Thrym (from þruma) is the noisy, thundering imitator of Thor. While the thunder sleeps, the giant forces of nature howl and rage in the storms and winds, they have stolen the hammer from Thor. Thor goes and brings his hammer back and the storms are made to cease. It has been suggested that Thor is the impersonation of truth, and the Younger Edda speaks of him as one never having yet uttered an UNTRUTH. It has also been claimed that the name of his realm Thrud-vang contains the same root as our English word truth, but this we leave for the reader to examine for himself. Before the Norsemen learned to make the sign of the cross, they made the sign of the hammer upon themselves and upon other things that they thereby wished to secure against evil influences.
Now let us glance at the last appearance of Thor on the stage of this world. The Norse king, Olaf the saint, was eagerly pursuing his work of Christian reform in Norway, and we find him sailing with fit escort along the western shore of that county from haven to haven, dispensing justice or doing other royal work. On leaving a certain haven, it is found that a stranger of grave eyes and aspect, with red beard and of a robust and stately figure, has stepped in. The courtiers address him; his answers surprise by their pertinency and depth. At length he is brought to the king. The strangers conversation here is not less remarkable, as they sail along the beautiful shore; but after awhile he addresses King Olaf thus: Yes, King Olaf, it is all beautiful, with the sun shining on it there; green, fruitful, a right fair home for you; and many a sore day had Thor, many a wild fight with the mountain giants, before he could make it so. And now you seem minded to put away Thor. King Olaf, have a care! said the stranger, knitting his brows; and when they looked again he was nowhere to be found. This is the last myth of Thor, a protest against the advance of Christianity, no doubt reproachfully set forth by some conservative pagan.[71]
CHAPTER V.
VIDAR.
On the way to Geirrod (see p. 310) we noticed that Thor visited the hag Grid, and she lent him three things, counterparts of Thor’s own treasures, her belt of strength, iron gloves and staff. Grid belongs to the race of giants; she dwells in the wild, unsubdued nature, but is not hostile toward the gods. Her belt, gloves and staff, her name, the place where she dwells between Asgard and Jotunheim, her ability to give Thor information about Geirrod, all give evidence of her wild and powerful character.
She is the mother of Vidar, who is a son of Odin. Hence we have here, as in the case of Tyr, a connecting link between the giants and asas. Through Tyr the gods are related to the raging sea, through Vidar to the wild desert and the forests. Vidar is surnamed the Silent. He is almost as strong as Thor himself, and the gods place great reliance on him in all critical conjunctures. He is the brother of the gods. He has an iron shoe; it is a thick shoe, of which it is said that material has been gathered for it through all ages. It is made of the scraps of leather that have have been cut off from the toes and heels in cutting patterns for shoes. These pieces must therefore be thrown away by the shoemaker who desires to render assistance to the gods. He is present at Æger’s feast, where Odin says to him:
His realm is thus described in the Elder Edda:
He avenges his father in the final catastrophe, in Ragnarok; for when the Fenris-wolf has swallowed Odin, Vidar advances, and setting his foot on the monster’s lower jaw he seizes the other with his hand, and thus tears and rends him till he dies. It is now his shoe does him such excellent service. After the universe has been regenerated
Vidar’s name (from viðr, a forest) indicates that he is the god of the primeval, impenetrable forest, where neither the sound of the ax nor the voice of man was ever heard; and hence he is also most fittingly surnamed the Silent God. Vidar is, then, imperishable and incorruptible nature represented as an immense indestructible forest, with the iron trunks of the trees rearing their dense and lofty tops toward the clouds. Who has ever entered a thick and pathless forest, wandered about in its huge shadows and lost himself in its solemn darkness, without feeling deeply sensible to the loftiness of the idea that underlies Vidar’s character. Vidar is the Greek Pan, the representative of incorruptible nature. He is not the ruler of the peaceful grove near the abode of the gods, where Idun dwells, but of the great and wild primeval forest, that man never yet entered. The idea of Vidar’s woods is imperishableness, while that of Idun’s grove is the constant renovation and rejuvenation of the life of the gods. The gods and all the work of their hands shall perish, and it is nowhere stated that Idun survives Ragnarok. Odin himself perishes, and with him all his labor and care for man; but nature does not perish. If that should be entirely destroyed, then it could not be regenerated. If matter should perish, where would then the spirit take its dwelling? If Vidar did not exist, where would Vale be? The glory of the world, the development that has taken place, and the spirit revealed in it, perish; but not Vidar, for he is the imperishable, wild, original nature, the eternal matter, which reveals its force to, but is not comprehended by, man; a force which man sees and reveres, without venturing an explanation; but when all the works of man are destroyed by consuming flames, this force of eternal matter will be revealed with increased splendor.
