It was then that Thor in his great anger struck a blow against the giant who had demanded such a high price. He cannot stay still when he hears such talk by giants. In that act of violence, oaths were broken and words and promises shattered. Solemn pledges had been made (to reward that giant with the fee he demanded) but these pledges were broken by Thor when he acted in anger.
The gaining of wisdom
I know how much has been offered in order to gain wisdom. Heimdall (watchman of the gods) gave his ear to have a taste of it, and he left it as payment in the well of fate by the ash tree called Yggdrasil. There it is hidden deep beneath that tree.
I see in the torrent pouring down that tree that which came about because of the wager made by the Father of the Warrior Dead (Odin who gave up an eye to gain rune-knowledge and placed it in that well of fate).
I sat alone when the old man (Odin) came to see me. He is the member of the Æsir known as the Terrible One. He looked directly at me but I told him that I know everything and that I cannot be tested and found lacking. For I knew that he gave up one eye and threw it in the well of fate. He threw it into the water where Mimir (the one whose name means the ‘Rememberer’), the wise one, drinks every morning. For to him the water from that well is better than any mead. It was to fulfil his wager that Odin did such a thing, in order to gain wisdom.
To me the Father of Many offered golden rings and necklaces of fine workmanship. I in return granted him wisdom in his speech and a magical staff to use in telling the future. He asked it from me because I see far and wide, into every world that exists.
The seeress sees the fate of the gods
I saw valkyries approach from every direction and from great distances. They were ready to ride to the nation of the Goths. There was Skuld with one shield; Skogul with another shield; there was Gunn, Hild, Gondul and the one known as Spear-carrying-Skogul. They were assembled and were ready to ride down to the earth below.
I saw Baldr and I saw his blood. Though he was Odin’s son, I could read his concealed fate. For, as well as him standing there, I could also see the mistletoe standing tall, slim and fair out on the plain where the Æsir live. For it was from that plant – that seemed lovely – that a killing arrow was fashioned. And it was Hod who fired it and killed Baldr. Then was Odin’s son (Vali) born swiftly and he could fight at one day old. He did not comb his hair, he did not wash, until he had avenged Baldr and punished the one who killed him. Then was that one (Hod) brought to Baldr’s funeral pyre. It was over all of this that Frigg wept. She wept because of the sadness that it brought to Valhalla.
It was then that the guts of Loki’s son were used to bind Loki as punishment. These bound him as punishment for what he had done (for he had organised the killing of Baldr). Then I saw where Loki was held prisoner, bound beneath hot springs for his love of evil. There his wife sits, sorrowful for her captive husband.
The road to Ragnarok
From the eastern lands there falls a torrent of swords and knives that sweeps out from poisonous valleys. North of that was the dwarf-hall of Sindri, made of gold; and the hall of the giant Brimir where he drinks beer.
I see another hall. It stands out of the sunlight and faces the north. Poison drips from its roof and it is made from the bodies of serpents.
More I see. Men who murder and break oaths wading through the rivers. Men who seduce the wives of other men. And in that place the dragon, Nidhogg, feasts on the corpses of the dead. A wolf too tears at those corpses.
In the east, in Iron-wood, there is an old woman. She raised the children of Fenrir the wolf. One of these will be the wolf that will eventually devour the Moon.
Dead men fall . . . the halls of the gods are red with blood . . . the Sun succumbs to darkness . . . the weather is sharp and cruel. A golden-combed cockerel wakes up Odin’s warriors and another one crows beneath the earth in the realm of Hel. Garm, the terrible hound, breaks loose and the ravening one runs free (he who will fight Tyr at Ragnarok). For I have much wisdom and I can see far; I can see the destruction of the gods.
Brother will kill brother; brother and sister will violate each other and break kinship’s bonds; it will be a hard time and a time of much adultery. It will be an axe-age, a sword-age, when shields are splintered. It will be a wind-age, a wolf-age, when the world collapses and none are spared.
