When the Vanir learned how the Aesir had risked Freyja, they cut off Mimir's head and sent it to Asgard. Urged on by Loki, the Aesir bound Njord, Freyr and Freyja and handed them over to the giant Hymir whose wife was the mother of Odin's son, Tyr. Hymir set Freyr and Freyr on a bewitched skerry and fettered Njord in his hall.
Odin, returned from wandering, reanimated Mimir's head and received wisdom from it. He ordered the release of the three hostages. Freyr and Freyja accepted redress but not Njord. Foreseeing a second divine war, Odin made plans...
We have at last reached the end of Chapter I.
In The Saga Of Asgard by Roger Lancelyn Green, the giant Suttung set two dwarves on a skerry where they would eventually drown. No doubt both stories are Eddaic.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Dang! I'm still reading Volume 2 of Solzhenitysn's MARCH 1917, having reached page 522. And I've started rereading Andersonn's NEW AMERICA. I'm way behind you!
Ad astra! Sean
The Eddas are a late compilation, but largely "authentic", in the sense that the myths are old -- you can see visual depictions of episodes from them on much earlier artifacts found in the Nordic countries.
And they -feel- old; they have an archaic texture.
Though as Poul points out in THE SORROWS OF ODIN THE GOTH, Tyr being Odin's son is a fairly late reversal.
Originally Tyr (Tiwaz, in proto-Germanic) was the "all-father" God; he's a direct cognate of Sky Father, Zeus Pater, Juppiter, etc. From the Proto-Indo-European pantheon.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
You know more than I do. I had been thinking Odin "descended" from Tyr/Tiwaz.
Ad astra! Sean
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