The Heroes of Asgard: Tales from Scandinavian MythologyKeary, Annie
General
The Heroes of Asgard: Tales from Scandinavian Mythology
Keary, Annie
Mythology, Norse -- Juvenile literature
Simrock points out clearly the likenesses between the gods--a very
few of them we touch upon. Let us begin, by putting in a line for
ourselves to look at, Odin, Tyr, Heimdall, Thor, Frey, and Baldur.
Odin--air, stormy and serene, the heavens with sun, moon and stars;
Odin the wanderer; Odin on Air-throne, seeing over the whole world;
Odin, the Summer, as Odur; the patron of battles, the chooser of the
slain, the pledger of one eye, drinking from Mimer's horn. Tyr, the
shining, the warrior god, the pledger of one hand. Heimdall, as
Irmin, the shining, a dweller upon heavenly mountains, who sees and
hears far off, who wanders over the earth, blows his golden horn.
Thor, whose dwelling is the heavens; god of the storm, of
cultivation; the warrior, the chooser of the slain; for it is said
that whilst Odin had all the Jarls that fell in battle, Thor claimed
the Thralls for his share. Frey, the Summer, god of the fruitful
year, the pledger of his sword. It is supposed that Frey was once the
husband of Freyja, and that it was their separation which founded the
myth of Freyja's wanderings and tears; this would connect him with
Odur or Odin. Baldur, Summer, or Sun god, pledges his life to the
under-world. In leaving the earth to weep for him, he recalls the
desertion of Freyja and her tears. Turning to the goddesses, we see
Jörd or the earth spoken of as a wife of Odin; Rind, the winterly
earth; Freyja, so nearly joined to Frigg, the summerly earth; Idūna,
the spring of the earth; Gerda, also the winterly earth; Hela, the
under-world. What strikes us through all this is that it would be
natural for the early earth dwellers first to worship the heavens
with all that they contain and suggest, whilst the action of heavenly
influences upon the earth would reveal her to them as the great
mother, stern, cold, tender, fruitful, consuming, embosoming,
reproducing all in one. There are many ways in which gods and
goddesses multiply. In the first place Gylfis will begin to ask
questions and pry into first causes and ways and means of existence,
whence would easily arise a division of nature into elementary
powers, air, water, fire, to say nothing of the giants and chaotic
regions which would suggest themselves. One side or another of life
must always be uppermost, and nature in its differences grows into
new personalities; from nature myths again moral ones easily develop,
and new variations meet the new requirements. Again, tribe joins
tribe and pantheons mingle, the chief god of one race becoming the
son, say, or the brother, of another tribe's chief god, and so on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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