Part 4

In Grímnismál the word Hel occurs twice (28, 31), and this poem is (together with Gylfaginning) the only ancient record which gives us any information about the well Hvergelmir under this name (26 ff.).

From what is related, it appears that the mythology conceived Hvergelmir as a vast reservoir, the mother-fountain of all the waters of the world (þaðan eigu vötn öll vega). In the front rank are mentioned a number of subterranean rivers which rise in Hvergelmir, and seek their courses thence in various directions. But the waters of earth and heaven also come from this immense fountain, and after completing their circuits they return thither. The liquids or saps which rise in the world-tree's stem to its branches and leaves around Herfather's hall (Valhall) return in the form of rain to Hvergelmir (Grímnismál 26).

Forty rivers rising there are named. (Whether they were all found in the original text may be a subject of doubt. Interpolators may have added from their own knowledge.) Three of them are mentioned in other records - namely, Slíður in Völuspá 36, Gjöll in that account of Hermod's journey to Hel's realm, which in its main outlines was rescued by the author of Gylfaginning (chapter 49), and Leiftur in Helg. Hund. ii. 31 - and all three are referred to in such a way as to prove that they are subterranean rivers. Slíður flows to the realms of torture, and whirls weapons in its eddies, presumably to hinder or frighten anybody from attempting to cross. Over Gjöll there is a bridge of gold to Baldur's subterranean abode. Leiftur (which name means "the shining one") has clear waters, which are holy, and by which solemn oaths are sworn, as by Styx. Of these last two rivers flowing out of Hvergelmir it is said that they flow down to Hel (falla til Heljar, Grímnismál 28). Thus these are all subterranean. The next strophe (29) adds four rivers - Körmt and Örmt, and the two Kerlaugar, of which it is said that it is over these Thor must wade every day when he has to go to the judgment-seats of the gods near the ash Yggdrasil. For he does not ride like the other gods when they journey down over Bifrost to the thingstead near Urd's fountain. The horses which they use are named in strophe 30, and are ten in number, like the asas, when we subtract Thor who walks, and Baldur and Hodur who dwell in Hel. Nor must Thor on these journeys, in case he wished to take the route by way of Bifrost, use the thunder-chariot, for the flames issuing from it might set fire to the Asa-bridge and make the holy waters glow (29). That the thunder-chariot also is dangerous for higher regions when it is set in motion, thereof Thjodolf gives us a brilliant description in the poem Haustlaung. Thor being for this reason obliged to wade across four rivers before he gets to Urd's fountain, the beds of these rivers must have been conceived as crossing the paths travelled by the god journeying to the thingstead. Accordingly they must have their courses somewhere in Urd's realm, or on the way thither, and consequently they too belong to the lower world.

Other rivers coming from Hvergelmir are said to turn their course around a place called Hodd goða (27 - þær hverfa um Hodd goða). This girdle of rivers, which the mythology unites around a single place, seems to indicate that this is a realm from which it is important to shut out everything that does not belong there. The name itself, Hodd goða, points in the same direction. The word hodd means that which is concealed (the treasure), and at the same time a protected sacred place. In the German poem Heliand the word hord, corresponding to hodd, is used about the holiest of holies in the Jerusalem temple. As we already know, there is in the lower world a place to which these references apply, namely, the citadel guarded by Delling, the elf of dawn, and decorated by the famous artists of the lower world - a citadel in which the ásmegir and Baldur - and probably Hodur too, since he is transferred to the lower world, and with Baldur is to return thence - await the end of the historical time and the regeneration. The word goða in Hodd goda shows that the place is possessed by, or entrusted to, beings of divine rank.

From what has here been stated in regard to Hvergelmir it follows that the mighty well was conceived as situated on a high water-shed, far up in a subterranean mountain range, whence those rivers of which it is the source flow down in different directions to different realms of Hades. Of several of these rivers it is said that they in their upper courses, before they reach Hel, flow in the vicinity of mankind (gumnum nær - 28:11), which naturally can have no other meaning than that the high land through which they flow after leaving Hvergelmir has been conceived as lying not very deep below the crust of Midgard (the earth). Hvergelmir and this high land are not to be referred to that division of the lower world which in Grímnismál is called Hel, for not until after the rivers have flowed through the mountain landscape, where their source is, are they said to falla til Heljar.

