The Heroes of Asgard Part 4

"I was once young, I was journeying alone, And lost my way; Rich I thought myself When I met another.

Man is the joy of man."

Here is a contrast--

"Two are adversaries; The tongue is the bane of the head; Under every cloak I expect a hand."

"A firmer friend No man ever gets Than great sagacity."

"Givers and requiters Are longest friends."

"A worse provision No man can carry Than too much beer-bibbing; So, good is not, as it is said, Beer for the sons of men."

"My garments in a field I gave away To two wooden men; Heroes they seemed to be When they got cloaks."

"Much too early I came to many places But too late to others; The beer was drunk, Or not ready The disliked seldom hits the moment."

We often read of Odin disguising himself, sometimes in animal, more frequently in human form. He wanders about the world, and very curious stories are told about his adventures. Sometimes he asks his wife's leave before setting off,--

"Counsel thou me now, Frigg!

As I long to go An all-wise giant to visit."

And Frigg answers,--

"In safety mayest thou go, In safety return; In safety on thy journeyings be; May thy wit avail thee When thou, father of men! shalt Hold converse with the giant."

But Odin was not obliged to take long journeys himself when he wanted to know what was going on in the world,--he had, as we have seen, two messengers whom he sent out daily,--the Ravens Hugin and Munin, thought and memory,--

"Hugin and Munin Each dawn take their flight Earth fields over; I fear me for Hugin Lest he come not back, But much more for Munin."

Perhaps because of Munin being memory he was expected to fail first.

Odin looking over into Niflheim, is thus alluded to in an old song.

The G.o.d is made to say,--

"I know that I hung On a wind-rocked tree Nine whole nights.

Downward I peered, To runes applied myself, Wailing learnt them, Then fell down thence."

The next strophe tells how he got the draught of the precious mead.

In this myth, it seems as if Odin hung upon Yggdra.s.sil. Simrock mentions a singular little German tale which may possibly have some connection with it, and has evidently an Eastern origin. "A man," it says, "in danger of falling into a brook, held fast with one hand to a shrub whilst his feet rested on a small piece of gra.s.s. In this predicament, he saw two mice (day and night) gnawing at the root of the shrub, and the gra.s.s undermined by four worm heads. Then a dragon appeared and opened his mouth to swallow him up, whilst an elephant reached his trunk towards him. At the same time he seized with eager mouth some honey which dropt from the tree." Simrock says that the eating of the honey is like people being occupied with frivolity whilst the world-battle goes on, but may not the story possibly have a little to do with Odin and Yggdra.s.sil and Odhaerir.

We heard before that Odin was connected with Air. We see him here on his High Throne looking over all worlds, wandering over the earth, piercing even to the deep, giving his eye to Mimer for wisdom--consequently having only one eye, one Sun in Heaven--some suppose that the pledged eye means the setting of the Sun nightly.

Mimer, who guards the well, means the remembrance of the origin of things which was water--the strange waves that flowed into Ginnungagap. An odd story is told of Mimer, who was originally a giant though received by the aesir, viz., that he was sent as a hostage to the Vanir, who cut off his head and sent it back to Odin.

The head remained so wise that the father of the G.o.ds used to consult it on all important occasions; as the lay says--

"Odin speaks With Mim's head."

Heimdall, guardian of the Bridge (whose exact name was "trembling rest") was perhaps the most important of the Vanir. He is represented in one old lay as travelling about the world by himself, which is a sure sign that he was originally a very great G.o.d indeed. Upon this journey he became the father of the three races of men, the Thralls, the Karls and the Jarls. The way in which these three races are compared with one another is very curious.

The Thralls are described with "shrivelled skin, knotty knuckles, thick fingers, hideous faces, curved backs and protruding heels, they are made to erect fences, manure fields, tend swine, keep goats and dig turf." The Karls' children are said to be clothed in linen, to be ruddy headed and have twinkling eyes, and they grow up to "tame oxen, make ploughs, build houses, make carts and farm;" but the favoured, useless Jarls, "Light of hair, bright cheeks, eyes piercing as a serpent's," grow up to "shake the s.h.i.+eld, to brandish spears,

"Horses to ride, Dogs to slip, Swords to draw, Swimming to practise."

Heimdall keeps the bridge alike from thunder G.o.d and frost giants, but at Ragnarok, the swarthy G.o.d Surtur, who lives on the borders of Muspellheim, will ride over it and shatter it to pieces. Heimdall's horn is mentioned,--this is supposed to mean the crescent moon, and Mimer's drinking horn also means the moon. Later, when the stories of the G.o.ds had dwindled down into weird, unholy legends, and Odin had sunk into the wild Huntsman, the crescent moon was his horn. One of Heimdall's names was Irmin, and this means "s.h.i.+ning." The milky way is called Irmin stra.s.se or Irmin's way, and the wild hunt was supposed to go over the milky way, which is also called Waldemar's way in Denmark, and Waldemar is a common name of hunters.

Loki and his children in these myths are evidently the destructive principle, either physically, or morally, or both. Jormungand and Fenrir are much alike. Jormungand means "the universal Wolf," and of Fenrir it is said "he goes about revengeful, with open jaws devouring all things." Hela had originally another side to her character, but here as Loki's daughter she has only the nature of his other children.

