Yggdrasil: The Scandinavian World Tree
Myths are cultural stories that reveal to us what happened to the wise ways when they were forced underground in the times of persecution. Often the myths have originally come through divination, which indicates the medicine people saw what was coming and divined on it. Large portions of the Norse myth cycle have come through the Völupsa, (song of the völva) a lengthy divination given by an ancient priestess-diviner of this tradition. The divinations were retold orally in prose and poetic form and eventually written down as The Prose Eddas in the 13th century in order to preserve the...
Read MoreFreyja and the Dwarves of the Four Directions
In The Well of Remembrance, a book exploring the origin of the Norse Myths, Ralph Metzner tells the story of how the Goddess Freyja wore a magical necklace called brisingamen. This necklace is ‘emblematic of her power.’ The word brisingamen is linguistically related to fire and shining. Possibly it was made of gold or amber. No one is sure. This necklace was crafted for her by four dwarves. The four dwarves who guard the four directions. In order for her to acquire the necklace, she has to spend one ‘magical night of love’ with each of the dwarves, and so she does. Freyja is a Vanir...
Read MoreThe Norse Völur: Ancient Seeress Diviners
At the root of the Norse myth cycles are women called völva (singular) or völur (plural). These are priestess diviners or seeresses whose work was esteemed and depended on for a long time in the Norse lands by humans as well as gods. In one of the myth cycles Odin actually awakens a dead völva for a divination on the future of his son. She acquiesces, revealing to him the unhappy fate awaiting him in this regard. In fact the whole Norse myth cycle is based on a divination called the “völupsa,” meaning “song of the völva” or “prophecy of the seeress.” The word völva translates to “staff...
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