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Chapter 6. The Sky 154
usually took was loss of access to power/ luck, which in the above resulted in Glum’s
loss of “a good name.”
That the Gods were an objective reality, as opposed to internal or psychological
constructs, seems to have been the only way of viewing them if one held any concept
of them at all. The idea that Divine Powers are internal constructs seems to be a
modern belief taken from interactions with Middle Eastern and Eastern philosophies
such as Zen, Taoism, Sufism, or possibly some of the early Greek philosophies but did
not play any real part in the indigenous northern European spiritual philosophies.
The way of the North seems to relate most closely aligned with what the Tibetans
call the “second Bardo” or the “realm of hallucination/ fantasies.” At present, the
term “hallucination” has the unfortunate connotation “experiencing something that
is not really there,” something not real. But, something is there: experience, particularly,
personal experience. Many cultures, including the modern American (in spite
of its negative view towards “hallucinations”), count personal experience as being
of great importance (seeing is believing). Even modern psychology tends to treat
some non-physical entities, such as “emotions,” as having an objective existence, i.e.
outside the Self, so that they can be dealt with. The non- physical beings of the
Northern European worldview, such as elves, trolls, wood- sprites, etc., were also
dealt with objectively not because these people were ignorant, primitive barbarians,
but, because in doing so, the universe was habitable, tolerable, and, in many cases,
pleasant. Knowledge of the Gods, the World Tree, and the interactions between all
forms of life, i.e., the entire Germanic world view, was a workable system and that
is all that counted .
It is difficult to determine exactly who the inhabitants of the sky regions were
for the ancients. Both the Prose Edda of Snorri and the Poetic Edda indicate that
the heavens were the realm of at least the Æsir (there is much evidence indicating
that the Vanir were more closely associated with Midgard and the Underworld; see
Chapter 5). 17 There are at least twelve “Halls” of the Gods listed by Snorri in the
“Gylfaginning,” but Gladsheim is at one point called “the best [Hall] that is built on
earth, and the biggest.” Njörðr, one of the Vanir and father to Freyr and Freyja,
lives in Nóatún which is both in the heavens and near the ocean, and it is not very
clear whether this Hall is associated with his ancestry as one of the Vanir or with
His adopted ancestry as one of the Æsir. 18 Perhaps Snorri, writing 200 years after
the official conversion of Iceland to Christianity, had his facts mixed up, or there
may be a completely different explanation.
17 H. R. is quite a heavy proponent of the idea that the Vanir, as well as the Álfar, are more
concerned with the Underworld and Midgard. Indeed, her book Gods and Myths of Northern
Europe (Penguin Books; Middlesex, UK, 1964) seems to be almost completely devoted to the
topic.
18 Snorri, pp. 15-58.