Part 12

If the judgment on the dead is lenient in these respects, it is inexorably severe in other matters. Lies uttered to injure others, perjury, murder (secret murder, assassination, not justified as blood-revenge), adultery, the profaning of temples, the opening of grave-mounds, treason, cannot escape their awful punishment. Unutterable terrors await those who are guilty of these sins. Those psychopomps that belong to Nifelhel await the adjournment of the Thing in order to take them to the world of torture, and Urd has chains (_Heljar reip_--Solarljod, 27; _Des Todes Seil_--J. Grimm, _D. Myth._, 805) which make every escape impossible.

72.

THE HADES-DRINK.

Before the dead leave the thingstead near Urd's fountain, something which obliterated the marks of earthly death has happened to those who are judged happy. Pale, cold, mute, and with the marks of the spirits of disease, they left Midgard and started on the Hel-way. They leave the death-Thing full of the warmth of life, with health, with speech, and more robust than they were on earth. The shades have become corporal. When those slain by the sword ride over the Gjoll to Urd's fountain, scarcely a sound is heard under the hoofs of their horses; when they ride away from the fountain over Bifrost, the bridge resounds under the trampling horses. The sagas of the middle ages have preserved, but at the same time demonised, the memory of how Hel's inhabitants were endowed with more than human strength (Gretla, 134, and several other passages).

The life of bliss presupposes health, but also forgetfulness of the earthly sorrows and cares. The heroic poems and the sagas of the middle ages have known that there was a Hades-potion which brings freedom from sorrow and care, without obliterating dear memories or making one forget that which can be remembered without longing or worrying. In the mythology this drink was, as shall be shown, one that produced at the same time vigour of life and the forgetfulness of sorrows.

In Saxo, and in the heroic poems of the Elder Edda, which belong to the Gjukung group of songs, there reappear many mythical details, though they are sometimes taken out of their true connection and put in a light which does not originally belong to them. Among the mythical reminiscences is the Hades-potion.

In his account of King Gorm's and Thorkil's journey to the lower world, Saxo (see No 46) makes Thorkil warn his travelling companions from tasting the drinks offered them by the prince of the lower world, for the reason that they produce forgetfulness, and make one desire to remain in Gudmund's realm (_Hist., Dan._, i. 424--_amissa memoria ... pocalis abstinendum edocuit_).

The Gudrun song (ii. 21) places the drinking-horn of the lower world in Grimhild's hands. In connection with later additions, the description of this horn and its contents contains purely mythical and very instructive details in regard to the _pharmakon nepenthes_ of the Teutonic lower world.

Str. 21.

Færdi mer Grimildr full at drecka svalt oc sarlict, ne ec sacar mundac; thar var um aukit Urdar magni, svalcauldom sæ oc Sonar dreyra.

Str. 22.

Voro i horni hverskyns stafir ristnir oc rodnir ratha ec ne mattac, lyngfiscr langr lands Haddingja, ax oscorit, innleid dyra.

"Grimhild handed me in a filled horn to drink a cool, bitter drink, in order that I might forget my past afflictions. This drink was prepared from _Urd's strength, cool-cold sea, and the liquor of Son_."

"On the horn were all kinds of staves engraved and painted, which I could not interpret: _the Hadding-land's long heath-fish, unharvested ears of grain, and animals' entrances_."

The Hadding-land is, as Sv. Egilsson has already pointed out, a paraphrase of the lower world. The paraphrase is based on the mythic account known and mentioned by Saxo in regard to Hadding's journey in Hel's realm (see No. 47).

Heath-fish is a paraphrase of the usual sort for serpent, dragon. Hence a lower-world dragon was engraved on the horn. More than one of the kind has been mentioned already: Nidhog, who has his abode in Nifelhel, and the dragon, which, according to Erik Vidforle's saga, obstructs the way to Odain's-acre. The dragon engraved on the horn is that of the Hadding-land. Hadding-land, on the other hand, does not mean the whole lower world, but the regions of bliss visited by Hadding. Thus the dragon is such an one as Erik Vidforle's saga had in mind. That the author did not himself invent his dragon, but found it in mythic records extant at the time, is demonstrated by Solarljod (54), where it is said that immense subterranean dragons come flying from the west--the opposite direction of that the shades have to take when they descend into the lower world--and obstruct "the street of the prince of splendour" (_glævalds götu_). The ruler of splendour is Mimer, the prince of the Glittering Fields (see Nos. 45-51).

