. Richard Allen [3] identifies ”Orwandil”1 as the Norse name of Orion, and Rigel as one of ”Orwandil's” toes. According to Allen, the broken-off toe is Alcor, since he was riding in Thor's chariot (Man's chariot, i.e. The Big Dipper). But this is hardly the case as Orwandil was carried on Thor's back according to the myth.

”Aurvandil's toe” might also be Corona Borealis, partly because of the likeness with a toe. But there are also other indications making this identification the most likely. Corona Borealis is a spring constellation, which is of importance. In ”Gesta danorum" written by Saxo Grammaticus [4], one finds a story of a King, Horwendil, who is fighting a duel with a Norwegian king, Koller (cold). The duel ends with Horwendil cutting off Koller's foot and thus killing him. This story is probably based on an old myth of the fight between seasons, making Koller's foot or “Aurvandil's toe” a sign of spring or summers victory over the cold winter.

There is another interesting object in the Eddas, Bifrost, often identified as the name of the rainbow or the Milky Way. There are these two interpretations. In the north-western European tradition the rainbow is the road of the dead. This road is in Norse mythology called the road to Hel, the realm of the dead. But the rainbow is also the road to the “other” world. The name Bifrost originates from two words, bif, the shimmering, the trembling, or the multi coloured, and rost, road. In the poetic Edda, Bifrost is described as the shimmering road and as the road to Asgard, something that is inconsistent with the rainbow.

Rudolf Simek [5] identifies Bifrost as the rainbow, while Jan de Vries [6] concentrates on the notion of the shimmering road, thus identifying Bifrost as the Milky Way. There is other circumstantial evidence: Heimdall, the guardian of Bifrost, lives in a house ”high up in the sky.” In Arctic and Subarctic cultures, the Milky Way is the road to the world of the dead. The dark period of the year is also the time when the dark forces and the dead are closer to our world, but during this period rainbows are very rare when the Milky Way is visible. So Bifrost is probably a mix; during the day it is the rainbow, while being the Milky Way at night, an indication of influences from different cultures.

Stars in encyclopaedic litterature
The literature that survived originates from 1150-1400, which is why it is possible that it has been influenced by continental material. This is indicated by the use of names that are more or less direct translations of the Latin names. The author must have known the old Norse names but used the Latin names instead.

Constellations
In Beckman and Kålund’s compilation [7] of Rimtöl (rhymes of time ( or timetelling)) they present five constellations that appear to have the old norse names:
"Ulf's Keptr," Mouth of the Wolf, Hyades
”Fiskikarlar,” Fishermen, Orion’s belt
”Kvennavagn,” Woman's chariot; Ursa Minor
”Karlvagn,” Man's chariot; The big dipper
”Asar Bardagi,” The Asar Battlefield, Auriga
The Mouth of the Wolf ("Ulf's Keptr"), the Hyades, resembles a wolf's mouth. In Norse mythology there are two wolves hunting the sun and the moon. The mouth of the wolf is close to the ecliptic, and it can be interpreted as one of these wolves. An alternative explanation is that it symbolises the Fenrir Wolf, whose mouth is held open with a sword, The milky way is then formed by the foam from his mouth. But this is not supported by the myth, as Fenrir was chained underground. If the Milky Way is the road to Hel, the wolf could be Garm, who is guarding the entrance to Hel.

Gislason [8] mentions a second Mouth of the wolf, in the vicinity of Andromeda, this might be stars in Pieces, as they are close to the ecliptic. However the two wolves in the sky can be interpreted as one running in front of the sun and one after. This might be the origin of the word Sundog, parhelia. The Danish name is a direct translation of the English or rather vice versa.

Orion is a well known constellation, and there are a number of names for Orion's belt of Norse origin. Beckman and Kålunds [7] use “Fiskikarlar,” the fishermen. Another name is “Friggs distaff.” These names seem to be used locally; the fishermen are used in Norway and Iceland, while Friggs distaff is used in Sweden.

One of the most well known constellations is The Big Dipper, the Plogh or Charles’ wain, which in the Nordic countries are called ”Karlavagnen”, the chariot of Karl or man. The wagon is easily identified, but the origin of the name is a source for discussion. One theory is that it is named after Charlemagne (Karl in Scandinavia) and of medieval origin. But if we look at the older Norse name, we find “Karlsvagn” (Man’s Chariot) but also ”Kvennavagn” (Woman’s Chariot) as the name of Ursa Minor. This might indicate a connection between the constellations, and the fact that the names are much older, with a possibility that specific names have been used during different periods in history. This means that Thor might be the Man and Freya the woman, both travelling by chariots according to the myths. We also might have a connection with the Nerthus cult, described by Roman authors.

