The 2nd Epic


 An adventure out of the
German people’s mythological epic.
Translated by William P. Reaves © 2013

 [1] [2] [3] [4]

The 2nd Epic

Segersvårdet 

FOURTH & FINAL SERIAL

 NY SVENSK TIDSKRIFT, 1884, pp. 241—277

 

Continued from Serial 3
 

VIII. Völund's Death. Reconciliation with the Elves

 

        The sword for which Asgard trembled was entrusted by Od to Frey, his beloved brother-in-law, his chieftain and his childhood friend. Völund, of course, had forged it and Urd of course had let Egil’s son recover it, so that it could belong to the lord of harvests. Frey’s right of possession was hammered into the sword’s grit in a manner that the artist himself was unable to alter.

        But in the Wolfdales, Völund had forged this quality together with a second: that if the sword came into the Aesir’s power, it would be of no use to them.

       A third quality the sword had was this: if it was swung by a giant then woe to him and his kin. Certainly it would fell his opponent, whomever it was, but will also annihilate the victor himself, even perhaps the whole giant world. As a sign of this, images on the blade depict the ruin of the primeval giants. Therefore it has been said, in twofold meaning: “It fights of itself against the giant race.”

        Od and Freyja’s wedding was celebrated. To him she was the most beloved wife, in faith and affection like Idunn, and gave him beautiful daughters.

     The friendship that was tied between Frey and Od in childhood was thus fixed by bonds of kinship. Egil’s son was liked by all the Aesir and Asynjes.  

        To him Odin presented helmet and mail-coat, splendid products of Sindri’s art. Thor had extended [242] his hand in reconciliation. In regard to Mann Borgarsson, they both had now fulfilled their duties: Thor his, as father and protector; Od his, as parental avenger. But Freyja’s husband was not elevated to a member of the judging circle of gods. It took a long time before one of the elf-race reached this dignity. Nor did Od strive for such honor. In these his happiest days, it was enough to him to act as Odin and Frigg’s swift servant and Frey’s most trusted friend. What Njörd hesitated to say to his son, Od could say for him. One wish remained for the young elf, that Völund might reconcile and his bonds be loosened.

        But no one, not even Od himself knew where Völund, Idunn, and Skadi had hidden themselves. The Asa-father’s ravens often flew over Thrymheim, but never saw them.  Nevertheless, Völund had once shown himself to Andvari, the faithful dwarf and treasure-guardian. He came on a father’s errand then and said to him: “One day you shall seek a tall, light-haired youth in whose facial features you’ll see that he is my son. A daughter of Mimir is his mother. Receive him well. Bring him my blessings. Lay the best words of wisdom in his memory and equip him with the finest of what a warrior has need. Tell him that he should be guile-free and grateful. In memory of his birth, he shall bear a hammer and tongs on his shield. Impress upon him that whatever may happen, he should not draw sword against descendents of Egil or Slagfinn who were his father’s faithful brothers.” Once Völund said this, Andvari say him never more.

        After the war with the giants ended, it was as if Loki too had vanished. He had hidden in Gymir’s underground halls and brooded there on future guile. It was now clear to him that he should make a journey of discovery in Thrymheim. This however, was not for necessity’s sake alone, since if ever a land precarious to travel in existed, this was certainly it.  He had the adventure with the pole fresh in his mind. As long as Thrymheim was a theatre of war, Loki had walked its ground without fear. It was one thing to come under waving army-standards followed by thousands of jötun-warriors, and wholly another to sneak about alone [243] as a spy. Then one is suspicious and sees snares everywhere. Loki could transform himself into five animal shapes: the horse’s, the wolf’s, the seal’s, the salmon’s and the wasp’s. He decided to choose the salmon’s as his traveling attire. In the water he was well hidden and the multiple waterways running from all the glaciers and summits descending through all the dales and dells would open even the most hidden recesses among Thrymheim’s mountains.

         An inland sea lies up there over the bottom of a deep valley basin. An eye that beholds from above cannot see any shore because the sea’s green-clad edge is hidden by overhanging precipices between which no dales or slopes lead down. The water has its only outlet in a nook where, forced by rigid mountain walls, it rushes hence to the closest stretch of dale.

       Loki spent many days on the journey of discovery and had worked himself through many strong currents without finding a trace of what he sought. But it so happened that one day, after an agile leap up a highland waterfall, he came into a deep and calm mountain sea and there saw a sight that made his heart happy. On a block of stone close to the surface of the water sat a man and a woman. The man’s knees were bound together with a sinew bond: beside him lay an eagle-guise. It was he whom Loki had sought.  Völund practiced the sport of the patient brooder. He fished and looked with half-dreaming gaze on the fishing line’s float, drifting in the glitter of the sun. Beside him was a woman of proud and powerful beauty. Loki recognized Skadi. In the precipice behind them he saw an open stone door. It was an entrance to Völund’s residence. Idunn must be inside there.

        Loki remained up there some days and noted the recluses’ habits. Almost daily a slab door open at a certain time each day and Völund with his fishing gear flew to the shore. By night, Loki cautiously made excursions in wolf-guise on the high plain over the sea. There he noted tracks, hardly perceptible however, of skis on which it was Skadi’s wont to glide over the expanse on a hazy moonlit nights. The tracks led to another slab-door. Loki also looked for the smoke stack of Völund’s smithy and once thought he heard the dampened clang of hammer on anvil. He guessed correctly [244] that the artist had fashioned for him and his family pleasure gardens, as magnificent as those of the gods, within the mountain walls.

       Loki left Thrymheim none the worse, pleased with his success. It was no longer a necessity to hide himself in Gymir’s halls. On the contrary he wished for nothing more than to be discovered by the Aesir and taken captive. He longed for the next thunderstorm in hopes that Thor would see him from his chariot.  So it came. The shrewd son of Farbauti let himself be captured. And it happened as he expected. Slapped in bonds, he was conveyed to Asgard and set before the circle of gods. Thor was particularly proud of his capture. The honorable Asa-god, the big kid, believed that with superior stratagem he got the quick-witted one in his power.
      Loki admitted before the high judgement seats that it was he who had played Idun into Völund's hands. He did not wish to excuse himself, but only as a means of explanation put forth that the terrifying giant-bastard had forced him under threat of death to take an oath, and that he, Loki, took all oaths, even those forced upon him, as holy. He added that since he had lost Odin's favor and the friendship of the Aesir, life had no worth for him. He was resigned to meet the doom of death he expected and take to the grave the secret only he knew, where Idunn was and how she and her apples could be returned to Asgard. The judgment seats passed the ruling that Loki had forfeited his life, but that in memory of the service he had formerly given the gods, mercy would find favor with the court, in case he could make good on his crime and bring Idun back. Loki said he would attempt it, if he was restored to Odin's favor. And thereby he became secure, because for the gods it meant the choice to yield to the power of old age or to live in the eternal energy of youth.
     Loki liberated himself from his bonds and walked unhindered as before between Asgard's castles. He met together with Gullveig, the giant-maid who had been adopted into Freyja's court. She and Loki were old acquaintances, although they did not let on before the others. He needed her help because she was experienced in the art viewed badly by the gods to transform a being's shape against its will. [245]. Of the art, Loki now had need. She also promised to obtain Freyja's falcon-guide for him.
     One day, while Völund fished in his lake, and as usual had Skadi by his side, they heard a swishing behind them and a falcon flew close to them. He came out of the mountain, whose door stood open, and he bore a fruit in his claw.   This and the derisive scree the bird gave as he swung up into the heights, Völund and his daughter watched with a sudden suspicion of ruin. Skadi rushed into the mountain and came out screaming that her mother had vanished. Völund climbed into his eagle-guise, rose up with some wing-flaps, surveyed space, saw the robber way against the horizon and then shot into flight that in its wild fury could only be matched by the extent of his storming emotions.
     When the thief in Freyja's falcon-form touched down inside of Asgard's wall, the gods from Hlidskjalf had already discovered his follower. Scarcely had Loki released the golden fruit— it transformed into Idun— out of his claw and cast off the falcom-form before he yelled: "Vindicate oaths! The Terrible one comes!' The eagle-form grew with every blink. Thor gripped his ancient hammer, the gods their bows and spears. The waver-fires that lay over Asgard's glowing moat are kindled. They ignite and strike up in flames, just when the eagle was near; he came in at an unchecked speed. The rain of weapons did not restrain him, neither did the flames. He rushed into the whirling fire and abruptly through it, but with burning wings; the feather-guise dropped down and fell altogether in sparks and smoke, and Völund stood before the gods, tall, glorious, striking fear still in his final hour, with unnamed despair in his face, weaponless, studded with arrows, bound with Urd's unbreakable knots. "Kill him!" shrieked Loki.   Without hesitation, Thor slung his hammer toward the elf-prince's brow. The powerful one fell dead to earth.
      His death was not unregretted, not only in Asgard that was now free of its most dangerous, unappeasable enemy.  Over his body, Sif and Bil stood crying, Od and Ull in deepest sorrow. The Aesir honored him with a splendid pyre. Previously, Thor and the Asa-father had consented to take the artist's eyes and cast them into the heavens.
They glittered there not far away from his brother Egil's star. It was decided to give his other brother [246] a similar honor: the Milky Way was called by one of Slagfinn's names and the full-moon was marked with pictures that told his and Bil's childhood adventure.
     Odin stuck Idun with a sleep-thorn. It was said to be as punishment because she, an Asynje, had defied the Asa-father and with Völund had borne weapons against the gods' favorite, Mann Borgarsson. But it was a blessing rather than a punishment. She was sentenced to sleep a long, long time. Awakened, she will look as from afar at what she lost. Bragi has songs and harp-strokes, which may bring joy even when the heart aches. He will sing for her of Völund strong love and his strong hate, and the day will come when Urd's unalterable decision come true and Idun gives her hand to the lord of comforting song.
Some will know - although primeval chants were send forth to say nothing of it - that Idun should sleep until a hero of Borgar's clan comes on Völund's horse, wakes her and leaves her an armring of the beloved smith as a greeting. To thank him for this greeting, she gives him runic knowledge and wisdom's teachings that make him one of the noblest and purest of swordsmen.
Alone in her mountain abode, Skadi awaits her father and mother. They did not return. But she saw Asgard's bridge descend near Thrymheim's range. She went to Grani's stall and told him what had happened and what she sensed. Grani lowered his head in grief. She caressed him, thanked him for his fidelity, and set him loose. Then she put on helmet and armor and went to the dizzying road that Od had gone on before her. Asgard's gate was open, and she was met there by Sif and their other kinsmen. She said he had foreseen that her father was dead, and she came to avenge him. But this was impossible. Her heart softened when she heard that the gods honored Völund's memory and wanted to give the highest penance for his manslaughter. Now, when they no longer had to fear his hostility, they could without humiliation admit that they always admired him and appreciated his services, though their gratitude had been overshadowed a misunderstanding. The gods offered her the honor of an Asynje. She [247] should accept it and remain in Asgard where she now had her mother and all her kin.
She stayed, but a long time passed before a smile was seen in her face. It is known that she became the Vana-god's wife, who asked for her hand when she was a child. But for Skadi, Thrymheim remained  a favorite residence. When she and Njörd did not dwell in Asgard, they lived alternately in Thrymheim and Noatun, the Van's native home by the sea, over whose shipping lanes, fishing waters and ports, he is ruler. In a song which is sung in Midgard, Skadi has praised life on the high-plains and in the forests, but Njörd has praised life on the coast and on the waves. The concealing mountains and the dark depths of the forest, from which the noctural wolves' howls are heard, did not please  Njörd, he prefers the billow's roar and the trumpet of the swan. Skadi thinks more of the thrush's song  than she does the seagull's shreik, and the tracts of snow in the high mountains preserve memories of the time when she was her father's joy.
Sif became Thor's wife. So, at last, the discord between the gods and elves' greatest clan had been ended with reconciliation and multi-knotted bonds of love.
  
