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Norse Myths and Legends

Tales of Valhalla

Martyn Whittock

Tales of Valhalla Gönderileri

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Reklam
At the end of this battle the gods, giants and all mankind will have died and all created things will be destroyed by fire.
The events of Ragnarok are inevitable and there is nothing the gods can do to prevent them happening. This is despite the strength of Thor and Odin’s continuous quest for wisdom and knowledge. This presents the gods in a strangely vulnerable light as beings who, despite their supernatural powers, are as bound by the same power of fate (Old Norse urðr) as humans. The only comfort appears to be that the world will start anew – albeit with a new generation of gods.
Ragnarok means the ‘Doom of the gods’ in Old Norse. The Norse word rok (doom), though, has sometimes been confused with the word rokkr (twilight) leading to the alterative ‘Twilight of the gods’ or Götterdämmerung.
After Ragnarök
Then I see a second earth rising from the great sea. It will be green, with waterfalls and eagles flying over it as they hunt for fish within the mountain rivers. And then the Æsir (who survive) will meet on Idavoll plain and talk of what has come to pass: the Midgard serpent and the great events that they have seen. And they will recall the runes from ancient times that Odin the Mighty One once gained. After that they will find the golden gaming pieces, lost in the grass by those who played there in ancient times. Then crops will grow in the fields without being sown and all that is broken will be made whole. Baldr will live once more and he and Hod (once divided by conflict) will live together in peace. Wooden slips that foretell the future shall be made once more and Haenir (who once relied on Mimir for his knowledge) will himself choose the slips to interpret them as the world once again is settled by people.I see a fine hall that is brighter than the sun and has a roof of gold. It will be there – at Gimle – that the lords of this new world will live in happiness and peace. Finally, the great and powerful one will come: he who rules over all. He will come from above to the place where once the gods gave judgements. Then the dragon will come flying; he will rise up from the hills that are dark as when the moon is down. Nidhogg will carry the bodies of the dead on his wings as he flies over the plain. Now I lie down and am silent.
Reklam
Dead men fall... the halls of the gods are red with blood... the Sun succumbs to darkness... the weather is sharp and cruel. A golden-combed cockerel wakes up Odin’s warriors and another one crows beneath the earth in the realm of Hel. Garm, the terrible hound, breaks loose and the ravening one runs free (he who will fight Tyr at Ragnarok). For I have much wisdom and I can see far; I can see the destruction of the god.
The story about the origins of poetry comes close to the beginning of this section of the Prose Edda. This is because it is necessary to explain the original in order to give a background to the wide range of kennings that Snorri sets out later. Kennings were a key part of the tool kit of a skaldic poet, allowing him to demonstrate his skill and understanding of the Pantheon of Norse mythology. The origin of poetry starts with an internal dispute between the Æsir and the Vanir and moves onto a dispute between dwarfs and giants. The ability to compose poetry is presented as being highly prestigious and only the most powerful people in the myth (the Æsir) are able to utilise the mead – both the giants and the dwarfs lack the ability to culturally benefit from it. This gives a particular status to human poets as, even though they are only benefitting from Odin’s cast-offs, they are still able to use it, which is more than the other races are able to do. Poetry is strongly associated with Odin and his continual search for wisdom. However, it is not enough to solve Odin’s troubles with the giants and interestingly there are no accounts of Odin himself actually using kennings.
The Language of Poetry shows Snorri attempting to systematise traditions and to create a single narrative out of the complexity of Old Norse mythology. Snorri discusses the pagan past in relation to the kennings used within skaldic poetry (composed at the courts of Norse rulers), in order to provide the readers of his treatise with an understanding of where the origins of these kennings lay.
By calling Loki the ‘enemy of the gods’, Snorri suggests that, despite being half-god and half-giant, his loyalties lie with his paternal ancestry. This is in contrastto Thor whose mother was a giantess and is always shown as completely loyal to the Æsir. This suggests that it is the father’s blood that determines how the offspring will ultimately behave. The juxtaposition of outer beauty with this inner evil and moral ugliness may also reflect Loki’s mixed parentage.
Reklam
In the centre of the world was formed Asgard, within which the gods and goddesses made their home. Within Asgard, Odin set up his throne, with his wife named Frigg. From them the divine family of the Æsir are descended. That is why Odin is known as ‘All-Father’, for he is father of all gods and men. The first god to be born was Thor, who was extremely strong and could overcome all living things.
From Ymir’s skull they made the sky, which had four corners and under each corner they set a dwarf. Thesedwarfs’ names were: Austri (which means ‘east’), Vestri (which means ‘west’), Nordri (which means ‘north’) and Sudri (which means ‘south’). The stars they made from the sparks of fire that burst from Muspell, the place of fire. The clouds they made from Ymir’s brain.
...aspects of these northern beliefs can still be identified outside Scandinavia: from the English words for ‘thunder’ and ‘Thursday’ (both containing the Old English form of the Old Norse name Thor) and Wednesday (meaning ‘Woden/Odin’s day’), to place names that record the worship of these Scandinavian deities in England, such as the name of the Wansdyke (Woden/Odin’s dyke) earthwork in Wiltshire and the many Grim’s Ditches (formed from the word grima, ‘the masked one’, another name for Woden/Odin).