Thus we find the power and strength of the gods expressed in two myths, in Thor and in Vidar, both sons of Odin, who is, as the reader knows, the father of all the gods. Thor is the thundering, noisy, crushing, but withal beneficent, god; Vidar is silent, dwells far away from, and exercises no influence upon, the works of man, except as he inspires a profound awe and reverence. Thor is the visible, in their manifestations wonderful, constantly returning and all-preserving, workings of nature; Vidar is the quiet, secretly working, hidden and self-supporting imperishableness. Popularity, fame, position, influence, wealth,—all that makes so much stir and bustle in the world—shall perish; but the quiet working of the soul, the honest pursuit of knowledge, the careful secret development of the powers of the human mind, shall live forever. And Vidar and Vale (mind and knowledge) shall together inhabit the sacred dwellings of the gods, when the waves of time have ceased to roll: Vidar as the god of imperishable matter, Vale as the god of eternal light (spirit) that shines upon it.
CHAPTER VI.
THE VANS.
SECTION I. NJORD AND SKADE.
Two opposite elements in nature are united in order to produce life. The opposite elements are expressed in the mythology by the terms asas and vans. In our language and mode of expression that would mean the solid and the liquid, the masculine and the feminine. Water, the par excellence representative of liquids, may symbolize various ideas. It may typify sorrow; it then manifests itself in tears, and sorrow is fleeting as the flowing tears. Water may symbolize gladness, happiness, and blessings, that flow in gushing streams along the pathway of life; and it may also be used as the symbol of innocence, purity, and wealth. These ideas may be regarded as a general interpretation of the vans, and we find them reflected in the triune vana-deity; Njord with his children Frey and Freyja, who rise from the sea and unite themselves with the asa-divinity in heaven and on earth.
Njord is called Vanagod, and he dwells in the heavenly region called Noatun. He rules over the winds and checks the fury of the sea and of fire, and is therefore invoked by seafarers and fishermen. He is so wealthy that he can give possessions and treasures to those who call on him for them. Yet Njord is not of the lineage of the asas, for he was born and bred in Vanaheim. But the vans gave him as hostage to the asas, receiving from them in his stead Hœner. By this means peace was reëstablished between the asas and vans. (See Part II, Chap. 1, Sec. 13.)
Njord took to wife Skade, the daughter of the giant Thjasse.[73] She preferred dwelling in the abode formerly belonging to her father, which is situated among rocky mountains in the region called Thrymheim, but Njord loved to reside near the sea. They at last agreed that they should pass together nine nights in Thrymheim and then three in Noatun. But one day when Njord came back from the mountains to Noatun, he thus sang:
To which Skade sang in reply:
Skade then returned to the rocky mountains and dwelt in Thrymheim. There fastening on her skees and taking her bow she passes her time in the chase of wild beasts, and is called Andre-dis (Skee-goddess). Thus it is said:
Njord is the god of the sea; that is to say, of that part of the sea which is immediately connected with the earth, that part of the sea which is made serviceable to man, where fishing and commerce carried on. His dwelling is Noatun, which means land of ships (nór, ship; tún, yard, place). Njord’s realm is bounded on the one side by the earth, the land, and on the other by the raging ocean, where Æger with his daughters reigns. Njord’s wife is Skade (harm), the wild mountain stream, which plunges down from the high rocks, where she prefers to dwell, and pours herself into the sea. Her dwelling is Thrymheim, the roaring home, at the thundering waterfall. Taken as a whole, the myth is very clear and simple.
The compromise between Njord and Skate, to dwell nine nights in Thrymheim (home of uproar, storms) and three nights in Noatun, of course has reference to the severe northern latitudes, where rough weather and wintry storms prevail during the greater part of the year.
SECTION II. ÆGER AND RAN.
