Gods and Myths of Northern Europe

men must have feared constantly in the northern settlements: destruction of life by intense cold, and the flooding of rivers and sea over inhabited land. Both these conceptions are widespread through the world, but they are such as would occur with special force to the minds of the men of the north-west, a region of long, dark winters and stormy seas, as well as occasional volcanic eruptions. The emphasis on the carved stones, on the other hand, was on the overthrowing of the gods by the monsters breaking loose from their bonds. It may have been the genius of the poet of Voluspa which brought these two ideas together. Certainly the clarity and conviction which one feels in Snorri’s account of the destruction is such as to make it hard to believe that here we have merely a hotch-potch of assorted ideas about the world’s ending, pieced together from outside sources. If the account in Voluspa, from which most of his material is taken, was based on an actual experience such as a major volcanic eruption, this would explain how old heathen ideas about the last battle and the overthrow of the gods have been linked up with teaching concerning the end of the world, and all given a new freshness and significance.

There seems no doubt that a vigorous tradition about the end of the world and its subsequent rebirth out of the sea existed in pre-Christian times in the north. This was strong enough to survive until late in the heathen period, when new ideas coming in from outside may have helped to give it new life. The sinking of earth into the sea, the triumph of cold, fire, and darkness, the breaking loose of monsters long held in check – such images lie deep in men’s minds, and we can understand their long survival. The picture of Ragnarok might indeed be viewed as a great and terrifying image of a mental breakdown, or as the complete disintegration of the mind in death. It is this which gives the picture which Snorri took from Voluspa such unmistakable power. He rightly saw it as a fitting climax to his account of the northern gods.

Conclusion - The Passing of the Old Gods

Kjartan said: ‘As for me, I mean to accept the Christian faith in Norway, on one condition, and that is that I shall still put a little reliance on Thor next winter, when I get to Iceland.’ The king said, with a smile: ‘You can see from Kjartan’s manner that he feels he can put more trust in his strength and his weapons than in Thor and Odin.’

Laxdoela Saga

This brief survey of heathen religion in the north has shown us that certain of the gods who appear in the myths were once of considerable importance in the lives of men. In the Viking age there were four powerful deities. First Odin, god of inspiration, whether in the form of battle-frenzy, intoxication, or secret wisdom from the land of the dead. Secondly Thor, god of the sky and the thunderbolt, preserver of the community where men pitted their strength and wits against the hardship of the weather and the attacks of their enemies. Thirdly Freyr, who with his sister Freyja brought peace and prosperity to men, the blessings of fertility in the home and the field, healthy children and rich harvests. This group of deities can be traced back to the days when the Germans were a heathen people and worshipped Wodan, god of inspiration and the dead, Tiwaz, god of the sky and of battle, and a god of fertility, along with the goddess of many names whom the Danes called Nerthus. The symbols associated with these gods, the starry heavens and the mighty tree, the unloosing of fetters, the hammer that shattered rocks and slew giants, the ship and the wagon that brought the deity to men, the horse that galloped through the air, the spear that determined victory, the women bearing gifts – all these symbols of power appear to have been known to the Germans in the early period; and to have retained something of their potency into the late Viking age, so that they have left their mark on the myths that remain to us. The background of these deities, the cosmic region surrounding the World Tree, also seems to be of great antiquity. Above was the home of the gods, below the great depths, with middle earth, the home of mankind, poised between them. The doors between the worlds were not hard to open, given the necessary knowledge and the courage to choose so perilous a path.

Many of the myths are concerned with the conception of a journey to the Other World, through the cold and darkness that acted as a barrier. The rich symbolism of roads and bridges, dark holes and caves leading to the underworld, the open burial mound, the journey through the air in bird form, all this emphasizes the belief in a passage between the worlds both for men and other beings. The creatures of the depths are strongly and vigorously portrayed in the myths. The giants, sometimes monstrous and sometimes fair to see, the wolf held in bonds, the ancient dragon in his den, the serpent encircling the world, are never long forgotten. They are continually contrasted with the realm of the gods, the shining heavens with their bright dwellings. The underworld, either below the earth or the waves, is the abode of darkness and death, threatening always to destroy the ordered world of light and overrun the inhabited earth. Yet at the same time it is the place from which new life comes, and to which the gods may look for their brides. We are reminded from time to time in the myths that the seemingly dead earth sends up shoots in spring, that wisdom may come from the sea depths, and that the characteristics of dead men appear again in their children’s children.

Finally in this picture of gods and monsters, we find the idea of the continual re-enactment, l’eternel retour, as Mircea Eliade calls it. The gods themselves were doomed to fall before the powers of darkness, and heaven and earth to pass away. But rebirth must follow destruction, and a newly cleansed earth and heaven emerge from the sea and the flames. The sons of the gods and the survivors of mankind would again people earth and heaven, new dwellings arise in Asgard, and green fields once more yield their harvest on middle earth.

Such is the picture which we discern at the heart of the old religion, behind the succession of rich, entertaining, and often moving myths which have survived from the northern world. It was claimed at the beginning that myths are a comment on human existence and a model of social behaviour, an attempt to define the inner realities. Although some of the surviving myths are clearly shaped by the hands of poets, scholars, and entertainers, there is much which appears to be basic material from heathen times. There is moreover a certain amount of information collected in the Edda poems, particularly that which has to do with the World Tree, the divisions between the worlds, and the dwellings of the gods, which has certainly not been put together for its value as entertainment. It has the appearance of a body of knowledge about the gods and their world brought together for purposes of memory or teaching. This enables us to correct the more frivolous impression given by some of the racier myths, products of an age when the gods offered a tempting target for northern wit.

We can see the myths as a vigorous, heroic comment on life, life as men found it in hard and inhospitable lands. The gods never cease their struggle against the creatures of cold and darkness. Thor, perhaps the best-loved deity of the north, is characteristic of the Vikings in his resolute pertinacity. The values for which he stood – law and order in the free community, the keeping of faith between men – were those by which the Vikings set great store, even though they themselves often appeared to the outside world as the forces of destruction unleashed. Odin represented the other side of life, the inspiration granted to the warrior and the poet, and the secret wisdom won by communication with the dead. In his cult and in the religion of the Vanir we see most clearly the shamanistic tendencies of northern religion, the emphasis on man’s powers to reach out beyond this harsh and limited world. Above all, the northern myths are clear-sighted in their recognition of the reality of the forces of destruction. The fight in a narrow place against odds, which has been called the ideal of heroic literature in the north, is given cosmic stature in the conception of Ragnarok, the doom of the gods, when Odin and his peers go down fighting against the monsters and the unleashed fury of the elements. The depths and dark mysteries of the subconscious are given full recognition in the myths. The greatest terror to be faced, that of the disintegration of the mind in madness or death, is not pushed to one side. At Ragnarok a rich and wonderful world was shattered and the monsters had their fill of destruction. After that facing of reality, it was possible to see beyond the catastrophe and to imagine a new world built upon the ruins of the old.

This does not mean that all who accepted the old heathen faith had a deep philosophy and acceptance of life. For the ordinary man, the myths might be very limited in their significance, and his religious ideas fragmentary