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The Assembly of The Elder Troth would like to welcome you to our website. Please click on the links to the left to enter the relevant area of our site. Heil and welcome to the Articles section of the Assembly of The Elder Troth website. Here you can find items written by many wide and varied folk. The idea is to provide a venue for discussion, debate and education amongst the folk by giving people an individual flavour to the information provided. Every article here is the work of its' author. The Assembly of The Elder Troth DOES NOT endorse the words or anything that is found herein as being official Assembly of The Elder Troth policy, it is purely the work of the author as provided in each case, and Copyright rests with the Author, reproduction is prohibited without the authors permission. Mythic Geography - by William Reaves I have often contended that modern translations sometimes skew the meaning of mythic terminology, especially in regard to the mythic geography. These types of mis-translations often are made in good faith by translators who try to conform to the spirit of Snorri's text. Oftentimes, a meaning of an obscure word is repeated from translation to translation until it becomes the accepted meaning of the word. However, in some cases, it can be clearly demonstrated that the accepted meaning of the word is not the actual meaning of the word to the heathen poet who used it. A case in point: The word, Jormungrund, which occurs in the famous passage from Grimnismal 20: Huginn ok Munin fljúga hverjan dag jörmungrund yfir; "Hugin & Munin fly
every day over the wide world;" (Carolyne Larrington) The dictionaries follow suit, or perhaps the translators have referred to the dictionaries: "Jormun-grund, immense-surface,
earth (Grim. 20)" (LaForge, after Neckel-Kuhn) All modern translations and dictionaries render the word Jormungrund as earth, meaning a vast-ground, a huge-ground; (but can it logically also be called a superhuman ground?) They all, if they quote a source, cite Grimnismal 20, and it is one of the two occurances of this word. Strangely, the other instance of the word Jormungrund is overlooked. Lets look at this logically. Odin has a chair called Hildskjalf which allows him to view the whole world when he sits on it. Why would he also need to send out his ravens over the "earth" to gather information? Well, perhaps they are meant to hear what he can only see. It is possible, but is it what the heathen poet meant? Let's look at the other instance of the word Jormungrund before we decide, and please keep in mind that Jormun is a prefix which means "vast, huge, superhuman" in the other words this prefix occurs in, such as "Jormungand". The second, and only other occurance of Jormungrund in Old Norse, is in the poem Hrafnagaldr Odins, also called Forspallsljod. Hrafnagalðr Oðins 25 Jórmungrundar The Benjamin Thorpe Translation: In the northern boundry of the spacious earth, under the outmost root of the noble tree, went to their couches Gygjar, Thursear, spectres, dwarves, and Murk-elves. Wait a minute! Does the northern root of Yggdrassil "the noble-tree" stretch to earth? Are giantesses, giants, dead men, and dark-elves typically found on the earth? Well, it is possible, but again, I ask, is this what the heathen poet meant? Generally we look on dead-men
(nair) and dark-elves as having residence in the underworld. Voluspa informs
us that sinful dead-men come to the hall on the Nastronds, which lies
in the north. Thursar too, especially Hrim-thursar are found in Niflheim,
a northern world which predates the earth. We also know that Hvergelmir
is located there, and we know that a root of the Tree stretches to Hvergelmir,
one of the three wells which nourish Yggdrassil, and lastly, Grimnismal
31 informs us that one root of the Tree stretches to "Hrim-Thursar."
If we put all of this together, we realize the poets probable intent with
the use of Jormungrund was to depict This realm is not the northernmost boundry of the earth. It is not part of earth's "spacious ground." Folk phrases such as "Go north and down" (Go to Hel!) indicate that is below the earth, and even the name Midgard, Middle-yard, suggests that earth lay between two other worlds, namely an upper and a lower world, the heavens and hel. Let's look at this verse more carefully. Here is an exact rendering of this verse, made with the help of a native Icelandic speaker and Eddic scholar: 25. AT JORMUNGRUND'S The Thorpe translation overlooked
the word "jó-dyr" horse-door, probably on the grounds
that it seemed nonsensical, as modern scholars make no mention of "horse-doors"
found in the lower world. But, keep in mind that the sun-Sol, day-Dag,
and night-Natt are all pictured as Thus horses seem to be the usual means of travel between the upper worlds and the lower. So it is only natural that a poet speak of "horse-gates" or "horse-doors" as entrances to the lower world. Various manuscripts of Voluspa 5 also contain the word in reference to the sun. Again we come back to the conclusion that by Jormungrund, the heathen poet probably meant the lower world, rather than the earth. This fits perfectly in the context of the final verses of Hrafnagaldr Odins, where Night and Day are depicted as being drawn by or riding horses. In the preceding verse: 24. DELLING'S SON (1) (1) Delling's son is Dag,
daylight. His horse is Skinfaxi, Shining-mane. and also the following verse: 26. THE POWERS AROSE. (1) Alfrodull, the glory of
elves, a designation of the sun. In this light, let us reconsider the meaning of Grimnismal 20: Huginn ok Munin fljúga hverjan dag jörmungrund yfir; Hugin and Munin fly every day over the vast-ground Every day, Hugin and Munin fly over the underworld. Imagine that the underworld is greater in expanse than Midgard which was built above it. Odin can see the happenings on Midgard in his chair in Hildskjalf, located in Asgard. But Midgard blocks out his view of the underworld below it. He can only see what is happening there in the portions that lie outside of the shadow of Midgard. But to see that portion of the underworld which is covered by the earth (Midgard), he must send his ravens. While they are there, he cannot see where they are, thus the natural explanation of the final half of the strophe: "I fear for Hugin that he will not come back, yet I tremble more for Munin." If he sent them to earth ("jormungrund"), he would be able to see their flight from his chair in Hildskjalf, and would have no reason to worry about them. Symbolically, his ravens are thought and memory, and the underworld, which is the home of Mimir's well is the very source of Odin's knowledge and wisdom. This is one meaning of the strophe, yet there is another allusion operating here as well. Ravens are birds who eat carrion, and Hel is filled with dead-men. Thus Odin mainly sends his ravens to the places filled with the dead, rather than the living. It is a bit of poetic humor. So, in regard to the translation
of the word "Jormungrund," I will simply state that there is
another explanation than that which is found in the mainstream scholarship
. My point being, that the "scholars" and the "popular
texts" do not necessarily have it correct. Eddic scholarship has The Eddic poems themselves
were not known among scholars until 1643, and the first serious studies
of them did not occur until the early 1800s. Eddic scholarship simply
has not been around long enough to unravel the mystery of the old poems,
and in those 200 years many Jormungrund is not the only mytho-geographic word that has been transformed in this manner. "Luðr" is one, Hel is another, and there are more besides. My advice to the serious seeker, question the source. Only explanations that can stand up consistantly in the light of all the Eddic and Skaldic mythological poems should be considered valid. Wassail~William HOME | Articles Home | Top Of Page Images and Contents Copyright © Assembly of The Elder Troth 2002 - 2007 or as specified. For communications regarding this website please e-mail webmaster@aetaustralia.org Page maintained by Schmitt Services Last Update: Monday, June 30, 2003
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