One constellation which has a peculiar name is Auriga, which is called ”asar bardagi”. The battlefield or the fight of the asar. Beckman and Kålund interpret this name as Thor’s Fight, probably based on the Greek name. But asar is plural, so it might indicate the final battle for all asar, that is Ragnarök. The neighbouring constellations are equally horrifying, with The Mouth of The Wolf, and the Milky Way as The Road of the Dead, in the vicinity.

Stars
Among the stars three have special names:
Arcturus; Dagstjarna, Day star.
Polaris; Leidarstjarna, Guiding star
Vega; Sudrstjarna, South star

Vega is visible in the southern sky during summer and in south at midnight during summer solstice.
Polaris is always in the north and was probably used for navigation, hence its name.

But why call a star Day star? (The Finnish name for Arcturus is “Aurinkontähti”, sunstar) we know that the sun does not follow star time, why there shouldn’t exist a specific star that following the sunrise. But at the latitudes of Scandinavia, especially around the Arctic Circle, the sunrise follows star time during the first months of the year. So an intense star visible before sunrise during late winter and spring will indicate that the sun is coming and be referred to as the day star, Arcturus.

We also find an indication of a star in folklore, especially in a popular Swedish Christmas song, with medieval origin. The interesting lines go like this:

Det är väl ingen dager än,
Fast Eder tyckes så,
Det är den ljusa stjärnan
Som för dagen plägar gå.

“There is no sign of dawn
Even if it seems to be
It is the shining star
Promising the day to come”

This song is sung around Christmas, when Arcturus is in the right position. Arcturus is also called Day Star in some parts of Norway today.

Conclusions
The Norse societies had a considerable knowledge of astronomy and quite possibly their own constellations and names of stars. These names have been lost, apart from some fragments from written sources and within the folklore. The literature was probably written down by persons who had some kind of education, including in astronomy, which is why they used the Latin names. But the small fragments that exist give a picture of this lost culture that might increase when more notes are found in the Icelandic archives.

References: 
Roslund Curt, Stjärn-Oddi: En vikingatida astronom på Island, Astronomisk årsbok, s 28, 1984 (in Swedish)
Beckman, N. and Kålund, Kr. (1914-16). Alfræði íslenzk: Islandsk encyklo-pædisk litteratur: II. Rímtöl [Encyclopaedic literature on the calendar]. s 48-53 (in Swedish).
Richard Hinckley Allen, Star Names; Their lore and meaning
Saxo Grammaticus, ”Gesta danorum" (In Latin)
Rudolf Simek, The Dictionary of Northen Mythology
Jan de Vries, Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte (in German)
Beckman, N. and Kålund, Kr. (1914-16). Alfræði íslenzk: Islandsk encyklo-pædisk litteratur: II. Rímtöl [Encyclopaedic literature on the calendar]. s 72. (in Swedish)
Gislason, K. Fire og fyrretyve for en stor Deel forhen utrykte Prøver af oldnordisk Sprog og Litteratur. (København: Gyldendalska bogh. 1860) (in Danish)
1 Aurvandil, Orwandil, Horwandil and Erendil are different forms of the same name.

As Seen through the Eyes of the Norse

As a child, the Norse Sagas always fascinated me because they envisioned the elementary forces as such monumental figures, I had to wonder exactly what it was they saw in the world around them that inspired this. The tales of a world born between fire and ice inevitably took me to Iceland and indeed, there it was, exactly as they described it. After living so many years in Europe's dense microcosm of communities that blanket the subcontinent like an elaborate quilt, it was like going to another planet, a primal world of raw volcanic and glacial terrain yet unscathed by human domestication. A vast island continent that grew out of a great tectonic fissure we know as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

The Norse were true cunning folk, the last of the European survivalists. Rather than succumb to the cold and hunger of relentlessly bad winters, they put their well-honed wood and metal working skills to the test of the seas in quest of fairer lands wherever they could find them. So, it's not as if they just frivolously made these tales up. Rather, like with most oral traditions of the period, they wove all they had observed and experienced along the way, into these powerful allegorical portrayals.

Seeing something like in this picture, it takes no real stretch of the imagination to envision that epic battle between Thor and Surt in story of Ragnarök. The descent into chaos like the insatiably hungry wolf that outgrows its bonds until it inevitably devours itself, speaks whole volumes of the catastrophic cycles that shaped the earth, whereas the death and rebirth of Baldur tells us of climate change. This island that rose out of the sea in 1963 was aptly named “Surtsey”, and when the sagas speak of Surt's Sword, they are talking about a fountain of magma as one sees in such eruptions and not some knightly figure as illustrated by Victorian romantics. Surt himself was hardly described as a manly figure but a fearsome misshapen giant, spawning such rare gems and metals as jealously guarded by the elves of the underworld. Beautiful limestone and crystalline caves were thought to be their palatial manors, where they allured the greedy deep into the dark timeless voids of Hel.

