Chapter VI: Front Matter (6)

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.

Those who have died in their tender years are received by a being friendly to children, which Egil Skallagrimson (Sonatorrek, 20) calls _Gauta spjalli_. The expression means "the one with whom Odin counsels," "Odin's friend." As the same poem (str. 22) calls Odin Mimer's friend, and as in the next place _Gauta spjalli_ is characterised as a ruler in _Godheim_ (compare _grænar heimar goda_--Hakonarmal, 12), he must either be Mimer, who is Odin's friend and adviser from his youth until his death, or he must be Honer, who also is styled Odin's friend, his _sessi_ and _máli_. That Mimer was regarded as the friend of dead children corresponds with his vocation as the keeper in his grove of immortality _Mimisholt_, of the Asa-children, the _ásmegir_, who are to be the mankind of the regenerated world. But Honer too has an important calling in regard to children (see No. 95), and it must therefore be left undecided which one of the two is here meant.

Egil is convinced that his drowned son Bodvar found a harbour in the subterranean regions of bliss.[16] The land to which Bodvar comes is called by Egil "the home of the bee-ship" (_býskips bær_.) The poetical figure is taken from the experience of seamen, that birds who have grown tired on their way across the sea alight on ships to recuperate their strength. In Egil's paraphrase the bee corresponds to the bird, and the honey-blossom where the bee alights corresponds to the ship. The fields of bliss are the haven of the ship laden with honey. The figure may be criticised on the point of poetic logic, but is of a charming kind on the lips of the hardy old viking, and it is at the same time very appropriate in regard to a characteristic quality ascribed to the fields of bliss. For they are the proper home of the honey-dew which falls early in the morning from the world-tree into the dales near Urd's fountain (Völuspa). Lif and Leifthraser live through ages on this dew (see Nos. 52, 53), and doubtless this same Teutonic ambrosia is the food of the happy dead. The dales of the earth also unquestionably get their share of the honey-dew, which was regarded as the fertilising and nourishing element of the ground. But the earth gets her share directly from Rimfaxe, the steed of the Hades-goddess Nat. This steed, satiated with the grass of the subterranean meadows, produces with his mouth a froth which is honey-dew, and from his bridle the dew drops "in the dales" in the morning (Vafthr., 14). The same is true of the horses of the valkyries coming from the lower world. From their manes, when they shake them, falls dew "in deep dales," and thence come harvests among the peoples (Helge Hjorv., 28.)

[16] Likewise the warlike skald Kormak is certain that he would have come to Valhal in case he had been drowned under circumstances described in his saga, a work which is, however, very unreliable.

75.

AFTER THE JUDGMENT (_continued_). THE FATE OF THE DAMNED. THEIR
PATH. ARRIVAL AT THE NA-GATES.

When the na-dictum (the judgment of those who have committed sins unto death) has been proclaimed, they must take their departure for their terrible destination. They cannot take flight. The locks and fetters of the norns (_Urdar lokur, Heljar reip_) hold them prisoners, and amid the tears of their former hamingjes (_nornir gráta nái_) they are driven along their path by _heiptir_, armed with rods of thorns, who without mercy beat their lazy heels. The technical term for these instruments of torture is _limar_, which seems to have become a word for eschatological punishment in general. In Sigrdrifumal (23) it is said that horrible _limar_ shall fall heavy on those who have broken oaths and promises, or betrayed confidence. In Sigurd Fafnesb. (ii. 3) it is stated that everyone who has lied about another shall long be tortured with _limar_. Both the expressions _troll brutu hrís i hæla theim_ and _troll visi ydr til búrs_ have their root in the recollection of the myth concerning the march of the damned under the rod of the Eumenides to Nifelhel (see further on this point Nos. 91 and 123).

