Scandinavian and Teutonic Mythology

Dromo's Den

SCANDINAVIAN (AND TEUTONIC) MYTHOLOGY. The old religion of the Germanic peoples. Teutonic mythology is so largely based on Scandinavian sources as to make the terms almost synonymous. The number of nature gods, with marked, strong individuality, is small; the proportion of spirits and demons, elves, dwarfs and giants, valkyries, swan maidens, and norns, unusually large. Most of these creations are mere folklore or poetic personifications rather than real mythic figures, founded upon a definite fact in outside nature or some permanent element in the inner consciousness of man.

The final conversion of the Northern Teutons to Christianity took place about 1000 A.D. The native sources of mythology are in general not earlier than that date, many of them much later. The Elder or Poetic Edda (see EDDA) dates from the tenth century; the Younger or Prose Edda and the sagas are about two centuries later. Both these dates make it likely, first, that the native ideas on the subject are present in an advanced and tangled form, considerably removed from the mythic roots that started them; secondly, that there is a strong admixture of Christian and perhaps even classical ideas. There are indeed foreign influences in Scandinavian mythology, but, despite this non-Teutonic element, the mythology is essentially national in spirit and character.

The Scandinavian gods are anthropomorphic, like the Greek gods, but not so plastic as they. Their personality is rugged, even if they fall short in both the graceful fancy and the finished mastery of the Greek deities. In the main, however, the gods portray men: Odin (q.v.) is a powerful, shrewd, not unkindly old man; Loki is ill-tempered, fickle, deceitful, and calumniating; Balder is wondrously fair, beloved of all; Thor performs incredible deeds, but only when he has his hammer Mjöllnir; Frigg is Odin's housewife, the mother of Balder (q.v.). The gods are human in their needs and infirmities; they eat and drink- solemnly and copiously, as Teuton gods should. Odin has lost an eye, having pledged it for a draft from the fountain of Mimir, the source of all wisdom; Tyr has lost a hand; Balder perishes. Their character, their emotions, and such morality as they claim are entirely human. They are kind or ferocious, shrewd or foolish. Frigg, Odin's wife, is the highest representation of heavenly virtue; she is the severe, rather shrewish guardian of domestic virtue and sexual morality.

The absence of truly lofty traits, æsthetical or ethical, from the character of the gods is reflected in their worshipers. There is no piety, nor is there much faith beyond the assurance that the gods are likely to take a hand in the affairs of men. Neither gods nor men are always acting rightfully, nor are accursed deeds always avenged. Hence the gloomy idea of the so-called norns (q.v.). Over and above the natural sequence of either divine or human events, and above right and wrong, there is a higher inexorable law which dominates over gods and men alike. Hence, too, the power of gods and men is often dependent, not upon their inner quality, but rather upon external conditions or upon the possession of sundry magical objects. Odin's throne Hlidhskjálf enables him, or any one else who may happen to sit on it, to see all the world, and Thor's strength depends upon his hammer. The gods called Æsir (q.v.) fasten the hell wolf Fenrir (see FENRIR; RAGNARÖK) with the fetter Gleipnir, made out of the sound caused by the footfall of cats, of the beards of women, the roots of mountains, the breath of fish, and the spittle of birds.

The Edda furnishes an account of creation and of the Scandinavian Olympus, which presents a fair average of Teutonic ideas on these subjects. The first and eldest of the gods is Odin, the All-Father, who lives from all ages, rules over all his realm, heaven and earth, and man. All the righteous shall live and be with himself in Valhalla (q.v.); but the wicked fare to Hel and thence into Niflheim (q.v.) or Niflhel, beneath in the ninth world. At first neither heaven nor earth existed, only a yawning abyss. Then the giants made a citadel for the gods called Asgard (q.v.), to which gods ascended by the rainbow bridge called Bifröst (q.v.). There Odin sits in his high seat. His wife is Frigg, and their offspring are the Æsir (q.v.). Odin's first son is Thor (q.v.), the strongest of the gods. He has a hammer, called Mjöllnir, a strength belt, and iron gloves that he may hold his hammer's haft. Balder is Odin's second son, fair and beautiful and praised by all. Tyr (q.v,) is daring and stanch, while Bragi (q.v.) is famous for wisdom, clever in speech and song craft. Among others who are good and great are Heimdalr (see RAGNARÖK), Hoenir, Vidharr, and Vali. Loki (q.v.), fair of face, ill in temper, and fickle of mood, is called the backbiter of the Æsir, the speaker of evil speech and shame of all gods and men, whom he constantly deceives. The highest seat of the gods is at the ash tree Yggdrasill (q.v.). One of the three roots of this "world tree" goes to heaven to the Æsir. A second reaches to the winter giants. Under that root is the spring of Mimir (q.v.), Odin's uncle. There, once upon a time, came Odin and begged a drink. His wisdom was exhausted, and the end of things seemed near. Mimir asked for the eye of Odin as a pledge, which the god sacrificed. The third root reaches to lowest hell. A fair hall stands under the ash by the spring, and out of it come the three norns Has-been (Urdhr), Being (Verdhandi), and Will-be (Skuld) and grave on a shield the destiny of men.

The heroes that have fallen in battle, from the beginning of the world, go to Odin in Valhalla. Odin's battle maidens, the valkyries, protect his favorites and grant them victory. But when their day has come the valkyries, who have hitherto been invisible, reveal themselves and conduct the fallen heroes to Valhalla. There they eat of the flesh of the boar Soehrimnir every day and drink the mead from the goat Heidhrunr. Every day the heroes put on their armor and fight with each other for their sport. At evening they ride home to Valhalla and sit down to eat and drink. But an uncertain future throws its shadow even over the citadel of the gods, for no one knows when the enemies of the Æsir will break their bonds and cause the downfall of the world. See RAGNARÖC.