We must understand that these people did not have the technical terms as we do today, nonetheless looking at these things as they saw them, there is no question they knew what they were talking about; a comprehension that library-bound pedantics are most likely to miss in the whole equation because they simply didn't experience it. So when you read about the folklore of these distant lands, bear in mind that they were conceived in a very different world to your own familiar space and time. Sometimes you just have to go the distance to truly understand it and the wisdom that all things have their time and place.


The Saga of the Greenlanders

http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/vinland/whereisvinland/sagaofgreenlanders/indexen.html

"The Saga of the Greenlanders" was recorded in Iceland towards the end of the 14th century by an anonymous scribe. It tells of the accidental discovery of hitherto unknown lands south and west of Greenland. The discovery was made in 985 or 986, the same year that Greenland was settled, by a crew on an Icelandic merchant ship en route from Iceland to Greenland. The ship was owned by an Icelander, Bjarni Herjolfsson. Returning to his home in Iceland from a trading voyage to Norway, he found that his father had emigrated to Greenland with Erik the Red. Undaunted, he set out for Greenland, despite lacking familiarity with the route and the fact that it was late in the season. Rounding the southern tip of Greenland, now called Cape Farewell, they were hit by a storm and tossed unmercifully on the sea for some time. When the weather cleared, they sighted land. Realizing that he was too far south for this land to be Greenland and that the landmarks did not correspond to what he had heard of Greenland, Bjarni set course first northward, then east, and eventually made his way to his father’s place in Greenland in time to spend the winter there.

Word of Bjarni’s discovery spread fast. People were interested in finding out more about this new land, but it was not until fifteen years later that anyone did anything about it. The first to launch an expedition was Leif, son of the paramount chief of Greenland, Erik (Eirik) the Red. Retracing Bjarni’s route in the opposite direction, Leif created the names Helluland, Markland, and Vinland for three regions with distinct characteristics first observed by Bjarni. They established a base in Vinland and called it Leifsbúðir, Leif’s Camp. From there they explored in several directions and discovered wild grapes for which Leif named the area.

The second expedition was headed by Leif’s brother Thorvald. The first summer Thorvald and his crew explored the area west of Leifsbúðir. They were out all summer without seeing any sign of people except a shelter which looked like a drying rack or storage structure for hay. The next summer they investigated the area north or east of the base. One day they came upon nine people sleeping under overturned hide-covered boats. They killed all but one. The next morning they were attacked by a large group of people shooting arrows. Thorvald died. In his dying moments he instructed his comrades to bury him there and erect crosses at his head and feet. After this the crew returned to Leifsbúðir to spend the rest of the winter there. In the spring they returned to Greenland.

The next expedition was arranged by another of Leif’s brothers, Thorsten. Thorsten was married to Gudrid, who figures prominently in all the Vinland sagas. Thorsten’s chief goal was to retrieve Thorvald’s body for reburial in Greenland, presumably in the cemetery at Brattahlid. Thorsten’s expedition never reached any of the new lands. The ship got caught up in a storm and was tossed on the open sea all summer, finding its way back to Greenland only in the first week of winter [in the Norse calendar summer ended and winter began in mid-October]. Thorsten died that winter.

The third expedition was led by the Icelander Thorfinn Karlsefni, who had married Thorsten’s widow Gudrid. Gudrid accompanied him on the voyage. Karlsefni and Gudrid’s stay in Vinland lasted two years, and their son, Snorri, was born there. This expedition ran into conflict with large groups of native inhabitants. They felt outnumbered and unsafe and returned home.
The fourth expedition was led by Leif’s sister Freydis and her husband Thorvard. They made the expedition in partnership with two Icelandic merchants, Helgi and Finnbogi, who had their own vessel and crew. Their agreement was to share equally in the profit. On their arrival in Vinland, however, Freydis informed the Icelanders that they could not use any of Leif’s buildings, so they built their own house a bit away from the existing ones. Over the winter, when everyone was at the camp, Freydis grew restless. Greedy for the goods collected by the Icelanders [probably lumber, fur, and grapes], she enticed her husband and crew to kill all the Icelanders. When her own people refused to kill the five women who were part of the Icelandic group, she grabbed an axe and did it herself.

Freydis’ and Thorvard’s expedition is the last expedition described in the "Saga of the Greenlanders".

Erik the Red’s Saga
"Erik (Eirik) the Red’s Saga" was composed before 1265 in northwestern Iceland. In spite of the name, it deals primarily with Thorfinn Karlsefni and his wife Gudrid, also known from the "Saga of the Greenlanders". It occurs in two written versions. One is Skálholt Book possibly because it was written by a cleric at the Skálholt monastery in southwestern Iceland. The other is Hauk’s Book, penned around the years 1306 to 1308 by the prominent Icelander Hauk Erlendsson who lived from 1265 to 1334. Hauk [the name means ‘hawk’] was a Law Speaker and served as a delegate at the Norwegian court. Hauk was a direct descendant of Thorfinn Karlsefni and Gudrid via their son Snorri. They were in fact his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents.

