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Chapter 5. The Underworld 121
One’s status or occupation after death is also subject to change depending on one’s
reputation (fame) at the time of death and the continuing defense of that reputation
after death. And although interaction between the dead and the living is limited,
the Underworld is intimately related to Midgard or the Overworld: the two feed one
another.
The ancient Teutonic peoples (as well as the Celts, Balts, Finno-Ugric peoples,
etc.) understood well that the Underworld is not somehow separated from the rest
of the universe, i.e., the Lands with in the Tree, but plays a fundamental role in the
well-being of Lærað, the World Tree. The description of the Tree itself is relatively
unimportant here, but the movement of the Waters is not. According to Snorri
Sturluson in the Gylfaginning, the Waters move from Hvergelmir, the spring in the
depths of the Ginnungagap, out through the eleven streams of the Élivágar and
course upward through the Tree of the Worlds. The Waters feed all rivers, lakes,
springs, wells, and seas of all the Worlds. Indeed, they truly are the source of all
life. They continue their journey until reaching the very top of the Tree where they
drip from the antlers of the four harts which feed on the uppermost buds of Lærað
and fall back, some reaching Midgard as the morning dew and, obviously, eventually
fall back into Hvergelmir completing the cycle. The role of the Underworld by its
very location in the scheme of things is to distribute those Waters immediately upon
their release from the original Well out into the worlds and to receive the return
flow for funneling back into Hvergelmir.
Another part of this intimate relationship between Middle-Earth and the Underworld
is the idea of reciprocity. Holmberg describes the Underworld as resembling
“the world we live in everything, with the exception that, seen with our
eyes, everything there would appear inside out or upside down . . . The same
rivers and streams exist there, but flow in opposite directions. The tops of
the trees there grow downward; the sun rises in the west and sets in the east.”
13
Ailo Gaup, a Samí multi-media artist and noaide, stated one time that “our Ancestors
walk under the Earth, upside down, with their feet against the soles of
our feet.” 14 These mirror-images are more difficult to find in the bulk of Scandinavian
literature than in the neighboring cultures except in small pieces here and
there. The Frau Holle story offers some indication that the idea of reciprocity, or
mirror-imaging, was not unknown to the early Germanic peoples. The shaking out
of the feather bedding, normally done on sunny days, resulted in snow falling on the
13 op. cit., pp. 72-73.
14 Personal communication in Oct., 1994, in Albuquerque, NM, during a group discussion
about the Ancestors.