Yggdrasil

In the Shadow of Yggdrasil

The old Nordic beliefs are deeply rooted in our Nordic lands. The old gods of the Viking people still lives in the names of the days, in the name of places. Some times it seems to be so near, near enough to touch it, some times so near that we can see it. But that’s all an illusion. All that is left of the old pagan religion is fragments. If we seek to know something about it, we are left with a big puzzle. A puzzle that is missing several big pieces, and we have only our imagination to help us fill the holes. So what I have written down here is not a complete picture, its just a sketch. I am going to try and paint it as clear as possible, but many things are left in the dark hole of oblivion. I am going to try and paint you a picture of those called asar and vaner.

Creation of the World
In the ageing morning,
when Ymer lived,
was not sand, not lake,
not cool waves;
Earth was not, not up to the heavens;
a gaping swallow was,
but grass no where.

This is how Voluspá is described: the ancient darkness, how it was before the world was created. The gaping swallow, this emptiness, was called Ginnungagap, and was surrounded by two realms: To the south was Muspelheim, the realm of fire where eternal fires burned. To the north was Nifelheim, where the mists gathered and where the rivers Elivågor flowed from the spring of Hvergelmer. These rivers then froze against the abyss of Ginnungagap and ice formations spread up into the emptiness. But casual flames from the fires in Muspelheim found their way to Nifelheims ice and melted the edges. The mixture of ice and fire created then something very strange, a huge sleeping entity, a massive giant, called Ymer and a hornless cow, the life giving Audhumbla, from who’s utters four rivers of milk flowed. It is a strange and weird scene the old stories tell us. A giant sleeping man, in the emptiness between fire and ice, who lives of the milk from a huge cow. Perhaps they are so long alone, but perhaps there are an entity that is even older then them. Stories of the end of the world tell of Surt, the fire giant, he who will set the world on fire with his sword when all else is dead and silent. Sometimes he is called the Ruler of Muspelheim and maybe, just maybe, he was there before Ymer and Audhumbla. There are even those who say that Surt created the cow Audhmbla to feed Ymer. In any case, the giant and the cow lives like this for a time, perhaps for eons, perhaps just for a moment. Ymer sleeping and drinking from the milk and Audhumbla licking the frost from salty stones. Finally Ymers left leg spawns a son with his right and shortly after that grows a man and a woman out from his armpits! These three children is the ancient fathers and mothers of rimtursarna: the frost giants. And from these frost giants spawned the rest of the worlds giants. Meanwhile have Audhumbla hade a deliverance just as weird as Ymer. Under three days she has licked from the stones a man. This is Bure, a strong and beautiful youngster, and with time he gains a son, who the mother was no one longer remembers, perhaps she no never existed. He gets the name Bor, and this Bor is the ancient father for his sons is Oden, Vile and Ve; the first of the asa.

Now the world is populated, but the conditions are still chaotic. The frost giants have multiplied into great numbers, and only three asar is roaming the world ond besides from the realms of fire and cold is still Ginnungagap, the great emptiness. Maybe the ancient Ymer still sleeps. In that case he never got to the world except for in his dreams, because now the sons of Bor, Oden Vlie and Ve throws themselves over him and slays him. In this, hordes of rimtursar dies in the enormous flood of Ymers blood. This troubles not the three brothers. Of the dead creature they create instead a new world. Ymers blood becomes seas, his legs becomes mountains, his skull the sky and his brain is spread across this sky to make clouds. Four dwarfs is placed in the four corners of the world to carry the sky and from the dead ones eyebrows are great walls created to protect the world from the giants. This world, contained within Ymers beaten corpse, is given the name Midgård and the gods created humans to live in it. They also created Time and they put two children - a girl called Sol (sun) and a boy called Måne (moon) - to pull two enormous carriages, with two of the greatest lights, over the world. The two must pull the carriages for their lives, for two large wolves is after them, Sköll after Sol and Hate after Måne, and they are constantly threatened to be eaten alive by them. And so was the world created. But it wasn’t quite that easy. Creation myth explains a part of how the human world came to be, but it leaves much in the shadows. For there is more then Midgård in the old Nordic world, much more.

Construction of the World
An ash I know stand,
Yggdrasil be its name,
an enormous tree, covered
by the white sand.