A Swedish scholar, Sven B. F. Jansson, has made a word-for-word comparison of the two versions of "Erik the Red’s Saga". His conclusion is that Hauk had edited a manuscript more or less identical to theSkálholt Book. Hauk made notes in the margin and clarified and added to some passages, and he is more specific. For example, where Skalholt Book says ‘birds,’ Hauk’s Book says ‘eider.’ Possibly Hauk was drawing on information preserved within his own family.
Erik the Red’s Saga" tells of the same events as "The Saga of the Greenlanders" but with a twist. Here the expeditions of Leif, Thorvald, Karlsefni and Freydis have been combined into one single expedition led by Thorfinn Karlsefni and Gudrid, where Thorvald and Freydis figure as partners. The size of this expedition is the same as all of those of the "Saga of the Greenlanders" combined. Leif’s role has been reduced to that of accidental discoverer, being blown off course en route from Norway to Greenland.

Only Thorsten’s expedition is given equal treatment. Again we are told that it never reached its goal but was storm-driven all summer before returning to Greenland without ever having seen Vinland.

Instead of the one base establishment, Leifsbúðir, there are two. The main base where everyone spent the winter is Straumfjord, Fjord of Currents. Straumfjord is in northern Vinland. There is also a more southerly base, Hóp, Tidal Lagoon. It is here they harvested grapes and cut lumber. However, here they also came into contact with large groups of native people. After fights ensued, Karlsefni and his group returned to Straumfjord.

In other aspects the events are much the same as those of the "Saga of the Greenlanders". There are explorations in different directions. One group went north but was storm-driven eastwards all the way to Ireland where everyone was enslaved. Exploring in a northerly direction, another group encountered five native people sleeping on the shore, whom they killed. Here Thorvald died from an arrow presumably shot by a native person, although the saga calls him a ‘uniped, or ‘one-footer.’ The survivors returned to Straumfjord for the winter and set sail for Greenland the next spring. They had spent three years in Vinland and Snorri had been born to Karlsefni and Gudrid already the first year.

Death in Norse paganism

The soul
There are at least two currently known interpretations of soul from accounts of ancient Norse belief. The last breath a person took was understood to be an evaporation of the life principle into a source of life that was primeval and common, and which was in the world of the gods, nature and the universe. There was also a "free soul" or "dream soul" that could only leave the body during moments of unconsciousness, ecstasy, trance and sleep. The conscious soul which comprised emotions and will was located in the body and it could only be released when the body was destroyed through decay or immolation. When the body had been broken down, the conscious soul could start its journey to the realm of the dead, possibly by using the free soul as an intermediary.

Funeral
The grave goods had to be subjected to the same treatment as the body, if it was to accompany the dead person to the afterlife. If a person was immolated, then the grave goods had to be burnt as well, and if the deceased was to be interred, the objects were interred together with him. The usual grave for a thrall was probably not much more than a hole in the ground. He was probably buried in such a way as to ensure both that he did not return to haunt his masters and that he could be of use to his masters after they died. Slaves were sometimes sacrificed to be useful in the next life. A free man was usually given weapons and equipment for riding. An artisan, such as a blacksmith, could receive his entire set of tools. Women were provided with their jewelry and often with tools for female and household activities. The most sumptuous Viking funeral discovered so far is the Oseberg ship burial, which was for a woman, obviously of elevated social status, who lived in the 9th century.

It was common to burn the corpse and the grave offerings on a pyre, in which the temperature reached 1,400 degrees Celsius; much higher than modern crematorium furnaces attain. All that would remain was some incinerated fragments of metal and some animal and human bones. The pyre was constructed so that the pillar of smoke would be as massive as possible in order to elevate the deceased to the afterlife.

On the seventh day after the person had died, people celebrated the sjaund, or the funeral ale that the feast also was called since it involved a ritual drinking. The funeral ale was a way of socially demarcating the case of death. It was only after the funeral ale that the heirs could rightfully claim their inheritance.If the deceased was a widow or the master of the homestead, the rightful heir could assume the high seat and thereby mark the shift in authority.

Ancestor worship
The grave is often described as an abode for the dead, and it was also the location of cultic rites. The tradition of putting out food and beer on the tumulus has survived into modern times, in some parts of Scandinavia. This tradition is a remainder of the ancestor worship that was common during early Norse culture. If the dead were taken care of, they would in return protect the homestead and its people, and provide for its fertility.

Afterlife
The ancestor worship of ancient Scandinavians appears to contradict another idea, i.e. that the deceased departed on a voyage to the realm of the dead, a realm which could be situated inside the mountain, on the other side of the sea, in the heavens or in the underworld. There is no logical connection between these two complexes of ideas, and scholars do not have any answers to the question whether the dead would remain for some time in the grave and later depart for the realm of the dead, what the purpose of the grave goods was, or if the ship in the barrow was to transport the deceased to the realm of the dead.

