Chapter 25

This mansion of bliss all valiant men aspired to, and attained after death; to the evildoer, the coward, it was closed (67): 'mun sâ maðr braut rekinn ur Valhöllu, ok þâr aldrei koma,' Nialss. cap. 89. To wage a life-and-death conflict with a hero was called showing him to Walhalla (vîsa til Valhallar), Fornald. sög. 1, 424. Sagas and panegyric poems paint the reception of departed heroes in Walhalla: when Helgi arrives, Oðinn offers to let him reign with him, Sæm. 166b; the moment Helgi has acquired the joint sovereignty, he exercises it by imposing menial service on Hundîngr, whom he has slain. Thus the distinctions of rank were supposed to be perpetuated in the future life. On the approach of Eyrîkr, Oðinn has the benches arranged, the goblets prepared, and wine brought up (Fragm. of song, Sn. 97); Sigmund and Sinfiölti are sent to meet him (Müller's Sagabibl. 2, 375). The Hâkonarmâl is a celebrated poem on Hâkon's welcome in Valhöll. But even the hall of the king on earth, where heroes carouse as in the heavenly one, bears the same name Valhöll (Sæm. 244ª. 246ª anent Atli. ) The abodes and pleasures of the gods and those of men are necessarily mirrored in each other; conf. pp. 336. 393 (see Suppl.).

Indian mythology has a heaven for heroes, and that of Greece assigns them an elysium in the far West, on the happy isle of Okeanos; we may with perfect confidence assert, that a belief in Walhalla was not confined to our North, but was common to all Teutonic nations. A 'vita Idae' in Pertz 2, 571 uses the expression 'coelorum palatinae sedes,' implying that a court is maintained like the king's palatium, where the departed dwell. Still more to the point is the AS. poet's calling heaven a shieldburg, which, like Valhöll, was covered with golden shields (p. 700). In the 'vita Wulframi' there is shown to the Frisian king Radbot a house glittering with gold, prepared for him when he dies (D.S. no. 447. V. d. Bergh's Overlev. 93); like that described in MS. 2, 229b:

In himelrîch ein hûs stât,

ein guldîn wec darîn gât,

die siule die sint mermelîn,

die zieret unser trehtîn

mit edelem gesteine.

A poem of the 13^th cent. (Warnung 2706-98) declares that the kingdom of heaven is to be won by heroes only, who have fought and bear upon them scars from stress of war (nâch urliuges nôt), not by a useless fiddler:

Die herren vermezzen

ze gemache sint gesezzen,

unt ruowent immer mêre

nâch verendetem sêre.

Versperret ist ir burctor,

belîben müezen dâ vor

die den strît niht en-vâhten

unt der flühte gedâhten.----

Swâ sô helde suln belîben

ir herren ir müezet vehten,

welt ir mit guoten knehten

den selben gmach niezen (see Suppl.).

(There men high-mettled to repose are settled, they rest evermore from ended sore. Barred is their borough-gate; and they without must wait who the fight ne'er fought, but of flight took thought, etc.)

But another thing must have been inseparable from the heathen conception, viz. that in Walhalla the goblet goes round, and the joyous carouse of heroes lasts for ever. (68) Several expressions may be accepted as proofs of this. Glaðs-heimr is the name of the spot on which Valhöll is reared, Sæm. 41ª; in Glaðsheim stands the high seat of Allfather, Sn. 14. A house by the side of it, built for goddesses, bears the name of Vin-gôlf, but it seems also to be used synonymously with Valhöll, as one poet sings: 'vildac glaðr î Vingôlf fylgja ok með einherjum öl drecka.' Vingôlf is literally amic aula, and it is by the almost identical words winburg, winsele, as well as goldburg, goldsele, that AS. poets name the place where a king and his heroes drink (Pref. to Andr. and El. xxxvii.-viii.). Glaðsheimr or glaðheimr may mean either glad, or bright, home; even now it is common to call heaven a hall of joy, vale of joy, in contrast to this vale of tears (p. 795). I do not know if the ancient term mons gaudii, mendelberc (p. 170 n.) had any reference to heaven; but much later on, a joyful blissful abode was entitled sældenberc (Diut. 2, 35), wonnenberg, freudenberg: 'to ride to the freudenberg at night' says a Rec. of 1445 (Arnoldi's Misc. 102); 'thou my heart's freudensal' is addressed to one's lady love (Fundgr. 1, 335), like the more usual 'thou my heaven'; and in thieves' slang freudenberg and wonnenberg = doxy. Freuden-thal, -berg, -garten often occur as names of places (see Suppl.). (69)

Let us see how much of these heathen fancies have survived among christian ones, or found its counterpart in them. The name Valhöll, Walahalla, seems to have been avoided; winsele may indeed have been said of heaven, but I can only find it used of earthly dwellings, Cædm. 270, 21. Beow. 1383. 1536. 1907. On the other hand our later and even religious poets continue without a scruple to use the term freudensal for heaven, for heavenly joy is christian too. Also: 'stîgen ze himel ûf der sœlden berc,' climb the mount of bliss, Wackern. Basle MSS. p. 5. The christian faith tells of two places of bliss, a past and a future. One is where the departed dwell with God; the other, forfeited by our first parents' sin, is represented as a garden, Eden. Both are translated paradeisoj in the LXX, whence paradisus in the Vulg.; this is said to be a Persian word, originally denoting garden or park, which is confirmed by the Armenian bardez (hortus). The only passage we have the advantage of consulting in Ulph., 2 Cor. 12, 4, has vaggs, the OHG. wanc (campus amoenus, hortus). Our OHG. translators either retain paradîsi, Fragm. theot. 41, 21, or use wunnigarto, Gl. Jun. 189. 217. Hymn 21, 6. wunnogarto N. ps. 37, 5; conf. 'thaz wunnisama feld,' O. ii. 6, 11. 'after paradîses wunnen,' Diut. 3, 51. MHG. 'der wunne garte,' Fuozesbr. 126, 27. 'der wollüste garte,' HsH. 3, 463ª. OHG. zartgarto, N. ps. 95, 10. The name wunnigarto may be substantially the same as vingôlf, winsele, as wunna for wunia, Goth. vinja, lies close to wini (amicus). A strange expression is the AS. neorxena-wong, neorxnawong, Cædm. 11, 6. 13, 26. 14, 12. 115, 23, of which I have treated in Gramm. 1, 268. 2, 267. 3, 726; it is apparently field of rest, (70) and therefore of bliss, and may be compared to Goth. vaggs, OS. heben-wang, Hel. 28, 21. 176, 1; the 'norns' are out of the question, especially as heaven is never called norna-vângr in ON. poems. Beside hebenwang, the OS. poet uses ôdas-hêm 96, 20 and ûp-ôdas-hêm 28, 20. 85, 21, domus beatitudinis, the 'hêm' reminding us of heimr in glaðsheimr, as the 'garto' in wunnigarto does of âsgarðr. Up-ôdanshêm is formed like ûphimil, and equally heathen. All the Slavs call paradise rai, Serv. raj, Pol. ray, Boh. rag, to which add Lith. rojus, sometimes called rojaus sódas (garden of par.), or simply darzas (garden). Rai as a contraction of paradise (Span. parayso) is almost too violent; Anton (Essay on Slavs 1, 35) says the Arabic arai means paradise. (71)

Like Valhöll, the Greek Elysium too, hlusion pedion (Plutarch 4, 1156. Lucian de luctu 7) was not a general abode of all the dead, but of picked heroes: the Greeks too made the highest blessedness wait upon the warrior's valour. Neither were all heroes even admitted there, Menelaos was as son-in-law of Zeus, Od. 4, 569; others even more renowned were housed with Aïdes, in Hades. Achilles paces the flowery mead, the asfodeloj leimwn of the underworld, whither Hermes conducts the souls of the slain suitors, Od. 11, 539. 24, 13. Lucian de luctu 5. philops. 24.

This 'ea' of the blest is no less known to our native song and story. Children falling into wells pass through green meadows to the house of friendly Holla. Flore 24, 22: 'swer im selber den tôt tuot, den geriuwet diu vart, und ist im ouch verspart diu wise, dâr dû komen wilt, an der Blancheflûr spilt (plays) mit andern genuogen (enow), die sich niht ersluogen;' who slays himself will rue such journey, to him is eke denied that mead, etc. Floris 1107: 'int ghebloide velt (flowery field), ten paradise.' 1248: 'waenstu dan comen int ghebloide velt, daer int paradîs?' 1205: 'ic sal varen int ghebloide velt, daer Blancefloeren siele jeghen die mine gadert, ende leset bloemekine.' The French Flores in the corresponding passages has camp flori (Altd. bl. 1, 373), (72) in Bekker's ed. of Flore 786. 931. 1026. But our older poets, probably even those of heathen times, imagined heaven, like the earth, as a green plain: 'teglîdid grôni wang' (the earth), Hel. 131, 1; 'himilrîki, grôni Godes wang' 94, 24. 'grôni wang paradîse gelîc' 96, 15. 'the grôneo wang' 23, 4 is said of Egypt. Cædm. 32, 39: 'brâde sind on worulde grêne geardas.' Hâkonarmâl 13: 'rîða ver nu sculom grœna heima goða,' i.e. to heaven. In many parts of Germany paradis and goldne aue are names of places to this day. So viretum in Virgil has the sense of paradise, Aen. 6, 638:

Devenere locos laetos et amoena vireta

fortunatorum nemorum sedesque beatas.

