Towards the Baldur Myth - Germanic Mythology

corresponding harius by itself does not possess. The Harii Tacitus‘ informer mentions
were evidently not Valhall‘s hosts, but ghost-warriors, such as Atharvaveda speaks of and
whose existence in the Germanic imagination is also confirmed by many pieces of
evidence, among others by the story about the Hjadnings, Hedin‘s warriors, 42 which flows
from out of the myths.
In the same category as Elysii, Inanimi, and Harii, Tacitus‘ informer heard of a
fourth people whom he calls the Nahanarvali or Naharuali. Beside them, the Nahanarvali
constitute a ―civitas‖ (community) and are included with them under the Lygii name.
Already then from a methodological standpoint, there is a strong reason to also consider
the Nahanarvali as one of the tribes belonging to the Germanic kingdom of death. Their
name and the information Tacitus relates about them lend increased weight to this
methodological reason.
The name is evidently a compound. The first question then is how it should be
divided naha-narvali or nahanar-vali. The manner in which the word is Latinized
(nahanarvali, not nahanarvales) tells us that the correct division is nahanar-vali. The
suffix then must be the Old Germanic valu, the Old Norse valr, which means an assembly
selected, or chosen for the destiny that awaits it in another world.
What the name Nahanarvali refers to is sufficient to show that they too deserve
the place they receive from Tacitus beside the Elysii, Inanimi, and Harii. An attempt to
interpret the name‘s prefix, I can thereby save myself, but nevertheless dare to refer to the
Old Germanic nah, the Gothic ga-nauhan, ga- nôhjan, satisfaction, happiness. According
to this interpretation, Nahanarvali are beings that are chosen for a particular part of the
Germanic realm of bliss.
Now, it is said by Tacitus: ―Among the Nahanarvali is seen a grove. It is of
ancient sanctity and in the charge of a priest in women‘s clothes. But the gods
worshipped there are said, in Roman interpretation, to be Castor and Pollux. That is the
character of their divinity; their name is Alcis. There are no images of the gods (in the
grove) and no trace of foreign import – it is the brothers themselves, it is the young men
themselves that are worshiped there.‖
That the Nahanarvali are underworld beings follows from the grove, which is seen
among them, being a mythic grove located in the Germanic underworld. We know of
course that a grove also exists there: Yima‘s pleasure-garden, Mimir‘s grove, where
Baldur and Hödur and the Asmegir await Ragnarök and the regeneration of the world. 43
This grove is, as it is in Tacitus, ―of ancient sanctity‖ because it was established when the
first fimbul-winter threatened the world. What Tacitus‘ informer tells him but Tacitus
himself apparently could not correctly understand, namely that it is not icons that are
found in the grove, but rather “the brothers themselves, the young men themselves that
are worshiped there,” thus finds its complete explanation. It is of course Baldur and
Hödur themselves who dwell in Mimir‘s grove and are surrounded by and receive honor
there from its holy children, the Asmegir, who are selected to be the progenitors of the
coming age‘s pious race. We then also understand why Tacitus‘ informer compares these
divine brothers to Castor and Pollux. The Greek Discouri, who were taken as symbols of
death and resurrection particularly in the time of the Roman Caesars, are themselves
42 At the end of Sörla þáttur, Hedin and Högni are doomed to die in battle and rise to fight again repeatedly
until a Christian warrior comes along and slays them all.
43 See Investigations into Germanic Mythology, Vol. 1, no. 52-53.