Helgafjell
Helgafjell, the "holy mountain" was one idea of the afterlife which appears in West Norse sources. This mountain could be a mountain formation in the vicinity, and it was so sacred that people could not look in its direction without washing their face first. In the holy mountain, the members of the Norse clans would lead lives similar to the ones they had lived in the world of the living. Some psychic people could look into the mountain and what they saw was not intimidating, but instead it was a scene with a warm hearth, drinking and talking.

Hel
This conception is in stark contrast to Hel's realm, the dreary subterranean abode ruled by its eponymous blue and black giantess Hel. The realm of punishment was a shore made of corpses called Náströnd within Hel. Her realm is separated from the world of the living by a rapid river across which leads the Gjallarbrú that the dead have to pass. The gates are heavy, and close behind those who pass it and will never return again. Hel is the final destination of those who do not die in battle, but of old age or disease. There is reason to assume that the ideas of Hel are coloured by Christian influences which taught that there was a realm of punishment in contrast toparadise. The word Helviti, which still is the name of Hell in modern Scandinavian languages means "Hel's punishment". It is not certain that the notion of Hel was very dark and dreary to pagan Scandinavians. In Baldrs draumar, we learn that Hel had decorated a lavish feasting table when she waited for Baldr to enter her halls. Still, it was probably not a very attractive destination, as the sagas tell of warriors who cut themselves with spears before dying in order to trick Hel into thinking that they had died heroic deaths in battle.

Valhalla
Valhalla is an afterlife destination where half of those who die in battle gather as einherjar, a retinue gathered for one sole purpose: to remain fit for battle in preparation for the last great battle; Ragnarök. In opposition to Hel's realm, which was a subterranean realm of the dead, it appears that Valhalla was located somewhere in the heavens. Odin's kingdom was primarily an abode for men, and the women who live there are the valkyries who gather the fallen warriors on the battle field and bring them to Odin's hall where they pour mead for them.
There is little information on where women went, but both Helgafjell and Hel's realm must have been open for women and the lavish gifts that could be bestowed on dead women show that they were understood to have an afterlife as well.

Fólkvangr
In Norse mythology, Fólkvangr ("field of the host"or "people-field or army-field") is a meadow or field ruled over by the goddess Freyja where half of those that die in combat go upon death, while the other half go to the god Odin in Valhalla. Fólkvangr is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. According to the Prose Edda, within Fólkvangr is Freyja's hall Sessrúmnir. Scholarly theories have been proposed about the implications of the location. 

1851 C.P. in
The Yale Magazine, Vol. 16
“The Song of Grimner”

XIV. Falcvanger's towers claim my song,
These to Freya's right belong;
Who chief presiding at each feast,
Appoints his place to ev'ry guest:
Half of the slain by her's possest,
But Odin daily claims the rest.
Folkvangr is ninth, and there hath Freya power
To seat her daily guests around the board;
Daily she chooseth unto herself the half
Of fallen heroes, and half Odin owneth.

Freyja kvað:

1. "Vaki mær meyja,
vaki mín vina,
Hyndla systir,
er í helli býr;
nú er rökkr rökkra,
ríða vit skulum
til Valhallar
ok til vés heilags.
Freyja said:

1. "Wake, maid of maids!
Wake, my friend!
Hyndla! Sister!
who in the cavern dwellest.
Now there is a dark of darks;
we will both
to Valhall ride,
and to the holy fane."

Fog Will Not Save You From Vikings



by Max Eddy | 2:05 pm, February 1st, 2011
http://www.geekosystem.com/viking-navigation/


Vikings are already famous for their beards and badassery, not the least of which springs from their sailing prowess. Spreading from Sweden and Norway, the Vikings sailed and settled Northern England, Iceland, Greenland, and were the first Europeans to arrive in North America. They also pillaged and terrorized an unready European populace with their ferocity and totally sweet boats, but a lingering question faced by historians is how they managed to sail as well as they did with such limited technology.

Navigation in the far north poses several unique problems. First off, compasses don’t operate as well so close to the North Pole, and weren’t introduced to Scandinavia until after the Viking period. Secondly, for the warmest part of the year, the sun generally does not fully set, making it impossible to navigate using stars. It’s been fairly well accepted that Norse sailors used a sun-dial like device, but those would only function when the sun is visible. Fog or other weather common on the North Atlantic would have easily obscured the sun, making it extremely difficult to discern direction.

One teasing reference that the Vikings had a trick for dealing with such situations was recorded in the saga Rauðúlfs þáttr. In the story, a man confirms the position of the sun by looking at the sky through a crystal. Far from being magical, Danish archaeologist Thorkild Ramskou suggested in 1967 that the so-called “sunstone” might have allowed the Norse to see the polarized light passing through the clouds and make a reasonable guess as to the position of the sun.

