Lyfing
01-07-2009, 04:14 AM
Eddic Mythology, by John Arnott MacCulloch, one of my favorites, can be found here (http://www.vaidilute.com/books/mythology/macculloch-contents.html)..
As the wind was believed to rest in a hill in calm weather and to come forth in a storm, so the Furious Host sometimes comes from a hill and goes to a hill. If we regard the dead as following in the train of the Host or of Wodan, then we may conceive of them as dwelling in a hollow hill ruled over by the god. To this corresponds the numerous mountain names such as Wodenesberg, Wodnesbeorh (mons Wodeni), Othensberg, Odensberg, Gudenesberg.28 When Regin and Sigurd were in a storm at sea, a man was seen standing on a mountain. As the ship passed he asked who they were, and when Regin told him and demanded his name, he replied that he was called Hnikar, “Thruster,” but now they must call him Karl af berge, “the man of the mountain.” He was Odin. Gudrun speaks of Sigtyr’s (“the Victory-god’s) mountain in Atlakvitha.29 In this conception of Odin or Wodan as god of a mountain and of the mountain as a place of the dead, may be seen the germ of the Valhall myth as developed in the Viking age (see p. 315). To die was “to journey to Odin” (til Odins fara), or “to be a guest with Odin,” or “to visit Odin,” and similar phrases with the same meaning were used of Valhall. Saxo tells how Odin, as a man of amazing height called Rostarus, cured Siward’s wounds on condition of his consecrating to him the souls of all slain by him in battle. So the Landnama-bok tells how Helgi said, when Thorgrim was slain: “I gave Asmod’s heir to Odin.”30
Later,
-Lyfing
As the wind was believed to rest in a hill in calm weather and to come forth in a storm, so the Furious Host sometimes comes from a hill and goes to a hill. If we regard the dead as following in the train of the Host or of Wodan, then we may conceive of them as dwelling in a hollow hill ruled over by the god. To this corresponds the numerous mountain names such as Wodenesberg, Wodnesbeorh (mons Wodeni), Othensberg, Odensberg, Gudenesberg.28 When Regin and Sigurd were in a storm at sea, a man was seen standing on a mountain. As the ship passed he asked who they were, and when Regin told him and demanded his name, he replied that he was called Hnikar, “Thruster,” but now they must call him Karl af berge, “the man of the mountain.” He was Odin. Gudrun speaks of Sigtyr’s (“the Victory-god’s) mountain in Atlakvitha.29 In this conception of Odin or Wodan as god of a mountain and of the mountain as a place of the dead, may be seen the germ of the Valhall myth as developed in the Viking age (see p. 315). To die was “to journey to Odin” (til Odins fara), or “to be a guest with Odin,” or “to visit Odin,” and similar phrases with the same meaning were used of Valhall. Saxo tells how Odin, as a man of amazing height called Rostarus, cured Siward’s wounds on condition of his consecrating to him the souls of all slain by him in battle. So the Landnama-bok tells how Helgi said, when Thorgrim was slain: “I gave Asmod’s heir to Odin.”30
Later,
-Lyfing