The Hadding-land's "unharvested ears of grain" belong to the flora inaccessible to the devastations of frost, the flowers seen by Hadding in the blooming meadows of the world below (see No. 47). The expression refers to the fact that the Hadding-land has not only imperishable flowers and fruits, but also fields of grain which do not require harvesting. Compare herewith what Völuspa says about the Odain's-acre which in the regeneration of the earth rises from the lap of the sea: "unsown the fields yield the grain."

Beside the heath-fish and the unharvested ears of grain, there were also seen on the Hadding-land horn _dyrainnleid_. Some interpreters assume that "animals entrails" are meant by this expression; others have translated it with "animal gaps." There is no authority that _innleid_ ever meant entrails, nor could it be so used in a rhetorical-poetical sense, except by a very poor poet. Where we meet with the word it means a way, a way in, in contrast with _útleid_, a way out. As both Gorms saga and that of Erik Vidforle use it in regard to animals watching entrances in the lower world, this gives the expression its natural interpretation.

So much for the staves risted on the horn. They all refer to the lower world. Now as to the drink which is mixed in this Hades-horn. It consists of three liquids:

Urdar Magn, Urd's strength, svalkaldr sær, cool-cold sea, Sonar dreyri. Son's liquid.

Son has already been mentioned above (No. 21) as one of the names of Mimer's fountain, the well of creative power and of poetry. Of Son Eilif Gudrunson sings that it is enwreathed by bulrushes and is surrounded by a border of meadow on which grows the seed of poetry.

As Urd's strength is a liquid mixed in the horn, nothing else can be meant thereby than the liquid in Urd's fountain, which gives the warmth of life to the world-tree, and gives it strength to resist the cold (see No. 63).

From this it is certain that at least two of the three subterranean fountains made their contributions to the drink. There remains the well Hvergelmer, and the question now is, whether it and the liquid it contains can be recognised as the _cool-cold sea_. Hvergelmer is, as we know, the mother-fountain of all waters, even of the ocean (see No. 59). That this immense cistern is called a sea is not strange, since also Urd's fountain is so styled (in Völuspa, Cod. Reg., 19.) Hvergelmer is situated under the northern root of the world-tree near the borders of the subterranean realm of the rime-thurses--that is, the powers of frost; and the Elivagar rivers flowing thence formed the ice in Nifelheim. Cool (_Svöl_) is the name of one of the rivers which have their source in Hvergelmer (Grimnersmal). Cool-cold sea is therefore the most suitable word with which to designate Hvergelmer when its own name is not to be used.

All those fountains whose liquids are sucked up by the roots of the world-tree, and in its stem blend into the sap which gives the tree imperishable strength of life, are accordingly mixed in the lower-world horn (cp. No. 21).

That Grimhild, a human being dwelling on earth, should have access to and free control of these fountains is, of course, from a mythological standpoint, an absurdity. From the standpoint of the Christian time the absurdity becomes probable. The sacred things and forces of the lower world are then changed into deviltry and arts of magic, which are at the service of witches. So the author of Gudrunarkvida (ii.) has regarded the matter. But in his time there was still extant a tradition, or a heathen song, which spoke of the elements of the drink which gave to the dead who had descended to Hel, and were destined for happiness, a higher and more enduring power of life, and also soothed the longing and sorrow which accompanied the recollection of the life on earth, and this tradition was used in the description of Grimhild's drink of forgetfulness.

_Magn_ is the name of the liquid from Urd's fountain, since it _magnar_, gives strength. The word _magna_ has preserved from the days of heathendom the sense of strengthening in a supernatural manner by magical or superhuman means. Vigfusson (Dict., 408) gives a number of examples of this meaning. In Heimskringla (ch. 8) Odin "magns" Mimer's head, which is chopped off, in such a manner that it recovers the power of speech. In Sigrdrifumal (str. 12) Odin himself is, as we have seen, called _magni_, "the one magning," as the highest judge of the lower world, who gives _magn_ to the dead from the Hades-horn.