Then will the sons of Mim be seen to play and fate itself will catch fire. Heimdall, the watchman of the gods, will sound his warning horn. Odin will consult with the head of Mim (who was beheaded by the Vanir and whose head was sent to the Æsir). That head speaks wisdom.
The ash tree Yggdrasil will shake and the giant will break loose and the road to Hel will be consumed with fire. Garm, the terrible hound will howl as his rope snaps and he is set free. I look further and I can see the destruction of the gods.
The frost-giant, Hrym, comes from the east with his shield before him. The great serpent (the Midgard serpent) twists his body in his great anger and he churns the waves in his fury. Above that, the eagle cries as it awaits the time for feasting on the slain; that pale-beaked one rips the bodies on the battlefield. Naglfar (the ship fashioned from the uncut nails of the dead) will break from its moorings. And from the east ride the people of Muspell (meaning ‘World’s End’). That ship cuts through the waves, with Loki at the tiller. He is in the company of all those monsters bringing destruction.
And what will become of the Æsir? What will become of the elves? All is in turmoil. The land of the giants is deeply troubled; the Æsir assemble to decide their strategies; the dwarfs cry out in distress in their mountain fortresses.
Then Surt the giant will advance from the south with fire to consume all in destruction; flames will be reflected on sword blades. Mountains will shake and splinter as troll-women, monsters, walk the land. Then the sky will be torn open and people will be made to walk the pathway that leads to hell.
The deaths of the Æsir
On that day, Frigg will not only mourn for her son Baldr, for Odin himself will fall. As he advances against Fenrir the wolf, he will meet his fate. Beside him will be Freyr, the one who slew Beli the giant. Freyr will advance on Surt. But Odin will be avenged by Vidar, his son. He will advance on the wolf, that beast of slaughter, and stab it to the heart. Then shall the wolf, Loki’s son, fall and Vidar’s father will be avenged.
The Midgard serpent shall open its terrible jaws as it rises from the depths into the air. And Odin’s son, the brother of Vidar (that is Thor), will advance to meet that serpent-son of Loki. In anger he will strike the beast. At this time, all farms and villages will empty of their inhabitants. Once he has struck the serpent, then Thor, son of Fiorgyn (by Odin), will walk away no more than nine steps, for that serpent is terrible.
Then the Sun will cease to shine, earth will be consumed by the sea, stars will fall from the sky and all will be destroyed by fire that reaches to the very sky. Garm, that terrible hound, will break loose. Then will that beast of destruction run free, for I see the destruction of the gods.
And after Ragnarok?
Then I see a second earth rising from the great sea. It will be green, with waterfalls and eagles flying over it as they hunt for fish within the mountain rivers. And then the Æsir (who survive) will meet on Idavoll plain and talk of what has come to pass: the Midgard serpent and the great events that they have seen. And they will recall the runes from ancient times that Odin the Mighty One once gained.
After that they will find the golden gaming pieces, lost in the grass by those who played there in ancient times.
Then crops will grow in the fields without being sown and all that is broken will be made whole. Baldr will live once more and he and Hod (once divided by conflict) will live together in peace. Wooden slips that foretell the future shall be made once more and Haenir (who once relied on Mimir for his knowledge) will himself choose the slips to interpret them as the world once again is settled by people.
I see a fine hall that is brighter than the sun
and has a roof of gold. It will be there – at Gimle – that the lords of this new world will live in happiness and peace.
Finally, the great and powerful one will come: he who rules over all. He will come from above to the place where once the gods gave judgements.
Then the dragon will come flying; he will rise up from the hills that are dark as when the moon is down. Nidhogg will carry the bodies of the dead on his wings as he flies over the plain.
Now I lie down and am silent.
18
Ragnarok and the end of the world
FOUND IN The Tricking of Gylfi section of the Prose Edda, this story tells of the end of the world. Traditions about this event are also found in Chapter 17.
Ragnarok means the ‘Doom of the gods’ in Old Norse. The Norse word rok (doom), though, has sometimes been confused with the word rokkr (twilight) leading to the alterative ‘Twilight of the gods’ or Götterdämmerung (as used by Richard Wagner in the name of the final part of his Ring Cycle).