These do not belong to the vana-divinities, but are given here in order to have the divinities of the sea in one place. As Njord is the mild, beneficent sea near the shore, so Æger is the wild, turbulent, raging sea far from the land, where fishing and navigation cannot well be carried on; the great ocean, and yet bordering on the confines of then asas. Hence Æger’s twofold nature; he is a giant, but still has intercourse with the gods. Thus in Mimer, Æger and Njord, we have the whole ocean represented, from its origin, Mimer, to its last stage of development, to Njord, in whom, as a beneficent divinity, it unites itself with the gods; that is to say, blesses and serves the enterprises of men.
Æger visits the gods, and the latter visit him in return; and it was once when the gods visited him that his brewing-kettle was found too small, so that Thor had to go to the giant Hymer and borrow a larger one. In Æger’s hall the bright gold was used instead of fire, and there the ale passed around spontaneously. Ran is his wife. She has a net, in which she catches those who venture out upon the sea. Æger and Ran have nine daughters, the waves. Loke once borrowed Ran’s net, to catch the dwarf Andvare, who in the guise of a fish dwelt in a waterfall. With her hand she is able to hold the ships fast. It was a prevailing opinion among the ancient Norsemen that they who perished at sea came to Ran; for Fridthjof, who with his companions was in danger of being wrecked, talks about his having to rest on Ran’s couch instead of Ingeborg’s, and as it was not good to come empty-handed to the halls of Ran and Æger, he divided a ring of gold between himself and his men.
Thus Tegner has it in Fridthjof at Sea:
Then says Fridthjof:
The storm continues:
Then says Fridthjof again:
How eager Ran is to capture those who venture out upon her domain is also illustrated in another part of Fridthjof’s Saga, where King Ring and his queen Ingeborg ride over the ice on the lake to a banquet. Fridthjof went along on skates. Thus Tegner again:
But, fortunately, Fridthjof was not far away. He came to their rescue, and
Of Æger’s and Ran’s daughters, the waves, it is said that they congregate in large numbers according to the will of their father. They have pale locks and white veils; they are seldom mild in their disposition toward men; they are called billows or surges, and are always awake when the wind blows. They lash the sounding shores, and angrily rage and break around the holms;[74] they have a hard bed (stones and rocks), and seldom play in calm weather. The names of the daughters of Æger and Ran represent the waves in their various magnitudes and appearances. Thus Himinglœfa, the sky-clear; Duva, the diver; Blodughadda, the bloody- or purple-haired; Hefring, the swelling; Bylgja, billow; Kolga, raging sea, etc.
These myths are very simple and need no extended explanations. Æger is the Anglo-Saxon eagor, the sea. He is also called Hler, the shelterer (hlé, Anglo-Saxon hleo, Danish Læ, English lee), and Gymer, the concealing (geyma, Anglo-Saxon gyman, Norse gjemme, to conceal, to keep). These names express the sea in its uproar, in its calmness, and as the covering of the deep. The name of his wife, Ran (robbery or the robbing; rœna, to plunder), denotes the sea as craving its sacrifice of human life and of treasures. It is a common expression in Norseland that the sea brews and seethes, and this at once suggests Æger’s kettles. The foaming ale needs no butler but passes itself around, and there is plenty of it. That Æger, when visited by the gods, illuminated his hall with shining gold, refers of course to the phosphorescent light of the sea (Icelandic marelldr, Norse morild). Those who are familiar with the sea cannot fail to have seen the sparks of fire that apparently fly from it when its surface is disturbed in the dark. Thus the servants of Æger, Elde and Funfeng (both words meaning fire), are properly called excellent firemen. The relation between Njord and Æger seems to be the same as between Okeanos, the great water encircling the earth, and Pontus, the Mediterranean, within the confines of the earth.
Some of the old Norse heroes are represented as possessing a terrifying helmet, Æger’s helmet (gishjálmr); and thus, as Odin’s golden helmet is the beaming sky, and as the dwarfs cover themselves with a helmet of fog, so Æger wears on his brow a helmet made of dense darkness and heaven-reaching, terrifying breakers.
Æger and his family, it is certain, did not belong among the asas, yet they were regarded, like them, as mighty beings, whose friendship was sought by the gods themselves; and England, that proud mistress of the sea, is the reflection of the myth of Æger, showing what grand results are achieved historically, when human enterprise and heroism enter into friendly relations with the sea, making it serve the advancement of civilization,—when the gods go to Æger’s hall to banquet.
SECTION III. FREY.
