Re: Burning questions about the Ring's symbolism and leitmotifs

On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 01:22:01 +0000, REP wrote:

> "Derrick Everett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> On Fri, 28 Nov 2003 09:22:27 -0800, Canyon Rick wrote:
>>
>> I suspect that the conveyors of souls in Northern Mythology were the
>> Norns, although the evidence for this is rather thin.
> [...]
>> --
>> Derrick Everett   (deverett at c2i.net) ==== Writing from  59°54'N
>> 10°36'E ==== http://home.c2i.net/monsalvat/index.htm
> 
> Wouldn't it be the valkyries?
> 
> 
In Norse religion, and specifically in the cult of Odin the god of hosts,
Valkyries were associated with Odin and Valhall. They selected the bravest
warriors to join the army of Odin, the "einherjar", which is being
gathered to defend Valhalla in the battle of Ragnarök.

Not everyone could expect admission to Valhall, however.  It was a place
for dead warriors and the valkyries or "wish-maidens" who kept them
supplied with mead (which flowed from the udders of the goat Heidrun, who
lived on the roof of Valhall) and meat (carved from the boar Sæhrimnir,
who was reborn each day to be cooked and eaten again).

As I have noted here before, there seem to have been both mortal and
divine valkyries. The Brynhildr who appears in the late version of the
Sigurd cycle known as "Volsungasaga" is a conflation of one of each kind,
the godly valkyrie Sigurdrifr and the mortal shield-maiden Brynhildr. When
mortal valkyries died presumably they went to Valhalla, although in the
Eddic poem "Helreid Brynhildar" we are told that the dead Brynhildar was
burned on a funeral pyre and went to Hel.

In general, at least in older traditions that are not well documented, the
dead would descend into the underworld (variously called Hel or Niflheim),
possibly escorted there by Norns. The idea of an abode of the blessed,
Gimle, in the third heaven is probably a late development in the Norse
religion and one of those that has been attributed to Christian influence.

-- 
Derrick Everett   (deverett at c2i.net)
==== Writing from  59°54'N 10°36'E ====
http://home.c2i.net/monsalvat/index.htm