 
     

IX. Balder's Age. 		 
 

The reconciliation between Æsir and elves gladdened all, but Balder more than anyone else. He, the Asa-father's and Frigg's favorite son, now exerted great influence in the assembly of the gods. His advice, modestly spoken, was always the best and led to a good outcome.
Balder wanted reconciliation, even with the giant race. Reconciliation with them was impossible. However, for the gods' own sake, they tried to remove all valid reasons, which Jötunheim had for enmity and hatred. The Æsir were worthy of an attempt to overcome with justice and kindness  that which was hard and ingrained in the giants' temperament. The attempt was made. As a remedy for Gunnlöd's tears, the son she bore to Odin was adopted into Valhalla and honored with the dignity of an Æsir god. As compensation for the drink of inspiration abducted from Jötunheim, [248] Odin sent a gift of the holy mead, mingled with soothing runes. Mimir built a well-decorated drinking hall as a residence after death, for giants, who did not sulley themselves with lies and deceit. The bliss that awaits virtuous men after death, also comes to some of the best of Ymir's descendants.
When such advice was felt among the mighty, the giants grew to trust him, from whose lips the advice came. But Heid, Loki and Gymir, among them alone, none feel any affection for Balder the Good. They appealed to his judgement in their internal disputes. In Jötunheim there was a hill on top of a plateau, where Balder with his brother Höd sat in such council at assemblies. Plantiffs always went away from there reconciled.
Now Creation was happy. The seasons kept themselves within their appointed limits, and came with their appropriate  and favorable weather. The spring gave ample sap to all plants. No frosty night ravaged what the summer meant for the sickle and scythe. The winter's short days were sunny and envigorated sports on snow-covered meadows and icebound lake; their long twilight hours were adorned with story, song and festive gatherings. Asgard was safe, and across Midgard, there was peace. Balder's age was a spring, which followed the fimbul-winter.

  

X. Baldur's Death. The Great Drought.

But the spring grew short. In the midst of good fortune gloomy forebodings came over the gods, but they knew wherefrom. Balder had heavy dreams, and his strength drained away. Portents boded his demise. Among other things, it also happened, that the charger, whose hoofs brought the deep wellsprings to daylight for a thirsty land,  got a foot out of joint, while his master, surrounded by his nearest kinsmen, made a journey on horseback in Asgard's forest. Several such portent occurred. Worried, the gods turned to the caretakers of the world-tree, Urd and Mimir, for advice. Urd saw Balder's hidden fate, but did not betray it, neither did Mimir. [249]
The anxious Frigg came upon the idea to compell all beings and all things with a sworn oath not to harm her son. So widely was he loved, that the gods did not despair whether this idea was sound.
There is life in everything, even in that which seems lifeless to us. There is an order in which every creature and every thing has its place. The fire, water, air and earth all obey their ruler. Stones, ores, herbs and animals form regiments, clans and families with chiefs for thousands, and chiefs for hundreds. And through all of creation Urd spins the threads of her laws, which inspire awe in the holy. Innocent things fear a breach of oath. Only among the souls, that have received personal destiny, exists defiance of the Norns' statutes, but for them, there also exist punishments.
All of creation's regiments, clans and families gave oaths for themselves and for their kind. Never have kindness and justice had a better day than when he, who was their advocate in Asgard, was guaranteed security through an oath, uttered by all of heaven's stars and repeated by air, sea and earth's inhabitants, by all the mountains and valleys, by all forests and deserts, an oath, which resounded from Jötunheim and from the underworld— from Mimir's realm and from the very Niflhel, where even the spirits of pestilence and disease with pale lips uttered plights.
But the portents did not cease, nor the troubled dreams and  thoughts. It was, perhaps, why Gullveig, Freyja's giant-maid, used the excuse to ask Frigg, the queen of heaven, if any creature had been forgotten at the oath-fasting. Frigg answered no, but she added that all the young, inexperienced, things which in themselves are harmless and had not attained the age that makes an oath comprehensible and binding, were excluded. Gullveig remarked that such delicate creatures were not to be found in Asgard, where most everything is from the beginning of time. Frigg replied, that in Asgard, only existed one thing found too young for the oath: it is mistletoe, which had recently emerged on the oak at Valhalla eastern gable; But you cannot imagine anything more innocuous than that. [250]Gullveig told Loki what she learned. He sought out the mistletoe, cut it off with a scythe and carved it into an arrow.
Then the gods on the sports-field of Asgard practiced the javelin and archery. Now after the oath-swearing it was not unusual, that one then another would playfully direct a spear or arrow toward Balder, for its very novelty, it was a pleasure for them to see, how the weapons, when they reached him, fell down powerless and did not do him the slightest harm. It happened one day, Höd took from his quiver an arrow, which he thought to be unusually weak and hardly lethal if he directed it playfully toward Balder. This arrow was the mistletoe carved by Loki. How it came to be in Höd's quiver and into his hands, Loki knows. Balder fell to the ground pierced and bleeding. Höd stood petrified, and the Æsir gathered, struck dumb with amazement and grief for the fallen. Here Odin and the Asynjes' medicine availed for nothing. Balder's last words were: "My Nanna, as consolation, my hapless brother,  give him your love," Through all creation went a shudder of death. The Æsir and Asynjes could not speak for weeping.