Their way from Urd's well goes to the north (see No. 63) through Mimer's domain. It is ordained that before their arrival at the home of torture they are to see the regions of bliss. Thus they know what they have forfeited. Then their course is past Mimer's fountain, the splendid dwellings of Balder and the _ásmegir_, the golden hall of Sindre's race (see Nos. 93, 94), and to those regions where mother Nat rests in a hall built on the southern spur of the Nida mountains (Forspjallsljod). The procession proceeds up this mountain region through valleys and gorges in which the rivers flowing from Hvergelmer find their way to the south. The damned leave Hvergelmer in their rear and cross the border rivers _Hraunn_ (the subterranean Elivagar rivers, see No. 59), on the other side of which rise Nifelhel's black, perpendicular mountain-walls (Saxo, _Hist., Dan._; see No. 46). Ladders or stairways lead across giddying precipices to the Na-gates. Howls and barking from the monstrous Nifelheim dogs watching the gates (see Nos. 46, 58) announce the arrival of the damned. Then hasten, in compact winged flocks, monsters, Nifelheim's birds of prey, Nidhog, Are, _Hræsvelger_, and their like to the south, and alight on the rocks around the Na-gates (see below). When the latter are opened on creaking hinges, the damned have died their second death. To that event, which is called "the second death," and to what this consists of, I shall return below (see No. 95).

Those who have thus marched to a terrible fate are sinners of various classes. Below Nifelheim there are nine regions of punishment. That these correspond to nine kinds of unpardonable sins is in itself probable, and is to some extent confirmed by Solarljod, if this poem, standing almost on the border-line between heathendom and Christianity, may be taken as a witness. Solarljod enumerates nine or ten kinds of punishments for as many different kinds of sins. From the purely heathen records we know that enemies of the gods (Loke), perjurers, murderers, adulterers (see Völuspa), those who have violated faith and the laws, and those who have lied about others, are doomed to Nifelhel for ever, or at least for a very long time (_oflengi_--Sig. Fafn., ii. 3). Of the unmerciful we know that they have already suffered great agony on their way to Urd's fountain. Both in reference to them and to others, it doubtless depended on the investigation at the Thing whether they could be ransomed or not.

The sacredness of the bond of kinship was strongly emphasised in the eschatological conceptions. _Niflgódr_, "good for the realm of damnation," is he who slays kinsmen and sells the dead body of his brother for rings (Sonatorrek, 15); but he who in all respects has conducted himself in a blameless manner toward his kinsmen and is slow to take revenge if they have wronged him, shall reap advantage therefrom after death (Sigrdr., 22).

When the damned come within the Na-gates, the winged demons rush at the victims designated for them, press them under their wings, and fly with them through Nifelheim's foggy space to the departments of torture appointed for them. The seeress in Völuspa (str. 62) sees Nidhog, loaded with _náir_ under his wings, soar away from the Nida mountains. Whither he was accustomed to fly with them appears from strophe 38, where he in Nastrands is sucking his prey. When King Gorm, beyond the above-mentioned boundary river, and by the Nida mountains' ladders, had reached the Na-gates opened for him, he sees dismal monsters (_larvæ atræ_; cp. Völuspa's _in dimmi dreki_) in dense crowds, and hears the air filled with their horrible screeches (cp. Völuspa's _Ari hlaccar, slitr nai neffaulr_, 47). When Solarljod's skald enters the realm of torture he sees "scorched" birds which are not birds but souls (_sálir_), flying "numerous as gnats."

76.

THE PLACES OF PUNISHMENT.

The regions over which the flocks of demons fly are the same as those which the author of Skirnersmal has in view when Skirner threatens Gerd with sending her to the realms of death. It is the home of the frost-giants, of the subterranean giants, and of the spirits of disease. Here live the offspring of Ymer's feet, the primeval giants strangely born and strangely bearing, who are waiting for the quaking of Ygdrasil and for the liberation of their chained leader, in order that they may take revenge on the gods in Ragnarok, and who in the meantime contrive futile plans of attack on Hvergelmer's fountain or on the north end of the Bifrost bridge. Here the demons of restless uneasiness, of mental agony, of convulsive weeping, and of insanity (Othale, Morn, Ope, and Tope) have their home; and here dwells also their queen, Loke's daughter, Leikin, whose threshold is precipice and whose bed is disease. According to the authority used by Saxo in the description of Gorm's journey, the country is thickly populated. Saxo calls it _urbs, oppidum_ (cp. Skirnismal's words about the giant-homes, among which Gerd is to drag herself hopeless from house to house). The ground is a marsh with putrid water (_putidum cœnum_), which diffuses a horrible stench. The river Slid flowing north out of Hvergelmer there seeks its way in a muddy stream to the abyss which leads down to the nine places of punishment. Over all hovers Nifelheim's dismal sky.