Njord had two children—a son Frey and a daughter Freyju, both fair and mighty. Frey is one of the most celebrated of the gods. He presides over rain and sunshine and all the fruits of the earth, and should be invoked to obtain good harvests, and also for peace. He moreover dispenses wealth among men. He is called van and vanagod, yeargod and goods-giver (fégjafi). He owns the ship Skidbladner and also Goldenbristle (gullinbursti) or Slidrugtanne (the sharp-toothed), a boar with golden bristles, with which he rides as folk-ruler to Odin’s hall. In time’s morning, when he was yet a child, the gods gave him Alfheim (home of elves) as a present.
Of Frey’s ship Skidbladner, we have before seen (see p. 220) how it was made by the dwarfs, sons of Ivald, and presented to Frey. It was so large that all the gods with their weapons and war stores could find room on board it. As soon as the sails are set a favorable breeze arises and carries it to its place of destination, and it is made of so many pieces, and with so much skill, that when it is not wanted for a voyage Frey may fold it together like a piece of cloth and put it into his pocket.
Njord had the consolation, when he was sent as hostage to the gods, that he begat a son whom no one hates, but who is the best among the gods. Thus the Elder Edda, in Æger’s banquet to the gods, where Loke also was present:
To which Loke makes reply:
But Tyr defends Frey:
Frey has a servant by name Bygver, who responds to Loke:
Loke then turns upon Bygver, and calls him a little impertinent thing, that always hangs about Frey’s ears and cries under the millstone (can the reader help thinking at this moment of Robert Burns’ famous poem, John Barleycorn?); a good-for-nothing fellow, who never would divide good with men, and when the heroes fought they could not find him, for he was concealed in the straw of the bed.
Frey’s maid-servant is Beyla, Bygver’s wife, whom Loke calls the ugliest and filthiest hag that can be found among the offspring of the gods. Of course Loke exaggerates and uses abusive language, but it was in truth a sorry thing for Frey that he traded his sword away, for it is to this fact he owes his defeat when he encounters Surt in Ragnarok.
Frey’s wife was Gerd, a daughter of Gymer, and their son was Fjolner. Frey was worshiped throughout the northern countries. In the common formula of the oath his name was put first: Hjálpi mér svá Freyr ok Njörðr ok hinn almáttki ás! that is, So help me Frey and Njord and the almighty Asa (Odin). On Jul-eve (Christmas eve) it was customary to lead out a boar, which was consecrated to Frey, and which was called the atonement boar. On this the persons present laid their hands and made solemn vows; and at the feast, where the flesh of the sacrificed animal was eaten by the assembled guests, there was drunk, among other horns, a horn to Njord and Frey for prosperous seasons and for peace.
Everything about Frey goes to show that he is the god of the earth’s fruitfulness. The sea, Njord, rises as vapor and descends in rain upon the land, making it fruitful. There has been much dispute about the etymological meaning of the word Frey. Finn Magnússon derives it from frœ, Norse frö, meaning seed. Grimm, on the other hand, thinks the fundamental idea is mildness, gladness (compare German froh, Norse fryd). A derived meaning of the word is man, masculine of Freyja (German frau), meaning woman.
SECTION IV. FREY AND GERD.
Frey had one day placed himself in Hlidskjalf, and looked out upon all the worlds. He also saw Jotunheim, and perceived a large and stately mansion which a maid was going to enter, and as she raised the latch of the door so great a radiancy was thrown from her hand, that the air and waters and all worlds were illuminated by it. It was Gerd, a daughter of the giant Gymer and Aurboda, relatives of Thjasse. At this sight Frey, as a just punishment for his audacity in mounting on that sacred throne, was struck with sudden sadness, so that on his return home he could neither speak nor sleep nor drink, nor did any one dare to inquire the cause of his affliction. Frey’s messenger was named Skirner. Njord sent for him and requested of him, as did also Skade, that he should ask Frey why he thus refused to speak to any one.
Thus the Elder Edda, in the lay of Skirner:
Reluctantly Skirner then proceeded to Frey, and thus addressed him:
Frey, having thus given away his sword, found himself without arms when he on another occasion fought with Bele, and hence it was that he slew him with a stag’s antlers. This combat was, however, a trifling affair, for Frey could have killed him with a blow of his fist, had he felt inclined; but the time will come when the sons of Muspel will sally forth to the fight in Ragnarok, and then indeed will Frey truly regret having parted with his falchion. Having obtained the horse and sword, Skirner set out on his journey, and thus he addressed his horse: