Part 5

In the first stanzas of Fjölsvinnsmál we see Svipdag making his way to a citadel which is furnished with forgörðum - that is to say, ramparts in front of the gate in the wall which surrounds the place. On one of these ramparts stands a watchman who calls himself Fjölsviður, which is an epithet of Odin (Grímnismál 47).

The first strophe of the poem calls Svipdag þursa þjóðar sjólr (sjóli), "the leader of the Thurs people". The reason why he could be designated thus has already been given (see Nos. 24, 33): During the conflicts between the powers of winter and the sons of Ivaldi, and the race connected with them, on the one side, and the Teutonic patriarch Halfdan, favoured by the Asa-gods, on the other side, Svipdag opposed the latter and finally defeated him (see No. 93).

From the manner in which Fjolsvith receives the traveller it appears that a "leader of the Thurs people" need not look for a welcome outside of such a citadel as this. Fjolsvith calls him a flagð, a vargur, and advises him to go back by "moist ways," for within this wall such a being can never come. Meanwhile these severe words do not on this occasion appear to be spoken in absolute earnest, for the watchman at the same time encourages conversation, by asking Svipdag what his errand is. The latter corrects the watchman for his rough manner of receiving him, and explains that he is not able to return, for the burgh he sees is a beautiful sight, and there he would be able to pass a happy life.

When the watchman now asks him about his parents and family he answers in riddles. Himself "the leader of the Thurs people," the former ally of the powers of frost, he calls Windcold, his father he calls Springcold, and his grandfather Verycold (Fjölkaldur). This answer gives the key to the character of the whole following conversation, in which Svipdag is the questioner, whose interrogations the watchman answers in such a manner that he gives persons and things names which seldom are their usual ones, but which refer to their qualities.

What castle is this, then, before which Svipdag stopped, and within whose walls he is soon to find Menglad, whom he seeks?

A correct answer to this question is of the greatest importance to a proper understanding of the events of mythology and their connection. Strange to say, it has hitherto been assumed that the castle is the citadel of a giant, a resort of thurses, and that Menglad is a giantess.

Svipdag has before him a scene that enchants his gaze and fills him with a longing to remain there for ever. It is a pleasure to the eyes, he says, which no one willingly renounces who once has seen a thing so charming. Several "halls," that is to say, large residences or palaces, with their "open courts," are situated on these grounds. The halls glitter with gold, which casts a reflection over the plains in front of them (garðar glóa mér þykja of gullna sali - stanza 5). One of the palaces, a most magnificent one (an auðrann), is surrounded by "wise Vaferflame," and Fjolsvith says of it that from time immemorial there has been a report among men in regard to this dwelling. He calls it Hýrr, "the gladdening one," "the laughing one," "the soul-stirring one". Within the castle wall there rises a hill or rock, which the author of the song conceived as decorated with flowers or in some other ravishing way, for he calls it a joyous rock. There the fair Menglad is seen sitting like an image (þruma), surrounded by lovely dises. Svipdag here sees the world-tree, invisible on earth, spreading its branches loaded with fruits (aldin) over all lands. In the tree sits the cock Vidofnir, whose whole plumage glitters like gold (stanzas 19, 22, 23, 31, 32, 35, 49).

The whole place is surrounded by a wall, "so solid that it shall stand as long as the world" (12). It is built of Leirbrimir's (Ymir's) limbs, and is called Gastrofnir, "the one as refuses admittance to uninvited guests". In the wall is inserted the gate skilfully made by Solblindi's sons, the one which I have already mentioned in No. 36. Svipdag, who had been in the lower world and had there seen the halls of the gods and the well-fortified castle of the ásmegir (see No. 53), admires the wall and the gate, and remarks that no more dangerous contrivances (for uninvited guests) than these were seen among the gods (9-12).

The gate is guarded by two "garms," wolf-dogs. Fjolsvith explains that their names are Gífur and Geri, that they are to live and perform their duty as watch-dogs to the end of the world (unz rjúfast regin), and that they are the watchers of watchers, whose number is eleven (varðir ellefu, er þeir varða - stanza 14).

Just as the mythic personality that Svipdag met outside of the castle is named by the Odin-epithet Fjölsviður, so we here find one of the watching dogs called after one of Odin's wolf-dogs, Geri (Grímnismál 19). Their duty of watching, which does not cease before Ragnarok, they perform in connection with eleven mythic persons dwelling within the citadel, who are themselves called varðir, an epithet for world-protecting divinities. Heimdall is vörður goða, Baldur is vörður Hálfdanar jarða. The number of the Asas is eleven after Balder descended to the lower world. Hyndluljóð says: Voru ellefu æsir taldir, Baldur er hné við banaþúfu.

These wolf-dogs are foes of giants and trolls. If a vættur came there he would not be able to get past them (stanza 16 - og kemt þá vættur, ef þá kom). The troll-beings that are called gífur and kveldriður (Völuspá 52; Helgakviða Hjörvrðssonar 15), and that fly about in the air with lim (bundles of sticks) in their hands, have been made to fall by these dogs. They have made gífur-lim into a "land-wreck" (er gjörðu gífurlim reka fyrir löndin - stanza 13). As one of the dogs is himself called Gífur, his ability, like that of those chased by him, to fly in the air seems to be indicated. The old tradition about Odin, who with his dogs flies through the air high above the earth, has its root in the myth concerning the duty devolving upon the Asa-father, in his capacity of lord of the heavens, to keep space free from gífur, kveldriður, túnriður, who "leika a lopti," do their mischief in the air (cp. Hávamál 155).

The hall in which Menglad lives, and that part of the wall-surrounded domain which belongs to her, seems to be situated directly in front of the gate, for Svipdag, standing before it, asks who is the ruler of the domain which he sees before him, and Fjolsvith answers that it is Menglad who there holds sway, owns the land, and is mistress of the treasure-chambers.

