The Saga of Vanadís, Völva and Valkyrja

and feminine knowledge with all its paradox and mystery, its auður. Betty DeShong
Meador’s (2000) work on the priestess Enheduanna and her goddess Inanna, is based on a
dream, and dreams also influenced Ralph Metzner’s Well of Remembrance (1994).
During the long process of this writing, and before, I have had many dreams that
opened blockages and revealed to me the hidden messages of the myths and symbols, the
golden tablets. Some of them are so powerful and clear or demanding that I include them
in the work, others remain unmentioned although they may sometimes be the very seeds
for my thoughts. This whole process of remembering, my introduction to my Old
European roots, began, or rather became conscious years ago, through the dream of
Auður and Freyja, recited in the Prologue above. It was a so-called big dream, my
personal mythology revealed so beautifully. The dream was, is and will be my own
völuspá, a gift from the depths of what I know as ‘my memory’, of the saga of what I call
‘my life’ and what we call ‘our history’, through what we call ‘time’. It is a saga of örlög,
what is and will be my auður. According to Ásgeir B.Magnússon (1989) auður is related
to the Lithuanian áudziu or áusti (to weave), and the dream reveals in an emotional,
historical, etymological and psychological manner, the very paradoxical web of life.
The immediate result upon my awakening from this dream, was that I started re-
reading the Eddas, a reading that brought me to where I am now, reading and writing
about the unlimited auður of the past. Freyja was re-emerging in my search for an image
of the Goddess, but that search had been more like fumbling. I had never before sat down
with Snorra Edda and read it from word to word. When I did, it felt like magic. I had
from early childhood been interested in my ancestress Auður djúpúðga, and at the time of
the dream I had for some years been considering writing a book about her. My first
48