Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

with them heated vapors, which "play" against the vault of heaven (Völuspá 58:7-8 -
leikur hár hiti við himin sjálfan). One of the reasons why the fancy has made all the
forces and elements of nature thus contend and blend was doubtless to furnish a
sufficiently good cause for the dissolution and disappearance of the burnt crust of the
earth. At all events, the earth is gone when the rage of the elements is subdued, and thus
it is not impediment to the act of regeneration which takes its beginning beneath the
waves.
This act of regeneration consists in the rising from the depths of the sea of a new
earth, which on its very rising possesses living beings and is clothed in green. The fact
that it, while yet below the sea, could be a home for beings which need air in order to
breathe and exist, is not necessarily to be regarded as a miracle in mythology. Our
ancestors only needed to have seen an air-bubble rise to the surface of the water in order
to draw the conclusion that air can be found under the water without mixing with it, but
with the power of pushing water away while it rises to the surface. Like the old earth , the
earth rising from the sea has the necessary atmosphere around it. Under all
circumstances, the seeress in Völuspá 60 sees after Ragnarok -
... upp koma
öðru sinni
jörð úr ægi
iðja græna.
…come up
a second time
earth out of the sea
iðja green.
The earth risen from the deep has mountains and cascades, which, from their fountains in
the fells, hasten to the sea. The waterfalls contain fishes, and above them soars the eagle seeking
its prey (Völuspá 60:5-8). The eagle cannot be a survivor of the beings of the old earth. It cannot
have endured in an atmosphere full of fire and steam, nor is there any reason why the mythology
should spare the eagle among all the creatures of the old earth. It is, therefore, of the same origin
as the mountains, the cascades, and the imperishable vegetation which suddenly came to the
surface.
The earth risen from the sea also contains human beings, namely, Lif and Leifthrasir, and
their offspring. Mythology did not need to have recourse to any hocus-pocus to get them there.
The earth risen from the sea had been the lower world before it came out of the deep, and a
paradise-region in the lower world had for centuries been the abode of Lif and Leifthrasir. It is
more than unnecessary to imagine that the lower world with this Paradise was duplicated by
another with a similar Paradise, and that the living creatures on the former were by some magic
manipulation transferred to the latter. Mythology has its miracles, but it also has its logic. As its
object is to be trusted, it tries to be as probable and consistent with its premises as possible. It
resorts to miracles and magic only when it is necessary, not otherwise.
Among the mountains which rise on the new earth are found those which are called Niða
fjöll (Völuspá 67), Nidi's mountains. The very name Niði suggests the lower world. It means the
"lower one." Among the abodes of Hades, mentioned in Völuspá, there is also a hall of gold on
Nidi's plains (á Niða völlum - Völuspá 37), and from Sólarljóð (56) we learn - a statement
confirmed by much older records - that Nidi is identical with Mimir (see No. 87). Thus, Nidi's
mountains are situated on Mimir's fields. Völuspá's seeress discovers on the rejuvenated earth
Nidhogg, the corpse-eating demon of the lower world, flying, with dead bodies under his wings,
away from the rocks, where he from time immemorial had had his abode, and from which he