The mortals who, like Gorm and his men, have been permitted to see these regions, and who have conceived the idea of descending into those worlds which lie below Nifelheim, or the most of them, are vast mountain caves, abyss in question and have cast a glance down into it. The place is narrow, but there is enough daylight for its bottom to be seen, and the sight thereof is terrible. Still, there must have been a path down to it, for when Gorm and his men had recovered from the first impression, they continued their journey to their destination (Geirrod's place of punishment), although the most terrible vapour (_teterrimus vapor_) blew into their faces. The rest that Saxo relates is unfortunately wanting both in sufficient clearness and in completeness. Without the risk of making a mistake, we may, however, consider it as mythically correct that some of the nine worlds of punishment below Nifelheim, or the most of them, are vast mountain caves, mutually united by openings broken through the mountain walls and closed with gates, which do not however, obstruct the course of Slid to the Nastrands and to the sea outside. Saxo speaks of a _perfractam scopuli partem_, "a pierced part of the mountain," through which travellers come from one of the subterranean caves to another, and between the caves stand gatekeepers (_janitores_). Thus there must be gates. At least two of these "homes" have been named after the most notorious sinner found within them. Saxo speaks of one called the giant Geirrod's, and an Icelandic document of one called the giant _Geitir's_. The technical term for such a cave of torture was _guyskuti_ (clamour-grotto). Saxo translates _skúti_ with _conclave saxeum_. "To thrust anyone before Geitir's clamour-grotto"--_reka einn fyrir Geitis guyskuta_--was a phrase synonymous with damning a person to death and hell.

The gates between the clamour-grottoes are watched by various kinds of demons. Before each gate stand several who in looks and conduct seem to symbolise the sins over whose perpetrators they keep guard. Outside of one of the caves of torture Gorm's men saw club-bearers who tried their weapons on one another. Outside of another gate the keepers amused themselves with "a monstrous game" in which they "mutually gave their ram-backs a curved motion." It is to be presumed that some sort of perpetrators of violence were tortured within the threshold, which was guarded by the club-bearers, and that the ram-shaped demons amused themselves outside of the torture-cave of debauchees. It is also probable that the latter is identical with the one called Geitir's. The name _Geitir_ comes from _geit_, goat. Saxo, who Latinised _Geitir_ into Götharus, tells adventures of his which show that this giant had tried to get possession of Freyja, and that he is identical with Gymer, Gerd's father. According to Skirnersmal (35), there are found in Nifelhel goats, that is to say, trolls in goat-guise, probably of the same kind as those above-mentioned, and it may be with an allusion to the fate which awaits Gymer in the lower world, or with a reference to his epithet _Geitir_, that Skirner threatens Gerd with the disgusting drink (_geita hland_) which will there be given her by "the sons of misery" (_vélmegir_). One of the lower-world demons, who as his name indicates, was closely connected with Geitir, is called "Geitir's Howl-foot" (_Geitis Guýfeti_); and the expression "to thrust anyone before Geitir's Howl-foot" thus has the same meaning as to send him to damnation.

Continuing their journey, Gorm and his men came to Geirrod's _skúti_ (see No. 46).

We learn from Saxo's description that in the worlds of torture there are seen not only terrors, but also delusions which tempt the eyes of the greedy. Gorm's prudent captain Thorkil (see No. 46) earnestly warns his companions not to touch these things, for hands that come in contact with them are fastened and are held as by invisible bonds. The illusions are characterised by Saxo as _ædis supellectilis_, an expression which is ambiguous, but may be an allusion that they represented things pertaining to temples. The statement deserves to be compared with Solarljod's strophe 65, where the skald sees in the lower world persons damned, whose hands are riveted together with burning stones. They are the mockers at religious rites (they who _minst vildu halda helga daga_) who are thus punished. In the mythology it was probably profaners of temples who suffered this punishment.