At the beachhead of the atmosphere lay the funeral ship. On this the gods built his bale. In his arms, the Asa-father bore his beloved boy to the bale.  At this sight Nanna's heart burst. Odin lifted her in his arms and laid her beside her husband. Then Baldur's horse, adorned with his splendid harness, was led into the ship, and Thor consecrated the pyre with his primeval hammer. Odin laid the ring Draupnir on Balder's chest, whispering in his ear the secret over which the world still ponders. The pyre was lit, and the ship sailed high in flames into the depths of the atmosphere.
Frigg would not believe that she and Balder would be forever apart. Was it not possible that the kingdom of death, on one of Urd's strict condtions,  could restore him to the grieving world? Od, who once before was in the underworld, was willing to bear Frigg's plea there. The gallant elf got Sleipnir to ride for his journey.  He galloped off, followed by everyone's good wishes. The path he took now was not the one over the Wolfdales leading down to the well of Mimir but the well-beaten road [251] which the dead travel. Od rode nine days through "deep and dark valleys" and came to the golden bridge, where Mödgun, Mimir and the Norns' kinswoman, keeps watch. The thunder of Sleipnir's hoofs against the bridge-surface said plainly that the rider and the horse were living beings, not shadows. The horseman stops on Mödgun's request and reports his name, race, and business. No one who has experienced death travels past here without being caught in the invisible bonds that Urd's relative, Mödgun, ties which lay courses and lead to the foretold conclusion, whether the plains of bliss or the places of punishment. Mödgun told Od to continue on his journey and to stay in the underworld a day. She gave him instructions on the way to Balder and Nanna's home. On the return trip Mödgun would  tell him that Urd answered Frigg's prayer. Od rode in the direction where he saw Mimir's garden's high spires reflecting the dawn's light. He recognized the gate, in which the children, who were selected to be the parents of a new human race, live a life which does not count time in days and hardly knows any time restraints. Thereafter he came to a high wall, which surrounds Baldur's subterranean Bredablik. No port of entry could have been found. Then he got off his horse, cinched the saddlestrap tighter, mounted again and spurred Sleipner blissfully over the wall. Among trees that stand perpetually verdant, he saw a castle, whose door was open. The walls therein were covered with radiant tapestries, the benches were strewn with jewels from Mimir's treasury. In the seats of honor, sat Balder and Nanna. They went to ​​meet Od and bade him welcome. Holy mead stood in goblets sparkling with jewels, and so the traveller refreshed himself. He performed his salutations, made his case and talked about everything that was worth hearing. The strange visit lasted hours into the night. In the morning  Od said farewell. Balder told him to take the ring Draupner to Odin. Nanna sent a veil and a few other gifts for Frigg and a gold finger ring to Frigg's sister Fulla.  At the bridge  Mödgun gave him Urd's message. Balder will return when all beings and things in the world have wept for him.
This had already happened as far as the news of Balder's death had spread through the universe. Heid was the only being from which no tear for the god's death could be expected, but the twice-burned one had not been seen in a long time and they thought her destroyed. Death's missive spread ever farther, and Asgard sent messengers in all directions who came back, one after another, testifying that their pleas brought tears from all creatures. When it was almost fullfilled their hope came to nothing, when the last sent messenger reported his findings. He had been in a cave and seen an old giant-woman, which, when the plea was presented to her, mockingly said that she would weep dry tears for Baldur.

She called herself 'Thanks' [Thökk] and every one knew that she gave herself that name as retaliation. Now they noticed that Gullveg and Loki had disappeared from Asgard. It then became obvious to the gods that Gullveig was Heid, and Thanks was Gullveg or Loki. At the same time, it was discovered that the arrow, which mortally wounded Balder was the mistletoe, of which Frigg had talked about to Freyja's false servant.

Odin sat  brooding gloomily on his throne and walked between Asgard's  fortresses with his head hung. From Baldur's, the harps rang no more. The mead-hall there was deserted and pierced by the winds. The Asa-father supposed that when the best that he had brought into this world was gone, it was a sign concerning the corruption in his own power and in all his creation. But from afar, from whence this prospect threatened, his thoughts were drawn to a more pressing question. That a murder must be avenged by kinsmen was a law which the Norns established and the Aesir honored. Now all in Asgard were certainly of one mind that Had had not intended his brother's death. But even the gods are not able to discern each other's innermost motives. In this, as in all such cases, it was their judicial duty not to ignore the defendant's past life, but to ask, if there wasn't something there that would provide some motive to the deed. When Gullveg and Loki chose Had as Balder's slayer, they had this in mind. They chose a brother who had once been his enemy, consumed by the passion that is the strongest of all and which, when its flame is stifled, remains glowing beneath the ashes. The severity of justice demanded [253] that a brother's murderer should be punished with death, and there were found external reasons for his action after malicious counsel.
Still, no one  in Asgard could lift his hand against Had. Between him and vengeance stood the dying Balder's own prayer, beside all compassion, all faith that the slaying was unintentional, and the horror therein, that the blood of the Asa-father's blood would once again be spilled, that the lamentable death of one son led to the other's death.
Days passed, months went, but the implacable spirit of blood-revenge thirsted without refreshment and the norn's law was thwarted. However, her runes are not carved on the water's edge or the drift-sand's surface, but in the heart of creation, and creation, like the law of revenge, was languishing with thirst.  The mood was somewhat repressed in Asgard, and all the world. The gods' concern grew when they noticed that Frey began wasting of a langour like Balder's. From the height and depth came voices that urged Odin to console the world and do the Norn's will. He did not, however. Then Urd entwining him with invisible bonds, pulled him out of Asgard, led him to Rind, the beautiful giant-maid, and punished him in front of her with a sense-altering, irresistible, burning, humiliating ardorus flame. Humiliating, because when Rind was firm against his pleas, he resorted to Galder and won by means which his wit condemned. He did not suspect that he ran fate's errand, which he wished to avoid, and gave birth to the avenger he denied the law. All creation's longing for revigoration touched the mind of the unborn: impatient, he tore the chains that held him prisoner within his mother's womb, and when he broke free  of them early, he became a full-grown hero in the space of a day, who in helmet and armor exhorted Had to fight and freed him from a life of torment.  The day-old (one) could execute vengeance, for he knew nothing of Balder's worship, and had not witnessed his father's pain, before his call was complete.
The reason for Frey's langour was this: one day when he sat in Hlidskjälf and looked out over Midgard and Jötunhem, he saw a maiden in Gymir's gard, as she walked from the mead-hall to her bower, and spread a glow over the sky, [254] land and sea. The glow came from her white arms.

 The young inexperienced god saw in his dreams again and again, the maid and her glory. Unfortunately, for the gods, her father was the most odious of all the inhabitants of Jötunhem. Frey was love sick and languishing. Njörd and Skadi begged him to disclose what had vexed his mind, but got nothing out of him. They then asked Od to investigate why the lord of the harvest languished. Od said he tried, but Frey had flatly refused to answer, however, he would try once again. He went in to Frey and started talking about common childhood memories and events, which gently testified that they could trust one another. He ended with the words, "you have no grief so heavy that you cannot confide it to me." Frey said: "the sun shines all day, but to me brings little joy, when a maiden in Gymirs' gard whose arms spread light over the skies and the wave's wide roads." "Your grief may be lifted, "said Od," I will gird myself with the sword of victory and mount Sleipner, and you give me worthy gifts to bring to the giant-maid, when I ride to Gymir's gard and see if Gerd can be won with good words or threats." The sword of victory was all the more necessary on such a journey, as Od, when he was on the skerries in Offote's land  had killed one of Gymir's sons in self-defense. When the gods found out what had caused Frey's consumption, they were distressed and fearful of misfortune, but had no other choice but to make the sacrifice, which was required for the success of Od's errand. They sent him with eleven golden apples and the ring Draupner as courting gifts. It was dark when he mounted Sleipner, and during the night he rode over damp mountains and the odal territory of giants to Gymir's gard. At dawn, he was there. Gymir and his household slept. As usual, they spent the night in revelry.
However the shepherd, armed with an iron rod, keeping watch from his mound, challenged the rider and asked if he was already dead or marked to die because he dared to approach the gate inside of which Gerd lived. Od said, "those who want to be in this world have been better things to do than ask what the norn ascribed to him the day she laid the lots of his fate." With that, he leapt over the fence and the wavering flames [255] onto the field by her bower. With the din of Sleipner's hooves Gerd asked her handmaiden what was going on. The maid replied, "a young man has come, and he has already dismounted from the saddle and had left his steed to graze in the yard." "Let him enter," said Gerd, "and offer him meadhorn, though I suspect that he is my brother's bane."
Od appeared before Gerd, presented his important matter of business, and offered her the golden apples as an engagement gift. She rejected them. He then offered her the ring, that once had been laid on Balder's breast. She pushed it aside and said, "there is gold enough in Gymir's fortress." Then Od bared the sword of victory and showed the engraved giant-hating blade. "You are in my power," he said, "summon not thy father and his men here, because the sword will be all their bane! But you can expect a fate worse than death, if you forsake happiness at the gentle Vana-god's side. " And now, over Od's lips poured a flood of horrible predictions, which might be fulfilled, if her harsh giant disposition would not yield. Then the astonished maiden promised that nine nights thereafter, she would meet Njörd's son in a grove of solitary trails. With this message, Od rode out of the giant-gard. Frey awaited him at Asgard's gate, and the brave elf did not take the saddle off of Sleipner, before he gave an account of his errand's outcome.
Nine nights thereafter, Frey and Gerd met. She promised to become his, but on these conditions, prescribed by her parents: that the sword of victory forged by Valand shall be surrendered to Gymir as a bride-price: that Od and Freyja shall appear in his gard on Frey's behalf to ask for his daughter's hand and convey her to Asgard; that their wedding be held in Valhalla, and that Gerd be elevated to Asynja and her mother granted safe conduct and residence among the gods.
     

