THE MAIDEN WITH THE MEAD A GODDESS OF INITIATION IN NORSE MYTHOLOGY? MASTER DISSERTATION IN HISTORY OF RELIGIONS DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE UNIVERSITY OF OSLO, SPRING 2004 BY MARIA KVILHAUG CONTENTS Prologue……………………………………………………………………………………………………...5 1: Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………..9 2: Sources………………………………………………………………………………………………….14 2.1: The Poetic Edda………………………………………………………………………………………………………………14 2.2: Divine Poems……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………15 2.3: Heroic Poems………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….16 2.4: Snorri´s Edda…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………17 2.5: Other Sources………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..18 2.6: The Reliability of the Sources…………………………………………………………………………………….18 3: Terminology and Previous Research………………………………………………….20 3.1: Some terms: Initiation, Sacred Marriage, Shamanism, Mystery Religions………….20 3.2: The Maiden with the Mead…………………………………………………………………………………………….27 3.3: Ritual and Initiation Reflected in the Norse Myths…………………………………………………31 3.4: The Great Goddess…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..35 4. Gunnlöd, Gerdr and the Giantesses……………………………………………………40 4.1: Giantesses in the Realms of Death.…………………………………………………………………………………40 4.2: GUNNLÖD AND THE MEAD OF POETRY……………………………………………………………………..41 4.3: An underlying Structure of Themes……………………………………………………………………………….44 4.4: The Maiden and her Kin: A Realm of Death? ……………………………………………………………….45 4.5: The Initiations and the Arts of Ódinn……………………………………………………………………………49 4.6: Ódinn as Divine Archetype.……………………………………………………………………………………………….51 4.7: Summary: What Ódinn learns.…………………………………………………………………………………………..52 4.8: THE WOOING OF GERDR.………………………………………………………………………………………………..56 4.9: The Structure of the themes in Gerdr´s story…………………………………………………………….57 4.10: The Maiden and Her Realm……………………………………………………………………………………………….58 4.11: The Gifts and the Threats……………………………………………………………………………………………….62 4.12: Skírnir as the Experienced Practitioner………………………………………………………………………..62 4.13: Summary and Conclusions to chapter 4………………………………………………………………………….63 2 5. TheGreat Goddess………………………………………………………………………………….67 5.1: FREYIA – LEADING THE WAY TO VALHÖLL……………………………………………………………71 5.2: Structural Elements in Hyndluljod………………………………………………………………………………..73 5.3: Ogress versus Goddess –the Life and Death Opposition………………………………………….75 5.4: MENGLÖD – THE GREAT MAIDEN………………………………………………………………………………77 5.5: Structural Elements in “Svípdagsmál” ………………………………………………………………………….79 5.6: The Realm of the Dead in the Fjölsvinnsmál……………………………………………………………….82 5.7: The Realm of the Giants in the Fjölsvinnsmál……………………………………………………………..84 5.8: The Realm of the Maidens……………………………………………………………………………………………….85 5.9: Summary and Conclusions to ch.5……………………………………………………………………………………87 6: The Reincarnating Valkyrie……………………………………………………………………90 6.1: A Summary of the Maiden-Stories in theHeroic Poems…………………………………………….93 6.2: The Vision Quest Theme……………………………………………………………………………………………………99 6.3: The Vision Theme……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….102 6.4: The Descending Theme……………………………………………………………………………………………………..103 6.5: The Trial Theme………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….106 6.6: The Maiden Theme……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..107 6.7: Ogress versus Valkyrie: The Life and Death Opposition……………………………………………107 6.8: The three Worlds of Teaching…………………………………………………………………………………………108 6.9: The Numbers Nine and Three…………………………………………………………………………………………..109 7: Masters of Initiation……………………………………………………………………………….112 7.1: The Völur………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….112 7.2: Atli, Sinfiotli and Skírnir……………………………………………………………………………………………………..114 7.3: The Maternal Uncle……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….117 7.4: Regin: Dwarf, Smith andThul……………………………………………………………………………………………….118 7.5: Ódinn…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………119 8: The Mead and the Maiden…………………………………………………………………………120 8.1: The Maiden: Encompassing the Three Worlds……………………………………………………………………120 8.2: The Two-Faced Goddess…………………………………………………………………………………………………………124 8.3: The Great Lover………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..126 8.4: The Precious Mead……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………128 8.5: The Maiden unearthed: Archaeological Evidence………………………………………………………………131 8.5: The Ultimate Master of Initiation……………………………………………………………………………………….134 9: Summary and Conclusions……………………………………………………………………………140 3 Appendixes………………………………………………………………………………………………………….146 Appendix I: Hávamál st. 104-110………………………………………………………………………………………………………146 Appendix II: Hávamál st. 138-141…………………………………………………………………………………………………….147 Appendix III: Vafthrudnismál st. 36-37…………………………………………………………………………………………147 