Thus (1) there is in the lower world a mountain ridge, a high land, where is found Hvergelmir, the source of all waters; (2) this mountain, which we for the present may call Mount Hvergelmir, is the watershed of the lower world, from which rivers flow in different directions; and (3) that division of the lower world which is called Hel lies below one side of Mount Hvergelmir, and thence receives many rivers. What that division of the lower world which lies below the other side of Mount Hvergelmir is called is not stated in Grímnismál. But from Vafþrúðnismál and Vegtamskviða we already know that Hel is bounded by Niflhel. In Vegtamskviða Odin rides through Niflhel to Hel; in Vafþrúðnismál halir die from Hel to Niflhel. Hel and Niflhel thus appear to be each other's opposites, and to complement each other, and combined they form the whole lower world. Hence it follows that the land on the other side of the Hvergelmir mountain is Niflhel.

It also seems necessary that both these Hades realms should in the mythology be separated from each other not only by an abstract boundary line, but also by a natural boundary - a mountain or a body of water - which might prohibit the crossing of the boundary by persons who neither had a right nor were obliged to cross. The tradition on which Saxo's account of Gorm's journey to the lower world is based makes Gorm and his men, when from Gudmund-Mimir's realm they wish to visit the abodes of the damned, first cross a river and then come to a boundary which cannot be crossed, excepting by scalæ, steps on the mountain wall, or ladders, above which the gates are placed, that open to a city "resembling most a cloud of vapour" (vaporanti maxime nubi simile - Book VIII, 264). This is Saxo's way of translating the name Niflhel, just as he in the story about Hadding's journey to the lower world translated Glæsisvellir (the Glittering Fields) with loca aprica.

In regard to the topography and eschatology of the Teutonic lower world, it is now of importance to find out on which opposite sides of the Hvergelmir mountain Hel and Niflhel were conceived to be situated.

Nifl, an ancient word, related to Lat. nebula and Gr. nefele, means fog, mist, cloud, darkness. Niflhel means that Hel which is enveloped in fog and twilight. The name Hel alone has evidently had partly a more general application to a territory embracing the whole kingdom of death - else it could not be used as a part of the compound word Niflhel - partly a more limited meaning, in which Hel, as in Vafþrúðnismál and Vegtamskviða, forms a sharp contrast to Niflhel, and from the latter point of view it is that division of the lower world which is not enveloped in mist and fog.

According to the cosmography of the mythology there was, before the time when "Ymir lived," Niflheim, a world of fog, darkness, and cold, north of Ginnungagap, and an opposite world, that of fire and heat, south of the empty abyss. Unfortunately it is only Gylfaginning that has preserved for our time these cosmographical outlines, but there is no suspicion that the author of Gylfaginning invented them. The fact that his cosmographic description also mentions the ancient cow Audhumla, which is nowhere else named in our mythic records, but is not utterly forgotten in our popular traditions, and which is a genuine Aryan conception, this is the strongest argument in favour of his having had genuine authorities for his theo-cosmogony at hand, though he used them in an arbitrary manner. The Teutons may also be said to have been compelled to construct a cosmogony in harmony with their conception of that world with which they were best acquainted, their own home between the cold North and the warmer South.

Niflhel in the lower world has its counterpart in Niflheim in chaos. Gylfaginning identifies the two (ch. 5 and 34). Forspjallsljóð [Hrafnagaldur Óðins] does the same, and locates Niflheim far to the north in the lower world (norður að Niflheim - 26), behind Yggdrasil's farthest root, under which the poem makes the goddess of night, after completing her journey around the heavens, rest for a new journey. When Night has completed such a journey and come to the lower world, she goes northward in the direction towards Niflheim, to remain in her hall, until Dag with his chariot gets down to the western horizon and in his turn rides through the "horse doors" of Hades into the lower world.

From this it follows that Niflhel is to be referred to the north of the mountain Hvergelmir, Hel to the south of it. Thus this mountain is the wall separating Hel from Niflhel. On that mountain is the gate, or gates, which in the Gorm story separates Gudmund-Mimir's abode from those dwellings which resemble a "cloud of vapour," and up there is the death boundary, at which "halir" die for the second time, when they are transferred from Hel to Niflhel.

