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Dumézil on Heimdallr

My Gods of the ancient Northmen has some extra articles added to the original, French text. One of these texts is about the Rigsthula in which Rig (who is usually equated with Heimdallr) brings forth the three levels of society. Another text is completely dedicated to Heimdallr. Heimdallr is probably the most difficult and mysterious Gods of Northern Europe. Even though the text is of 1959 (after a lecture of 1956) and of course by Dumézil, there are still some new (to me) and thought-provoking ideas in it. Regard my short text as an insufficient summery of the theories posed in the article Comparative remarks on the Scandinavian God Heimdall (1959) and if it caught your interest, try to hunt down the text yourself or the book in which is has been published. The god Heimdall poses one of the most difficult problems in Scandinavian mythology. As all who have… Read More »Dumézil on Heimdallr

Thor’s disgrace

Körmt and Örmt, and the Kerlaugs twain: these Thor must wade each day, when he to council goes at Yggdrasil’s ash; for the As-bridge is all on fire, the holy waters boil. Grimnismál 29 Bellows translation This strophe is often interpreted very literally: Thor cannot pas the Bifrost bridge because is he to heavy, too plump and too ‘fiery’. I wonder if that is all that is to this line. There are some interesting references in other texts that may refer to something that you can call “Thor’s disgrace”. In other words: what did Thor do that he was no longer allowed to cross Bifrost? In the Harbarthsjloth Thor is travelling back home and when he needs to pass a river, the boatsman Harbard (usually taken for Odin) refuses to take him over. This results in an amusing piece of “verbal fencing” (in the words of Dumézil) in which the… Read More »Thor’s disgrace

TyrOdhinn

Some time ago, a friend after reading my article about Odhinn, had a nice suggestion. What if the missing arm is supposed to be missing and what if there is a big significance in the fact that Odin misses his left arm, and Tyr his right hand? I was already aware of the ‘pair’ Tyr/Odin, but hadn’t given this idea a thought. The suggestion soon proved to be just a suggestion. Another image clearly shows breaking-traces on the arm and hip, so it is clear that this particular image of Odin originally has two arms. The start was there, though, because for some time I had the idea to write something about Tyr and Odin. Tyr or Odin? Before my interest shifted towards the prechristian religion of Northern Europe, I was much interested in Hermetism, Renaissance esotericism, etc. and always had some kind of ‘attraction’ to Thoth/ Hermes/ Mercury; the… Read More »TyrOdhinn

Battlenoise, a book review

“Battlenoise” is a book by the man behind MozgaloM records and the online magazine. For some reason the book doesn’t give a name of the writer. The book is about “martial industrial”. In a way it has its place among the music reviews and of course among the book reviews, but because the review became very lengthy, I decided to finally posted among the articles. People who are here for the ‘normal’ articles need not to continue reading, because below you will get the story of a very specific (and offensive to some) musical subcurrent and has but little to do with the other articles. Like I said, the musical current here marked as “martial industrial” is offensive to some people, because of the symbolism used, the appearance of releases and bands on stage and the mysticising of certain parts of the past, often the world wars. This quickly leads… Read More »Battlenoise, a book review

The nine worlds in nordic mythology

I remember yet the giants of yore Who gave me bread; in the days gone by Nine worlds I knew, the nine in the Tree With mighty roots beneath the mold. (Völuspa 2, translated by Ari Óðinssen) This is the second verse from the Poetic Edda. “Nine worlds I knew, nine in the Tree”. The nine worlds come back in Northern mythology more often, such as in Alvíssmál 9 in which the dwarf Alvis says: “All the nine worlds I have travelled over” and also Vafthrudnir has travelled to nine worlds (VafÞrúðnismál 43). Because the concept is rather vague, it has been open to speculation what exactly these nine worlds are. Óðinssen writes in a note to the quoted verse: “Nine worlds are Asgarth, home of the Aesir, Ljossalfheimr, home of the ljossalfar, or ‘light’ elves, Mithgarth, ‘middle-ground’ home of mankind, Vanaheimr, home of the Vanir, in this manuscript referred… Read More »The nine worlds in nordic mythology

