Pestilence and Famine

Hel herself was supposed occasionally to leave her dismal abode to range the earth upon her three-legged white horse, and in times of pestilence or famine, if a part of the inhabitants of a district escaped, she was said to use a rake, and when whole villages and provinces were depopulated, as in the case of the historical epidemic of the Black Death, it was said that she had ridden with a broom.

The Northern races further fancied that the spirits of the dead were sometimes allowed to revisit the earth and appear to their relatives, whose sorrow or joy affected them even after death, as is related in the Danish ballad of Aager and Else, where a dead lover bids his sweetheart smile, so that his coffin may be filled with roses instead of the clotted blood drops produced by her tears.

"'Listen now, my good Sir Aager!

Dearest bridegroom, all I crave Is to know how it goes with thee In that lonely place, the grave.'

"'Every time that thou rejoicest, And art happy in thy mind, Are my lonely grave's recesses All with leaves of roses lined.'

"'Every time that, love, thou grievest, And dost shed the briny flood, Are my lonely grave's recesses Filled with black and loathsome blood.'"

Ballad of Aager and Else (Longfellow's tr.).

CHAPTER XX: aeGIR

The G.o.d of the Sea

Besides Niord and Mimir, who were both ocean divinities, the one representing the sea near the coast and the other the primaeval ocean whence all things were supposed to have sprung, the Northern races recognised another sea-ruler, called aegir or Hler, who dwelt either in the cool depths of his liquid realm or had his abode on the Island of Lessoe, in the Cattegat, or Hlesey.

"Beneath the watery dome, With crystalline splendour, In radiant grandeur, Upreared the sea-G.o.d's home.

More dazzling than foam of the waves E'er glimmered and gleamed thro' deep caves The glistening sands of its floor, Like some placid lake rippled o'er."

Valhalla (J. C. Jones).

aegir (the sea), like his brothers Kari (the air) and Loki (fire), is supposed to have belonged to an older dynasty of the G.o.ds, for he ranked neither with the aesir, the Vanas, the giants, dwarfs, or elves, but was considered omnipotent within his realm.

He was supposed to occasion and quiet the great tempests which swept over the deep, and was generally represented as a gaunt old man, with long white beard and hair, and clawlike fingers ever clutching convulsively, as though he longed to have all things within his grasp. Whenever he appeared above the waves, it was only to pursue and overturn vessels, and to greedily drag them to the bottom of the sea, a vocation in which he was thought to take fiendish delight.

The G.o.ddess Ran

aegir was mated with his sister, the G.o.ddess Ran, whose name means "robber," and who was as cruel, greedy, and insatiable as her husband. Her favourite pastime was to lurk near dangerous rocks, whither she enticed mariners, and there spread her net, her most prized possession, when, having entangled the men in its meshes and broken their vessels on the jagged cliffs, she would calmly draw them down into her cheerless realm.

"In the deep sea caves By the sounding sh.o.r.e, In the dashing waves When the wild storms roar, In her cold green bowers In the Northern fiords, She lurks and she glowers, She grasps and she h.o.a.rds, And she spreads her strong net for her prey."

Story of Siegfried (Baldwin).

Ran was considered the G.o.ddess of death for all who perished at sea, and the Northern nations fancied that she entertained the drowned in her coral caves, where her couches were spread to receive them, and where the mead flowed freely as in Valhalla. The G.o.ddess was further supposed to have a great affection for gold, which was called the "flame of the sea," and was used to illuminate her halls. This belief originated with the sailors, and sprang from the striking phosph.o.r.escent gleam of the waves. To win Ran's good graces, the Northmen were careful to hide some gold about them whenever any special danger threatened them on the sea.

"Gold, on sweetheart ramblings, Pow'rful is and pleasant; Who goes empty-handed Down to sea-blue Ran, Cold her kisses strike, and Fleeting her embrace is-- But we ocean's bride be- Troth with purest gold."

Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).