The immense water-reservoir on the brow of the mountain, which stands under Yggdrasil's northern root, sends, as already stated, rivers down to both sides - to Niflhel in the North and to Hel in the South. Of the most of these rivers we now know only the names. But those of which we do know more are characterised in such a manner that we find that it is a sacred land to which those flowing to the South towards Hel hasten their course, and that it is an unholy land which is sought by those which send their streams to the north down into Niflhel. The rivers Gjöll and Leiftur fall down into Hel, and Gjöll is, as already indicated, characterised by a bridge of gold, Leiftur by a shining, clear, and most holy water. Down there in the South is found the mystic Hodd goða, surrounded by other Hel-rivers; Baldur's and the ásmegir's citadel (perhaps identical with Hodd goda); Mimir's fountain, seven times overlaid with gold, the fountain of inspiration and of the creative force, over which the "overshadowing holy tree" spreads its branches (Völuspá), and around whose reed-wreathed edge the seed of poetry grows (Eilif Gudrunarson); the Glittering Fields, with flowers which never fade and with harvests which never are gathered; Urd's fountain, over which Yggdrasil stands for ever green (Völuspá), and in whose silver-white waters swans swim; and the sacred thing-stead of the Asas, to which they daily ride down over Bifrost. North of the mountain roars the weapon-hurling Slíður, and doubtless is the same river as that in whose "heavy streams" the souls of nithings must wade. In the North sólu fjarri stands, also at Nastrond, that hall, the walls of which are braided of serpents (Völuspá). Thus Hel is described as an Elysium, Niflhel with its subject regions as a realm of unhappiness.

Yet a few words about Hvergelmir, from and to which "all waters find their way". This statement in Grímnismál is of course true of the greatest of all waters, the ocean. The myth about Hvergelmir and its subterranean connection with the ocean gave our ancestors the explanation of ebb- and flood-tide. High up in the northern channels the bottom of the ocean opened itself in a hollow tunnel, which led down to the "kettle-roarer," "the one roaring in his basin" (this seems to be the meaning of Hvergelmir: hverr = kettle; galm = Anglo-Saxon gealm, a roaring). When the waters of the ocean poured through this tunnel down into the Hades-well there was ebb-tide; when it returned water from its superabundance there was flood-tide (see Nos. 79, 80, 81).

Adam of Bremen had heard this tunnel mentioned in connection with the story about the Frisian noblemen who went by sea to the furthest north, came to the land of subterranean giants, and plundered their treasures (see No. 48). On the way up some of the ships of the Frisians got into the eddy caused by the tunnel, and were sucked with terrible violence down into the lower world. [*]

* "Et ecce instabilis Oceani Euripus, ad initia quædam fontis sui arcana recurrens, infelices nautas jam desperatos, immo de morte sola cogitantes, vehementissimo impetu traxit ad Chaos. Hanc dicunt esse voraginem abyssi, illud profundum, in quo fama est omnes maris recursus, qui decrescere videntur, absorberi et denuo remnovi, quod fluctuatio dici solet" (De situ Daniæ, ed. Mad., p. 159).

Charlemagne's contemporary, Paul Varnefrid (Diaconus), relates in his history of the Longobardians that he had talked with men who had been in Scandinavia. Among remarkable reports which they gave him of the regions of the far north was also that of a maelstrom, which swallows ships, and sometimes even casts them up again (see Nos. 15, 79, 80, 81).

Between the death-kingdom and the ocean there was, therefore, one connecting link, perhaps several. Most of the people who drowned did not remain with Ran. Ægir's wife received them hospitably, according to the Icelandic sagas of the middle age. She had a hall in the bottom of the sea, where they were welcomed and offered sess ok rekkju (seat and bed). Her realm was only an ante-chamber to the realms of death (Kormak, Sonatorrek).

The demon Nidhogg, which by Gylfaginning is thrown into Hvergelmir, is, according to the ancient records, a winged dragon flying about, one of several similar monsters which have their abode in Niflhel and those lower regions, and which seek to injure that root of the world-tree which is nearest to them, that is the northern one, which stands over Niflhel and stretches its rootlets southward over Mount Hvergelmir and down into its great water-reservoir (Grímnismál 34, 35). Like all the Aryan mythologies, the Teutonic also knew this sort of monsters, and did so long before the word "dragon" (drake) was borrowed from southern kinsmen as a name for them. Nidhogg abides now on Nastrond, where, by the side of a wolf-demon, it tortures náir (corpses), now on the Nida Mountains, whence the vala in Völuspá sees him flying away with náir under his wings. Nowhere (except in Gylfaginning) is it said that he lives in the well Hvergelmir, though it is possible that he, in spite of his wings, was conceived as an amphibious being which also could subsist in the water. Tradition tells of dragons who dwell in marshes and swamps.

