Teutonic Mythology Part 13

That what Odin does against Fjalar--when he robs him of the mead, which in the myth is the most precious of all drinks, and when he deceived his daughter--is calculated to awaken Fjalar's thirst for revenge and to bring about a satisfaction sooner or later, lies in the very spirit of Teutonic poetry and ethics, especially since, Odin's act, though done from a good motive, was morally reprehensible. What Fjalar's errand to Angerboda's sword-guard was appears from the fact that when the last war between the G.o.ds and their enemies is fought a short time afterwards, Fjalar's father, the chief of the fire-giants, Surt, is armed with the best of the mythical weapons, the sword which had belonged to a _valtivi_, one of the G.o.ds of Asgard (Volusp., 50), and which casts the splendour of the sun upon the world. The famous sword of the myth, that which Thja.s.se finished with a purpose hostile to the G.o.ds (see No. 87 and elsewhere), the sword concealed by Mimer (see Nos. 87, 98, 101), the sword found by Svipdag (see Nos. 89, 101, 103), the sword secured through him by Frey, the one given by Frey to Gymer and Aurboda in exchange for Gerd,--this sword is found again in the Ragnarok conflict, wielded by Surt, and causes Frey's death (Voluspa), it having been secured by Surt's son, Fjalar, in the Ironwood from Angerboda's sword-guard.

Gulli keypta leztu Gymis dottur oc seldir thitt sva sverth; Enn er Muspells synir rida myrcvith yfir veizta thu tha, vesall, hve thu vegr (Lokas., 42).

This pa.s.sage not only tells us that Frey gave his sword in exchange for Gerd to the parents of the giantess, Gymer and Aurboda, but also gives us to understand that this bargain shall cause his death in Ragnarok.

This bride-purchase is fully described in Skirnismal, in which poem we learn that the G.o.ds most unwillingly part with the safety which the incomparable sword secured to Asgard. They yield in order to save the life of the harvest-G.o.d, who was wasting away with longing and anxiety, but not until the giants had refused to accept other Asgard treasures, among them the precious ring Draupner, which the Asa-father once laid on the pulseless breast of his favourite son Balder. At the approach of Ragnarok, Surt's son, Fjalar, goes to the Ironwood to fetch for his father the sword by which Frey, its former possessor, is to fall. The sword is then guarded by Angerboda's shepherd, and consequently belongs to her. In other words, the sword which Aurboda enticed Frey to give her is now found in the possession of Angerboda. This circ.u.mstance of itself is a very strong reason for their ident.i.ty. If there were no other evidence of their ident.i.ty than this, a sound application of methodology would still bid us accept this ident.i.ty rather than explain the matter by inventing a new, nowhere-supported myth, and thus making the sword pa.s.s from Aurboda to another giantess.

When we now add the important fact in the disposition of this matter, that Aurboda's son-in-law, Frey, demands, in behalf of a near kinsman, satisfaction from the Asas when they had killed and burnt Gulveig-Heid-Angerboda, then it seems to me that there can be no doubt in regard to the ident.i.ty of Aurboda and Angerboda, the less so, since all that our mythic fragments have to tell us about Gymer's wife confirms the theory that she is the same person. Aurboda has, like Gulveig-Heid-Angerboda, practised the arts of sorcery: she is one of the valas of the evil giant world. This is told to us in a strophe by the skald _Refr_, who calls her "Gymer's primeval cold vala" (_ursvol Gymis volva_--Younger Edda, i. 326, 496). She might be called "primeval cold"

(_ursvol_) from the fact that the fire was not able to pierce her heart and change it to ashes, in spite of a threefold burning. Under all circ.u.mstances, the pa.s.sage quoted informs us that she is a vala.

But have our mythic fragments preserved any allusion to show that Aurboda, like Gulveig-Heid-Angerboda, ever dwelt among the G.o.ds in Asgard? Asgard is a place where giants are refused admittance.

Exceptions from this prohibition must have been very few, and the myths must have given good reasons for them. We know in regard to Loke's appearance in Asgard, that it is based on a promise given him by the Asa-father in time's morning; and the promise was sealed with blood (Lokasenna, 9). If, now, this Aurboda, who, like Angerboda, is a vala of giant race, and like Angerboda, is the owner of Frey's sword, and, like Angerboda, is a kinswoman of the Vans--if now this same Aurboda, in further likeness with Angerboda, was one of the certainly very few of the giant cla.s.s who was permitted to enter within the gates of Asgard, then it must be admitted that this fact absolutely confirms their ident.i.ty.