Ragnarok is a series of events including a great battle where almost all of the major Old Norse gods will die. This is accompanied by a series of natural disasters ultimately leading to the flooding of the world. After this, the world will start anew with a younger generation of gods and the humans who have managed to survive by hiding in Yggdrasil (the mythical tree that connects the nine worlds in the Old Norse cosmos). It is unclear whether the mythological new world is free from evil or whether the same mix of good and evil is retained.
The events of Ragnarok are inevitable and there is nothing the gods can do to prevent them happening. This is despite the strength of Thor and Odin’s continuous quest for wisdom and knowledge. This presents the gods in a strangely vulnerable light as beings who, despite their supernatural powers, are as bound by the same power of fate (Old Norse urðr) as humans. The only comfort appears to be that the world will start anew – albeit with a new generation of gods.
* * *
The breaking loose of the forces of chaos
The end of the world will be heralded by three winters in which the world will be torn by conflicts. War will rage across the land and brother will kill brother. The bonds of family will be shattered and son will kill father and father will kill son. It will be an age of axes and an age of swords, an age of winds, an age of wolves. It will lead to the ruin of the world.
Then will come a strange and cold winter that is called Fimbul-winter. The deep snow will cover the land and there will be bitter winds and deep frosts. The sun will lack the heat needed to thaw that deep cold. Of these winters, three will follow one after the other and there will be no summer between these times of great cold.
After these six winters, the wolf named Skoll, that pursues the Sun, will finally catch up with her and he will swallow the Sun, which will bring disaster on all people. And the wolf, named Hati Hrodvitnirsson, that pursues the Moon, will also catch up with her and swallow the Moon. At that time, the stars will disappear from the sky. The earth will be shaken and mountains will fall and trees will be uprooted. All restraints that now hold fast the forces of chaos will be broken in this shaking and so Fenrir the wolf will be set free. But that is not all . . .
The Midgard serpent in its rage will fling itself against the shore and the sea will flow across the land. As the sea sweeps across the land it will tear from its moorings the ship named Naglfar that is constructed from the fingernails and toenails of dead men. This is why the nails of the dead are trimmed; otherwise they will contribute to the building of that terrible ship. For that is a ship that both gods and men wish was never finished, for it will bring destruction. As Naglfar is carried along in that great flood it will be commanded by a giant, called Hrym, as its ship’s captain.
While this is happening, the wolf Fenrir will open his great jaws so that the upper part of his jaws touches the sky, while the lower part rests on the earth. From his eyes and nostrils flames will flare and burn.
At the same time, the Midgard serpent will spit its poison across both sea and sky and it and Fenrir will be side by side as they advance to battle.
As the Midgard serpent and Fenrir cause havoc, the sky will tear open and from it will ride the sons of Muspell, from the place of fire. Riding on horses, they will advance from Muspell, and will break the bridge, Bifrost, that connects heaven and earth. Of these riders the first is named Surt. As he rides, he spreads fire before and behind. In his hand a sword will flash with great brightness that exceeds the brightness of the sun itself. The sons of Muspell will ride to the field of battle that is called Vigrid. They will ride there at the head of their assembled warriors. There they will meet the Midgard serpent and Fenrir. With them will be Loki (no longer in chains) and with him the people from Hel. All the frost-giants will be there too, under the command of the giant named Hrym. That field of battle is very large – three hundred miles in every direction – because so many will assemble there.
The destruction of the gods
When all these enemies of the Æsir gather together they will threaten the very existence of the gods. Heimdall will blow on his horn to summon the gods to decide the order of battle in response to the threat. But first Odin will ride to the well of Mimir to seek guidance and the ash tree Yggdrasil will shake with such movement that fear will spread to all living things. Then the Æsir will arm themselves for battle and will advance to meet their enemies on the field of Vigrid.