The author of the second song about Helge Hundingsbane has known of _dyrar veilgar_, precious liquids of which those who have gone to Hel partake. The dead Helge says that when his beloved Sigrun is to share them with him, then it is of no consequence that they have lost earthly joy and kingdoms, and that no one must lament that his breast was tortured with wounds (Helge Hund., ii. 46.) The touching finale of this song, though preserved only in fragments, and no doubt borrowed from a heathen source, shows that the power of the subterranean potion to allay longing and sorrow had its limits. The survivors should mourn over departed loved ones with moderation, and not forget that they are to meet again, for too bitter tears of sorrow fall as a cold dew on the breast of the dead one and penetrate it with pain (str. 45).

73.

THE HADES-DRINK (_continued_), THE HADES-HORN EMBELLISHED WITH SERPENTS.

In Sonatorrek (str. 18) the skald (Egil Skallagrimson) conceives himself with the claims of a father to keep his children opposed to a stronger power which has also made a claim on them. This power is firm in its resolutions against Egil (_stendr á föstum thokk á hendi mér_); but, at the same time, it is lenient toward his children, and bestows on them the lot of happiness. The mythic person who possesses this power is by the skald called _Fáns hrosta hilmir_, "the lord of _Fánn's_ brewing."

_Fánn_ is a mythical serpent-and dragon-name (Younger Edda, ii. 487, 570). The serpent or dragon which possessed this name in the myths or sagas must have been one which was engraved or painted somewhere. This is evident from the word itself, which is a contraction of _fáinn_, engraved, painted (cp. Egilsson's Lex. Poet., and Vigfusson's Dict., _sub voce_). Its character as such does not hinder it from being endowed with a magic life (see below.) The object on which it was engraved or painted must have been a drinking-horn, whose contents (brewing) is called by Egil _Fánn's_, either because the serpent encircled the horn which contained the drink, or because the horn, on which it was engraved, was named after it. In no other way can the expression, _Fánn's_ brewing, be explained, for an artificial serpent or dragon is neither the one who brews the drink nor the malt from which it is brewed.

The possessor of the horn, embellished with _Fánn's_ image, is the mythical person who, to Egil's vexation, has insisted on the claim of the lower world to his sons. If the skald has paraphrased correctly, that is to say, if he has produced a paraphrase which refers to the character here in question of the person indicated by the paraphrase, then it follows that "_Fánn's_ brewing" and _Fánn_ himself, like their possessor, must have been in some way connected with the lower world.

From the mythic tradition in Gudrunarkvida (ii.), we already know that a serpent, "a long heath-fish," is engraved and painted on the subterranean horn, whose sorrow-allaying mead is composed of the liquid of the three Hades-fountains.

When King Gorm (_Hist., Dan._, 427; cp. No. 46) made his journey of discovery in the lower world, he saw a vast ox-horn (_ingens bubali cornu_) there. It lay near the gold-clad mead-cisterns, the fountains of the lower world. Its purpose of being filled with their liquids is sufficiently clear from its location. We are also told that it was carved with figures (_nec cælaturæ artificio vacuum_), like the subterranean horn in Gudrunarkvida. One of Gorm's men is anxious to secure the treasure. Then the horn lengthens into a dragon who kills the would-be robber (_cornu in draconem extractum sui spiritum latoris eripuit._) Like Slidrugtanne and other subterranean treasures, the serpent or dragon on the drinking-horn of the lower world is endowed with life when necessary, or the horn itself acquires life in the form of a dragon, and punishes with death him who has no right to touch it. The horn itself is accordingly a _Fánn_, an artificial serpent or dragon, and its contents is _Fánn's hrosti_ (_Fánn's_ brewing).

The Icelandic middle-age sagas have handed down the memory of an aurocks-horn (_úrarhorn_), which was found in the lower world, and was there used to drink from (Fornald., iii. 616).