Aurboda did actually dwell in Asgard. Of this we are a.s.sured by the poem "Fjolsvinsmal." There it is related that when Svipdag came to the gates of Asgard to seek and find Menglad-Freyja, who was destined to be his wife (see Nos. 96, 97), he sees Menglad sitting on a hill surrounded by G.o.ddesses, whose very names _Eir_, _Bjort_, _Blid_, and _Frid_, tell us that they are G.o.ddesses of lower or higher rank. _Eir_ is an asynja of the healing art (Younger Edda, i. 114). _Bjort_, _Blid_, and _Frid_ are the dises of splendour, benevolence, and beauty. They are mighty beings, and can give aid in distress to all who wors.h.i.+p them (Fjolsv., 40). But in the midst of this circle of dises, who surround Menglad, Svipdag also sees Aurboda (Fjolsv., 38).

Above them Svipdag sees Mimer's tree--the world-tree (see No. 97), spreading its all-embracing branches, on which grow fruits which soothe _kelisjukar konur_ and lighten the entrance upon terrestrial life for the children of men (Fjolsv., 22). Menglad-Freyja is, as we know, the G.o.ddess of love and fertility, and it is Frigg's and her vocation to dispose of these fruits for the purposes for which they are intended.

The Volsungasaga has preserved a record concerning these fruits, and concerning the giant-daughter who was admitted to Asgard as a maid-servant of the G.o.ddesses. A king and queen had long been married without getting any children. They beseeched the G.o.ds for an heir.

Frigg heard their prayers and sent them in the guise of a crow the daughter of the giant Hrimner, a giantess who had been adopted in Asgard as Odin's "wish-may." Hrimner's daughter took an apple with her, and when the queen had eaten it, it was not long before she perceived that her wish would come to pa.s.s (Volsungasaga, pp. 1, 2). Hrimner's daughter is, as we know, Gulveig-Heid.

Thus the question whether Aurboda ever dwelt in Asgard is answered in the affirmative. We have discovered her, though she is the daughter of a giant, in the circle around Menglad-Freyja, where she has occupied a subordinate position as maid-servant. At the same time we have found that Gulveig-Heid has for some time had an occupation in Asgard of precisely the same kind as that which belongs to a dis serving under the G.o.ddess of fertility. Thus the similarity between Aurboda and Gulveig-Heid is not confined to the fact that they, although giantesses, dwelt in Asgard, but they were employed there in the same manner.

The demonstration that Gulveig-Heid-Angerboda is identical with Aurboda may now be regarded as complete. Of the one as of the other it is related that she was a vala of giant-race, that she nevertheless dwelt for some time in Asgard, and was there employed by Frigg or Freyja in the service of fertility, and that she possessed the sword, which had formerly belonged to Frey, and by which Frey is to fall. Aurboda is Frey's mother-in-law, consequently closely related to him; and it must have been in behalf of a near relation that Frey and Njord demanded satisfaction from the Asas when the latter slew Gulveig-Heid. Under such circ.u.mstances it is utterly impossible from a methodological standpoint to regard them otherwise than identical. We must consider that nearly all mythic characters are polyonomous, and that the Teutonic mythology, particularly, on account of its poetics, is burdened with a highly-developed polyonomy.

But of Gulveig-Heid's and Aurboda's ident.i.ty there are also other proofs which, for the sake of completeness, we will not omit.

So far as the very names Gulveig and Aurboda are concerned the one can serve as a paraphrase of the other. The first part of the name _Aurboda_, the _aur_ of many significations may be referred to _eyrir_, pl. _aurar_, which means precious metal, and is thought to be borrowed from the Latin _aurum_ (gold). Thus _Gull_ and _Aur_ correspond. In the same manner _veig_ in Gulveig can correspond to _boda_ in _Aurboda_.

_Veig_ means a fermenting liquid. _Boda_ has two significations. It can be the feminine form of _bodi_, meaning fermenting water, froth, foam.

No other names compounded with _boda_ occur in Norse literature than _Aurboda_ and _Angrboda_.

Ynglingasaga[20] (ch. 4) relates a tradition that _Freyja kendi fyrst med asum seid_, that Freyja was the first to practise sorcery in Asgard.