The poem tells us in the most unmistakable manner that Menglad is an asynja, and that one of the very noblest ones. "What are the names," asks Svipdag, "of the young women who sit so pleasantly together at Menglad's feet?" Fjolsvith answers by naming nine, among whom are the goddess of healing, Eir (Gylfaginning 35), and the dises Hlíf "the protectress," Björt, "the shining," Blíð, "the blithe," and Fríð, "the fair". Their place at Menglad's feet indicates that they are subordinate to her and belong to her attendants. Nevertheless they are, Fjolsvith assures us, higher beings, who have sanctuaries and altars (40), and have both power and inclination quickly to help men who offer sacrifices to them. Nay, "no so severe evil can happen to the sons of men that these maids are not able to help them out of their distress". It follows with certainty that their mistress Menglad, "the one fond of ornaments," must be one of the highest and most worshipped goddesses in the mythology. And to none of the asynjes is the epithet "fond of ornaments" (Menglad) more applicable than to the fair owner of the first among female ornaments, Brisingamen - to Freyja, whose daughters Hnoss and Gersemi are called by names that mean "ornaments," and of whose fondness for beautiful jewels even Christian saga authors speak. To the court of no other goddess are such dises as Björt, Blíð, and Fríð so well suited as to hers. And all that Fjölsvinnsmál tells about Menglad is in harmony with this.

Freyja was the goddess of love, of matrimony, and of fertility, and for this reason she was regarded as the divine ruler and helper, to whom loving maids, wives who are to bear children, and sick women were to address themselves with prayers and offerings. Figuratively this is expressed in Fjölsvinnsmál with the words that every sick woman who walks up the mountain on which Menglad sits regains her health. "That mountain has long been the joy of the sick and wounded" (26). The great tree whose foliage spreads over Menglad's palace bears the fruits that help kelisjúkar konur, so that utar hverfa það þær innar skýli (22). In the midst of the fair dises who attend Menglad the poem also mentions Aurboða, the giantess, who afterwards becomes the mother-in-law of Freyja's brother, and whose appearance in Asgard as a maidservant of Freyja, and as one of those that bring fruits from the world-tree to kelisjúkar konur, has already been mentioned in No. 35. If we now add that Menglad, though a mighty goddess, is married to Svipdag, who is not one of the gods, and that Freyja, despite her high rank among the goddesses, does not have a god for her husband, but, as Gylfaginning expresses it, giftist þeim manni er Óður heitir, and, finally, that Menglad's father is characterised by a name which refers to Freyja's father, Njord [*], then these circumstances alone, without the additional and decisive proofs which are to be presented as this investigation progresses, are sufficient to form a solid basis for the identity of Menglad and Freyja, and as a necessary consequence for the identity of Svipdag and Óður, also called Óttar.

  * In strophe 8 Fjolsvith says of Menglad: Menglöð of heitir, en hana móðir of gat við Svafurþorins syni. Svafur alone, or as a part of a compound, indicates a Vana-god. According to an account narrated as history in Fornaldarsögur (Hervarar Saga 1, U-redaction), a daughter of Thjazi was married to "king" Svafurlami. In the mythology it is Freyja's father, the Vana-god Njord, who gets Thjazi's daughter for his wife. The Sun-song (79, 80) mentions Njord's daughters together with Svafur and Svafurlogi. The daughters are nine, like Menglad and her dises.

The glorious castle to which Svipdag travelled "up" is therefore Asgard, as is plain from its very description - with its gold-glittering palace, with its wall standing until Ragnarok, with its artistic gate, with its eleven watchers, with its Fjolsvith-Odin, with its asynja Eir, with its benevolent and lovely dises worshipped by men, with its two wolf-dogs who are to keep watch so long as the world stands, and which clear the air of túnriður, with its shady arbour formed by the overhanging branches of the world-tree, and with its gold-feathered cock Vidofnir (Völuspá's Gullinkambi).

Svipdag comes as a stranger to Asgard's gate, and what he there sees he has never before seen. His conversation with Fjolsvith is a series of curious questions in regard to the strange things that he now witnesses for the first time. His designation as þursa þjóðar sjólr indicates not only that he is a stranger in Asgard, but also that he has been the foe of the Asgards. That he under such circumstances was able to secure admittance to the only way that leads to Asgard, the bridge Bifrost; that he was allowed unhindered to travel up this bridge and approach the gate unpunished, and without encountering any other annoyances than a few repelling words from Fjolsvith, who soon changes his tone and gives him such information as he desires - all this presupposes that the mythology must have had strong and satisfactory reasons for permitting a thing so unusual to take place. In several passages in Gróugaldur and in Fjölsvinnsmál it is hinted that the powers of fate had selected Svipdag to perform extraordinary things and gain an end the attaining of which seemed impossible. That the norns have some special purpose with him, and that Urd is to protect him and direct his course with invisible bonds, however erratic it may seem, all this gleams forth from the words of his mother Groa in the grave-chamber. And when Svipdag finally sees Menglad hasten to throw herself into his arms, he says himself that it is Urd's irresistible decree that has shaped things thus: Urðar orði kveður engi maður. But Urd's resolve alone cannot be a sufficient reason in the epic for Svipdag's adoption in Asgard, and for his gaining, though he is not of Asa-birth, the extraordinary honour and good luck of becoming the husband of the fairest of the asynjes and of one of the foremost of the goddesses. Urd must have arranged the chain of events in such a manner that Menglad desires to possess him, that Svipdag has deserved her love, and that the Asa-gods deem it best for themselves to secure this opponent of theirs by bonds of kinship.