The Nastrands and the hall there are thus described in Völuspa:

Sal sá hon standa
sólu fjarri
Náströndu á
nordr horfa dyrr;
fellu eitrdropar
inn um ljora,
Sá er undinn salr
orma hryggjum.

Sá hon thar vada
thunga strauma
menn meinsvara
ok mordvarga
ok thanns annars glepr
eyrarúna;
thar saug Nidhöggr
nái framgengna,
sleit vargr vera.

"A hall she saw stand far from the sun on the Nastrands; the doors opened to the north. Venom-drops fell through the roof-holes. Braided is that hall of serpent-backs."

"There she saw perjurers, murderers, and they who betrayed the wife of another (adulterers) wade through heavy streams. There Nidhog sucked the _náir_ of the dead. And the wolf tore men into pieces."

Gylfaginning (ch. 52) assumes that the serpents, whose backs, wattled together, form the hall, turn their heads into the hall, and that they, especially through the openings in the roof (according to Codex Ups. and Codex Hypnones.), vomit forth their floods of venom. The latter assumption is well founded. Doubtful seems, on the other hand, Gylfaginning's assumption that "the heavy streams," which the damned in Nastrands have to wade through, flow out over the floor of the hall. As the very name Nastrands indicates that the hall is situated near a water, then this water, whether it be the river _Slidr_ with its eddies filled with weapons, or some other river, may send breakers on shore and thus produce the heavy streams which Völuspa mentions. Nevertheless Gylfaginning's view may be correct. The hall of Nastrands, like its counterpart Valhal, has certainly been regarded as immensely large. The serpent-venom raining down must have fallen on the floor of the hall, and there is nothing to hinder the venom-rain from being thought sufficiently abundant to form "heavy streams" thereon (see below).

Saxo's description of the hall in Nastrands--by him adapted to the realm of torture in general--is as follows: "The doors are covered with the soot of ages; the walls are bespattered with filth; the roof is closely covered with barbs; the floor is strewn with serpents and bespawled with all kinds of uncleanliness." The last statement confirms Gylfaginning's view. As this bespawling continues without ceasing through ages, the matter thus produced must grow into abundance and have an outlet. Remarkable is also Saxo's statement, that the doors are covered with the soot of ages. Thus fires must be kindled near these doors. Of this more later.

77.

THE PLACES OF PUNISHMENT (_continued_). THE HALL IN NASTRANDS.

Without allowing myself to propose any change of text in the Völuspa strophes above quoted, and in pursuance of the principle which I have adopted in this work, not to base any conclusions on so-called text-emendations, which invariably are text-debasings, I have applied these strophes as they are found in the texts we have. Like Müllenhoff (_D. Alterth._, v. 121) and other scholars, I am, however, convinced that the strophe which begins _sá hon thar vada_, &c., has been corrupted. Several reasons, which I shall present elsewhere in a special treatise on Völuspa, make this probable; but simply the circumstance that the strophe has ten lines is sufficient to awaken suspicions in anyone's mind who holds the view that Völuspa originally consisted of exclusively eight-lined strophes--a view which cannot seriously be doubted. As we now have the poem, it consists of forty-seven strophes of eight lines each, one of four lines, two of six lines each, five of ten lines each, four of twelve lines each, and two of fourteen lines each--in all fourteen not eight-lined strophes against forty-seven eight-lined ones; and, while all the eight-lined ones are intrinsically and logically well constructed, it may be said of the others, that have more than eight lines each, partly that we can cancel the superfluous lines without injury to the sense, and partly that they look like loosely-joined conglomerations of scattered fragments of strophes and of interpolations. The most recent effort to restore perfectly the poem to its eight-lined strophes has been made by Müllenhoff (_D. Alterth._, v.); and although this effort may need revision in some special points, it has upon the whole given the poem a clearness, a logical sequence and symmetry, which of themselves make it evident that Müllenhoff's premises are correct.