At their head will ride Odin, wearing a golden helmet and a mail shirt and wielding his spear. He will attack Fenrir, with Thor beside him to assist him; but Thor will not be able to aid him because he will have enough to do battling the Midgard serpent. Freyr will battle Surt, the son of Muspell, and the conflict will be fierce before Freyr falls before the weapon of Surt. He will be defeated because he lacks his sword, the one he gave to his servant Skirnir when that servant travelled into Giantland to seek out a wife for Freyr. Tyr too will fall in battle but his adversary will be the evil dog, named Garm, who has broken free from his shackles. But as Tyr falls he will also slay Garm. Thor, though, will be victorious over the Midgard serpent and will at last destroy it. But his victory will be short-lived, for he will walk away no more than nine paces before he falls dead from the poison that has been spat at him. Odin will also die; swallowed by Fenrir the wolf. But that wolf will not have long to enjoy his victory. For soon will come the god Vidar and place one foot on the lower jaw of the wolf and with one hand will seize the upper jaw and tear the wolf’s mouth apart. And so Fenrir will die. The foot that Vidar uses to hold down the wolf’s lower jaw will be shod with a shoe fashioned across all time from the pieces of leather cut from the toe and heel of people’s shoes. These pieces of leather should always be thrown away, for in this way those that do this will give assistance to the Æsir in their war against the forces of chaos. Loki and Heimdall will kill each other in battle and Surt will throw out fire that will consume the whole world. At the end of this battle the gods, giants and all mankind will have died and all created things will be destroyed by fire.
Despite this destruction, some things will remain. Those who are secure within Gimle, in the hall called Brimir, will find plenty of drink there. Another good hall is the one named Sindri, made from red gold. However, oathbreakers and murderers will be condemned to live in the hall on Nastrands, with its doors facing the cold north and its walls made from snakes that spit their poison into the hall, so that those condemned to be there must wade through it as their punishment. Worse, though, will be the punishments meted out at Hvergelmir. There the dragon Nidhogg will torture the bodies of the dead.
The world after Ragnarok
Despite all the destruction, all will not be lost. Earth will once more rise from the sea and will be green again, with crops growing without being sown. The gods Vidar and Vali will survive the slaughter and will live on Idavoll, where once Asgard had stood. To that place will come Thor’s sons, Modi and Magni, and they will bring Miollnir, their father’s hammer. To that place will also come B
aldr and Hod, having escaped from the confines of Hel. Together they will talk of the mysteries that they know and of old times; tales of the Midgard serpent and of Fenrir the wolf. At that time, they will find scattered in the grass the golden playing pieces that had once belonged to the Æsir.
In addition, in Hoddmimir’s wood two people will hide themselves from the fire of Surt that destroyed the rest of the world. Named Life and Leifthrasir, they will drink the morning dew and repopulate the earth. Over this new earth the daughter of the Sun – no less beautiful than her mother – will shine and will trace her way across the sky as once her mother did before her. And of what happens next, nobody knows, for knowledge stretches no further than this.
The Æsir reflected on all these tales and were determined that they should not be forgotten. To ensure that they were recalled, they gave the names of characters and places in the stories to people and places in Sweden. In this way, the names of ancient gods and stories of old were retold into later times. Those given the names were attributed with the adventures of the ancient gods and their deeds, that they would not be forgotten among people.
Part Two: Norse Legends
19
The Saga of the Volsungs and the story of Sigurd, the dragon-slayer
IT IS CLEAR that many Norse myths include some pieces of information drawn from the actual history of Scandinavia. These might include a reference to a famous battle, the name of a heroic king or the lineage of great rulers. However, the main focus of the stories (the myths) that we have explored so far deal with other worlds and the gods. Where the legends that we will now be exploring differ from these is that they add more human traditions, snippets of history and fragments of real events to the stories of gods, elves, dragons and magical rings. So, while they certainly are not referring to real events, they tend to add more ‘echoes of real events’ to the mix than exist in the kinds of mythologies that survive from the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda that we have explored so far. They are often described as fornaldar-sagas (sagas of the ancient times) or ‘legendary sagas’.
Tales of Valhalla Page 15