The infatuated Frey would have promised more if the giant-maiden had requested it. At once, he laid the sword of victory in her hand. Gymir, who did not dare pull it out of its sheath, encased it in an iron-box. The box was hidden in his underground passageways, which housed many secrets, perilous to the gods. The shepherd armed with the iron-rod was the sword's guardian. Hence, he [256] has received the name Eggther (Sword-watcher), by which he is mostly mentioned.
Od suspected that Gymir brooded on his treacherous intent, and thereon he took  action. He came at the promised time to the giant-chief and brought Freyja and even a dis, which was said to be Freyja's half-sister, and in staure and posture, as in fashion, was exactly like her. Both dises came veiled, as is customary among the goddesses, when they proceed beyond Asgard's walls. But at the same time as Od and dises had also Thor and Ull set off to Jötunheim and on lonely roads after dark arrived in the neighborhood of Gymir's Mountain-fortress. Ull rode Sleipner, for he and Grani are the only horses who could jump over wavering-flames (vafurlogi). The Dis who accompanied Freyja was Sif.
Od and the dises were received well. Gymir had many guests with him, and it did not escape Od that they were chosen from among the strongest and most audacious of Jötunhem's inhabitants, and that some among them had plotted revenge against him.
In the drinking hall, he went as Freyja's representative sat beside Gerd, and noticed that he gazed admiringly in the fair (or 'Vana-') maiden's face. When the drinking feast was in full swing, he took Gymir aside and asked if he had not found Gerd worthy to be a god's wife. Od answered that he envied Frey's happiness. Gymir said, "Then you will hear remarkable things. It is my decision, that you, not Frey, shall from this day be my son-in-law. If it is so that you have a desire for Gerd, you can, without much regret, leave Freyja to me. The builder of Asgard's walls was my near kinsman, and we giants do not intend to relinguish our right to her. You will also remember that you never would have found her if I had not given you a hint about where she was hidden. It's me you have to thank for the bonds of kinship that tie you to gods. But I admit that there is not much to be thankful for, for the haughty Aesir look upon you as a servant, and have never entertained the thought of giving you a seat in the circle of judges. Now another prospect is open to you. The sword of victory is my possession; you are the man who can wield it, and it shall be at the forefront of Jötunheim's armies. Then Asgard falls. Then Gymir and [257] Freyja, Od and Gerd are  Valhall's new rulers and lords of the world. As we are in agreement, then end this evening with your wedding celebration and mine. If not, then I'm worried for you, since my guests and my household think that you should not leave here alive, because you killed my son, and they mean to not let Freyja go, when she is in Jötunheim a second time."  Od replied that Gymir's plan was deep thinking, unassailable, and equally beneficial for both of them, and that he immediately wanted to prepare Freyja for the change in her destiny. Gymir arranged it so that they could talk in private. When Od returned, he said to the giants that Freyja after some hesitation had given him her consent, but on the condition that her wedding would be postponed for a day or two, because custom demanded that she not knit new marriage ties, before her current husband celebrated his wedding to another. The mountain-chief thought such nicety unnecessary, but still agreed on the conditions. They now notified the guests that they were attending Od's and Gerd's wedding festivities, and this was celebrated at a heaping table with horns filled, late into the night. Od sat in the high-seat with Gerd and whispered to her. 'But what he said was not the words of a bridegroom. Again and again, he praised the lord of harvests' nobility and beauty, and spoke of his yearning love. Sif, who sat at Gerd's other side, put a drug in the giant-maiden's cup which opens the mind to true words. Gerd admitted it may be best, that she not regard the party as her wedding. She wanted, unaware to her father, to sleep alone that night and await the lot that fate had laid for her.
When the party had ended, Od and Gerd went to the bridal chamber. The veiled dis, who was said to be Freyja's half-sister, followed them as a bridesmaid. That is to say: the giant thought it was her who followed them, but in her place went the veiled Freyja. It had not been difficult to achieve this confusion, for during the course of the festivities the dises had taken every opportunity to change seats with one another, and once when Gymir requested Freyja's sister lift her veil, it was Freyja himself he saw, and he was astonished at their likeness. Sif, who was believed to be Freyja, was escorted to a mountain-abode which lay some distance away, which was a woman's parlor. There she would sleep alone.
[258] The Vanadis stayed in the bridal chamber with Od, her husband. Gerd went to bed in the bride's maid's chamber. It grew silent in the giant's court, and dawn had not yet lightened the darkness of night. But Freyja, sleeping alone,  played on more than one of Gymir's insolent, drunken guests. From time to time a giant-form crept across the yard and disappeared into the archway of the bower. But no such form returned thence. While the best of the drinking-bout  continued and the gard's watchman emptied a horn among the others, Thor and Ull sat above the wavering-flames and ski-fencing. Sif's husband and son watched at her door, and one jötun-warrior after another fell in the dark archway with a crushed skull.
Gymir had fallen asleep, but soon woke up and felt uneasy. He thought of the confusing similarity of the two dises, wondering, why giants, who knew much about the condition of the Aesir and Vanir and elves, still had never heard that  among her half-sisters the Vana-dis had a likeness, and he began to suspect that Od, the wily, had tricked him. The giant-chief woke two giants of his household and told them to sneak armed into the bridal chamber. If they found anyone other than Od and Gerd inside, they should kill him. The giants went, but did not return. Then Gymir sounded  the alarm. The giants woke up and rushed about dazed, seeking their weapons, then the Lord of Thunder, followed by Od and Ull, stormed into their midst. The mountain-hall was filled with shrieks and moans. Thor's hammer and swords of the elves spread the floor with the dead. Those who could, fled. Among them was Gymir.
Now they had to find the sword of victory. Od had been given a hint by Gerd that it could be hidden in any of the underground caverns and halls, which ranged widely over Gymir's mountain-fortress. Asgard's heroes rushed to the concealed room. They came too late to win the priceless prize. During the confusion, Eggter had taken the chest, which still held the sword of victory inside, and fled through one of the passageways, which led out into an unknown wild countryside, some distance from the fortress. A band of young monsters in wolf-guises and other forms, who had been born and raised down there, fled [259] together with Eggther. Among them was the regenerated Hati. These monsters are the children of Heid and Loki.
 
†
†
†

Then the seid-kona was burnt a second time and her ashes thrown out of Asgard. Loki found her half-burnt heart, devoured it, and thereby become the mother of abominable offspring. In Heid's mind, they had previously lived in the form of wicked thoughts. Three of her's and Loki's children, however, fell into the power of Asgard's heroes. The maiden Lekin and the still young Thurs creatures called the Fenris wolf and the Midgard Serpent.*

 *Here, Rydberg has Loki give birth to all three of his and Angrboda's dreadful children at once. In FG (1887), Rydberg has Loki  eat Heid's heart each time she is burnt, and bear one of the three children each time. In Hyndluljóð 40-41, Loki is said to bear Fenrir by Angrboda, and have eaten a witch's heart by which he becomes pregnant and bears all ogres into the world.

They made another discovery down here: there were huge pens, and Gymir's serving maids, who resided there, confessed that these traps were not only intended for their master's goats, but also for the aerial herds, which belong to Asgard and from which Thor had captured his team and Odin's Heidrun. Loki had discovered a trick, by means of which which he drew these beneficent flocks, when they crossed over the giants' mountains, into Gymir's burrows, where he and the ogresses milked them at night and then released them with empty utters back onto the heavenly plains, where they long had nothing to give to the thirsty earth.
They also found a hole that went all the way to Nifelhel. Thor took the disgusting daughter of Loki and threw her down there, through the hole. She had a bad fall: she broke her leg, got a broken back and was bruised over one half of her body. Because she had done no evil yet, the gods' gave her compensation for her injuries, in that they made her the queen of the places of punishment and their current inhabitants. For a steed, she received a giant-horse, in whose power Frey was when he was liberated by his father Njörd. On this three-legged spook, who in life was Gymir's kinsman Gnyfoot, Lekin sometimes shows herself to the children of men; then famine and pestilence are in her company.
When Asgard's heroes left Gymir's fortress, they took along the Fenris wolf and the Midgard Serpent. Thor threw the snake from his chariot down into the world-sea, where it grew quickly and already is said to be big enough to lie in a circle around the Earth. The Wolf was taken to Asgard and for the amusement of Aesir remained [260] there, until, convinced of the danger, they tied him up at Gnipa-cavern on the island Lyngvi in the​​Amsvartnir's sea.
The rest of Loki's fry grew up with Eggther in the Ironwood, where they found safe shelter for themselves and their abominable herds.
Before Thor, Od and Ull had set off, a veiled woman appeared who said she was the bride's mother and who was recognized as such by Gerd. She demanded the right to follow her daughter and thus came with her to Asgard. Valhalla stood adorned for the wedding feast. But it wasn't very joyful. When Gerd's mother entered the room, she let her veil slip. The Aesir recognized her as Gullvieg, the plotter of Balder's bane. Odin rose up from the high seat and grasped his spear, his sons sprang up and seized her. The seid-kona was pierced and lifted up on spear-points over the hearth fire and there reduced to ashes. This was the third time she was burnt. Three is a holy number, and the Aesir have gained so much by it, that Heid never again returned to Asgard. But she still lives and will live until Ragnarök. All know who Angrboda, the old one in the Ironwood is. She now lives in the swamp, where Eggther sank the sword of victory. He himself keeps watch from a mound nearby, and around the swamp and mound Angrboda's and Loki's wolf-fry swarm in large numbers.