The stones may have worked much the same as modern polarized sunglasses, which filter light based on its direction. Wired explains:

The stone would like have been made of a so-called birefringent material, like calcite or certain plastics, that can split light into separate rays.The atmosphere similarly splits sunlight into a pattern of concentric rings. Looking through the crystal and rotating it would make the sky appear to brighten and fade, as certain directions of light were transmitted or blocked. When the light coming through the crystal was polarized the same way as through the atmosphere, the crystal would appear brightest and points toward the sun. By checking the polarization at two different points in the sky, the navigators could determine the invisible sun’s location.
But the use of sunstones remained purely theoretical until Gábor Horváth of Hungary’s Eötvös University decided to attempt a series of experiments to test the theory’s viability. From 2001 to 2007, Horváth and others made observations of the sun while in various sailing conditions, presenting their findings in a paper published this week in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. The researches concluded that the sun could be found through fog and clouds, though not always definitively depending on the severity of the weather. Further experiments are in the works, hoping to determine exactly how useful the technique would have been to early seafarers.

While the sunstone theory is intriguing, it is far from conclusive. From Scientific American:
Surviving written records indicate that Viking and early medieval sailors crossed the north Atlantic using the sun’s position on clear days as a guide, in combination with the positions of coastlines, flight patterns of birds, migration paths of whales and distant clouds over islands, says Christian Keller, a specialist in North Atlantic archaeology at the University of Oslo. “You don’t need to be a wizard,” he says. “But you do need to combine a lot of different sorts of observations.”

Despite the inherent awesomeness of the Vikings, modern science will have to go a bit further to prove that the longships that ruled the North Atlantic a thousand years ago carried sunstones, and that their legendary sailors could see through the clouds.
(via Wired and Scientific American, image via infomatique)

Scandinavian Magical Labyrinths

Originating in Sweden, these forms are found either shaped with lines of stones or carved out of peat. The earliest are found in the Västerås region of Sweden, dating roughly 100 BC. They were laid out on the “Ting” mounds of sacred burial sites, and appear to have had more of a cult association with the ancient goddesses Ull, Njard and Skädja .

Those dated from around 300AD onward are more commonly found in dense groups on the coast of Sweden and wherever they settled throughout the Baltic. This suggests they had come into popular use in fishing and trading communities; each having their own for ritual uses. In some cases they were used in rituals to calm sea storms or evoke favourable winds for sailing- in others, to insure a good catch of fish or perform a healing. There was a general superstition that shear bad luck was the work of the “little people” namely trolls. To see one on the boat as they were heading out to sea, could only mean trouble. Being as trolls were inclined to follow people like a curse, the object of the labyrinth was to lead them into the center of it, by walking its maze. Upon reaching the center, you then had to run the way back out and immediately head out to sea in order to effectively lose them. Thus such labyrinths are often referred to as “Troll's Circles”. In some places this practice carried on well into the 19th century.

The Saami used altar stones in the center of large labyrinths to make offerings or perform magical rites. It was believed, prophecies made in these enclosures were particularly powerful. More commonly the rites were performed to ward off predators from their reindeer herds.



About Bifrost

By Quasizoid

Indeed there is always much debate as to what natural phenomenon the Norse myths are describing. What we coin in English as the “rainbow bridge” naturally assumes it is a rainbow, however, in the original language of the Norse, bifrǫst meant “tremulous way”- from bifask ”to tremble” and rǫst ”a distance”. What immediately springs to my mind on such connotations, is none other than the Aurora Borealis. Some suggest it may even describe the milky way, however, references to its “red flaming fires” speak otherwise.

To those of us who have lived and travelled above the 49th parallel for quite sometime, the Aurora is a common sight at the best of times. Thus its hard to imagine that the Norse would conceive its formidable appearance and behaviour in the sky as anything less than a bridge to the hall of the courageous, in itself, full of perils to the uninvited. North German folklore describes the hiss and crackle of its shifling light forms as the clatter of the warriors’ battlegear, and the glint of sunlight off the valkyrie shields, as they move along its course. If this were not the case, then the awe of the Aurora Borealis would be too conspicuously absent from nordic culture. Rather, I think the rainbow was a cross with the Celtic idea of the Summerlands or emphasized later to allude to the Christian idea of a more paradisical afterworld.

The Song of the Völva

From the Völuspá
(W H Auden & P B Taylor Translation)

Heidi men call me when their homes I visit,
A far seeing Volva, wise in talismans.
Caster of spells, cunning in magic.
To wicked women welcome always.

Arm rings and necklaces, Odhinn you gave me
To learn my lore, to learn my magic:
Wider and wider through all worlds I see.

Outside I sat by myself when you came,
Terror of the gods, and gazed in my eyes.
What do you ask of me? Why tempt me?
Odhinn, I know where your eye is concealed,
Hidden away in the well of Mimir:
Mimir each morning his mead drinks
From Valfather’s pledge. Well would you know more?