There is no doubt that the statement is correct. For we have seen that Gulveig-Heid, the sorceress and spreader of sorcery in antiquity, succeeded in getting admission to Asgard, and that Aurboda is mentioned as particularly belonging to the circle of serving dises who attended Freyja. As this giantess was so zealous in spreading her evil arts among the inhabitants of Midgard, it would be strange if the myth did not make her, after she had gained Freyja's confidence, try to betray her into practising the same arts. Doubtless Voluspa and Saxo have reference to Gulveig-Heid-Aurboda when they say that Freyja, through some treacherous person among her attendants, was delivered into the hands of the giants.

In his historical account relating how Freyja (_Syritha_) was robbed from Asgard and came to the giants but was afterwards saved from their power, Saxo (_Hist._, 331; cp. No. 100) tells that a woman, who was secretly allied with a giant, had succeeded in ingratiating herself in her favour, and for some time performed the duties of a maid-servant at her home; but this she did in order to entice her in a cunning manner away from her safe home to a place where the giant lay in ambush and carried her away to the recesses of his mountain country. (_Gigas faeminam subornat, quae c.u.m obtenta virginis familiaritate, ejus aliquamdiu pedissequam egisset, hanc tandem a paternis procul penatibus, quaesita callidius digressione, reduxit; quam ipse mox irruens in arctiora montanae crepidinis septa devexit._) Thus Saxo informs us that it was a woman among Freyja's attendants who betrayed her, and that this woman was allied with the giant world, which is hostile to the G.o.ds, while she held a trusted servant's place with the G.o.ddess. Aurboda is the only woman connected with the giants in regard to whom our mythic records inform us that she occupied such a position with Freyja; and as Aurboda's character and part, played in the epic of the myth, correspond with such an act of treason, there is no reason for a.s.suming the mere possibility, that the betrayer of Freyja may have been some one else, who is neither mentioned nor known.

With this it is important to compare Voluspa, 26, 27, which not only mentions the fact that Freyja came into the power of the giants through treachery, but also informs us how the treason was punished:

Tha gengo regin oll A raukstola, ginheilog G.o.d oc um that gettuz hverir hefdi lopt alt levi blandit etha ett iotuns Oths mey gefna thorr ein thar va thrungin modi, hann sialdan sitr er hann slict um fregn.

These Voluspa lines stand in Codex Regius in immediate connection with the above-quoted strophes which speak of Gulveig-Heid and of the war caused by her between the Asas and Vans. They inform us that the G.o.ds a.s.sembled to hold a solemn counsel to find out "who had filled all the air with evil," or "who had delivered Freyja to the race of giants;" and that the person found guilty was at once slain by Thor, who grew most angry.

Now if this person is Gulveig-Aurboda, then it follows that she received her death-blow from Thor's hammer, before the Asas made in common the unsuccessful attempt to change her body into ashes. We also find elsewhere in our mythic records that an exceedingly dangerous woman met with precisely this fate. There she is called _Hyrrokin_. A strophe by Thorbjorn Disarskald preserved in the Younger Edda, states that _Hyrrokin_ was one of the giantesses slain by Thor. But the very appellation _Hyrrokin_, which must be an epithet of a giantess known by some other more common name indicates that some effort worthy of being remembered in the myth had been made to burn her, but that the effort resulted in her being smoked (_rokt_) rather than that she was burnt; for the epithet _Hyrrokin_ means the "fire-smoked." For those familiar with the contents of the myth, this epithet was regarded as plain enough to indicate who was meant. If it is not, therefore, to be looked upon as an unhappy and misleading epithet, it must refer to the thrice in vain burnt Gulveig. All that we learn about _Hyrrokin_ confirms her ident.i.ty with Aurboda. In the symbolic-allegorical work of art, which toward the close of the tenth century decorated a hall at Hjardarholt, and of which I shall give a fuller account elsewhere, the storm which from the land side carried Balder's s.h.i.+p out on the sea is represented by the giantess Hyrrokin. In the same capacity of storm-giantess carrying sailors out upon the ocean appears Gymer's wife, Aurboda, in a poem by _Refr_;

Faerir bjorn, thar er bara brestr, undinna festa,

Opt i aegis kjopta ursvol Gymis volva.

