Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

death. Honored as if he were not a giant, but a divine being. These are the features which
together characterize Gudmund, and should be found in his mythological prototype, if
there is one. With these peculiar characteristics are united wisdom and wealth.
The answer to the question whether a mythical original of this picture is to be
discovered will be given below. But, before that, we must call attention to some points in
the Christian accounts cited in regard to Odainsakur.
Odainsakur is not made identical with the Glittering Plains, but is a separate place
on them, or at all events within Gudmund's domain. Thus according to Hervör's saga. The
correctness of the statement is confirmed by comparison with Gorm's and Hadding's
sagas. The former mentions, as will be remembered, a place which Gudmund does not
consider himself authorized to show his guests, although they are permitted to see other
mysterious places in the lower world, even the mead-fountains and treasure-chambers. To
the unknown place, as to Baldur's subterranean dwelling, leads a golden bridge, which
doubtless is to indicate the splendor of the place. The subterranean goddess, who is
Hadding's guide in Hades, shows him both the Glittering Fields (loca aprica) and the
plains of the dead heroes, but stops with him near a wall, which is not opened for them.
The domain surrounded by the wall receives nothing which has suffered death, and its
very proximity seems to be enough to keep death at bay (see No. 47).
All the sagas are silent in regard to who those beings are for whom this wonderful
enclosed place is intended. Its very name, Acre-of-the-not-dead (Odainsakur), and Fieldof-living-men
(Jörð lifandi manna), however, makes it clear that it is not intended for the
souls of the dead. This Erik Vidforli's saga is also able to state, inasmuch as it makes a
definite distinction between Odainsakur and the land of the spirits, between Odainsakur
and Paradise. If human or other beings are found within the bulwark of the place, they
must have come there as living beings in a physical sense; and when once there, they are
protected from perishing, for diseases, age, and death are excluded.
During their journey on Odainsakur, Erik Vidforli and his companion find only a
single dwelling, a splendid one with two beds. Who the couple are who own this house,
and seem to have placed it at the disposal of the travellers, is not stated. But, in the night,
there came a beautiful lad to Erik. The author of the saga has made him an angel, who is
on duty on the borders between Odainsakur and Paradise.
The purpose of Odainsakur is not mentioned in Erik Vidforli's saga. There is no
intelligible connection between it and the Christian environment given to it by the saga.
The ecclesiastical belief knows an earthly Paradise, that which existed in the beginning
and was the home of Adam and Eve, but that it is guarded by the angel with the flaming
sword, or, as Erik's saga expresses it, it is encircled by a wall of fire. In the lower world,
the Christian Church knows a Hades and a hell, but the path to them is through the gates
of death; physically living persons, persons who have not paid tribute to death, are not
found there. In the Christian group of ideas, there is no place for Odainsakur. An
underground place for physically living people, who are there no longer exposed to aging
and death, has nothing to do in the economy of the Church. Was there occasion for it
among the ideas of the heathen eschatology? The above-quoted sagas say nothing about
the purposes of Odainsakur. Therefore, here is a question of importance to our subject,
and one that demands an answer.