Of Heimdal too and his horn I know.
Hidden under the holy tree
Down on it pours a precious stream from Valfather’s pledge
Well would you know more?

Silence I ask of the sacred folk,
Silence of the kith and kin of Heimdal:
At your will Valfather, I shall well relate
The old songs of men I remember best.

I tell of giants from times forgotten.
Those who fed me in former days:
Nine worlds I can reckon, nine roots of the tree.
The wonderful ash, way under the ground

When Ymir lived long ago
Was no sand or sea, no surging waves.
Nowhere was there earth nor heaven above.
Bur a grinning gap and grass nowhere.

The sons of Bur then built up the lands.
Moulded in magnificence middle-Earth:
Sun stared from the south on the stones of their hall,
From the ground there sprouted green leeks.

Sun turned from the south, sister of Moon,
Her right arm rested on the rim of Heaven;
She had no inkling where her hall was,
Nor Moon a notion of what might he had,
The planets knew not where their places were.

The high gods gathered in council
In their hall of judgement. all the rulers:
To Night and to Nightfall their names gave,
The Morning they named and the Mid-Day,
Mid-Winter, Mid-Summer, for the assigning of years.

At Ida’s Field the Aesir met:
Temple and altar they timbered and raised,
Set up a forge to smithy treasures,
Tongs they fashioned and tools wrought;

Played chess in the court and cheerful were;
Gold they lacked not, the gleaming metal
Then came three, the Thurs maidens,
Rejoicing in their strength, from Giant-home.

The high Gods gathered in council.
In their hall of judgement: Who of the dwarves
Should mould man by master craft
From Brimir’s blood and Blain’ s limbs?

Motsognir was their mighty ruler,
Greatest of dwarves, and Durin after him :
The dwarves did as Durin directed,
Many man forms made from the earth.

Nyi and Nidi, Nordri, Sudri, Austri and Vestri, Althjof, Dvalin, Bivor,
Bavor Bombur, Nori, An and Anar, Ai, Mjodvitnir, Veignr and Gandalf,
Vindalf, Thorin, Thror and Thrain, Thekkur, Litur, Vitur, Nar and Nyradur,
Fili, Kili, Fundin, Nali Hefti, Vili, Hanar, Sviur, Billing, Bruni, Bildur,
and Buri, Frar, Hornbori Fraegur, Loni, Aurvangur, Jari, Eikinskjaldi:
(All Durin’s folk I have duly named,)

I must tell of the dwarves in Dvalin’ s host;
Like lions they were in Lofar’s time:
In Juravale’s marsh they made their dwelling,
From their Stone hall set out on journeys,

There was Draupnir and Dolgthrasir, Har, Haugspori, Hlevangur, Gloi, Dori,
Ori, Dufur, Andvari, Skirvir, Virvir Skafidur, Ai, Alf and Yngvi,
Eikinskjaldi, Fjalar and Frosti, Finn and Ginnar:
Men will remember while men live
The long line of Lofar’s forbears.

Then from the host three came,
Great, merciful, from the God’s home:
Ash and Elm on earth they found,
Faint, feeble, with no fate assigned them

Breath they had not, nor blood nor senses,
Nor language possessed, nor life-hue:
Odhinn gave them breath, Haenir senses,
Blood and life hue Lothur gave.

I know an ash tree, named Yggdrasil:
Sparkling showers are shed on its leaves
That drip dew, into the dales below,
By Urd’s well it waves evergreen,
Stands over that still pool,
Near it a bower whence now there come
The Fate Maidens, first Urd,
Skuld second, scorer of runes,
Then Verdandi, third of the Norns:
The laws that determine the lives of men
They fixed forever and their fate sealed.

The first war in the world I well remember,
When Gullveig was spitted on spear-points
And burned in the hall of. the high god:
Thrice burned, thrice reborn,
Often laid low, she lives yet,

The gods hastened to their hall of judgement,
Sat in council to discover who
Had tainted all the air with corruption
And Odhinn’s maid offered to the giants,

At the host Odhinn hurled his spear
In the first world-battle; broken was the plankwall
Of the gods fortress: the fierce Vanes
Caused war to occur in the fields.

The gods hastened to their hall of judgement,
Sat in council to discover who
Had tainted all the air with corruption
And Odhinn’s maid offered to the giants.

One Thorr felled in his fierce rage;
Seldom he sits when of such he hears:
Oaths were broken, binding vows,
Solemn agreements sworn between them.

Valkyries I saw, coming from afar,
Eagerly riding to aid the Goths;
Skuld bore one shield, Skogul another
Gunn, Hild, Gondul and Spearskogul:
Duly have I named the daughters of Odhinn,
The valiant riders the Valkyries.

Baldur I saw the bleeding God,
His fate still hidden, Odhinn’s Son:
Tall on the plain a plant grew,
A slender marvel, the mistletoe.