Only a small stock of the Teutonic divinities can be traced with certainty to the Indo-Germanic period. In Scandinavian tivar, a collective designation of the gods, and in the name Tyr, OHG. Zio, we have the shining sky god of the prehistoric myth, reflected by Skt. devas, Lith. dëvas, OIr. dia, god, Lat. dīvus, divine. The direct equation of Tyr, Zio, with Vedic Dyāus pitar, Lat. Jupiter (q.v.) has been questioned, but there is no doubt that Tyr, Zio is the prehistoric sky and day god. The Scandinavian Æsir, Ger. Asen, another generic designation of the gods, points with great certainty, through Skt. asu, life, spirit, Av. amhu, lord, to the Asura-Ahura, the highest generic name for Indo-Iranian divinities. Odin or Wotan may not be severed from the Vedic storm god Vāta, wind. Slight phonetic obscurities notwithstanding, the Scandinavian god and goddess Fjörgynn and Fjörgyn are identical with the Lith. Perkunas, Vedic Parjanya (q.v.), god of thunder. Less certain, though probable, is the connection of the words for elf (AS. ælfr, and alfr) with the rbhu (see RIBHUS) of the Veda. Both types of divinities are famed for skill rather than strength; they are probably divinities of light, connected with the fashioning of the seasons and the year.

In the common Teutonic period three mighty gods and one goddess were worshiped-Tyr, Odin, Thor, and Frigg. Four days of the week- Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday- were consecrated to them. Tyr, the ancient sky god, became a war god and lost his early importance. Wodanaz (Scand. Odin) was originally a storm god. In the belief of the Germans he figures as the leader of the Furious Host, or Wild Hunt. The souls of the dead are thought to sweep with him through the air, so he becomes the leader of the souls and god of the dead. He develops also into a god of war and finally in the Scandinavian North into the head of Valhalla, creator, orderer of the world, and god of wisdom. Each day he lets fly his two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, thought and memory; when they return they alight upon his shoulders and tell him of all that comes to pass and all that is to be.

The most popular god of Scandinavia is Thor. His mother is Fjörgyn, a female personification of thunder, and he is himself thunder personified. He is surnamed Hlorridhi, roarer; his hair and beard are red, typifying the lightning, and he wields the hammer Mjöllnir, which returns of itself to the hand of the god after crushing his enemies. In many myths he is the chief defender of the heavenly citadel Asgard against the attacks of the giants. He is a popular god in distinction from the more aristocratic Odin, being simple and rough, passionate, and devoted to eating and drinking. Thor's picture is carved on the seat of honor of the master of the house, to bring comfort and prosperity to the household.

The last of the Teuton divinities to whom was consecrated a day of the week is Frigg, the wife of Odin. With him she surveys, from his seat Hlidhskjálf, the whole universe, and knows, as Odin's confidante, the fates of men. She is in charge of marriage, of housewifely success and happiness, and of marital fidelity. Sterile women pray to her for children, and she gives aid in the throes of childbirth. Veiled, with a distaff in her hand, and a bunch of keys at her side, she typifies the true Teuton housewife. She is the devoted mother of Balder and weeps when he is slain. The Scandinavian myth has created a goddess, Freyja (q.v.), in addition to Frigg, as a female abstraction, or sister, of the male god Freyr. The latter is one of the Vanir, a class of gods who appear to be in some kind of opposition to the Æsir. As Freyr is a god of love and fruitfulness, his female counterpart Freyja is the fairest of goddesses, beneficent, and invoked in affairs of love, and is invoked in company with Frigg.

The two most important remaining characters of Scandinavian mythology are Balder and Loki. Balder, the son of Odin and husband of Nanna, is the darling of the gods. He is so fair that light streams from him and the whitest of all flowers is likened to him. He has an evil dream of impending danger, and therefore Frigg, his mother, puts all animate and inanimate things under a vow not to harm Balder. On the field the gods, certain not to hurt him, begin to throw all sorts of objects at him. Nothing harms him. Loki changes into a woman and extracts from Frigg the information that she had put all things under a vow, except the mistletoe, which was too young to be able to do him harm, Loki then puts the mistletoe into the hands of Hödhr, Balder's brother, to shoot as an arrow. The missile hits the mark, and Balder falls dead. The kernel of the myth is probably the vanishing of the summer sun in winter. Balder, god of physical light, has become the emblem of purity and innocence. Balder's death ushers in the destruction of the world in Ragnarök (q.v.).

Loki is deceitful and malicious in character, and his naturalistic basis is problematical. He appears only in the Scandinavian myth. Though he often goes in the company of the gods, himself one of the Æsir, yet on the whole, whatever his origin, Mephistophelian deviltry is a constant element of his character. Both his origin and name have been traced to Lucifer. His part in Balder's death has been shown above. Loki once ate the heart of a courtesan, became pregnant thereof, and gave birth to monsters, the wolf Fenrir, the serpent Midhgardhr, and Hel (q.v.), the goddess of death. As a boatswain upon a ship he leads the dark powers against the Æsir at Ragnarök. No Teutonic god has been explained more variously, as Fire, as the equivalent of the Vedic demon Vritra as Prometheus, Vulcan, Lucifer, and other types. His name is supposed to mean "the closer," a vague and doubtful appellation. It seems likely that he contains at least in part a demonic personification of fire, and as such Richard Wagner pictured him in his Nibelungen tetralogy.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XX (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 516-518.