XI.
The World War.

The third slaying of Gullveig had severe consequences. Abhorred as she was by all of the holy powers, she was still the mother of Frey's wife, and it was the family-duty of the Vanir to demand compensation from the responsible party. The peaceful Njörd brought up the matter in these same words, but Odin said no. Njörd then demanded that the powers be called into solemn counsel. This was done.
It was a bad omen, that they arrived with armed companions to this deliberation. Outside the Thing circle was an armored host from Vanaheim and Alfheim, and [261] this, Frey's faithful foster-brother, Od joined. Ull was often of a different opinion than Od, and it was known that in this matter, he stood on the Vanir side.
The reasons, which spoke for their cause, were these: It was incumbant upon them unconditionally, a duty established by Urd, to demand compensation for a slain kinsman. Also all righteousness demanded, that fines be paid. Gerd's mother had been led into Asgard. That notwithstanding, she had no trial, no defense, and she had been slain in the Asa-father's own holy hall. There is a force, stronger than the Aesir's and the Vanir's, which can leave no broken oath unpunished. And what kind of example would it be for Embla's children, if they knew that in Asgard the contract had been broken and force substituted for justice?
The reasons that spoke for the other side were these. There was no breech of oath, for the right to reside safely in Asgard, which the gods had given Gerd's mother, supposing that such a right was extended to her, but they had since proved that she was Heid, who had long since been sentenced to die by the Aesir and Vanir. The sentence was valid as long as it is not rescinded, and it shall not be, as long as Heid is alive. What a terrible impact on Embla's children, if it is heard among them that the Aesir admit that it was a crime, that they execute their judgement on her, the one who invented the evil gander, the evil seid and who is the author of all nithling deeds in Midgard!  The how can men be able to distinguish between good and evil? For the Vanir to demand fines was certainly a family-duty, but their duty was now completed, and the remainder of their judicial duty to give the better argument authority. The Aesir and the Vanir, for the good of the world, not leave their Thing-seats, before they agreed that everything between them hereby was square.
While these arguments and counterarguments were made, a statement thereon fell from the Vanir's troop, that Odin had availed himself of Heid's evil arts, when he coveted Rind favor. It was unjust to recall a misfortune which the Asa-father suffered and that most grieved him, of a humiliation which he had to atone with the death of a son. He got angry, took a spear and cast it among Vanir as a sign that the relationship between him and them was rent.
[262] Njörd and Frey, Ull and Od left Asgard; the door was closed behind them. Freyja's and Sif's tears flowed profusely that day and long afterwards.
 Voices and signs boded for men that tremendous events had transpired and occured in the world of the gods. Seers and prophetesses announced that Odin annulled the Vanir's worship and decreed that all hörgs and hofs erected to Njörd and Frey should be demolished. Confusion and dismay arose over Midgard and was increased even more, when, some time afterwards, voices were heard  from the holy groves and guardian-trees, which said it was the Vanir who prevailed in Valhalla, and that men would renounce the Aesir and devout their adoration to Sindri's kindred and the elves, principally to Njörd, the provider of peace and prosperity; Frey, the lord of harvests; Ull, the excellent huntsman and faithful brother, and Od, the brilliant, widely-travelled and much loved son of Groa.
 All called Vanir and Elves rose up against Odin's reigning forces and surrounded Asgard with innumerable troops. Among the powers outside Mimir was the only one who remained devoted to Odin. The Aesir had to keep within the fortress-walls and lit wavering-flames around them. The fortress seemed to be impregnable. None of the besigers attempted to swim across the glowing moat or leap through wavering-flames. The mighty walls were insurmountable, and to open Asgard's gate required Sindri's or Völund's skill . But it happened one day that to the Vanir camp came a gigantic horse. It was Grani, who longed to see Völund's daughter again, and likewise offered to carry her husband. Another day, it so happened, as Njörd rode around lost in his thoughts, that he saw a figure, like his father the great world-artist Sindri.* He pointed to a mound of earth and disappeared. Njörd broke into the howe and there, amongst armor and other weapons, found a splendid battle-axe, equal in the beauty of its forging and engravings to Völund's sword of victory. It was the door-opener, which Sindre, with a view of the future, forged for his son. One dark night when the Aesir, safe but not happy, sat at the table in Valhalla and looked up to the Asa-father's furrowed brow, he suddenly said, that they should take arms and go to the fortress wall. But  they came too late. Njörd [263] on Grani's back had burst through the wavering-flames and with the wonderful axe, which "gleams of Freyja's tears," crushed the lock of Asgard's gate and dropped the drawbridge over the glowing swells. The Vanir's army with Frey in the lead stood ready to storm across. Hoof beats, the clash of arms and battle cries filled the night air, and the Aesir, who hastened to their horses, saw in the wavering-flames' light a roaring stream of armor and weapons pour across the vast courtyard. To restrain this stream was not possible for the small Aesir band. But they held tightly together, to break through. With an irresistible sense of reverence, the Vanir's array parted for this handful of heroic gods, among whom Odin rode first with Gungnir in hand and Thor came last with the primeval hammer. Rolling thunder denoted the remotely distant roads on which Aesir rode away. Their might seemed to disappear with them. They marched toward the rim of the world in the northeast, where they hoped that Mimir would give them unknown meadows to stay.

*In this, the second version of his epic, Rydberg identifies Odin's brothers Vili and Ve with the artisans Dvalinn-Sindri and Dainn-Brokk (see p. 8 above). Here, he makes Njörd the son of Sindri, probably based on Fjölsvinnsmäl 8 which states that Menglad (Freyja) is the "daughter of Sleep-thorn's son". Dvalinn means the sleeper. By 1886, Rydberg had dropped this theory and identified Odin's brothers as Lodur and Hoenir; and identified Sindri and Brokk, exclusively as dwarf-smiths and sons of Mimir.

 As was mentioned before, when Od slew Mann Borgarson, burning his fortress down and killing him personally, he saved his sons Jormun and Hadding. Jormun went to Hafler, a giant of Thrymheim, and Thor hid Hadding in the care of Vagnhöfdi, a giant of Alfheim. Od took mercy on Jormun because he was Groa's son, but  to Hadding, he had transfered all the hatred he harbored for the Borgar's son. Thor, who noticed this, for that reason had never disclosed to the Od where Hadding was, and the boy grew up undiscovered in his foster-father's mountain-gard, cherished by him and his daughter Hardgrep, whose maternal tenderness towards the child's care became a mistress' flame for the boy and young man.
 Many inhabitants of Manheim, who had fond memories of Hadding's father and grandfather wondered what the young chief's fate had been. Some thought Od, in whom they saw an intruder and an oppressor, did away with him, others argued that he seems to be hidden somewhere and in Manheim's eastern lengths there were thousands upon thousands of men, which, if Hadding appeared, would lift him on their shield and walk to battle under his flag against Groa's sons. The tribes of people in the same stretches did not want to forsake worshipping the Aesir. Although they were [264] expelled from Asgard, and because of it, they were not powerless, and men, of course, owed a debt of gratitude both to them as well as the Vanir and elves. Many asserted that he had seen Odin, surrounded by Aesir, Asynjor and dises, followed by his ravens and hounds, riding through the air that night. Others said that Thor still held his protecting hand over Midgard's settlements as he always did. It was said too, that the old man at the world-tree's root, Mimir, gave the Aesir land to live in. In Midgard. the new counsel of gods was thought worse. Frey pined for a good harvest, Njörd abundant fish, and Ull for a rewarding hunt, but the early frosty nights of winter and the increased length of the winter bore witness that Jötunheim promoted discord among the powers.
 Od sought after Hadding and in his hatred of the memory of Borgar's son's wanted to destroy all his kin, except alone for Groa's son Jormun. There was another who also sought  Hadding. It was Loki. If he could catch him, it would please his malice and give hope, moreover, for his return to Asgard. Hadding was no longer safe in Vagnhöfd's mountain-gard. Odin sent Heimdall to fetch him from there, but both Heimdall and Hadding fell into a snare laid by Loki, from which, however, Odin, warned by his ravens, promptly saved them. There came a horseman in a broad-brimmed hat, who put the boy in the saddle in front of him and covered his head in a corner of his cloak. The curious boy looked out over the mantle, and noted that sea and land lay far beneath him. He screamed and felt dizzy. Then the Asa-father replaced the mantle over his two eyes, pressed him safe in his arms and forbade him to look down. When Sleipner set hoofs on the ground, Hadding was in the uttermost East, safe from discovery by Od and Loki.
 The same flight from Od's lust for revenge endeared the Aesir to many of Mann's kinsmen, among whom were the finest fighters in Midgard. One of them was Hildebrand, son of Drott and older half-brother of Mann Borgar's son. Hildebrand had a full brother, Hildeger, who fell in battle with Mann, when he was still a youngster. This duel may be mentioned here, because Hildebrand's disposition resembled Hildeger's. Mann [265] Borgar's son did not know that the fighter he challenged was his half-brother. Hildeger had long wanted to avoid duel, because he felt bonds of kinship, but he kept quiet about it, until he, mortally wounded, was at the Mann's feet. He had failed to mention it for it's own good, for if Mann come to know it and yet continued to insist upon the duel, he had committed an outrage, but if he had avoided the battle, evil tongues would call him a coward. The dying Hildeger said, "Brother, forgive me for my silence, and put your coat as a shroud around me, who like you have been breastfed at Drott's bosom," Mann grieved him much. Hildebrand was like him in disposition and faithful devotion. He became Hadding's teacher in all sports.
 