The other two subterranean fountains, Urd's and Mimir's, and the roots of Yggdrasil standing over them, are well protected against the influence of the foes of creation, and have their separate guardians. Mimir, with his sons and the beings subject to him, protects and guards his root of the tree, Urd and her sisters hers, and to the latter all the victorious gods of Asgard come every day to hold counsel. Was the northern root of Yggdrasil, which spreads over the realms of the frost-giants, of the demons, and of the damned, and was Hvergelmir, which waters this root and received so important a position in the economy of the world-tree, left in the mythology without protection and without a guardian? Hvergelmir we know is situated on the watershed, where we have the death-border between Hel and Niflhel fortified with abysses and gates, and is consequently situated in the immediate vicinity of beings hostile to gods and men. Here, if anywhere, there was need of valiant and vigilant watchers. Yggdrasil needs its northern root as well as the others, and if Hvergelmir was not allowed undisturbed to conduct the circuitous flow of all waters, the world would be either dried up or drowned.

Already, long before the creation of the world, there flowed from Hvergelmir that broad river called Elivágar, which in its extreme north froze into that ice, which, when it melted, formed out of its dropping venom the primeval giant Ymir (Vafþrúðnismál 31; Gylfaginning 5). After creation this river, like Hvergelmir, whence it rises, and Niflhel, into which it empties, become integral parts of the northern regions of the lower world. Elivágar, also called Hraunn, Hrönn, sends in its upper course, where it runs near the crust of the earth, a portion of its waters up to it, and forms between Midgard and the upper Jotunheim proper, the river Vimur, which is also called Elivágar and Hrönn, like the parent stream ( (cp. Hymiskviða 5, 38; Grímnismál 28; Skáldskaparmál, ch. 3, 11, 25, 26; and Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar 25)). Elivágar separates the realm of the giants and frost-giants from the other "worlds".

South of Elivágar the gods have an "outgard," a "setur" which is inhabited by valiant watchers - snotrir víkingar they are called in Þórsdrápa 8 - who are bound by oaths to serve the gods. Their chief is Egil, the most famous archer in the mythology (Þórsdrápa, 2, 8; cp. Hymiskviða 7, 38; Skáldskaparmál, ch. 25). As such he is also called Orvandil (the one busy with the arrow). This Egil is the guardian entrusted with the care of Hvergelmir and Elivágar. Perhaps it is for this reason that he has a brother and fellow-warrior who is called Idi (Iði from iða, a fountain with eddying waters). The "setur" is called "Iðja setur" (Þórsdrápa 2). The services which he as watcher on Mt. Hvergelmir and on the Elivágar renders to the regions of bliss in the lower world are so great that, although he does not belong to the race of the gods by birth or by adoption, he still enjoys among the inhabitants of Hel so great honour and gratitude that they confer divine honours on him. He is "the one worshipped in Hel who scatters the clouds which rise storm-threatening over the mountain of the lower world," helblótinn hneitir undir-fjálfurs bliku (Þórsdrápa 19). The storm-clouds which Ari, Hræsvelgur, and other storm-demons of Niflheim send to the elysian fields of the death-kingdom, must, in order to get there, surmount Mt. Hvergelmir, but there they are scattered by the faithful watchman. Now in company with Thor, and now alone, Egil-Orvandil has made many remarkable journeys to Jotunheim. Next after Thor, he was the most formidable foe of the giants, and in connection with Heimdall he zealously watched their every movement. The myth in regard to him is fully discussed in the treatise on the Ivaldi-sons which forms a part of this work, and there the proofs will be presented for the identity of Orvandil and Egil. I simply desire to point out here, in order to present complete evidence later, that Yggdrasil's northern root and the corresponding part of the lower world also had their defenders and watchmen, and I also wished to call attention to the manner in which the name Hel is employed in the word helblótinn. We find it to be in harmony with the use of the same word in those passages of the poetic Edda which we have hitherto examined.