Yggdrasil is the worldtree, a giant ash tree which rises somewhere and stretches somewhere. It is not easy to say where its place is in the universe, other then it is the centre. Yggdrasil is the centre of the world, perhaps it stands in the middle of Midgård, with roots out in the other worlds, perhaps it is as with Voluspá, that it holds nine worlds in its branches, maybe it is as it’s said in other places, that it’s crown covers all the known land.
But if Yggdrasil is the centre, it is very rare that it has any affect on the lives of gods and humans. Most likely was it so that Oden, as witchery and the god of the dead, hung himself in the tree, pierced by his own spear to seek wisdom. For nine days and nine nights he hung before the power of the runes was given to him. Besides this lonely event, Yggdrasil is invisible in the old stories. The tree seems to be standing outside of the worlds, or it is so enormous and big that it is not possible to see it. Maybe that’s why it is always present. But Yggdrasil presses into the known world in three places. Three roots, that sucks water from three springs, seeks their way through three different worlds:
The most important root is that at Urdarbrunnen. It is in Asgård, the gods realm and here the gods travel when they are to hold a meeting. The road there is long and several rivers must be crossed. At the well ( Urdarbrunnen ) lives three women, three women of destiny: Nornorna. These three are called Urd, Verdandi and Skuld and they keep Yggdrasil alive by poring water and white mud over the root. Nornorna also makes the life threads for all living and they rule over birth and death. At the same time as they give life, they throw the three-parted shadow of destiny over the Vikings. No one escapes Nornornas judgement.
The second root finds its way down to Jotunheim, realm of the giants. Under it is Mimers Brunn ( Mimers Well ), with water that gives much wisdom, so much that Oden once gave one of his eyes in pledge to drink from it. Next to the well lives Mimer. He is an all knowing giant, that drinks from the well each day. A long time ago - in a conflict with vanerna, some say - he was decapitated. His body is now long since gone, but the head is kept alive by magic and Oden often seeks its advice.
The last root of Yggdrasil goes down to the realm of the dead, to the spring of Hvergelmer and now things really gets complicated. Hel is traditionally the realm of the unredeemed dead. Here rules a monstrous woman with the same name as the realm, Hel, one of Loke’s three terrible children that he hade with the giantess Angerboda. But Hel seems to have made her kingdom in the land of mist and cold: Nifelheim, for Hvergelmer is as know located there. In that case goes Yggdrasils roots outside of the new world and in to the old who was there before creation. By Hvergelmer, in Hel, lies a gigantic snake, or dragon, called Nidhögg. This snake/dragon gnaws and sucks the bones and bodies of the dead. But he is most likely the same reptile who supposedly slowly bites through Yggdrasils root and one day will cut it down. Nidhögg rests like a slimy and spiteful threat under the world, while he gnaws upon life it self.

Now lets leave the roots of the tree of the world and look at the rest of tree, just to make things even more complicated. For there live creatures inside Yggdrasil, outside of the known worlds. Deer’s are constantly eating of its leaves and in the top sits a big eagle, with a hawk in its forhead, who’s wings create winds and storms when it moves them. Between this eagle and snake at the roots of the tree is a constant hostility and one more entity, a squirrel by the name of Ratatosk, running up and down the tree to mediate oaths and curses between them. These creatures are so mystified that no story tells how they have come to be and nowhere is there mentioned if, god or man, has ever meet these strange animals.

There is another realm that I have not spoken of, Alvheim, where elves lives; beyond Asgård: three mighty skies of which little is known; and of course Muspelheim, who still remains, where Surt waits for Armageddon with his legions of fire giants.
You can not, how ever, believe that all these world are closely bound in Yggdrasils branches. The roads between them are long and dangerous. They go ove large frozen plains and high snow covered mountains. The many journeys Tor takes to Jotunheim are always hard and rich on adventures. The road between Midgård and Asgård goes over the rainbowbridge Bifrost who always stand under the protection of a mystic and powerful figure Heimdall. On other places leads similar passages to other worlds. Gjallarbron; the echoing bridge, stretched as a thin line over a bottomless cliff that leads down to Hel. Once there enormous gates stop you, called Helgrind, Nagrind and Valgrind. The world of the Nordic mythology is in other words, very big.
As we have already seen there are a number of beings that populate Yggdrasils many worlds: the giants of Jotunheim, their cousins the giants of fire and rimtursarna, the mysterious elves in Alvheim and the human in Midgård. But there is also the gods, the entities that the Vikings turned their prayers to. These god are divided into two “families”: asa and vaner.

Asa
Asa meets
on Idavallen,
timbered high
temple and altar

Asa was the Vikings foremost gods. They were the lawmen, the upholders of society and the masters gods. They were big in physics and very strong, lived long, but they where not immortal, for it was decided long before humans that they would died with there world.
In many ways they where much like the vkings in Midgård; they drank a lot, where laud and often ended up in fights because of their pride. You can not be absolutely sure of their numbers, twelve say the most, but some say twice that. Here I will at least tell you of some of the most important.
Tor was the strong one among the asa, wide as a barn door and big as a house he rode his carriage across the sky, pulled by to goats. He was the god of thunder and lightning and the sound of his carriage when he travelled over Midgård was the sound of distant thunder. And with his hammer, Mjölner, he fought the giants and always left the battle field in victory.
But Tor was also the humans and societies protector. Images of his hammer were used by the Vikings as an enchanting protection against evil and harm. With the hammer you blessed marriage and the hammer were lifted over the newborn child. Just as Tor protected Asgård from the barbaric giants, he held a hand over the peoples farms and gave them security against all kinds of danger and enemies.
Tyr was once in ancient time the greatest war god in the north. He ruled the sky with his spear in his hand. But with time the Vikings forgot about him for another - Oden - and Tyr was left behind. He now carries a sword and one of his hands was lost to the monster wolf Fenrisulven. The story tells that the asa hade decided to capture the wolf before it grew to big and threatened them all. Tyr, who was the keeper for the wolf, put his hand in its mouth to calm it down while the other gods put it in chains. When then Fenrisulven tried to get out of its chain prison and found that he couldn’t get anywhere, he prompt bit of Tyr’s hand.
But completely forgotten was not Tyr’s power in the fight. The Vikings often carved his rune upon their swords. They called it for victory rune and weapons that hade the rune always came out from a battle in victory.
Oden was the gods king, the mighty father who sat on the throne in Valhall. He was the wises of all gods and his ravens Hugin and Munin flew every morning out and brought in the evenings home news of what hade happened in the world to their master. Oden travelled often down to the humans in disguise to give the people advise , and intervened in their affairs. He was a master of magic. But he was also battle, insanity and the dead warrior god. And a lot more, I will return to Oden a little later.
Loke didn’t really belong to the asa race. His origin is vague and doubtful, possibly he is of giant kind, but he joins to the asa as Odins blood brother. Loke is the cunning prankster. He pulls pranks on everything and everyone and so puts himself very often in difficult positions that require all his cunnings to get out of. On the greater whole is Loke to much help to the asa, but in the end he will be their demise. Through cunning deception he makes the blind god Höder kill the light god Balder and starts a chain reaction of events that will eventually lead to Ragnarök (Armageddon).