One day  a young man, dressed in finest military accoutrements and riding the most impressive horse came to Hadding's hall. On his shield he bore the hammer and tongs. It was Völund's son Vidga. How he found his way to this unknown countryside is not mentioned, but he did not come  at the Aesir's invitation, nor were they kindly disposed to him, because he belonged to the the Sons of Ivaldi, a family hostile to Borgar's house. He challenged Hadding to a duel and overcame him, but Hildebrand prayed for the life of the defeated, and Vidga, touched by his courage and beauty, offered him a hand in friendship and stayed with him a long while. The warrior's hall, Vidga received the seat closet to Hadding, and they were like foster-brothers.
Hadding is among us! The cry rang out suddenly above eastern Manheim, and he was barely recognizable as Mann and Alveig's son, until throngs of mighty warriors gathered around him and his band of chosen warriors.
 Njörd and Frey would have preferred to preserve the peace and that Od would recognize Hadding as the ruler of the eastern stretches of Manheim. But Od commanded his son Yngvi and his half-brother Jormun to join forces to attack Hadding. Slagfinn's sons, the Gjukings, who also had land in western Manheim, joined with them. So too Vidga Völund's son, who, when he heard that the sons of Slagfinn and Egil bore arms to fight Mann's son, said farewell to him with sadness and regret, and true to his family-duty and his father's [266] command, he placed his sword in the service of Yngvi and Jormun. Those tribes residing in the north and west of Manheim gathered around Ivaldi's descendants; the eastern tribes around Borgar's.
 Even from Jötunheim came reinforcements to both camps. To Jormun arrived his foster father Hafli followed by the bellicose giant-maidens Fenja and Menja, who has been Jormun's playmates on Hafli's farm. With Hadding joined a crowd of Thrymheim's giants, led by his foster-father Vagnhöfdi and his daughter Hardgrep.
 Now the Great War broke out, which, though fought between two noble-clans, has been called a war between brothers, with good reason, for Od was Jormun's half-brother and Jormun was Hadding's. Until then, Midgard had never seen such a feud. Armies so large that they extended over the mountains and valleys, fell together into orderly fylkings on horseback and foot. The spear-shafts of the Fylkings resembled a cornfield, ripe for harvest, and they clashed against each other as breaker against breaker along the sea's long strands. Higher than most, giant forms stood in the crowd. In the wildest throng of weapons, Ivaldi's and Borgar's descendants seemed as mighty and more beautiful as them. On both sides, the  chiefs were accompanied by their skalds, and now for the first time, maidens were seen above the troops, riding in the clouds. Maidens in helmets and armor, who with spear shafts designated for one another heroes, they slected to die by weapons. The skalds saw them descend down into the throng of battle, fetch those chosen by election and bring them, folded in fair arms, to the kingdom of the dead. Behind the armies loomed luminous supernatural beings: the Aesir behind Hadding's fylkings, the Vanir and elves behind Yngvi's and Jormun's. They did not intervene in the exchange of weapons, these luminous ones, for they mutually hesitated to use force against the other, but they came with mind's fervent about the fate of the battle.
 At Hadding's side was Hildebrand and rest were his chosen table-companions, and Vagnhöfdi and Hardgrep, whoc aused the greatest decimation in the opponent's line On the other side, it was Yngvi, Vigda Völund's son, the Gjukungs Gunnar and Högni, and Hafli and the maidens Fenja and Menja. These battlemaidens from Jötunheim ere seen wading through gray-armored [267]  waves of warriors among broken shields and sliced coats of mail. Hardgrep fought beside Hadding, her lover, and in fury felled many a fighter, who made their way toward him. They noticed that Vidga avoided that part of the battlefield, where Vagnhöfdi stood with Hadding's shieldwall. Yngvi's manly deeds were worthy of awe. When he was sprinkled with water as a newborn,  he received the name Asmund from his father, but with the battle-name Yngvi, he is spoken of proudly by the elderly. It was predicted that he would be first among combatants of the same age, and this battlefield proved the prediction true. Ivaldi's clan won a great victory. The Manheim's eastern fylkings were shattered and scattered. Hadding, followed by Hardgrep, escaped into a forest and wandered some time in the wilderness, where he experienced many adventures, until Odin found him and brought him back to his sanctuary.
 In Jötunheim Gymir prepared a new uprising. The time for this appeared well chosen, as the powers were splintered. Messengers went through all Jötun-districts and the thurs-chieftain suggested that the Aesir ally with him against the soverign Vanir and elves. But Odin in everything he does keeps the welfare of the communities of man in mind. A message from him to the Vanir and elves informed them of the impending danger, and when Gymir's immense military force moved toward the Asgard bridge, the Aesir attacked it from behind, and they took flight, when Gymir fell. The Vanir recognized the high-mindedness in the Asa-father's deed. There were strong motives for reconciliation. Sif had her husband among the exiled gods, her son among the reigning. Ull had once seen Thor and was received by him with kind good-natured words, which rearoused his affection for his step-father. Negotiations were initiated by the wise Mimir, and all the power were conciliatory minded — all except Od. Of the elves, Midgard's inhabitants knew that they cannot allow themselves to be reconciled without the greatest difficulty, if they are offended once and become spiteful. It is certain that not Völund this way, but Od too, and it is with grief that ancient seers relate, that the hatred, which ought to have been extinguished in Mann Borgarsson's blood, survived, grew and eclipsed the elf-hero's otherwise brilliant career. The Aesir and Vanir made peace on these conditions: the Aesir should return and Odin, with all paternal and soverign rights restored, should again [267] occupy his place of honor in Valhalla; the Vanir acquitted the Asafather of every charge for his actions, which they disliked, and as a sign of this freedom from responsibility, Njörd shall return to Vanaheim, if a retributive fate threatens Asgard with destruction; Höner went to Vanaheim and remained a hostage there, until fate's judgment became known and active; in Manheim peace shall be restored and Hadding have power over the tribes which from the beginning stood under his war-banner.
 But Mimir, who would convey the peace treaty to Odin, was killed by someone whose name it is soorowful to connect with a misdeed, and that someone sent the wise one's decapitated head to the Aesir. Odin besot it with juices, which protect against decay, and when difficult issues lay before him, he yet perceives, as of yore, true words and good advice from its lips. Od in anger had left Asgard. Since Hadding returned to eastern Manheim with all the gods consent and became king there, Od, without the slightest regard for the desire of the powers, gave Yngvi and Jormun orders more than once to draw up their forces against Mann and Alveig's hated son.
 Finally Odin resolved to punish Od. "I know," he said to him, "that you carved runes on the root of the world-tree to expel over me. I know songs that reflect the effect of such runes back on their author's head. But you were long loved by me, and therefore I let the power of your evil staves work against me rather than let them bounce back on you. But now may you be their prey. "When Od heard these words, he was gripped by an excruciating, head-splitting pain that drove him into the sea, and cast him into its waves. There he looked on with horror as he was transformed into the form of an ottar.* Humiliated and despondant, he dove down into the depths to evade the gaze of the gods. Od hid his fate from Freyja. She was inconsolable over his disappearance, and when he did not return, she flew from Asgard in her falcon-form and sought him in all the world's realms.

*In the source of this story, Book 1 of Saxo's history, Hadding encounters and kills a fabulous sea-monster "of an unknown species", who is under the protection of a supernatural woman. Rydberg identifies the woman as Freyja, and the creature as Od, transformed. Here, Rydberg describes the creature as an otter, most likely based on the tale of Loki and Otter in Snorri's Edda and Od's byname 'Otter' in Hyndluljóð, where Freyja rides him, concealed in the form of a wild boar. 
 
 Yngvi was the king over the tribes on the large island in the northern sea, and all  the surrounding islands and coasts. [269] These tribes were richer in weapons and ships than the others. Yngvi equipped a mighty fleet. Then, an aged seer, who called himself Jalk, came to his court and, with warning words of wisdom, sought to avert renewed war. But to no avail, because a malicious advisor who had nestled himself near Yngvi, overcame the force of Jalk's appeal. Our (fore)fathers did not doubt, that Odin himself was Jalk, and that the evil advisor was Loki.
 Yngvi crossed the sea with his fleet. The ship that he boarded is remembered as the greatest and most splendid built by human hands. He united Jormun's army with his own and moved into the greater Svithjod, as the eastern meadows of Manheim were called. Then the western and the eastern throngs of warriors encamped against one another for a second time, without Hafli in Yngvi's army and Vagnhöfdi in Hadding's. Hafli had set out from his mountain-gard, to participate in the war, but Thor had met on the road and captured him. Vagnhöfdi received Hadding's message late, only one evening before the battle, and he was a long way to the weapon-Thing. But a rider, who called himself Kjalar, met him and convey's him peacefully through the air over water and land, so that when the sun rose and the battle began, he stood in Hadding's shield-wall. Kjalar was the Asa-father, and from this journey came the expression that Odin once pulled the sledge (kälke), because this giant was also called Vagn (wagon) and Kälke (Sledge) by the skalds.
 The sun rose and the armies moved toward each other. Shield-songs were raised on both sides. The one from the west sounded dull and dreadful; the one from the East, fresh and alive. The listening seers perceived that the Asa-father's voice rang with the tones under Hadding's shields. The 'spear-forests' of the west formed deeply elongated squares; the East's looked like wedges with the points toward the enemy. Odin devised and taught Hadding this way to gather, and it was used here for the first time. Many signs appeared and of the result of the battle proved that the gods unanimously favored Mann's and Alveig's son. However, the scales of the battle long remained equal, for the heroism of Yngvi and Vidga Völund's son seemed to defy fate. Fenja and Menja also went forth hard,  but were caught between shields and led in bonds from the the fight. Yngvi broke through [270] Hadding's shield wall and wounded him, but himself fell under Vagnhöfdi's club. Hadding moved forward, searching for Vidga Völund's son, who fled when he saw that there was no way he would be able to avoid exchanging blows with his former friend. He hesitated to retreat and let himself be killed, rather than raise his sword against a foster-brother. When it had spread over the battlefield, that Yngvi had fallen, a white shield was raised, and the warriors of Manheim clasped hands together in peace and solidarity. Hadding's empire in the East was recognized. His descendants and Ivaldi's, in course of time, made many kindred-bands and fused into a single kindred, so that the high-born in Manheim traced their family lines  from both sides.
It happened one hot summer day, as Hadding bathed,  he came into conflict in the water with a large otter and killed it. He soon learned that the dead animal-form concealed a kinsman of the gods, whose murder required atonement. But he refused remedy and was hit by severe afflictions, until he relented and consecrated to Frey, Od's brother and foster-brother, the largest burnt offering ever known. Perhaps it come out, that our fathers from the earliest times considered the killing of otter dangerous and difficult to forgive.
 Od's humiliation and death were counted as atonement for him. Freyja wept no more tears of loss, for now nearest to the gods at Valhalla's table, sits a hero, who used to be called Od and who is now called Hermod, the most handsome of the Einherjar. The Asa-father has adopted him as a son, and in Midgard, it is expected that a seat will be made for in the god's judicial-circle. When one of the chiefs of Yngvi's tribe, chosen on the battlefield, comes to Asgard, Hermod and Bragi meet him and bring him into Valhalla.
 The Great Folk-War in Midgard was followed by a successful time of peace, during which Fenja and Menja, as handmaids of the Danish king Frodi, ground prosperity and goodwill among all men on the wonderful Grotti-mill . One knew that the deplorable end of the gold-thirst brought this happiness.
 During the war, both gods and human heroes made attempts to search the Ironwood for the sword of victory, but in vain.  The Ironwood is filled with sorcery and horrors. [271] A persued doe, who sees the forest's edge, will stop and let the dogs tear her apart rather than that seek refuge there. The dales between the black, storm-whipped, wildly fragmented mountains are filled with difficult-to-cross moors, which overshadow marshes, into which gruesome venonous beasts wallow. The constant wail and howl of the wind in the iron-hard, dagger-like leaves of the thousand year old trees is  heartrending and mindbending. At nighttime, streams of fire descend like water from on high and toxic flames flutter over the flower-less land. Eggther keeps a good watch, and the sword of victory remains where it is until the most remote times.
 But the managed to capture Loki at last, when in salmon-guise he hid himself in Frananger's falls. He was caught with a tool, which he himself devised: the net, and was taken by the gods to the islet Lyngvi, where his son, the Fenris wolf, is bound. In the interior of the island is a deep kettle-dale: the Gnipa-cave, whose bottom is overgrown by light-blocking trees. There Loki is firmly fastened with chains, which shall not break until the World's Ash shudders and Raganarök impends. Skadi mounted a venom-spitting snake above his face. But the gods allowed Sigyn to be with her husband. With never waivering tenderness and patience, she sits by his side, protecting him as well as she can from the snake's nauseating venom  and also seeks to soothe his wounded soul, burning with revenge.

XII.
The Historical Time. Ragnarok.


 Since harmony between the Aesir, Vanir and elves had been fully established, Mjöllnir's hammerhead and shaft could be reassembled, and this wonderful article by Sindri's art is now as strong in Thor's hand as it was in the battle with Hrungnir. Among men, Odin reiterated his ancient good commandments and proclaimed new ones. Midgard's children were taught that in Niflhel are places of punishment for perjurers, murderers, adulterers and practitioner's of Heid's arts. The Asa-father urged the honest and pious to patiently bear the hardships which the Norn make inevitable [272] and unrelievable in this life, and to face their deaths bravely, for manly courage, sincerity and gentility served them well in the judgment, which never dies.  Among the new commandments he gave was this: "it is well to pray and offer, but better yet to not pray than offer too much." He has thereby said that he does not measure devotion by the length of prayers and the size of the offering, and thus redeemed Manheim' tribes from the heavy yoke which sacrifical gods put on other peoples.
 All that has been previously mentioned occurred in the early times, which were a time of learning for the gods. We, who  require tolerence and mercy from them, as long as we live, should find it impolite to hold them to task for thier mistakes, always made in good faith, during this time of learning. But all errors have long range consequences, and the gods cannot overcome the evil with which this world is beset. They are only capable of safeguarding and promoting the good, and it will ultimately honor them, if on that great day of world-judgment the armies of good meet those of ruin with overwhelming force. Therefore, on blessed fields of the underworld and in Asgard's fortresses, are gathered all the strong and noble, who have gone through the gates of death. Faithful and tender women, strong in spirit, become dises, who with mead brewed from the world-tree's best sap, fill drinking horns for the heroic brave men, who assemble in fylkings and engage in the sports, which will be of use on Vigrid's plain.
 Odin was ever seeking wisdpm from the dawn of time. As a youth, he hung on a branch of the wind-blown ash for nine nights, hungering and thirsting, pierced with a spear, given to Odin, given to himself by himself, and gazed down into the deep, prayering for runes and receiving them with tears.  On Valhalla's high-seat, he thinks deep thoughts, and the future's veil has opened for him. Long did he suspect, that the powers which are not able to destroy evil, would be succeeded by those who are able to, and thus he is content that his reign shall end. It was long before his prayers would break Urd's silence, but when the time for her to speak came,  she proved what he had suspected. Valfather came to her where she sat alone up under the Ash's crown, whose leaves are her divining rods (spå-gander), and he laid Valhall's treasures, forged [273] in the days of innocence, in her lap. Then she sang for him the song of Ragnarök, which she afterwards proclaimed to Embla's children, they holy families in Midgard.*

*By this song, Rydberg means Völuspá which opens "A hearing I ask from all holy families, higher and lower, Heimdal's sons." Embla, of course, is the first human woman.

Between Asgard, on one side and the kingdom of the fire-giants on the other, lies, like an island in the sea of air, Vigrid's plain, a hundred rasts long and wide, the land that Odin had given to his and Gunnlöd's son Vidar. Gunnlöd has a castle there, which she inhabits, since she abandoned her father Fjalar's moutain-gard and his kindred among the fire-giants. The quiet son was birthed by grieving mother in a surrounding which was deprived of the joy of song. Vidar is mute and thrives well in his silent country, whose desolate expanses are overgrown with shrubs and high grass, for friendly paths do not run through there.* Thor once wandered over them. It was then that Loki tricked him into visiting the fire-giant Geirröd unarmed. On the way, he stayed with Gunnlöd, who gave him means of defense against ambush. When Ragnarök draws near, it is Gunnlöd, mediates between Asgard and Muspelheim and invites her relatives on both sides of the Vigrid plain to fight their last battle. There too Vidar mounts his horse, when he shall perform his greatest feat and avenge his father.

 *In Fáfnismál 13-14, the vast plain where the battle of Ragnarök takes place is characterized as an island and called Vigrid. Grímnismál 17 states that Vidar's land is named Vidi, and overgrown with "brushwood and high grass." Rydberg equates the battlefield Vigrid with Vidar's home Vidi, which is logical considering that Vidar's sole purpose is to avenge his father's death on Vigrid. The statement about it having "no friendly paths" is a play on the proverb spoken by Odin in Hávamál 119, which states that "brushwood and high grass" to not grow on the path to a good friend's house.  In the Prose Edda, Vidar's mother is named Grid (a name which suggests Vigrid). She is a giantess who provides Thor with a staff, mittens and a belt when he goes otherwise unarmed to Geirrod's hall. Vidar is described as 'silent' in Gylfaginning 30. There is no basis for making him the son of Fjalar's daughter Gunnlöd. Vidar's association with silence and Gunlödd's with the stolen mead of poetry may have suggested this creative synthesis to Rydberg. If Odin and Gunnlöd produced offspring, and there is no evidence that they did, Bragi, the poet-god, would be a logical choice. These ideas are not carried forward into UGM or FG.