The Waves

aegir and Ran had nine beautiful daughters, the Waves, or billow-maidens, whose snowy arms and bosoms, long golden hair, deep-blue eyes, and willowy, sensuous forms were fascinating in the extreme. These maidens delighted in sporting over the surface of their father's vast domain, clad lightly in transparent blue, white, or green veils. They were very moody and capricious, however, varying from playful to sullen and apathetic moods, and at times exciting one another almost to madness, tearing their hair and veils, flinging themselves recklessly upon their hard beds, the rocks, chasing one another with frantic haste, and shrieking aloud with joy or despair. But they seldom came out to play unless their brother, the Wind, were abroad, and according to his mood they were gentle and playful, or rough and boisterous.

The Waves were generally supposed to go about in triplets, and were often said to play around the ships of vikings whom they favoured, smoothing away every obstacle from their course, and helping them to reach speedily their goals.

"And aeger's daughters, in blue veils dight, The helm leap round, and urge it on its flight."

Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).

aegir's Brewing Kettle

To the Anglo-Saxons the sea-G.o.d aegir was known by the name of Eagor, and whenever an unusually large wave came thundering towards the sh.o.r.e, the sailors were wont to cry, as the Trent boatmen still do, "Look out, Eagor is coming!" He was also known by the name of Hler (the shelterer) among the Northern nations, and of Gymir (the concealer), because he was always ready to hide things in the depths of his realm, and could be depended upon not to reveal the secrets entrusted to his care. And, because the waters of the sea were frequently said to seethe and hiss, the ocean was often called aegir's brewing kettle or vat.

The G.o.d's two princ.i.p.al servants were Elde and Funfeng, emblems of the phosph.o.r.escence of the sea; they were noted for their quickness and they invariably waited upon the guests whom he invited to his banquets in the depths of the sea. aegir sometimes left his realm to visit the aesir in Asgard, where he was always royally entertained, and he delighted in Bragi's many tales of the adventures and achievements of the G.o.ds. Excited by these narratives, as also by the sparkling mead which accompanied them, the G.o.d on one occasion ventured to invite the aesir to celebrate the harvest feast with him in Hlesey, where he promised to entertain them in his turn.

Thor and Hymir

Surprised at this invitation, one of the G.o.ds ventured to remind aegir that they were accustomed to dainty fare; whereupon the G.o.d of the sea declared that as far as eating was concerned they need be in no anxiety, as he was sure that he could cater for the most fastidious appet.i.tes; but he confessed that he was not so confident about drink, as his brewing kettle was rather small. Hearing this, Thor immediately volunteered to procure a suitable kettle, and set out with Tyr to obtain it. The two G.o.ds journeyed east of the Elivagar in Thor's goat chariot, and leaving this at the house of the peasant Egil, Thialfi's father, they wended their way on foot to the dwelling of the giant Hymir, who was known to own a kettle one mile deep and proportionately wide.

"There dwells eastward Of Elivagar The all-wise Hymir, At heaven's end.

My sire, fierce of mood, A kettle owns, A capacious cauldron, A rast in depth."

Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).

Only the women were at home, however, and Tyr recognised in the elder--an ugly old hag with nine hundred heads--his own grandmother; while the younger, a beautiful young giantess, was, it appeared, his mother, and she received her son and his companion hospitably, and gave them to drink.

After learning their errand, Tyr's mother bade the visitors hide under some huge kettles, which rested upon a beam at the end of the hall, for her husband Hymir was very hasty and often slew his would-be guests with a single baleful glance. The G.o.ds quickly followed her advice, and no sooner were they concealed than the old giant Hymir came in. When his wife told him that visitors had come, he frowned so portentously, and flashed such a wrathful look towards their hiding-place, that the rafter split and the kettles fell with a crash, and, except the largest, were all dashed to pieces.

"In shivers flew the pillar At the Jotun's glance; The beam was first Broken in two.

Eight kettles fell, But only one of them, A hard-hammered cauldron, Whole from the column."