Appendix IV: Ynglinga Saga 6-7………………………………………………………………………………………………………..148 Appendix V: Skírnismál st. 10………………………………………………………………………………………………………………148 Appendix VI: Freyia in Gylfaginning…………………………………………………………………………………………………..148 Appendix VII: Hyndluljod st. 1…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….149 Appendix VIII: Gróagaldr st. 1……………………………………………………………………………………………………………149 Appendix IX: Völuspá st. 20 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..150 Appendix X: Helgakvida Hundingsbani II, st. 43……………………………………………………………………………..150 Appendix XI: On Castration…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………150 Appendix XII: Gröttasöngr st. 10-18…………………………………………………………………………………………………151 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………………………………...152 4 5 PROLOGUE I have had the idea of investigating the subject of an initiating goddess in Norse mythology for many years. There was something there, I knew it, but I did not know what it was until I sat down to write the initiatory title of the project-to-be. The only thing I could think that these myths had in common was the image of a maiden serving mead - and a sacred marriage associated with it. I was very pleased to realize that this common image was only the tip of the iceberg. The illustrations I drew myself, looking at photos from Hilda Ellis Davidson´s beautiful book Scandinavian Mythology. I could not find the Icelandic types required to write Old Norse on my computer, so I have used: th for Icelandic d for Icelandic ö for Icelandic I am very grateful for all help and support: To Ragnfrid Stokke who took the time to correct my English, to my tutors at the University of Oslo, Sigurd Hjelde and Gunnhild Røthe. To my parents, friends and family, lots of love. 6 7 “Crawl to your mother, the Earth; -she will save you from the void.” Rig Veda 10.18 “There Earth shall meet Thorr, her son; she will show him the kinspeoples´ way to Ódinn´s lands.” Harbardsljod, st. 56, Poetic Edda 1. I have tasted the sweet drink of life, knowing that it inspires good thoughts and joyous expansiveness to the extreme, that all the gods and mortals seek it together, calling it honey. 2. When you penetrate inside, you will know no limits(...) 3. We have drunk the Soma; we have become immortal; we have gone to the light; we have found the gods.(...) 5. The glorious drops that I have drunk set me free in wide space.(...) 11. Weaknesses and diseases have gone; the forces of dark- ness have fled in terror. Soma has climbed up in us, expanding. We have come to the place where they stretch out our life-spans. 12. The drop that we have drunk has entered our hearts, an immortal inside mortals (...) Rig Veda, 8. 48 8 9 1: Introduction This dissertation will take as its starting point a recurring theme in the Poetic Edda, namely the supernatural maiden offering a cup or a horn of precious mead to a hero. This theme is encountered in the herioc poems of the Poetic Edda, most specifically in the poem Sigrdrifumál, and in divine poems such as the Hávamál, the Skirnismál, and the Hyndluljod. The valkyrie who offers the mead in the Sigrdrifumál is said to be a reincarnation or a continuation of other valkyries met with in the heroic poems of Helgi Hiörvardsson and Helgi Hundingsbani, which makes it necessary to study all these poems in order to form a complete picture of the “Maiden with the Mead”. I will also add to my study the poem “Svípdagsmál1”, because the structure of the poem is comparable to the structure of the other poems studied in this dissertation. Thus many poems, each with their own history of research and interpretations, will be touched upon, and I may obviously not deal with all the details of each poem. The main aim, however, is to detect a common structure within each of the stories. I wish to show that they are all, in essence, telling the same tale, even though they all have their particular poetic flavouring, their own particular contexts and purpose. My desire is to show that behind the different poetical scenarios, a common mythical pattern is to be observed: that of sacred initiation centered around the figure of the Great Goddess, who may take many names and shapes. We will only slightly touch upon the kind of initiation that the poems are dealing with. Within the limits of this study there is not much room for discussing whether we are seeing the reflection of initiation to manhood, warriorhood, a secret society, a mystery cult, kingship or a religious office. Considering the amount of participants and the diversity between them in the stories, I suspect that the “Maiden” as initiator is a part of a general pattern of initiation. The kind of trials and the kind of teachings that the supposed initiant has to go through will be dealt with through the presentation of the poems, but since we are covering so many different stories there is not much space