Freya or Brisingamen

A while ago I was reading a collection of articles by Karl Theodor Weigel. The man speaks about folkloristic habbits and symbolism that goes back to the prechristian religion. He gives symbols representing the years, such as I have shown you in my article “Odhinn, God of the year”. Towards the end there is an image of a Christmas-bread from Lauterbach Hessen, Germany (left) “that strongly reminds of the god in the wheel, in the course of the year”. That is the same symbolism as that I gave to Odin with his two arms on the hips. The Christmas bread made me think of the famous statue of Freya with a gigantic necklase, her Brisingamen, around her neck. Freya as Goddess of the year, not such a strange idea, because she is connected to fertility and therefor the cycle of the crops, death and rebirth, the changing seasons and thus… Read More »Freya or Brisingamen

The Balder play

The beginning of this tale is, that Balder dreamed dreams great and dangerous to his life. When he told these dreams to the asas they took counsel together, and it was decided that they should seek peace for Balder against all kinds of harm. So Frigg exacted an oath from fire, water, iron and all kinds of metal, stones, earth, trees, sicknesses, beasts and birds and creeping things, that they should not hurt Balder. When this was done and made known, it became the pastime of Balder and the asas that he should stand up at their meetings while some of them should shoot at him, others should hew at him, while others should throw stones at him; but no matter what they did, no harm came to him, and this seemed to all a great honor. Gylfaginning 49, Rasmus Anderson translation I am sure most of you know the… Read More »The Balder play

Fire in Northern mythology

Fire, a concept that is very present in Northern mythology and also a concept that I have broken my head over for some time now. The symbology is multi-layered and however I still haven’t fully worked out the subject, I want to present some thoughts and come to an interpretation of some elements of Northern mythology. Creation There are two primal forces in Nordic myths, two forces that are known under the names, “fire” and “ice”. Before there was anything, there was Ginungagap, a “yawning gap”. In the south of it, fire ‘resided’ and in the north, ice. When these two came together, everything started. So, fire is the primal force, one side of the Divine. Some symbology! It is not strange that fire keeps coming back in the symbology of Nordic mythology. What may be strange is that fire is much better represented than ice, but this is not… Read More »Fire in Northern mythology

Thórr, God of initiation

Recently I wrote an article with thoughts on the symbolism of the posture of the famous statue of Odhinn. I am sure you understood that this article is not meant to say that this is what the statue ‘means’, the article contains “thoughts on symbolism”. Other writers will say that this posture of Odin is a ‘cultic posture’. More funny even is that there is a statue of Thórr, found in Schmedt an der Oder (so he will have been called “Donar” or something similar), with the same posture as Odin in the statue that my other article was about. Also, Farwerck also has the image ‘little man of the year’ accompanied by the text, “idol, probably Thor”. But of course, more famous is the Icelandic statue of Thor with him sitting and… and what actually? The first thought is that this statue represents Thor and his hammer Mjöllnir. Modern… Read More »Thórr, God of initiation

Odhinn, God of the year

In Lindby in Sweden a famous statue of Odin was found, a photo (that I took from Arild Hauge) shows it. As you can see the statue misses an arm. Replicas usually look like the one you can see on the right. I have this particular one myself, it is from Sacred Source. Both his hands in his sides, did you ever wonder why? We often take things for granted too easily, also the (neo)pagans among us. Personally I can’t imagine that the image just happens to be as it is and there are some things that may confirm this idea. Let me take you on a short journey through Gemanic symbolism. A year The Germanic year was divided in two parts: summer and winter. Symbolically this can be given very well as a split circle, the circle is the year and it is split into two halves. A circle… Read More »Odhinn, God of the year