The Religion of the Northmen
Chapter XIII
But although the belief in the immortality of the soul was firmly established, yet the ideas concerning the state of existence after death were dark and unsettled. The relation between Odin and Hel, between Godheim and Helheim, presented a difficulty which they strove to solve by various modes. In the Later Edda it is said that they who are slain in battle go to Odin, in Valhalla, but those who die of sickness or old age go to Hel, in Helheim. (1) According to this, in a strict sense, it should be the kind of death alone that decided the soul's future state; only those who fall by weapons ascend to the glad abodes of Heaven, while all who die of sickness wander away to the dark world of the Abyss. But even in heathen times it was hardly thus understood, except, indeed, by the individuals in whose eyes nothing was praiseworthy except warlike deeds. The Asa doctrine, taken as a comprehensive whole, presents a different view, which occurs in various places in the lays and legends of heathen times, and which may be regarded as really proper to the Asa-faith.
The spirit (önd) or soul (sál) of man was a gift of Odin; the body, blood and external beauty were a gift of Lodurr or Loki; the former belonged to the Spirit World or Heaven, the latter to the Material World---to the Deep. They were joined together with the earthly life; at its close they were separated, and each returned to its original source. The soul, with the more refined bodily form in which it was thought to be enveloped, went to the home of the Gods, while the body, with the grosser material life which was conceived to be inseparable from it, went to the abodes of Hel to become the prey of Loki's daughter. Man's being was thus divided between Odin and Hel. Odin, who was also the God of War, was thought to claim his share chiefly from those who fell in battle; Hel from those who died of sickness. Death by arms came thus to be considered a happy lot by the zealous followers of the Asa-Faith, for it was a proof of Odin's favor. He who fell by arms was called by Odin to himself before Hel laid claim to her share of his being; he was Odin's chosen son, who, with longing, was awaited in Valhalla, that in the Einherjar ranks he might sustain the Ćsir in their last battle. Therefore, the Skald, in a song of praise to the fallen king Eirik Blood-axe, lets Odin say to Bragi, in answer to the question why he had bereaved Eirik the Victorious who was so brave: "Our lot is uncertain; the gray wolf gazes on the hosts of the Gods," i.e. we know not when the Fenris-wolf shall come, therefore we may need the help of heroes. In the same sense Eyvind Skaldaspillir, in his Hákonarmál, makes the Valkyrja say: "Now do the helping hosts of the Gods grow stronger, when they have, by their brave bands, brought Hákon to their home."
But because the dead who were slain by arms were thought to be called to the hosts of the Einherjar, it was not supposed that Hel was deprived of all share in their being; nor yet, on the other hand that the soul of every one who died a natural death was shut out from Heaven, and forced to follow the body down into the abodes of Hel. That it was virtue, on the whole, and not bravery alone, which was to be rewarded in another life, and that it was wickedness and vice which were to be punished, is distinctly shown in the ancient heathen poem Völuspá, where it says that in Gimli shall the righteous hosts (dyggvar dróttir) enjoy gladness forever, while perjurers, murderers, and they who seduce men's wives, shall wade through thick venom-streams in Náströnd. Although the language is here used in reference to the state of things after Ragnarökkr, it may be assumed that they had similar ideas concerning the preceding middle state of the Dead.
It was certainly believed that the soul of the Virtuous, even though death by arms had not released it from the body and raised it up to the ranks of the real Einherjar, still found an abode in Heaven---in Valhalla, in Vingólf, or in Fólkvangar. The heathen Skald, Thjodolf of Hvin, makes King Vanlandi go to Odin, although Hel tortured him, (2) and the Asa worshiper, Egil Skallagrimsson, doubts not that Odin has received his drowned son in Godheim. (3) The souls of noble women were also believed to go to Heaven after death; there they formed an abode with Freyja, and the spirits of maidens with Gefjon. When it is said that Freyja sometimes shares the slain with Odin, it is meant, perhaps, that the slain, who in life had loved wives, were united to them again with Freyja.
On the other hand it was as certainly believed that blasphemy and baseness might shut out even the bravest from Valhalla. Thus the Saga has the zealous Asa worshiper, Hákon Jarl, to say of the bold but wicked Hrapp who had seduced his benefactor's daughter and burned a temple: "The man who did this shall be banished from Valhalla and never come thither." (4)
The strict construction of the Asa doctrine appears, therefore, to be this, that although man was divided between Odin and Hel, yet each one's share of his being after death was greater or less, according to the life he had lived. The spirit of the Virtuous and the Brave had the power to bear up to Heaven with it after death the better part of its corporeal being, and Hel obtained only the dust. But he whose spirit by wickedness and base sensual lust was drawn away from Heaven, became in all his being the prey of Hel. His soul was not strong enough to mount freely up to the celestial abodes of the Gods, but was drawn down into the abyss by the dust with which it had ever been clogged. No doubt the representation of Hel as being half white and half pale-blue had its real origin in this thought---that to the Good, Death appeared as a bright Goddess of Deliverance, and to the Wicked, as a dark and punishing Deity.
When the Drowned were supposed to arrive at the halls of Rán, the Sea-goddess filled the place of Hel; Rán claimed the body as her prey, the spirit ascended to Heaven.
The belief that bondsmen after death should come to Thor, seems to express the thought that their spirits had not the power to mount up with the freeborn heroes to the higher celestial abodes, but were compelled to linger midway, as it were, among the low, floating clouds, under the stern dominion of Thor;---a thought painful to the feelings of humanity, but wholly in accordance with the views of the age and the people.
Endnotes
1. The L. Edda: Gylfaginning 20 and 34. [Back]
2.Snorri: Ynlinga Saga, 16. [Back]
3.Egils Saga, 80, [Back]
4.Niáls Saga, 89. [Back]
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