The First War [6/100]
May. 2nd, 2012 04:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tilly_stratfordI'd like there to be a sort of narrative chronology to the myths we look at, but the Norse myths are very intricately intervowen with little sense of what happens when, so I realize I'm simply going to have to abandon that plan soon. Ah, c'est la vie.
But as for now, we're still talking about the time when the world was young, the Golden Age had recently ended, and the gods had to take arms in the first war there ever was.
A wicked woman came to Ásgard one day, a vǫlva (a seeress, a female prophet) named Gullveigr. The Æsir ran her through with spears (the Eddas don't really linger on motivation, but her name might translate to "thirst for gold") and burnt her on a pyre - but when the flames died out she still lived. All in all they tried to burn her three times, but she was "thrice reborn" as the Poetic Edda puts it.
At this point the Æsir had not yet learned much sorcery. They could create, but not magically shape or influence what already was (which contradicts how they created the first humans out of tree logs, but we'll let that slide) so Gullveigr's magic vexed them. Incidentally, the collective term for Viking Age sorcery is seiðr, and it was generally viewed as a woman's trade - particularly the use of galdr, i.e. the chanting or singing of magical formulas.
The Eddas get really vague on just how Gullveigr managed to start the first war, because she isn't mentioned after the burning attempts. The theory is that she wandered out of Ásgard, fresh as a daisy, and went to Vanaheimr where the other tribe of gods, the Vanir live, and they were horrified at how she'd been treated by the Æsir. Some assume Gullveigr was really the Vanir goddess Freyja in disguise, by the way. But no matter how it went, the Vanir marched to Ásgard. It's told in Völuspá:
The first war was on, and it was a devastating one. The battles raged on and on, and many fell, including Odin's brothers Vili and Vé, who'd helped him create the world. None of the sides could quite get the upper hand, they were too evenly matched. Finally, the leaders of the Æsir and Vanir decided to hold council, and they agreed that they would end the terrible war by exchanging hostages. The Vanir offered the greatest of their tribe: Njörðr and his children Freyr and Freyja.
Njörðr is a god associated with the wind, seafaring, fishing, wealth and crop fertility. Freyr is a fertility god associated with rain and sun and crops (and being a fertility god we'll later get to some myths showing how he is pretty much "thinking with his dick" personified). His sister Freyja is also a fertility deity, and very skilled at sorcery. She's also the most beautiful woman that ever existed - when she cries, her tears are red gold (which is how "tears of Freyja" came to be a kenning for gold). The Vanir practice incest, and it was with his sister that Njörðr fathered his son and daughter, and if Loki is to be believed in a later myth, Frey and Freyja have also been at it.
In exchange for the three Vanir, the Æsir offered a tall and handsome god named Hænir (in one iteration he's one of Odin's brothers), assuring them that he was a wise and fair god, perfect for leading the Vanir, and they also threw Odin's Jotun friend, the wise Mímir, into the deal. The Vanir were very impressed with the Æsir's sales pitch and generosity. The counsil was jovially concluded with everyone spitting into a vat, and they took the spit and created a man out of it, Kvasir, the wisest who ever lived. (Incidentally, Kvasir is also the name of a popular Norwegian search engine.)
But it seems like a pretty raw deal, eh? The Vanir exchanging four very powerful gods for one measly Áss (singular of "Æsir", remember) and a Jotun? Yeah well, it gets worse.
For a while the hostages seemed to integrate well on both sides. Hænir was made chieftain among the Vanir, and with Mímir he settled disputes there, while the Vanir hostages were treated as Æsir equals, and started teaching them sorcery. It eventually became clear, however, that when Mímir wasn't whispering in his ear, Hænir - who'd been presented as an extremely wise man - couldn't even make the simplest decisions by himself. They'd been tricked! In exchange for four immensely powerful Vanir they'd recieved a real dumbass of an Áss! (A dumbÁss, if you will.)
Understandably, the Vanir were furious. They executed Mímir and sent his head back to Odin, but Freyja had taught Odin sorcery, and with a lot of galdr (it was viewed as very scandalous for a man to do galdr - in a way it shows Odin's resolution, the fact that he's willing to do something so unmanly) he succeeded in bringing the head back to life. He still keeps it, and Mímir is still his greatest advisor.