"Gymer's ancient-cold vala often carries the s.h.i.+p amid breaking billows into the jaws of aegir." Gymer, Aurboda's husband, represents in the physical interpretation of the myth the east wind coming from the Ironwood. From the other side of Eystrasalt (the Baltic) Gymer sings his song (Ynglingasaga, 36); and the same gale belongs to Aurboda, for aegir, into whose jaws she drives the s.h.i.+ps, is the great open western ocean.

That Aurboda represents the gale from the east finds its natural explanation in her ident.i.ty with Angerboda "the old," who dwells in the Ironwood in the uttermost east, "_Austr byr hin alldna i iarnvithi_"

(Volusp.).

The result of the investigation is that _Gullveig-Heidr_, _Aurboda_, and _Angrboda_ are different names for the different hypostases of the thrice-born and thrice-burnt one, and that _Hyrrokin_, "the fire-smoked," is an epithet common to all these hypostases.

[Footnote 18: In Voluspa the wood is called both _Jarnvidr, Gaglvidr_ (Cod. Reg.), and _Galgvidr_ (Cod. Hauk.). It may be that we here have a fossil word preserved in Voluspa meaning metal. Perhaps the wood was a copper or bronze forest before it became an iron wood. Compare _ghalgha_, _ghalghi_ (Fick., ii. 578) = metal, which, again, is to be compared with _Chalkos._ = copper, bronze.]

[Footnote 19: In _Bragaraedur's_ pseudo-mythic account of the Skaldic mead (Younger Edda, 216 ff.) the name _Fjalarr_ also appears. In regard to the value of this account, see the investigation in No. 89.]

[Footnote 20: Ynglingasaga is the opening chapters of Snorre Sturlason's Heimskringla.]

36.

THE WORLD WAR (_continued_). THE BREACH OF PEACE BETWEEN ASAS AND VANS. FRIGG, SKADE, AND ULL IN THE CONFLICT. THE SIEGE OF ASGARD. THE VAFERFLAMES. THE DEFENCE AND SURROUNDINGS OF ASGARD. THE VICTORY OF THE VANS.

When the Asas had refused to give satisfaction for the murder of Gulveig, and when Odin, by hurling his spear, had indicated that the treaty of peace between him and the Vans was broken, the latter leave the a.s.sembly hall and Asgard. This is evident from the fact that they afterwards return to Asgard and attack the citadel of the Asa clan. The G.o.ds are now divided into two hostile camps: on the one side Odin and his allies, among whom are Heimdal (see Nos. 38, 39, 40), and Skade; on the other Njord, Frigg (Saxo, _Hist._, 42-44), Frey, Ull (Saxo, _Hist_., 130, 131), and Freyja and her husband Svipdag, besides all that clan of divinities who were not adopted in Asgard, but belong to the race of Vans and dwell in Vanaheim.

So far as Skade is concerned the breach between the G.o.ds seems to have furnished her an opportunity of getting a divorce from Njord, with whom she did not live on good terms. According to statements found in the myths, Thja.s.se's daughter and he were altogether too different in disposition to dwell in peace together. Saxo (_Hist._, 53 ff.) and the Younger Edda (p. 94) have both preserved the record of a song which describes their different tastes as to home and surroundings. Skade loved Thrymheim, the rocky home of her father Thja.s.se, on whose snow-clad plains she was fond of running on skees and of felling wild beasts with her arrows; but when Njord had remained nine days and nine nights among the mountains he was weary of the rocks and of the howling of wolves, and longed for the song of swans on the sea-strand. But when Skade accompanied him thither she could not long endure to be awakened every morning by the shrieking of sea-fowls. In Grimnismal, 11, it is said that Skade "now" occupies her father's "ancient home" in Thrymheim, but Njord is not named there. In a strophe by Thord Sjarekson (Younger Edda, 262) we read that Skade never became devoted to the Vana-G.o.d (_nama snotr una G.o.dbrudr Vani_), and Eyvind Skalda-spiller relates in _Haleygjatal_ that there was a time when Odin dwelt _i Manheimum_ together with Skade, and begat with her many sons. With _Manheimar_ is meant that part of the world which is inhabited by man; that is to say, Midgard and the lower world, where are also found a race of _menskir menn_ (see Nos. 52, 53, 59, 63), and the topographical counterpart of the word is _asgardr_. Thus it must have been after his banishment from Asgard, while he was separated from Frigg and found refuge somewhere in _Manheimar_, that Odin had Skade for his wife. Her epithet in Grimnismal, _skir brudr G.o.da_, also seems to indicate that she had conjugal relations with more than one of the G.o.ds.

