Author: P. D. Brown

The Winning of the Mead

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. … Read more

The Wild Hunt

One of the most awesome and terrifying images in Germanic legend is the Wild Hunt. Known throughout Germany, England, Switzerland and in Scandinavia, where they were known as Oskoreia or Juleskreia, this troop of riders, galloping through the night sky, is traditionally led by Wodan or Woden (although some Hunts are led by ancient heroes and even by female entities such as Frau Hulda and Perchta). The Hunt is usually seen at the time of important festivals, most noticeably Yule, where the Hunt is conflated with the wild winter winds. I think that part of the enduring, and now legendary, power of the Wild Hunt lies in it originally being enacted at festivals like Yule by troops of masked young men riding through the country lanes to villages, where they would race down the streets.… Read more

Ragnarök

The Norse mythological cycle is brought to a close with the Ragnarök, a cataclysmic and catastrophic narrative where a host of frost giants, fire ogres, troll wives, monsters and legions of the dead invade Asgarð and close battle with the gods and einherjar in what will be the latter’s heroic last stand.

The greatest treatment of these themes is given in the Eddic poem Völuspá. Its treatment is allusive, assuming the knowledge of its audience, kaleidoscoping events, giving greater pace and allowing time to speak of the causes of the gods’ day of reckoning.

The consequences of two events, actions laid down long ago, which cause the disaster, bringing it to pass, the gods have brought upon themselves: Oðinn, Vili and Ve’s slaying of their matrilineal kinsman Ymir, and the breaking of the gods’ vow to the giant builder of Asgarð’s wall; as Völuspá.… Read more

Alfar ok Dvergar

In Heathen Germanic culture, are elves and dwarves one and the same race of beings? They are clearly closely associated. Many dwarves have an ‘elf’ element to their names; Voluspa’s verse 12 lists Gandalfr (Wand-elf) and Vindalfr (Wind-elf) and in verse 16, one dwarf is simply named Alfr. Elves and dwarves are also seen together as the bearers of illness, as evidenced by the third and seventh Anglo-Saxon verse charms, ‘Against a Dwarf’ and ‘For the Water-elf Disease’ (as to what a ‘water-elf’ actually was, I will return to this later). – Anglo-Saxon Verse Charms, Maxims and Heroic Legends, Louis J.… Read more

Groagaldr

The text of Grougaldr, ‘Groa’s Incantation’, and its partner text, Fjolvinnsmal, ‘Fjolvinn’s Speech’ (together known as Svipdagsmal), has come down to us in texts dating from the C17th. 

Bridal Quest romances became popular in Scandinavia in the early Middle Ages and it seems to me that here an older myth has been reworked in a more fashionable guise.  (This can be compared to the sagas of the warrior poets, such as The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue, where the older themes of heroism met the new, European themes of romantic love.)  A clear indication of this is seen when Menglath, in her penultimate stanza, says ‘ath thu ert aftr kominn mogr til minna sala’ – ‘that you are returned to my hall’, implying he has already been there before. … Read more

Day breaks and Night falls

Dawn and dusk, stage curtains draped
Across revolving earth’s round face;
Birds carol dawn but muse at dusk,
The land becomes a stranger place
From which diurnal life withdraws
While moths and badgers find accord,
Our world consumed by its own shadow
Until dew falls and then tomorrow
Grows from light that’s grey and plain,
Imperceptibly, it’s day!
Noon’s high tide is rarely noted,
Shadows then are at their shortest.
Midnight’s other self moves on,
Shadows turn and also lengthen,
Then spread, diffuse, imbue the air,
Soften the light until none’s there.
It’s in these times, twilight’s hours,
Half-light unveils crepuscular power
In rising mist, the liminal tricks
Peripheral vision, a barn owl flits.
… Read more

The Ravens Speak

We were a god and goddess bird of old,
Our divinity was recognised;
We would inspire and make your blood run cold.
Your blood-lust later blamed on us – such lies!
Your double standard came as no surprise.
Our corpse-perch eating was effect not cause.
A distance grew between us – not the sky’s;
We had the wildlife while you did your chores,
We’d come back now and then to dine out on your wars!

From nest-site cliffs of mountains, fells and coasts,
We shadow you and gaze upon your ruin
And circle round you, feathered coal-black ghosts.
Noticeable, we charm our way back in;
Despite yourself, we get beneath your skin.
… Read more

Beorc

A mythic poem: earth and sky as wed,
And wedding places cover earth’s domain;
Wren’s nest, fox den, bear cave – and human bed.
All warm and dark, all different but the same,
Where seeds are nurtured, creatures brought to birth.
On woodland floors, damp rotting layered leaves
Shroud multitudes of sprouting plants; no dearth
Of anything, bats hunt, a spider weaves.
But Birches’ rushing sap goes down as well
As up, arboreal pale ghosts, thin ghouls;
Old age’s midwives watch each passing hearse;
The leafless, bone-barked Yuletide trees of Hel.
Hopes of rebirth seem vain and hollow, cruel,
Like Loki’s daughter’s grinning horse-head curse.