 When the world's end approaches, signs bode what is to come. The sun's light and heat are reduced summer after summer, the reins, that the powers had on the winds, break asunder, and they it happens that, in the din of the storm, the Fenris wolf's howl from the Gnipa-cave is heard. Among mankind savagry rises. They deaden their anxiety in debauchery and carnage. The bonds of tradition are loosened: marital fidelity is gone, family-duty forgotten, promises and oaths desecrated. Brothers kill brothers, sisters' sons shed each other's blood.
 From the Ironwood, Hati goes wandering into Midgard. Crowds of monsters follow him and flood over Manheim. The descendants of the Sons of Ivaldi and Mann Borgarsson put up resistance. The land fills with battlefields, and their princely-fortresses run red with the liquor of wounds. The ax, sword and knife ravage everything. Countryside becomes wilderness. The dead are too numerous to bury, and wolves feast in competition with decomposition's Niddhögg on countless corpses.
 [274] Now, the second fimbulwinter arrives. As usual, the sun climbs higher into the heavens after the shortest night of the year and the length of days increase, but the fading light no longer revives earth's vegetation. To the devastation of war comes the devastation of hunger and cold. Man can no longer count years by winters, for time is one endless winter, and not by the phases of the moon either, for Hati in wolf-guise devours the moon.
 The Wold-tree quakes and quivers. The howl of the Fenris wolf over Amsvartnir's gloomy waters is answered from the Ironwood by Angrboda's awful children. On his mound in the enchanted-swamp Eggther plays a battle-song for them on his harp and, plucking the strings with malice, calls on the fire-giant Fjalar.  For the time has come for him to avenge the gods' cruel wrongs. He comes in the guise of a red cock, and, from out of the enchanted  marsh, Angrboda hands Völund's sword. Fjalar flies with it to the gates of the world of fire and surrenders it to his father Surt.
 Yggdrasil shakes from root to crown. Then Naglfar, the anchored ship of the dead, is released into Amsvartnir and drifts towards the island Lyngvi. Then the fetters of Loki and the Fenris wolf burst: then the Gjallarhorn, which rested against the Ash's root, falls with a dull clang. Mimir's sons, who awaited the command of fate, rushed to get the horn into Heimdall's hand. Asgard's guardian raises it high, and its shrill tones permeate creation. The gates of Hel swing wide open, and armies of deadmen are set in motion. Dwarves rush out of their mountain-homes and stand, angst-filled moaning, outside their doors.  Supernatural beings, who harbor within woods, rocks and waters,  fare in confusion over the land.  Huge and terrible, as if the sea and suffering increased his growth and multiplied his strength, Loki climbs out of his dungeon-cave and with the Fenris wolf hurries aboard Naglfar. His brother Helblindi, the evil giant of the deep water, has appeared and follows in the wake of the huge ship, which steers toward the Ironwood, where all of Loki's wolf-offspring shall gather for battle. All over Jötunheim is heard the wildest whimper. The remaining frost-monsters fly down from cold-mountains, what remains of the giants scamper out of their mountian-gards and gather under the banner of Byleist-Hrym, Loki's other brother. [275] In the east, the fire-giants rally behind Surt. Around the world's rim, the enemies of the gods gather in immense hosts. Down under, the sea throws up high billows, for the Midgard Serpent awoke when Yggdrasil trembled and now writhes in jötun-rage. His horrid head already rises above the water.
 In Asgard, calm and silence reigned. Odin has spoken to Mimir's head for the last time, and now the Aesir, Vanir and elves are gathered together at the Thing. The deliberation is not about salvation, but about their positions in the battle. Fylkings of Einherhar sit in the saddle. After the Thing has ended, the gods say thanks to one another, for soon their life together would expire, and in parting, embraced their Asynjor and dises. They then set off for Vigrid. Odin, dressed in his finest armor, sits high in the saddle on Sleipner with Völund's spear Gungnir in hand. The other gods too have adorned themselves most fairly for the death feast. Njörd is required by the will of fate to present himself in Vanaheim, but his heart is with Frey, the son who shares joy and pain with the Aesir, and who resolves to meet Surt and die by the sword of victory to atone for the folly that brought it into giant hands.
 Frigg and the Asynjor, while they await death, look out from Hlidskjalf, in order to have beauty in their eyes in the final moment. The Einherjar gather in square formation in the middle of Vigrid, because attacks are coming from all sides. Northward, the air is made gray by hail and drifting snow over the frost- and storm-giants' advancing masses: they hold their shields overhead and roar their hurricane-force battle-song beneath this clanging canopy.  The East blackens over the Ironwood's monster-troops, led by Loki and Hati; in the South, the glow of sunset flames higher and higher, for Surt and Muspel's sons come there.*

*As further evidence that Rydberg was still actively conducting his investigations in 1884, it should be noted that he refers to the southern world of fire as Muspelheim above and places Muspel's sons alongside Surt in the final battle. This view, derived from Snorri's Edda, is in direct conflict with Völuspá which states that Surt comes from the south, while Muspel's sons arrive with Loki from the east (R49 and R51). In UGM I no. 70,  Rydberg will convincingly argue  that Surt and Suttung's sons are the fire-giants of the south, while Muspel's sons are the inhabitants of Niflhel, who arrive with Loki from the east. This is supported by Lokasenna 42, which states that Muspel's sons ride "over the Myrkwood" which lies in the north and east, when Frey faces Surt. In the Eddic poems, only Muspel's sons are mentioned. The name Muspellsheim is not found anywhere else, and thus may be a creation of Snorri himself, based on a misunderstanding of who "Muspel's sons" actually are. As evidence of this, Snorri uses the term inconsistantly in Gylfaginning, calling the world of fire both Muspell (ch. 4) and Muspellsheim (ch. 5); assigning ownership of the ship Naglfar to "the giant Muspell" (ch. 43); and placing Surt at the head of "Muspel's sons" in the final battle (ch. 51). Snorri's quotations from Völuspá in ch. 51 disagree with his own statements in this regard.


In the west the Midgard Serpent's head rises ever closer to heaven; soon he shall look down with blood red eyes upon Vigrid's plain and open his mouth toward the divine host. From the Earth, Embla's anquished children raise a cry of horror, and in the underworld, all roads roar from the tramp of deadmen storming out.
 The battle opens. Led by gods and elves, the Einherjar burst forth in tight ranks, which here break against the winter-giants' fylkings, there against the monsterous herds of the Ironwood, there [276] again against Muspel's flame-flickering swarms of riders. Everywhere, war and death — mountain-giants, monsters and fire-giants fall under the Einherjar's spears and swords; The Einherjar, thrown, man and horse, to the ground under the giant's clubs, the monster's jaws and the sons of Muspel's gleaming weapons. The war-god Tyr, long one-handed and carrying his sword in his left hand, finds Hati in the clash of weapons. A duel occurs between them. Hati is killed, but the gallant Norse god also groans in the saddle, mortally wounded. Heimdall and Loki, opponents of old, seek out one another. Loki falls, but dies with malicious joy, for Heimdall, pierced in his side, drops down.*

 *In UGM I, no. 41, Rydberg will demonstrate that Heimdall most likely decapitated Loki, whose hair and beard had grown out into noxious horns during his captivity in Niflhel. Loki's severed head then became a weapon, which pierced and killed Heimdall.  In Gylfaginning 51, Snorri states that Loki and Heimdall mutually slay one another, while Skáldskaparmál 15 reads, "a sword is called Heimdall's head; it is said he was struck through with a man's head. …and ever since the head has been called Heimdall's doom." Thus, Rydberg suggests that Heimdall died when he was pierced by Loki's head. In Book 8 of Saxo's History, a giant named "Uthgarlocus" ('Utgard-Loki') found chained in the underworld like Loki himself, displays such horns, making this theory plausible. In addition, this explanation is poetically just, as Loki once lost his head in a bet with the dwarf-smith Brokk, but kept it through trickery with the gods consent. In the Eddic poems, a pattern of decapitated jötuns, beginning with Ymir, emerges.

The Fenris wolf races irresistibly into the troops of Einherjar. The Asa-father rides Sleipner into the sharpest onslaught against him and disappears into the monster's poison-foaming jaws. Vidar, who is near his father, leaps onto his horse and rushes forward; the son of a fire-giantess, he can defy their flames; he thrusts his sword into the wolf and with his hand knotted firmly around the hilt, stand the weapon in the heart of Loki's son. Thor fixes his eyes on the Midgard serpent's head, and has never thrown Mjolnir with such Asa-power as now. The snake plunges down with crushed head, but the victor, poisoned by nid-beast's venom, stumbles nine steps back and falls dead. Frey on his magnificent horse Bloodyhoof storms through the swarms of the Muspel sons toward Surt, who then draws the terrible Völund sword. All the luster that the sun lost, flashes from this blade, when its killing blow hits Frey. Vault of heaven after vault of heaven cracks, all the flames of the world of fire are loosed and whirl through space; the sun turns black; the earth sinks into the boiling sea, the stars fall, fire and fumes envelop everything.
 The Norn, who sees further than Ragnarök, beholds, rising from out of the sea, another land with lovely greenery . The crust of the burnt earth is washed away by the waves, and it is the fair meadows of Mimir' domain with Balder's subterranean Breidablik and pleasure garden of the two children, which now lie in the open day. The children, who will become the parents of a better race of men, look uo with wonder into a higher heaven. So too the eagle that the pleasure garden preserved, and who is now in the bouyant spring air of a wider expanse, flies over waterfalls flowing toward a mountian-enclosed sea.
 The Aesir find one another on the Ida plain. Höner, Vidar, Vali, Thor's sons Modi and Magni gather there around Balder and Höd. They talk about the hearty world-tree, which was able to survive the destruction, about the ancient strange fates and about the long forgotten runes of early times. Among the Ida-plain's flowers, they find that wonderful tafl-game which Asgard possessed in time's morning, laid there by a friendly hand.  The happy days of childhood have returned.
 The earth shall grow crops without sowing, and the virtuous families, which succeeded one another there, gather for everlasting bliss in a gold-covered hall, that shines more gloriously than the sun.
 On the chain of sacred songs, which we inherited from our primeval fathers, the Norn has thus fastened the most expensive of all jewels: the hope that

all flaws may be improved
and Balder come.

 (The End).

  
 
A short essay titled "Til Bevisförelsen" ('Toward the Evidence'), written by the author in 1884, appeared at the end of the Danish translation of this work known as Sejrssvædet (1885). It was the first time that Rydberg attempted to demonstrate the reasoning and evidence behind his presentation of the Germanic mythological epic.  In it, Rydberg sought to prove two of the primary points of his work: the outline of the story about Freyja's husband Oðr, and the identification of the elf-smith Völund of Völundarkviða, with Idunn's kidnapper, the giant Thjazi. Rydberg believed that if these two points were proven, the rest would be automatically accepted. This essay, only published in Danish once, did not appear in Swedish. It became obsolete the following year with the appearance of the first volume of Rydberg's masterwork: Investigations into Germanic Mythology (1886). The essay is of interest, in that it serves as a precursor to his later efforts, and shows the state of his research in 1884, two years before the publication of  UGM I. I hope to present that essay here in the future.		  
   
 

All Rights Reserved
Translated by William P. Reaves ©2010-13

  
 HOME
Viktor Rydberg's Mythological Works
Segerssvårdet Serial
 [1] [2] [3] [4]