While Odin was absent and deposed as ruler of the world, Ull has occupied so important a position among the ruling Vans that, according to the tradition preserved in Saxo, they bestowed upon him the task and honour which until that time had belonged to Odin (_Dii ... Ollerum quendam non solum in regni, sed etiam in divinitatis infulas subrogavere_--_Hist._, 130). This is explained by the fact that Njord and Frey, though _valtivar_ and brave warriors when they are invoked, are in their very nature G.o.ds of peace and promoters of wealth and agriculture, while Ull is by nature a warrior. He is a skilful archer, excellent in a duel, and _hefir hermanns atgervi_ (Younger Edda, i.

102). Also after the reconciliation between the Asas and Vans, Thor's stepson Ull has held a high position in Asgard, as is apparently corroborated by Odin's words in Grimnismal, 41 (_Ullar hylli ok allra G.o.da_).

From the mythic accounts in regard to the situation and environment of Asgard we may conclude that the siege by the Vans was no easy task. The home of the Asas is surrounded by the atmospheric ocean, whose strong currents make it difficult for the mythic horses to swim to it (see Nos.

65, 93). The bridge Bifrost is not therefore superfluous, but it is that connection between the lower worlds and Asgard which the G.o.ds daily use, and which must be captured by the enemy before the great cordon which encloses the s.h.i.+ning halls of the G.o.ds can be attacked. The wall is built of "the limbs of Lerbrimer" (Fjolsv., 1), and constructed by its architect in such a manner that it is a safe protection against mountain-giants and frost-giants (Younger Edda, 134). In the wall is a gate wondrously made by the artist-brothers who are sons of "Solblinde"

(_Valgrind_--Grimnism., 22; _thrymgjoll_--Fjolsvimsm., 10). Few there are who understand the lock of that gate, and if anybody brings it out of its proper place in the wall-opening where it blocks the way for those who have no right to enter, then the gate itself becomes a chain for him who has attempted such a thing (_Forn er su grind, enn that fair vito, hor hve er i las um lokin_--Grimn., 22. _Fjoturr fastr verdr vid faranda hvern er hana hefr fra hlidi_--Fjolsv., 10).

Outside of the very high Asgard cordon and around it there flows a rapid river (see below), the moat of the citadel. Over the eddies of the stream floats a dark, s.h.i.+ning ignitible mist. If it is kindled it explodes in flames, whose bickering tongues strike their victims with unerring certainty. It is the _vaferloge_, "the bickering flame," "the quick fire," celebrated in ancient songs--_vafrlogi_, _vafreydi_, _skjot-brinni_. It was this fire which the G.o.ds kindled around Asgard when they saw Thja.s.se approaching in eagle guise. In it their irreconcilable foe burnt his pinions, and fell to the ground.

"Haustlaung," Thjodolf's poem, says that when Thja.s.se approached the citadel of the G.o.ds "the G.o.ds raised the quick fire and sharpened their javelins"--_Hofu skjot; en skofu skopt; ginnregin brinna_. The "quick fire," _skjot-brinni_, is the _vaferloge_.[21]

The material of which the ignitible mist consists is called "black terror-gleam." It is _or odauccom_; that is to say, _ofdauccom ognar ljoma_ (Fafn., 40) (_cp. myrckvan vafrloga_--Skirn., 8, 9; Fjolsv., 31).

It is said to be "wise," which implies that it consciously aims at him for whose destruction it is kindled.

How a water could be conceived that evaporates a dark, ignitible mist we find explained in Thorsdrapa. The thunder-storm is the "storm of the vaferfire," and Thor is the "ruler of the chariot of the vaferfire-storm" (_vafreyda hreggs hufstjori_). Thus the thunder-cloud contains the water that evaporates a dark material for lightning. The dark metallic colour which is peculiar to the thunder-cloud was regarded as coming from that very material which is the "black terror-gleam" of which lightning is formed. When Thor splits the cloud he separates the two component parts, the water and the vafermist; the former falls down as rain, the latter is ignited and rushes away in quick, bickering, zigzag flames--the vaferfires. That these are "wise" was a common Aryan belief. They do not proceed blindly, but know their mark and never miss it.