Thus it follows that the _hilmir Fán's hrosta_, "the lord of Fan's brewing," mentioned by Egil, is the master of the Hades-horn, he who determines to whom it is to be handed, in order that they may imbibe vigour and forgetfulness of sorrow from "Urd's strength, cool sea, and Son's liquid." And thus the meaning of the strophe here discussed (Sonatorrek, 18) is made perfectly clear. Egil's deceased sons have drunk from this horn, and thus they have been initiated as dwellers for ever in the lower world. Hence the skald can say that _Hilmir Fán's hrosta_ was inexorably firm against him, their father, who desired to keep his sons with him.[15]

From Völuspa (str. 28, 29), and from Gylfaginning (ch. 15), it appears that the mythology knew of a drinking-horn which belonged at the same time, so to speak, both to Asgard and to the lower world. Odin is its possessor, Mimer its keeper. A compact is made between the Asas dwelling in heaven and the powers dwelling in the lower world, and a security (_ved_) is given for the keeping of the agreement. On the part of the Asas and their clan patriarch Odin, the security given is a drinking-horn. From this "Valfather's pledge" Mimer every morning drinks mead from his fountain of wisdom (Völuspa, 29), and from the same horn he waters the root of the world-tree (Völuspa, 28). As Müllenhoff has already pointed out (_D. Alterth._, v. 100 ff.), this drinking-horn is not to be confounded with Heimdal's war-trumpet, the Gjallarhorn, though Gylfaginning is also guilty of this mistake.

Thus the drinking-horn given to Mimer by Valfather represents a treaty between the powers of heaven and of the lower world. Can it be any other than the Hades-horn, which, at the thingstead near Urd's fountain, is employed in the service both of the Asa-gods and of the lower world? The Asas determine the happiness or unhappiness of the dead, and consequently decide what persons are to taste the strength-giving mead of the horn. But the horn has its place in the lower world, is kept there--there performs a task of the greatest importance, and gets its liquid from the fountains of the lower world.

What Mimer gave Odin in exchange is that drink of wisdom, without which he would not have been able to act as judge in matters concerning eternity, but after receiving the which he was able to find and proclaim the right decisions (_ord_) (_ord mér af ordi ordz leitadi_--Hav., 141). Both the things exchanged are, therefore, used at the Thing near Urd's fountain. The treaty concerned the lower world, and secured to the Asas the power necessary, in connection with their control of mankind and with their claim to be worshipped, to dispense happiness and unhappiness in accordance with the laws of religion and morality. Without this power the Asas would have been of but little significance. Urd and Mimer would have been supreme.

With the _dyrar veigar_ (precious liquids), of which the dead Helge speaks, we must compare the _skirar veigar_ (clear liquids), which, according to Vegtamskvida, awaited the dead Balder in the lower world. After tasting of it, the god who had descended to Hades regained his broken strength, and the earth again grew green (see No. 53).

In _dyrar veigar_, _skirar veigar_, the plural form must not be passed over without notice. The contents of one and the same drink are referred to by the plural _veigar_--

Her stendr Balldri Here stands for Balder of brugginn miœdr mead brewed skirar veigar clear "veigar" (Vegt., 7)--

which can only be explained as referring to a drink prepared by a mixing of several liquids, each one of which is a _veig_. Originally _veigar_ seems always to have designated a drink of the dead, allaying their sorrows and giving them new life. In Hyndluljod (50) _dyrar veigar_ has the meaning of a potion of bliss which Ottar, beloved by Freyja, is to drink. In strophe 48, Freyja threatens the sorceress Hyndla with a fire, which is to take her hence for ever. In strophe 49, Hyndla answers the threat with a similar and worse one. She says she already sees the conflagration of the world; there shall nearly all beings "suffer the loss of life" (_verda flestir fjörlausn thola_), Freyja and her Ottar of course included, and their final destiny, according to Hyndla's wish, is indicated by Freyja's handing Ottar a pain-foreboding, venomous drink. Hyndla invokes on Freyja and Ottar the flames of Ragnarok and damnation. Freyja answers by including Ottar in the protection of the gods, and foretelling that he is to drink _dyrar veigar_.

Besides in these passages _veigar_ occurs in a strophe composed by Ref Gestson, quoted in Skaldskaparmal, ch. 2. Only half of the strophe is quoted, so that it is impossible to determine definitely the meaning of the _veigar_ referred to by the skald. We only see that they are given by Odin, and that "we" must be grateful to him for them. The half strophe is possibly a part of a death-song which Ref Gestson is known to have composed on his foster-father, Gissur.

_Veig_ in the singular means not only drink, but also power, strength. Perhaps Bugge is right in claiming that this was the original meaning of the word. The plural _veigar_ accordingly means strengths. That this expression "strengths" should come to designate in a rational manner a special drink must be explained by the fact that "the strengths" was the current expression for the liquids of which the invigorating mythical drink was composed. The three fountains of the lower world are the strength-givers of the universe, and as we have already seen, it is the liquids of these wells that are mixed into the wonderful brewing in the subterranean horn.