We don't know what happened to Hænir (probably something gory). Or the Vanir, for that matter, because beyond the hostages, they never ever appear in the Eddas again. Weird, huh?
Well, let's put our thinking caps on.
The Vanir, and consequently this particular myth, has always fascinated me because there's every reason to believe the story reflects an actual shift that happened in Scandinavian culture at some point. See, it seems the Vanir are remnants of even older, pre-Viking Age cult! Notice how the Vanir are all fertility deities (while among the Æsir you find more specialized deities of various trades - there's a god of skiing, for goodness sake), also there's the fact that they're incestuous (which was taboo in the Viking Age, but which is a common divine motif from ancient mythologies all over the world).
The theory is that there was a merger at some point between the cult that worshipped Odin and Thor and the rest, and one that worshiped Freyr, etc. There was possibly a tribe war involved. But fact of the matter is, the Vanir seem to represent ancient nature worship in Scandinavia. In fact - you'll remember when we went over the nine realms, I mentioned there's a link between the Vanir and the elves - well, in a poem we'll get to some other day, Loki (in one of his nastier moments) accuses Freyja of having slept with "every god and elf in this room", even though there are only Æsir and Vanir present. So, the Vanir and elves, otherwise regarded as two separate races in the sources we have left, might come from the same old objects of worhsip - fertility/nature gods.
Now that I've properly introduced the Vanir, I'll apologize in advance for when I'll undoubtedly start using "Æsir" as a collective term for all the gods in Ásgard. In my defense, the fact that certain gods hail from Vanaheimr doesn't ever really come up again. We have some fun stories ahead of us though, now that we've thrown a couple of fertility gods into the mix!
But as for now, we're still talking about the time when the world was young, the Golden Age had recently ended, and the gods had to take arms in the first war there ever was.
A wicked woman came to Ásgard one day, a vǫlva (a seeress, a female prophet) named Gullveigr. The Æsir ran her through with spears (the Eddas don't really linger on motivation, but her name might translate to "thirst for gold") and burnt her on a pyre - but when the flames died out she still lived. All in all they tried to burn her three times, but she was "thrice reborn" as the Poetic Edda puts it.
At this point the Æsir had not yet learned much sorcery. They could create, but not magically shape or influence what already was (which contradicts how they created the first humans out of tree logs, but we'll let that slide) so Gullveigr's magic vexed them. Incidentally, the collective term for Viking Age sorcery is seiðr, and it was generally viewed as a woman's trade - particularly the use of galdr, i.e. the chanting or singing of magical formulas.
The Eddas get really vague on just how Gullveigr managed to start the first war, because she isn't mentioned after the burning attempts. The theory is that she wandered out of Ásgard, fresh as a daisy, and went to Vanaheimr where the other tribe of gods, the Vanir live, and they were horrified at how she'd been treated by the Æsir. Some assume Gullveigr was really the Vanir goddess Freyja in disguise, by the way. But no matter how it went, the Vanir marched to Ásgard. It's told in Völuspá:
Odin shot a spear, hurled it over the host;(The spear presumably being Odin's famous spear Gungnir, which never misses its mark.)
that was still the first war in the world,
the defense wall was broken of the Æsir's stronghold;
the Vanir, indomitable, were trampling the plain.
The first war was on, and it was a devastating one. The battles raged on and on, and many fell, including Odin's brothers Vili and Vé, who'd helped him create the world. None of the sides could quite get the upper hand, they were too evenly matched. Finally, the leaders of the Æsir and Vanir decided to hold council, and they agreed that they would end the terrible war by exchanging hostages. The Vanir offered the greatest of their tribe: Njörðr and his children Freyr and Freyja.
Njörðr is a god associated with the wind, seafaring, fishing, wealth and crop fertility. Freyr is a fertility god associated with rain and sun and crops (and being a fertility god we'll later get to some myths showing how he is pretty much "thinking with his dick" personified). His sister Freyja is also a fertility deity, and very skilled at sorcery. She's also the most beautiful woman that ever existed - when she cries, her tears are red gold (which is how "tears of Freyja" came to be a kenning for gold). The Vanir practice incest, and it was with his sister that Njörðr fathered his son and daughter, and if Loki is to be believed in a later myth, Frey and Freyja have also been at it.