In the treatise on Völuspa which I shall publish later, this subject will be thoroughly discussed. Here I may be permitted to say, that in my own efforts to restore Völuspa to eight-lined strophes, I came to a point where I had got the most of the materials arranged on this principle, but there remained the following fragment:

(1) Á fellr austan (1) Falls a river from the east
um eitrdala around venom dales
söxum ok sverdum, with daggers and spears,
Slidr heitir sú. Slid it is called.

(2) Sá hon thar vada (2) There saw she wade
thunga strauma through heavy streams
menn meinsvara perjurers
ok mordvarga murderers
ok thanns annars and him who seduces
glepr eyrarúnu. another's wife.

These fragments make united ten lines. The fourth line of the fragment (1) _Slidr heitir sú_ has the appearance of being a mythographic addition by the transcriber of the poem. Several similar interpolations which contain information of mythological interest, but which neither have the slightest connection with the context, nor are of the least importance in reference to the subject treated in Völuspa, occur in our present text-editions of this poem. The dwarf-list is a colossal interpolation of this kind. If we hypothetically omit this line for the present, and also the one immediately preceding (_söxum ok sverdum_), then there remains as many lines as are required in a regular eight-line strophe.

It is further to be remarked that among all the eight-lined Völuspa strophes there is not one so badly constructed that a verb in the first half-strophe has a direct object in the first line of the second half-strophe, as is the case in that of the present text:

Sá hon thar vada
thunga strauma
menn meinsvara
ok mordvarga
ok thann's annars glepr
eyrarúnu;

and, upon the whole, such a construction can hardly ever have occurred in a tolerably passable poem. If these eight lines actually belonged to one and the same strophe, the latter would have to be restored according to the following scheme:

(1) Sá hon thar vada
(2) thunga strauma
(3) menn meinsvara
(4) ok mordvarga;
(5) .......
(6) .......
(7) thann's annars glepr
(8) eyrarúnu.

and in one of the dotted lines the verb must have been found which governed the accusative object _thann_.

The lines which should take the place of the dots have, in their present form, the following appearance:

á fellr austan
um eitrdala.

The verb which governed _thann_ must then be _áfellr_, that is to say, the verb _fellr_ united with the preposition á. But in that case _á_ is not the substantive _á_, a river, a running water, and thus the river which falls from the east around venom dales has its source in an error.

Thus we have, under this supposition, found that there is something that _fellr á_, falls on, streams down upon, him who seduces the wife of another. This something must be expressed by a substantive, which is now concealed behind the adverb _austan_, and must have resembled it sufficiently in sound to be transformed into it.

Such a substantive, and the only one of the kind, is _austr_. This means something that can _falla á_, stream down upon; for _austr_ is _bail-water_ (from _ausa_, to bail), waste-water, water flowing out of a gutter or shoot.

A test as to whether there originally stood _austr_ or not is to be found in the following substantive, which now has the appearance of _eitrdala_. For if there was written _austr_, then there must, in the original text, have followed a substantive (1) which explained the kind of waste-water meant, (2) which had sufficient resemblance to _eitrdala_ to become corrupted into it.

The sea-faring Norsman distinguished between two kinds of _austr_: _byttu-austr_ and _dælu-austr_. The bail-water in a ship could be removed either by bailing it out with scoops directly over the railing, or it could be scooped into a _dæla_, a shoot or trough laid over the railing. The latter was the more convenient method. The difference between these two kinds of _austr_ became a popular phrase; compare the expression _thá var byttu-austr, eigi dælu-austr_. The word _dæla_ was also used figuratively; compare _láta dæluna ganga_, to let the shoots (troughs) run (Gretla, 98), a proverb by which men in animated conversation are likened unto _dælur_, troughs, which are opened for flowing conversation.

Under such circumstances we might here expect after the word _austr_ the word _dæla_, and, as venom here is in question, _eitr-dæla_.

_Eitr-dæla_ satisfies both the demands above made. It explains what sort of waste-water is meant, and it resembles _eitr-dala_ sufficiently to be corrupted into it.

Thus we get _á fellr austr eitrdæla_: "On (him who seduces another man's wife) falls the waste-water of the venom-troughs." Which these venom-troughs are, the strophe in its entirety ought to define. This constitutes the second test of the correctness of the reading.

