Nine Insufferable Nights - The Initiation of Freyr (Skírnismál, Poetic Edda)

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• published: 08 Jul 2010
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http://www.freya.theladyofthelabyrinth.com Sources: Skírnismál ("The Speech of the Shining One") of the Poetic Edda, and from Snorri Sturlusson´s Prose Edda. Music for this video: Peregrin. Songs: Skudrinka, Branle d´Ecosse, Ai-vist-dur. (http://www.myspace.com/musicaperegrin) Thanks to Peregrin for letting me use your music! Video, translations and interpretations by Maria Kvilhaug. About poem: Ever since the 19th century, the Skírnismál has been considered a "typical fertility myth" where the Sun God (Freyr) wakes up the slumbering Earth Goddess (Gerdr) after winter. This outdated interpretation bases itself on the preconception that all pre-Christian religions were about fertility and agricultural cycles and completely disregards the fact that in Old Norse myths, the Sun is female and considered among the goddesses, a fact that is enforced by the Old Norse language itself, where the word for sun (Sól) is a feminine noun and the fact that the poem itself describes the woman Gerdr, NOT Freyr, as having bright arms that illuminate all the worlds and which brighten heaven and the ocean. The first scholar to really break up with the old paradigm was Gro Steinsland who in the 1990´s argued that the poem is an initiation story where the goal of initiation is kingship through Sacred Sarriage with a giantess who represents the land over which the king is to rule, the giantesses representing the land, earth, feminine primeval forces, ancestral clan mother. (Read Steinsland for more info about this hypothesis, as it cannot be rendered satisfactorily in only a few lines). I have a different approach to this myth. The female main character of this story is to me obviously identical with Hel/Freyia, living as she does within the Underworld, surrounded by high and dangerous fences, a horrific Gate, guarded by Hel-Hounds, and by the famous Shepherd/Ferryman figure who sits on a burial mound and asks if the visitor is dead or dying since he is trying to get into the "bright halls" of the Maiden. Both Hel and Freyia are described as such and both characters represent Death and Fate (the ultimate Fate). Hel is known to have two sides to her face -- one representing decay and oblivion in death, the other representing resurrection and rememberance, Freyia embodying the latter whereas figures such as Skadi ("Harm") who runs with wolves represent the former. The Goddess in all her aspects is in Old Norse traditions a descendant of the Bronze Age Sun Goddess, a Goddess who also moved between darkness and light.Freyr represents one of the three aspects of the human nature: Passion (the other being Spirit and Mind.) In this story, he seeks marriage with the Goddess in the Underworld, and as I am trying to show through simple retelling of the tale with the proper translations offered, this union is about resurrection in death. The great paradox of this myth is that passion will be vanquished as soon as Freyr reaches his goal, and thus his resurrection also signifies his death -- at least his death as Passion. Scholars have been puzzled about the threats and curses thrown at Gerdr (the Goddess) in this poem, trying to figure out what they mean. I had to shorten down this part of the poem for the sake of space, but several stanzas are devoted to cursing the Goddess from the joy of company with human beings and from sexual pleasure with men -- if she does not agree to give her "Whole Soul" (Heila Húgr) to Freyr, she will end up as an ogress in Hel, loved only by trolls. It has been pointed out that the curses simply represent a poetical way of describing the facts: if the Goddess remains in the Underworld, she will indeed represent nothing but Death and Oblivion and will be feared by humans, loved only by destructive forces. If she agrees to marry Freyr, she will be a part of the divine Pantheon, she will be loved, she will represent resurrection and wisdom. I also believe that this is what the curses represent. At the same time, the curses may trick us into believing that the Goddess gives into the threats, and few seem to have noticed the fact that it is the Goddess who tricks the assailant: Yes, she WILL marry Freyr, but ONLY after "the Nine Nights", and ONLY in the "Quiet, Breezeless Grove". In the video I have explained what that really means. OPENING SHELF=Hlídskialf, HIDDEN ONE=Gymir (or perhaps "The One who Hides Something" - HEL also means "hidden, hiding"),THE MAIDEN= Hin Mey, ELF-WHEEL=Alfrödull (the Sun),THE PRECIOUS MEAD=hin mæra mjödr, FROSTY CUP FILLED WITH ANCIENT MEAD=hrímkalki fullom forns miadar. THE LORD=Freyr, THE LADY= Freyia. PINE-NEEDLE=Barri, BREEZELESS GROVE=lundr lognfara; AFTER THE NINE NIGHTS= ept netr nío WINDS OF DEATH= Snorri tells us that winds are created by the eagle Hræsvelgr, the "Corpse Swallower", who sits in the World of the Death flapping its wind. Everything that is windshielded or breezeless is a metaphor for immortality.KING OF MEN=Freyr is the protoypical king.