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Chapter 2. Connections 43
To create the sense of the future, it is necessary to utilize modal auxiliaries such as
“will” or a form of the present progressive “is going to” preceding the infinitive form
of the target verb. Looking back at the “water/ flow/ movement/ power/ action”
complex, one will notice immediately that which is above the surface of the water,
i.e., the future, does not fall within the constraints of the complex and, therefore, is
devoid of power. For the Germanic people, the future had no real power; it did not
exist within the realm of the Well and the Tree.
It is the past, the ørlög, which is the shaping force of the present, not the future.
The movement of the Waters bubbles upward from the chaotic seething of the Well
of Hvergelmir through the combined actions of Men, Giants, Ancestors, and Gods
which are then laid down in the Well of Urð, chaotic Waters now ordered, and these
eventually find their way back down into Hvergelmir. Every human action performed
as part of the present becomes part of the layering process and with action comes
responsibility. Action performed in the benefit of the intertwined Well/ Tree is
proper action.
Men perform actions which affect the Tree and Flow of the Waters through it.
Giants, Gods, Ancestors, Landvættir (land- and water-spirits) only have an effect
in that they guide the actions of men either on a conscious or subconscious level
by regulating the Flow of the Waters in the sense of luck/ power, but there is no
indication in either the eddaic or sagaic writings that they have any direct effect
other than through men. People are led, guided, tricked, conned, forced, or advised
into action by these ghost-beings usually invisible to the inhabitants of Midgard
(except to those with second-sight), but it is only people who are the ones to actually
commit the acts which are then laid down as ørlög. The overall function of the folk
of Middle Earth then seems to be as the executors of schemes made by either equal
or greater beings. Man’s purpose in the overall plan is to lay down layers of the past
which become the foundations of the present.
This is not to say that the Gods, Giants, or the Landvættir do not do anything
for they obviously do. For the ancients and up to fairly recently, the álfar or the
Elves , the Jötnar or the Giants, and the Vanir and some of the Æsir (particularly
Thór) have been concerned with the well-being and fecundity of the earth. Weather,
the care of certain localities, the fertility of animals, and the fruitfulness of plant-life
have all fallen under their auspices. Even mankind itself was closely guarded and
guided by the Gods, Ancestors, and a variety of other beings. However, it is only
the actions of men which become the ør-layers in the Well of Urð and which change
the nature of the Waters.
The idea that the past is the container of power for the present is not specific
to the early Germanic culture. The same idea exists around the globe in
pre-industrial nations where Christianity is not necessarily the primary religious