It must be admitted that if _á fellr austr eitrdæla_ is the original reading, then a corruption into _á fellr austan eitrdala_ had almost of necessity to follow, since the preposition _á_ was taken to be the substantive _á_, river, a running stream. How near at hand such a confounding of these words lies is demonstrated by another Völuspa strophe, where the preposition _á_ in _á ser hon ausaz aurgom forsi_ was long interpreted as the substantive _á_.

We shall now see whether the expression _á fellr austr eitrdæla_ makes sense, when it is introduced in lieu of the dotted lines above:

Sá hon thar vada
thunga strauma
menn meinsvara
ok mordvarga;
(en) á fellr austr
eitrdæla
thann's annars glepr
eyrarúna.

"There saw she heavy streams (of venom) flow upon (or through) perjurers and murderers. The waste-water of the venom-troughs (that is, the waste-water of the perjurers and murderers after the venom-streams had rushed over them) falls upon him who seduces the wife of another man."

Thus we get not only a connected idea, but a very remarkable and instructive passage.

The verb _vada_ is not used only about persons who wade through a water. The water itself is also able to _vada_ (cp. _eisandi udr vedr undan_--Rafns S. Sveinb.), to say nothing of arrows that wade _i fólk_ (Havam., 150), and of banners which wade in the throng of warriors. Here the venom wades through the crowds of perjurers and murderers. The verb _vada_ has so often been used in this sense, that it has also acquired the meaning of _rushing_, _running_, _rushing through_. Heavy venom-streams run through the perjurers and murderers before they fall on the adulterers. The former are the venom-troughs, which pour their waste-water upon the latter.

We now return to Saxo's description of the hall of Nastrands, to see whether the Völuspa strophe thus hypothetically restored corresponds with, or is contradicted by, it. Disagreeable as the pictures are which we meet with in this comparison, we are nevertheless compelled to take them into consideration.

Saxo says that the wall of the hall is bespattered with liquid filth (_paries obductus illuvie_). The Latin word, and the one used by Saxo for venom, is _venenum_, not _illuvies_, which means filth that has been poured or bespattered on something. Hence Saxo does not mean venom-streams of the kind which, according to Völuspa, are vomited by the serpents down through the roof-openings, but the reference is to something else, which still must have an upper source, since it is bespattered on the wall of the hall.

Saxo further says that the floor is bespawled with all sorts of impurity: _pavimentum omni sordium genere respersum._ The expression confirms the idea, that unmixed venom is not meant here, but everything else of the most disgusting kind.

Furthermore, Saxo relates that groups of damned are found there within, which groups he calls _consessus_. _Consessus_ means "a sitting together," and, in a secondary sense, persons sitting together. The word "sit" may here be taken in a more or less literal sense. _Consessor_, "the one who sits together with," might be applied to every participator in a Roman dinner, though the Romans did not actually sit, but reclined at the table.

As stated, several such _consessus_, persons sitting or lying together, are found in the hall. The benches upon which they sit or lie are of iron. Every _consessus_ has a _locus_ in the hall; and as both these terms, _consessus_ and _locus_, in Saxo united in the expression _consessuum loca_, together mean rows of benches in a theatre or in a public place, where the seats rise in rows one above the other, we must assume that these rows of the damned sitting or lying together are found in different elevations between the floor and ceiling. This assumption is corroborated by what Saxo tells, viz., that their _loca_ are separated by leaden hurdles (_plumbeæ crates_). That they are separated by hurdles must have some practical reason, and this can be none other than that something flowing down may have an unobstructed passage from one _consessus_ to the other. That which flows down finally reaches the floor, and is then _omne sordium genus_, all kinds of impurity. It must finally be added that, according to Saxo, the stench in this room of torture is well-nigh intolerable (_super omnia perpetui fætoris asperitas tristes lacessebat olfactus_).

