Road To Hel - Rune Web Vitki

42
FUNERAL CUSTOMS
Prose Edda. There we have a detailed account of a cremation on board ship, when Balder
is burned on the pyre built on his ship Hringhorni. It is a strange and puzzling account,
full of vividness, movement and detail, and abounding in fantastic pieces of information.
The four berserks who guard the horse of the giantess who launches the ship, Thor’s
sudden vicious attempt to slay her with his hammer, the kicking into the fire of the dwarf
Litr by the irritable god, the arrival of Freyja with her cats—these incidents stand out
unforgettably, like scenes on a tapestry. We find the funeral treated much earlier by one
of the tenth-century skaldic poets, and it is probable that it was from some such source
that Snorri’s information came. It is to Snorri himself, moreover, that we owe the
preservation of such parts of Úlfr Uggason’s Húsdrapa as we possess, since he has
preserved them in his Skáldskaparmál as examples of poetic diction. 1 If we piece together
the lines which deal with the funeral of Balder, we find some of the information given by
Snorri, and also some fresh points about the procession of mourners who rode to the pyre
to honour the dead god:
Battle-wise Freyr rides first on a golden-bristled boar to the hill of Othin’s son, and
leads the hosts.
Far-famed Hroptatýr rides towards the exceeding great pyre of his son
—but the song of praise glides through my lips—
I see the valkyries following the wise and victorious one, and the ravens
too, for the holy blood of the slain.
Splendid Heimdallr rides his horse to the pyre which the gods raised for the fallen son
of the Friend of ravens, the very wise one.
Hildr, exceeding powerful, caused the horse of the sea to move slowly forward, but the
warrior-champions of Othin felled the steed. 2
In Snorri’s account the pyre is built on the ship after it has been launched. There is still
connection between the ship and the shore. Balder’s body is carried on to the pyre, and
after him the body of his wife, who is said to have broken her heart and died of grief; then
Thor hallows the pyre with his hammer; Othin comes with his offering, the magic ring
Draupnir, and lays it on the pyre beside his son; and lastly the horse of Balder is led to the
pyre in all its trappings. The tradition of Othin approaching the pyre of his dead son is
1 Gylfaginning, XLIX.
2 Norsk-Islandske Skjaldedigtning, F. Jónsson, 1912, B, I, p. 129. The stanzas, scattered in Snorri, have been
taken in the order in which Jónsson arranges them.