Myths are like dreams; they fascinate us but their ultimate meaning eludes us. Different theories and interpretations can shed light on parts of a myth, or even cast a diffuse, faint glow over it all but a myth can never be fully illumined. It always retains some of its mystery, a mystery that is not lessened by examination but rather makes it the more intriguing by seeing the depth and complexity of its spiritual, psychological and cultural facets. Let us look at one of the most important of the Norse myths; Othinn’s taking of the Mead of Inspiration.
The knowledge-wisdom contained in the mead undergoes three births: firstly, when Kvasir arises from the cauldron into which all the gods have spat; he then dies, at the hands of the dwarves Fjalar and Galar and the knowledge is reborn as the mead. Now the knowledge has entered into an inert phase. Schjodt states (1) that Kvasir’s wisdom has no function but that is not true as Kvasir shares his knowledge by dispensing advice and is therefore useful to all who ask. The true difference is that once drunk as mead, the wisdom permanently effects a change in the drinker, as opposed to a querant merely benefiting from Kvasir’s advice on a single occasion.
Kvasir gave advice of use to others but in the hands of the dwarfs, and later the giants, it is merely hoarded and is of no use to anyone. When Othinn drinks the mead, it is soon regurgitated, its third birth, and once again it is of use; its gift of wisdom is used by Othinn, he becomes wise (see Havamal v. 141) and moreover he shares the mead with mortal poets and scholars. It becomes, as Margaret Clunies-Ross puts it, “a force in the expression of culture” (2), the natural, physical ingredients, blood and honey, now give nutrition to the intellect, serving poetry’s higher purpose.
The names of the three vessels that the dwarfs put the mead in are Son, Bothn and Othroerir. Othr means mad, frantic, furious, eager; its homonym means sense or wit and appears to include the power of speech (3), so Othroerir would arouse these qualities. Son is etymologically related to the German Suhne, ‘atonement’. Interestingly, the C10th skald Kormakr calls Othinn haptsoenir, ‘atoner for the gods’ (4). Some scholars suggest the atonement here is the dwarfs’ atonement for killing Suttung’s parents but they also note that Son is related to the Old High German word suona, meaning reconciliation or conclusion of peace and that the vessel’s name refers to the peace-making between the Aesir and the Vanir that created Kvasir ((1) p.160).
The meaning of the word bothn seems to be unknown, aside from the obvious ‘vessel’. However, the “parallel with the Old English word orc, a Latin loan word, meaning both ‘drinking vessel’ and ‘Orcus’, ‘underworld’ points to a fuller significance for Bothn …. Etruscan urns …. show a chained wolfish figure … emerging from the mouth of a large round pot …. The pot, with its tight opening … clearly represents the prison of the underworld of death (in an O.E. gloss Orcus is rendered orcthyrs, ‘underworld ogre’;…. I would suggest that Norse Bothn stands for the same underworld container as we see on the Etruscan urns, and that, if Snorri’s order of the vessel names is altered … to Bothn, Son, Othroerir, then the three drinks represent the order of Othinn’s experience: 1. the fettering prison of underworld death, 2. the bitter atonement made, 3. the rebirth or resuscitation of the vital spirit.” ((4) p.662)
Othinn’s journey would then appear as an initiatory one. He goes to the underworld, the last part of the journey is made as a snake, the ideal form for chthonic quests. That it is an initiation is made clear by the way he goes down into the underworld and then flies high as an eagle but crucially, he is permanently changed. Kvasir’s blood also begins life in the upper world, undergoes a descent (into death and its realm) and returns in Othinn’s crop in an active, inspiring form.
When we look at Gunnlod’s role, we see that in Snorri’s version, she is seduced and gives Othinn three drinks, whereas the Havamal version implies Othinn meets and speaks with Suttung in his hall and perhaps a formal marriage takes place between Gunnlod and Othinn. (The giving of drink by a woman to a man was a heavily charged one in Germanic culture and was included in marriage contracts.) Either way, he uses his charms to get the mead.
Though it may be no more than a framing device, it is to be noted that the wisdom begins life being spat from the gods’ mouths and this is mirrored when it is finally reborn spat from Othinn’s mouth.
Like any true myth, any true story, there are as many lessons held within the tale as there are true ears to hear it. Within an initiatory Germanic context this is a myth which holds a lifetime of fruitful pondering and re-enacting.
But there are also ways that this tale pertains to any of us, no matter our interest in ‘initiatory models.’ Ways that this ancient and fantastic myth – with shape-shifting gods, magical beings made of spit, dwarves, giants, and a regurgitated origin of poetry – can provide meaning for our modern lives.
Think back to a time when something that seemed perfect, something flawless and full of promise, something that you believed would last, ended tragically whether through your own actions, the actions of others, or just the seemingly pointless hand of Wyrd. Remember how that “fettering prison of underworld death” felt. How your whole life changed on some level.
Remember the painful process of learning how to rearrange the aspects of your world that had been affected. Remember the beginnings of wisdom the necessary “bitter atonement” stirred. Wisdom, that hopefully, has fully manifested with “the rebirth or resuscitation of the vital spirit” that came with future promise fulfilled. Wisdom that was hard-won, and very often, bittersweet.
Midgard is a hard place in which to live. Along with the incredible joys comes pain and struggle. The next time your Kvasir is murdered remember that you’re not alone and that the gods and the ancestors have left instructions for travelling the harshest of landscapes.
Such guidance is both the same and unique for each traveller who hears the story.
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P.D. Brown, Aberdeenshire, SCT
(1) Jens Peter Schjodt, Initiation Between Two Worlds, University Press of Southern Denmark 2008, p. 168
(2) Prolonged Echoes, Margaret Clunies-Ross, Odense University Press 1994, p. 83
(3) An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Cleaseby, Vigfusson, Craigie, Oxford University Press 2003 p.471
(4) Myth and Fiction in Early Norse Lands, ed. Ursula Dronke, Variorum 1996, IV p. 663