Who is not able to see that Völuspa's and Saxo's descriptions of the hall in Nastrands confirm, explain, and complement each other? From Völuspa's words, we conclude that the venom-streams come from the openings in the roof, not from the walls. The wall consists, in its entirety, of the _backs_ of serpents wattled together (_sá er undinn salr orma hryggjom_). The heads belonging to these serpents are above the roof, and vomit their venom down through the roof-openings--"the ljors" (_fellu eitrdropar inn um ljóra_). Below these, and between them and the floor, there are, as we have seen in Saxo, rows of iron seats, the one row below the other, all furnished with leaden hurdles, and on the iron seats sit or lie perjurers and murderers, forced to drink the venom raining down in "heavy streams." Every such row of sinners becomes "a trough of venom" for the row immediately below it, until the disgusting liquid thus produced falls on those who have seduced the dearest and most confidential friends of others. These seducers either constitute the lowest row of the seated delinquents, or they wade on the floor in that filth and venom which there flows. Over the hall broods eternal night (it is _sólu fjarri_). What there is of light, illuminating the terrors, comes from fires (see below) kindled at the doors which open to the north (_nordr horfa dyrr_). The smoke from the fires comes into the hall and covers the door-posts with the "soot of ages" (_postes longæva fuligine illitæ_).

With this must be compared what Tacitus relates concerning the views and customs of the Germans in regard to crime and punishment. He says:

"The nature of the crime determines the punishment. Traitors and deserters they hang on trees. Cowards and those given to disgraceful debauchery they smother in filthy pools and marshes, casting a _hurdle_ (crates) over them. The dissimilarity in these punishments indicates a belief that crime should be punished in such a way that the penalty is visible, while scandalous conduct should be punished in such a way that the debauchee is removed from the light of day" (_Germania_, xii.).

This passage in _Germania_ is a commentary on Saxo's descriptions, and on the Völuspa strophe in the form resulting from my investigation. What might naturally seem probable is corroborated by _Germania's_ words: that the same view of justice and morality, which obtained in the camp of the Germans, found its expression, but in gigantic exaggeration, in their doctrines concerning eschatological rewards and punishments. It should, perhaps, also be remarked that a similar particularism prevailed through centuries. The hurdle (_crates_) which Saxo mentions as being placed over the venom- and filth-drinking criminals in the hall of Nastrands has its earthly counterpart in the hurdle (also called _crates_), which, according to the custom of the age of Tacitus, was thrown over victims smothered in the cesspools and marshes (_ignavos et imbelles et corpore infames cœno ac palude injecta insuper crate mergunt_). Those who were sentenced to this death were, according to Tacitus, cowards and debauchees. Among those who received a similar punishment in the Teutonic Gehenna were partly those who in a secret manner had committed murder and tried to conceal their crime (such were called _mordvorgr_), partly debauchees who had violated the sacredness of matrimony. The descriptions in the Völuspa strophe and in Saxo show that also in the hall of the Nastrands the punishment is in accordance with the nature of the crime. All are punished terribly; but there is a distinction between those who had to drink the serpent venom unmixed and those who receive the mixed potion, and finally those who get the awful liquid over themselves and doubtless within themselves.

In closing this chapter I will quote a number of Völuspa strophes, which refer to Teutonic eschatology. In parallel columns I print the strophes as they appear in Codex Regius, and in the form they have assumed as the result of an investigation of which I shall give a full account in the future. I trust it will be found that the restoration of _á fellr austan um eitrdala_ into _á fellr austr eitrdæla_, and the introducing of these words before _thanns annars glepr eyrarúna_ not only restores to the strophe in which these words occur a regular structure and a sense which is corroborated by Saxo's eschatological sources and by the _Germania_ of Tacitus, but also supplies the basis and conditions on which other strophes may get a regular structure and intelligible contents.

_Codex Regius._ _Revised Text._

A fellr austan
um eitrdala
sauxom oc sverthom
slithr heitir su.
Stod fyr nordan Stód fyr nordan
a nitha vollom a Nida völlum
salr or gulli salr or gulli
sindra ettar. Sindra ættar;
enn annar stod enn annar stod
a okolni a Ókólni,
bior salr iotuns bjorsals jötuns,
en sa brimir heitir. en sá Brimir heitir.

Sal sá hon standa Sal sá hon standa
solo fiárri sólu fjarri
na strondu a Náströndu á,
northr horfa dyrr nordr horfa dyrr;
fello eitr dropar fellu eitrdropar
inn um lióra inn um ljóra,
sa er undinn salr sa er undinn salr
orma hryggiom. orma hryggjum.