From that fair shrub, shot by Hodur,
Flew the fatal dart that felled the god, .
But Baldur’ s brother was born soon after:
Though one night old, Odhinn’s Son
Took a vow to avenge that death.

His hands he washed not nor his hair combed .
Till Baldur’s bane was borne to the pyre:,
Deadly the bow drawn by Vali,
The strong string of stretched gut,
But Frigga wept in Fensalir
For the woe of Valhalla. Well, would you know more?

I see one in bonds by the boiling springs;
Like Loki he looks, loathsome to view:
There Sigyn sits, sad by her husband,
In woe by her man. Well would you know more?

From the east through Venom Valley runs
Over jagged rocks the River Gruesome.

North, in Darkdale, stands the dwelling place
Of Sindri’s kin, covered with gold;
A hall also in Everfrost,
The banquet hall of Brimir the giant.

A third I see, that no sunlight reaches,
On Dead Man’s Shore: the doors face northward,
Through its smoke vent venom drips,
Serpent skins enskein that hall.

Men wade there tormented by the stream,
Vile murderers, men forsworn
And artful seducers of other mens wives:
Nidhogg sucks blood from the bodies of the dead
The wolf rends them. Well, would you know more?

In the east dwells a crone, in Ironwood:
The brood of Fenris are bred there
Wolf-monsters, one of whom
Eventually shall devour the sun.

The giants watchman, joyful Eggthur
Sits on his howe and harps well:
The red cock, called All-Knower
Boldly crows from Birdwood.

Goldencomb to the gods crows
Who wakes the warriors in Valhalla:
A soot red hen also calls
From Hel’s hall, deep under the ground.

Loud howls Garm before Gnipahellir,
Bursting his fetters, Fenris runs:
Further in the future afar I behold
The twilight of the gods who gave victory.

Brother shall strike brother and both fall,
Sisters’ sons defiled with incest;
Evil be on earth, an age of. whoredom,
Of sharp sword-play and shields clashing,
A wind-age, a wolf-age till the world ruins:
No man to another shall mercy show.

The waters are troubled, the waves surge up:
Announcing now the knell of Fate,
Heimdal winds his horn aloft,
On Hel’s road all men tremble

Yggdrasil trembles, the towering ash
Groans in woe; the wolf is loose:
Odhinn speaks with the head of Mimir
Before he is swallowed by Surt’s kin.

From the east drives Hrym, lifts up his shield
The squamous serpent squirms with rage
The great worm with the waves contending
The pale-beaked eagle pecks at the dead,
Shouting for joy: the ship Naglfar

Sails out from the east, at its helm Loki
With the children of darkness, the doom-bringers
Offspring of monsters, allies of the wolf,
All who Byleists’s brother follow.

What of the gods? What of the elves?
Gianthome groans the gods are in council
The dwarves grieve before their door of stone,
Masters of walls. Well, would you know more?

Surt with the bane of branches comes
From the south, on his sword the sun of the Valgods,
Crags topple, the crone falls headlong,
Men tread Hel’s road, the Heavens split open.

A further woe falls upon Hlin
As Odhinn comes forth to fight the wolf;
The killer of Beli battles with Surt:
Now shall fall Frigga’s beloved.

Now valiant comes Valfather’s son,
Vidar, to vie with Valdyr in battle,
Plunges his sword into he son of Hvedrung,
Avenging his father with a fell thrust.

Now the son of Hlodyn and Odhinn comes
To fight with Fenris; fiercest of warriors
He mauls in his rage all Middle-Earth;
Men in fear all flee their homesteads;
Nine paces back steps Bur’s son
Retreats from the worm of taunts unafraid.

Now death is the portion of doomed men,
Red with blood the buildings of gods,
The sun turns black in the summer after,
Winds whine. Well, would know more?

Earth sinks in the sea, the sun turns black,
Cast down from Heaven are the hot stars,
Fumes reek, into flames burst,
The sky itself is scorched with fire.

I see Earth rising a second time
Out of the foam, fair and green;
Down from the fells fish to capture,
Wings the eagle; waters flow.

At lda’s Field the Aesir meet:
They remember the worm of Middle-Earth,
Ponder again the great twilight
And the ancient runes of the high god

Boards shall be found of a beauty to wonder at,
Boards of gold in the grass long after,
The chess boards they owned in the olden days,

Unsown acres shall harvests bear,
Evil be abolished, Baldur return
And Hropt’s hall with Hod rebuild,
Wise gods. Well, would you know more?

Haenir shall wield the wand of prophecy,
The sons two brothers set up their dwelling
In wide Windhome. Well, would you know more?

Fairer than sunlight, I see a hall
A hall thatched with gold in Gimle:
Kind Lords shall live there in delight for ever.

Now rides the Strong One to Rainbow Door,
Powerful from heaven, the All-Ruler:
From the depths below a drake comes flying
The dark dragon from Darkfell,
Bears on his opinions the bodies of men,
Soars overhead I sink now.


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