The river that foams around Asgard thus has its source in the thunder-clouds; not as we find them after they have been split by Thor, but such as they are originally, swollen with a celestial water that evaporates vafermist. All waters--subterranean, terrestrial, and celestial--have their source in that great subterranean fountain Hvergelmer. Thence they come and thither they return (Grimn., 26; see Nos. 59, 63, 33). Hvergelmer's waters are sucked up by the northern root of the world-tree; they rise through its trunk, spread into its branches and leaves, and evaporate from its crown into a water-tank situated on the top of Asgard, _Eikthyrnir_, in Grimnismal, str. 26, symbolised as a "stag"[22] who stands on the roof of Odin's hall and out of whose horns the waters stream down into Hvergelmer. _Eikthyrnir_ is the great celestial water-tank which gathers and lets out the thunder-cloud. In this tank the Asgard river has its source, and hence it consists not only of foaming water but also of ignitible vafermists. In its capacity of discharger of the thunder-cloud, the tank is called _Eikthyrnir_, the oak-stinger. Oaks struck by lightning is no unusual occurrence. The oak is, according to popular belief based on observation, that tree which the lightning most frequently strikes.

But Asgard is not the only citadel which is surrounded by vafermists.

These are also found enveloping the home where dwelt the storm-giant Gymer and the storm-giantess Aurboda, the sorceress who knows all of Asgard's secrets, at the time when Frey sent Skirner to ask for the hand of their daughter Gerd. Epics which in their present form date from Christian times make vaferflames burn around castles, where G.o.ddesses, p.r.i.c.ked by sleep-thorns, are slumbering. This is a belief of a later age.

To get over or through the vaferflame is, according to the myth, impossible for anyone who has not got a certain mythical horse to ride--probably Sleipner, the eight-footed steed of the Asa-father, which is the best of all horses (Grimn., 44). The quality of this steed, which enables it to bear its rider unscathed through the vaferflame, makes it indespensable when this obstacle is to be overcome. When Skirner is to go on Frey's journey of courts.h.i.+p to Gerd, he asks for that purpose _mar thann er mic um myrckvan beri visan vafrloga_, and is allowed to ride it on and for the journey (Skirn., 8, 9). This horse must accordingly have been in the possession of the Vans when they conquered Asgard, an a.s.sumption confirmed by what is to be stated below. (In the great epic Sigurd's horse Grane is made to inherit the qualities of this divine horse.)

On the outer side of the Asgard river, and directly opposite the Asgard gate, lie projecting ramparts (_forgardir_) to protect the drawbridge, which from the opening in the wall can be dropped down across the river (see below). When Svipdag proceeded toward Menglad's abode in Asgard, he first came to this _forgardir_ (Fjols., i. 3). There he is hailed by the watch of the citadel, and thence he gets a glimpse over the gate of all the glorious things which are hid behind the high walls of the citadel.

Outside the river Asgard has fields with groves and woods (Younger Edda, 136, 210).

Of the events of the wars waged around Asgard, the mythic fragments, which the Icelandic records have preserved, give us but very little information, though they must have been favourite themes for the heathen skaldic art, which here had an opportunity of describing in a characteristic manner all the G.o.ds involved, and of picturing not only their various characters, but also their various weapons, equipments, and horses. In regard to the weapons of attack we must remember that Thor at the outbreak of the conflict is deprived of the a.s.sistance of his splendid hammer: it has been broken by Svipdag's sword of victory (see Nos. 101, 103)--a point which it was necessary for the myth to a.s.sume, otherwise the Vans could hardly he represented as conquerors.

Nor do the Vans have the above-mentioned sword at their disposal: it is already in the power of Gymer and Aurboda. The irresistible weapons which in a purely mechanical manner would have decided the issue of the war, were disposed of in advance in order that the persons themselves, with their varied warlike qualities, might get to the foreground and decide the fate of the conflict by heroism or prudence, by prescient wisdom or by blind daring. In this war the Vans have particularly distinguished themselves by wise and well calculated strategies. This we learn from Voluspa, where it makes the final victors conquer Asgard through _vigspa_, that is, foreknowledge applied to warlike ends (str.

26). The Asas, as we might expect from Odin's brave sons, have especially distinguished themselves by their strength and courage. A record of this is found in the words of Thorbjorn Disarskald (Younger Edda, 256).

Thorr hefir Yggs med arum asgard of threk vardan.