When Eilif Gudrunson, the skald converted to Christianity, makes Christ, who gives the water of eternal life, sit near Urd's fountain, then this is a Christianised heathen idea, and refers to the power of this fountain's water to give, through the judge of the world, to the pious a less troublesome life than that on earth. The water which gives warmth to the world-tree and heals its wounds is to be found in the immediate vicinity of the thingstead, and has also served to strengthen and heal the souls of the dead.

To judge from Hyndluljod (49), those doomed to unhappiness must also partake of some drink. It is "much mixed with venom" (_eitri blandinn miok_), and _forebodes_ them evil (_illu heilli_). They must, therefore, be compelled to drink it _before_ they enter the world of misery, and accordingly, no doubt, while they sit _á nornastoli_ on the very thingstead. The Icelandic sagas of the middle ages know the venom drink as a potion of misery.

It appears that this potion of unhappiness did not loosen the speechless tongues of the damned. _Eitr_ means the lowest degree of cold and poison at the same time, and would not, therefore, be serviceable for that purpose, since the tongues were made speechless with cold. In Saxo's descriptions of the regions of misery in the lower world, it is only the torturing demons that speak. The dead are speechless, and suffer their agonies without uttering a sound; but, when the spirits of torture so desire, and force and egg them on they can produce a howl (_mugitus_.) There broods a sort of muteness over the forecourt of the domain of torture, the Nifelheim inhabited by the frost-giants, according to Skirnersmal's description thereof (see No. 60.) Skirner threatens Gerd that she, among her kindred there, shall be more widely hated than Heimdal himself; but the manner in which they express this hate is with staring eyes, not with words (_a thic Hrimnir hari, a thic hotvetna stari_--str. 28).

[15] The interpretation of the passage, which has hitherto prevailed, begins with a text emendation. _Fánn_ is changed to Finn. Finn is the name of a dwarf. _Finns hrosti_ is "the dwarf's drink," and "the dwarf's drink" is, on the authority of the Younger Edda, synonymous with poetry. The possessor of _Finns hrosti_ is Odin, the lord of poetry. With text emendations of this sort (they are numerous, are based on false notions in regard to the adaptability of the Icelandic Christian poetics to the heathen poetry and usually quote Gylfaginning as authority) we can produce anything we like from the statements of the ancient records. Odin's character as the Lord of poetry has not the faintest idea in common with the contents of the strophe. His character as judge at the court near Urd's fountain, and as the one who, as the judge of the dead, has authority over the liquor in the subterranean horn, is on the other hand closely connected with the contents of the strophe, and is alone able to make it consistent and intelligible. Further on in the poem, Egil speaks of Odin as the lord of poetry. Odin, he says, has not only been severe against him (in the capacity of _hilmir Fáns hrosta_), but he has also been kind in bestowing the gift of poetry, and therewith consolation in sorrow (_bölva bætr_). The paraphrase here used by Egil for Odin's name is _Mims vinr_ (Mimer's friend). From Mimer Odin received the drink of inspiration, and thus the paraphrase is in harmony with the sense. As _hilmir Fáns hrosta_ Odin has wounded Egil's heart; as _Mims vinr_ (Mimer's friend) he has given him balsam for the wounds inflicted. This two-sided conception of Odin's relation to the poet permeates the whole poem.

74.

AFTER THE JUDGMENT. THE LOT OF THE BLESSED.

When a deceased who has received a good _ords tirr_ leaves the Thing, he is awaited in a home which his hamingje has arranged for her favourite somewhere in "the green worlds of the gods." But what he first has to do is to _leita kynnis_, that is, visit kinsmen and friends who have gone before him to their final destination (Sonatorr., 17). Here he finds not only those with whom he became personally acquainted on earth, but he may also visit and converse with ancestors from the beginning of time, and he may hear the history of his race, nay, the history of all past generations, told by persons who were eye-witnesses. The ways he travels are _munvegar_ (Sonatorr., 10), paths of pleasure, where the wonderful regions of Urd's and Mimer's realms lie open before his eyes.