(38) Sa hon thar vada Sa hon thar vada
thunga strauma thunga strauma
menn meinsvara menn meinsvara
oc mordvargar. oc mordvarga;
oc thann annars glepr en á fell austr
eyra runo eitrdæla
thar sug nithhauggr thanns annars glepr
nái fram gegna eyrarúnu
sleit vargr vera
vitoth er en etha hvat.

(35) Hapt sa hon liggia Hapt sá hon liggja
undir hvera lundi undir hveralundi
legiarn lici lægjarnliki
loca atheckian. Loka áthekkjan;
thar sitr Sigyn thar saug Nidhöggr
theygi um sinom nái framgengna,
ver velglyiod sleit vargr vera.
vitoth er en etha hvat. Vitud ér enn eda hvat?

Thar kná Vala
vigbönd snúa,
heldr várn hardgör
höpt or
thörmum;
thar sitr Sigyn
theygi um sínum
ver vel glýgud.
Vitud ér enn eda hvat?

78.

THE PLACES OF PUNISHMENT. (_continued_). LOKE'S CAVE OF
PUNISHMENT. GYLFAGINNING'S CONFOUNDING OF MUSPEL'S SONS WITH
THE SONS OF SUTTUNG.

Saxo (_Hist. Dan._, 429 ff.) relates that the experienced Captain Thorkil made, at the command of King Gorm, a second journey to the uttermost North, in order to complete the knowledge which was gained on the first journey. That part of the lower world where Loke (by Saxo called Ugartilocus) dwells had not then been seen. This now remained to be done. Like the first time, Thorkil sailed into that sea on which sun and stars never shine, and he kept cruising so long in its darkness that his supply of fuel gave out. The expedition was as a consequence on the point of failing, when a fire was suddenly seen in the distance. Thorkil then entered a boat with a few of his men and rowed thither. In order to find his way back to his ship in the darkness, he had placed in the mast-top a self-luminous precious stone, which he had taken with him on the journey. Guided by the light, Thorkil came to a strand-rock, in which there were narrow "gaps" (_fauces_), out of which the light came. There was also a door, and Thorkil entered, after requesting his men to remain outside.

(_From the painting by M. E. Winge._)

Loke, in Norse Mythology, was the god of destruction and of evil. His father was the giant Farbauti, and his mother was Laufey (Leafy Isle), so that he had two natures and was therefore both friend and enemy of the gods. For his many evil deeds he was finally seized and bound by the gods with chains in a loathsome cave. As a further punishment there was set above him a poisonous serpent that drooled venom upon his face that burned like fire. To save him from this torture his faithful wife, Sygn, shared his captivity and held a bowl to catch the dripping poison until Loke was freed at Ragnarok, when he and Heimdal fought and slew each other. He had the further distinction of being handsomest of the male deities.]

Thorkil found a grotto. At the fire which was kindled stood two uncommonly tall men, who kept mending the fire. The grotto had an inner door or gate, and that which was seen inside that gate is described by Saxo in almost the same words as those of his former description of the hall at the Nastrands (_obsoleti posies_, _ater situ paries_, _sordidum tectum_, _frequens anguibus pavimentum_). Thorkil in reality sees the same hall again; he had simply come to it from another side, from the north, where the hall has its door opening toward the strand (_nordr horfa dyrr_--Völuspa), the pillars of which, according to Saxo's previous description, are covered with the soot of ages. The soot is now explained by the fire which is kindled in the grotto outside the hall, the grotto forming as it were a vestibule. The two gigantic persons who mend the fire are called by Saxo _aquili_.

In Marcianus Capella, who is Saxo's model in regard to style and vocabulary, persons of semi-divine rank (_hemithei_) are mentioned who are called _aquili_, and who inhabit the same regions as the souls of the dead (_lares_ and _larvæ_--Marc. Cap., i., ii. Compare P. E. Müller, not., _Hist. Dan._, pp. 68, 69). Aquilus also has the signification, _dark_, _swarthy_, Icel. _dökkr_.