In exchange for the three Vanir, the Æsir offered a tall and handsome god named Hænir (in one iteration he's one of Odin's brothers), assuring them that he was a wise and fair god, perfect for leading the Vanir, and they also threw Odin's Jotun friend, the wise Mímir, into the deal. The Vanir were very impressed with the Æsir's sales pitch and generosity. The counsil was jovially concluded with everyone spitting into a vat, and they took the spit and created a man out of it, Kvasir, the wisest who ever lived. (Incidentally, Kvasir is also the name of a popular Norwegian search engine.)
But it seems like a pretty raw deal, eh? The Vanir exchanging four very powerful gods for one measly Áss (singular of "Æsir", remember) and a Jotun? Yeah well, it gets worse.
For a while the hostages seemed to integrate well on both sides. Hænir was made chieftain among the Vanir, and with Mímir he settled disputes there, while the Vanir hostages were treated as Æsir equals, and started teaching them sorcery. It eventually became clear, however, that when Mímir wasn't whispering in his ear, Hænir - who'd been presented as an extremely wise man - couldn't even make the simplest decisions by himself. They'd been tricked! In exchange for four immensely powerful Vanir they'd recieved a real dumbass of an Áss! (A dumbÁss, if you will.)
Understandably, the Vanir were furious. They executed Mímir and sent his head back to Odin, but Freyja had taught Odin sorcery, and with a lot of galdr (it was viewed as very scandalous for a man to do galdr - in a way it shows Odin's resolution, the fact that he's willing to do something so unmanly) he succeeded in bringing the head back to life. He still keeps it, and Mímir is still his greatest advisor.
We don't know what happened to Hænir (probably something gory). Or the Vanir, for that matter, because beyond the hostages, they never ever appear in the Eddas again. Weird, huh?
Well, let's put our thinking caps on.
The Vanir, and consequently this particular myth, has always fascinated me because there's every reason to believe the story reflects an actual shift that happened in Scandinavian culture at some point. See, it seems the Vanir are remnants of even older, pre-Viking Age cult! Notice how the Vanir are all fertility deities (while among the Æsir you find more specialized deities of various trades - there's a god of skiing, for goodness sake), also there's the fact that they're incestuous (which was taboo in the Viking Age, but which is a common divine motif from ancient mythologies all over the world).
The theory is that there was a merger at some point between the cult that worshipped Odin and Thor and the rest, and one that worshiped Freyr, etc. There was possibly a tribe war involved. But fact of the matter is, the Vanir seem to represent ancient nature worship in Scandinavia. In fact - you'll remember when we went over the nine realms, I mentioned there's a link between the Vanir and the elves - well, in a poem we'll get to some other day, Loki (in one of his nastier moments) accuses Freyja of having slept with "every god and elf in this room", even though there are only Æsir and Vanir present. So, the Vanir and elves, otherwise regarded as two separate races in the sources we have left, might come from the same old objects of worhsip - fertility/nature gods.
Now that I've properly introduced the Vanir, I'll apologize in advance for when I'll undoubtedly start using "Æsir" as a collective term for all the gods in Ásgard. In my defense, the fact that certain gods hail from Vanaheimr doesn't ever really come up again. We have some fun stories ahead of us though, now that we've thrown a couple of fertility gods into the mix!
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Date: 2012-05-05 09:04 am (UTC)This explains why I never could get a handle on who exactly the Vanir were. I always assumed there were stories about them that I was just somehow always missing. I guess not!
Notice how the Vanir are all fertility deities (while among the Æsir you find more specialized deities of various trades - there's a god of skiing, for goodness sake)
...There's a god of skiing?
That is awesome.
no subject
Date: 2012-05-05 10:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-12 11:12 pm (UTC)This is still awesome, and I'm still reading it slavishly, just so you know. :D
no subject
Date: 2012-05-13 10:43 am (UTC)