The myth about Loki finding the half-burnt heart of a woman is said to be a very young one; and so perhaps it is not worth considering the meaning of.

The G.o.d about whom, next to Odin, most stories are told, is Thor. In some parts of the north he was a more prominent object of wors.h.i.+p even than Odin, Norway and Iceland being especially devoted to his service.

Let us now hear how Thor went to Jotunheim.

CHAPTER II.

HOW THOR WENT TO JoTUNHEIM.

PART I. FROM ASGARD TO UTGARD.

Once on a time, Asa Thor and Loki set out on a journey from Asgard to Jotunheim. They travelled in Thor's chariot, drawn by two milk-white goats. It was a somewhat c.u.mbrous iron chariot, and the wheels made a rumbling noise as it moved, which sometimes startled the ladies of Asgard, and made them tremble; but Thor liked it, thought the noise sweeter than any music, and was never so happy as when he was journeying in it from one place to another.

They travelled all day, and in the evening they came to a countryman's house. It was a poor, lonely place; but Thor descended from his chariot, and determined to pa.s.s the night there. The countryman, however, had no food in his house to give these travellers; and Thor, who liked to feast himself and make every one feast with him, was obliged to kill his own two goats and serve them up for supper. He invited the countryman and his wife and children to sup with him; but before they began to eat he made one request of them.

"Do not, on any account," he said, "break or throw away any of the bones of the goats you are going to eat for supper."

"I wonder why," said the peasant's son, Thialfi, to his sister Roska.

Roska could not think of any reason, and by-and-bye Thialfi happened to have a very nice little bone given him with some marrow in it.

"Certainly there can be no harm in my breaking just this one," he said to himself; "it would be such a pity to lose the marrow;" and as Asa Thor's head was turned another way, he slyly broke the bone in two, sucked the marrow, and then threw the pieces into the goats'

skins, where Thor had desired that all the bones might be placed. I do not know whether Thialfi was uneasy during the night about what he had done; but in the morning he found out the reason of Asa Thor's command, and received a lesson on "wondering why," which he never forgot all his life after.

As soon as Asa Thor rose in the morning he took his hammer, Miolnir, in his hand, and held it over the goat-skins as they lay on the floor, whispering runes the while. They were dead skins with dry bones on them when he began to speak; but as he said the last word, Thialfi, who was looking curiously on, saw two live goats spring up and walk towards the chariot, as fresh and well as when they brought the chariot up to the door Thialfi hoped. But no; one of the goats limped a little with his hind leg, and Asa Thor saw it. His brow grew dark as he looked, and for a minute Thialfi thought he would run far, far into the forest, and never come back again; but one look more at Asa Thor's face, angry as it was, made him change his mind. He thought of a better thing to do than running away. He came forward, threw himself at the Asa's feet, and, confessing what he had done, begged pardon for his disobedience. Thor listened, and the displeased look pa.s.sed away from his face.

"You have done wrong, Thialfi," he said, raising him up; "but as you have confessed your fault so bravely, instead of punis.h.i.+ng you, I will take you with me on my journey, and teach you myself the lesson of obedience to the aesir which is, I see, wanted."

Roska chose to go with her brother, and from that day Thor had two faithful servants, who followed him wherever he went.

The chariot and goats were now left behind: but, with Loki and his two new followers, Thor journeyed on to the end of Manheim, over the sea, and then on, on, on in the strange, barren, misty land of Jotunheim, Sometimes they crossed great mountains; sometimes they had to make their way among torn and rugged rocks, which often, through the mist, appeared to them to wear the forms of men, and once for a whole day they traversed a thick and tangled forest. In the evening of that day, being very much tired, they saw with pleasure that they had come upon a s.p.a.cious hall, of which the door, as broad as the house itself, stood wide open.

"Here we may very comfortably lodge for the night," said Thor; and they went in and looked about them.

The house appeared to be perfectly empty; there was a wide hall, and five smaller rooms opening into it. They were, however, too tired to examine it carefully, and as no inhabitants made their appearance, they ate their supper in the hall, and lay down to sleep. But they had not rested long before they were disturbed by strange noises, groanings, mutterings, and snortings, louder than any animal that they had ever seen in their lives could make. By-and-bye the house began to shake from side to side, and it seemed as if the very earth trembled. Thor sprang up in haste, and ran to the open door; but, though he looked earnestly into the starlit forest, there was no enemy to be seen anywhere. Loki and Thialfi, after groping about for a time, found a sheltered chamber to the right, where they thought they could finish their night's rest in safety; but Thor, with Miolnir in his hand, watched at the door of the house all night. As soon as the day dawned he went out into the forest, and there, stretched on the ground close by the house, he saw a strange, uncouth, gigantic shape of a man, out of whose nostrils came a breath which swayed the trees to their very tops. There was no need to wonder any longer what the disturbing noises had been. Thor fearlessly walked up to this strange monster to have a better look at him; but at the sound of his footsteps the giant-shape rose slowly, stood up an immense height, and looked down upon Thor with two great misty eyes, like blue mountain-lakes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GIANT SKRYMIR AND THOR.]