Vaner
In Vanaheim he was created
of some powers
and given as hostage to the gods;
in the ancients end
shall he again come
home to the wise vaner.

Somewhere in the ancient darkness stood giant battles between two powerful asa and another mighty god kind: Vaner. Exactly who these vaner is not clear and of their birth place nothing is known. Perhaps it is in Vanaheim and its possible that it is located somewhere among the branches of Yggdrasil - perhaps its one of the nine worlds spoken of in Voluspá. But it might as well be a place in Donland in southern Russia.
The gods Vaner doesn’t really belong in the world of asa. Maybe they have immigrated from the south, maybe they were here long before Tor and Oden encouraged mankind to raise temples in their honour. Vaner is also very much unlike the asa as an entity. They stand with both feet on the ground with their hearts in the country side and brought forth the powerful sejden.
Freja is one of these vaner. She is sometimes called their high priestess. And together with her brother Frej and her father Njord she was a triad of gods who stayed with the asa gods after a truce hade been settled between asa and vaner. Freja was the goddess of magic - shape shifter with the eagles harbour, who controlled sejden: the old Nordic female shamanism. Sejden possessed great powers and was practiced by wandering women, called völvor. They tell of the future, sought for good fortune, but could also strike people with terrible destruction. There was in the land of the Vikings those who tended to these völvor, but this was considered something perverted and very unmanly.
Besides from this Freja was also the protector of fertility and this was something she sheared with the other vaner. For vaner is in their foundation all gods of fertility. They have power over the fields growth, the nature and that life that sprout in women’s womb. Wagons with vaner’s treasures, food basically, was pulled over the Nordic lands and where sacrificed to them for good harvest.
Vaner was almost like some kind of nature entity - spirits that ruled all that grew. They cared little of ethic, moral and laws, things that the asa gods created and with held. Their instinct was often under no control and their lust usually took over. Perhaps they are Mother Earth, she who was called Nerthus.
Some say that Njord, he who was the god of the sea, was once of female sex and were then called Nerthus.
Anyway, vaner stood close to people. While asar was the chiefs and lords the farmers turned to Frej and Freja.

Ragnarök

If the Vikings mythology world seems grand and strange, its demise will be equally worthy of some thoughts.
Ragnarök, gods twilight, is a very well produced vision of total destruction of all things. First you might consider the many different seed’s that have been planted in the world’s construction. There is a bunch of bound beasts that will be let loose in this, the ultimate end: Fenrisulven’s chains will burst and his brother the Midgård serpent shall let go of his grip of his tail and disgorge venom over the world. The guardian of the realm of the dead, the wolfdog Garm shall tear himself from his prison. Things that have been in process since the dawn of time will be complete: Nidhöggs gnawing on the root of Yggdrasil will finally make the giant tree to come down, Sköll and Hate will finally consume Sol and Måne.
The first thing that will happen is war. Everybody will fight everybody, the human will loose their bonds. Then comes Fimbulvintern, a hard and cold winter that will last for three years without summer in between. Then will three roosters call in three worlds: Gyllenkamme in Asgård, Fjalar in Jutonheim and one nameless black rooster deep down in Hel.
And then all hell breaks loose: The stars will fall from their places, mountains will shake and crumble, the ash tree Yggdrasil will fall and the sea rise to consume the earth. The giants will poor over Bifrost, who will collapse under their weight and the final battle, where gods as well as giants will die is on the enormous field of Vigrid. The only one left is Surt, who will set the world on fire with his sword before the sea swallows everything.
The Nordic mythology gives however some hope of a new life after the end. A new world will rise from the ashes, a new seed from the world tree will grow. But for the gods, and humans, Ragnarök is the end. The threat of Armageddon is always present in the Vikings world, the shadow of the un-escapable judgement, the final demise that no one can avoid, lies just as heavy and dark over their heads as the nuclear death lies over ours…