Paradise then is twofold, a lost one, and a future one of the earth emerging newly green out of the wave: to Iðavöllr, in whose grass the gods pick up plates of gold (for play), Sæm. 9b. 10ª, corresponds that older Iðavöllr where the âses founded Asgarð, to the renovated realm of the future a vanished golden age that flowed with milk and honey (see Suppl.). (73)

The younger heaven has in the Edda another name, one peculiar to itself, and occurring only in the dative 'â gimli,' Sæm. 10b. Sn. 4, 75 [but 20 gimli as nom. ?], for which I propose a nom. gimill (not gimlir) standing for himill, a form otherwise wanting in ON., and = OHG. OS. himil by the same consonat-change as Gýmir for Hýmir; and this is confirmed by the juxtaposition 'â gimli, â himni,' Sn. 75. Now this Gimill is clearly distinct from the Odinic Valhöll: it does not make its appearance till ragnarökr has set in and the âses have fallen in fight with the sons of muspell. Then it is that a portion of the âses appear to revive or become young again. Baldr and Höðr, who had gone their way to the underworld long before the twilight of the gods, Hœnir who had been given as a hostage to the Vanir, are named in Völuspâ (Sæm. 10b), as gods emerging anew; they three were not involved in the struggle with Surtr. Then again Sn. 76 gives us Vîðar and Vali, who unhurt by Surtalogi revive the old Asgarð on Iðavöllr, and with them are associated Môði and Magni, beside Baldr and Höðr from the underworld; Hœnir is here passed over in silence. Vîðar and Vali are the two avengers, one having avenged Oðin's death on Fenrisûlfr, the other Baldr's death on Höðr (hefniâss Baldrs dôlgr Haðar, Sn. 106). They two, and Baldr the pure blameless god of light, are sons of Oðinn, while Môði and Magni appear as sons of Thôrr by a gýgr, and from that time they bear the emblem of his might, the all-crushing Miölnir. Unquestionably this means, that Oðinn and Thôrr, the arch-gods of old Asgarð, come into sight no more, but are only renewed in their sons. Baldr signifies the beginning of a mild spring time, p. 614 (see Suppl.).

Again, as Valhöll had only received men who died by weapons (vâpn-dauða vera), whilst other dead men were gathered in Fôlkvângr with Freyja (p. 304), and virgins with Gefjon (Sn. 36); from this time forward Gimill takes in without distinction all the just, the good, and Hel all the bad, the criminal; whereas the former Hel, as a contrast to Valhöll, used to harbour all the residue of men who had not fallen in fight, without its being implied that they were sinners deserving punishment.

The most difficult point to determine is, how matters exactly stand with regard to Surtr, to whom I must now return. That he is represented, not as a god, but as a giant of the fire-world, has been shown, p. 809; nor is he named among the renovated gods 'â gimli' in Sæm. 10ª or Sn. 76, which would have been the place for it. In one MS alone (Sn. 75, var. 3) is apparently interpolated 'â Gimli meðr Surti;' and it is mainly on this that Finn Magnusen rests his hypothesis, that Surtr is an exalted god of light, under whose rule, as opposed to that of Oðinn, the new and universal empire stands. He takes him to be that mightier one from whose power in the first creation days the warmth proceeded (p. 562), the strong (öflugr) or rich one revealed by the vala, who shall direct all things (sâ er öllu ræðr, Sæm. 10b), likewise the mighty one foreseen by Hyndla, whose name she dare not pronounce (þâ kemr annar enn mâttkari, þô þori ec eigi þann at nefna, Sæm. 119ª); conf. the strengra of the AS. homily (p. 812). But why should she have shrunk from naming Surtr, of whom no secret is made in Sæm. 8ª,b. 9ª. 33ª, the last passage positively contrasting him with the mild merciful gods (in svâso goð)? The invasion of Surtr in company with the liberated Loki must anyhow be understood as a hostile one (of giant's or devil's kin); his very name of the swart one points that way.

The unuttered god may be likened to the agnwstoj qeoj (Acts 17, 23), still more to the word that Oðinn whispered in the ear of his son Baldr's corpse, as it ascended the funeral pile: a secret which is twice alluded to, in Sæm. 38ª and Hervarars. p. 487; so an Etruscan nymph speaks the name of the highest god in the ear of a bull. (74) It has already been suggested (p. 815) that presentiments of a mightier god to come may have floated before the heathen imagination, like the promise of the Messiah to the Jews. (75)

The world's destruction and its renewal succeed each other in rotation; and the interpenetration of the notions of time and space, world and creation, with which I started, has been proved. Further, as the time-phenomena of the day and the year were conceived of as persons, so were the space-phenomena of the world and its end (Halja, Hades, Surtr).




ENDNOTES: