Title: Völuspá

Tags: Apocalypse Old Norse-Icelandic

Description:

Völuspá, "the Prophecy of the Seeress," is a mythological poem that is part of the Poetic Edda. It is the first poem in Codex Regius, the main manuscript of the Poetic Edda which most editions are based on. It is a major source for the cosmology of Norse myth, information on the origin and development of the world depicted in the mythology. It takes the form of a dialogue between two speakers. One is a völva, "seeress," who has been asked for the prophecy which the text gets its name from; the other speaker is the god Óðinn (LINK), who is asking about Ragnarök (LINK), the Norse apocalypse. This continues the characterization of Óðinn as always seeking information about his fate and about Ragnarök also shown in other poems, such as Vafþrúðnismál. At the end of the poem, it says "now she will sink down," which has led to the idea that the seeress is either dead and has been revived by Óðinn's magic (in other sources he can revive hanged men and talk to them, and revived the severed head of Mímir (LINK) to ask for its counsel), or that she lives in the Otherworld beneath the ground, in an underworld such as Hel or Niflhel, or similarly to dwarfs who live in rocks, behind waterfalls, and in other hidden, chthonic places. The poem is quoted extensively in the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson, especially in the section called Gylfaginning.

Synopsis​

The speaker, the seeress, demands the attention of all living beings, and begins to answer Valföðr's request for the first things she remembers. She recalls the void, the coming of jötnar ("giants") (LINK) who nurtured her, and the creation of the cosmos by the gods, the "sons of Burr," who then set time in motion and made the dvergar ("dwarfs"). Many dwarf names are given in a long section, from which Tolkien took both the names of dwarfs in The Hobbit and the name of one of his most famous characters, Gandalf (from Gandálfr, "wand/staff-elf"). Three of the gods make humanity out of what are probably trees (the names Askr and Embla mean "ash" and "elm"). Yggdrasill (LINK), the world tree of Norse mythology, is formed and the Nornir—Urðr, Verðandi, and Skuld—(LINKS) arrive, creating fate and foreshadowing the god's demise. 

The seeress recalls the first ever war, which began when a woman named Gullveig, "intoxication of gold," arrives and is stabbed and burned three times in the hall of the High One (Óðinn), but three times is reborn and becomes Heiðr ("Bright"), who performs seiðr, (LINK) a specific type of magic in Old Norse culture, marking Heiðr as a witch or someone who can do harm with magic. Gullveig/Heiðr is interpreted to be a Vanir goddess (LINK), since her mistreatment leads to war between the Æsir and Vanir, and Ásgarðr is wrecked. The next passage likely references an episode recounted in Gylfaginning, when the gods make a wager with a craftsman to build Ásgarðr in one season, and if he succeeds at this impossible task he can have the goddess Freyja (LINK) and the sun and moon. By way of his magical horse, he nears completion very quickly, and the gods panic and send Loki to mess the craftsman's work up. This sends him into a rage, and he is revealed to be a jötunn or a bergrísi, a "mountain giant," and Þórr (LINK) is called and he smashes the giant's skull in one strike with Mjöllnir (LINK). 

Returning to Völuspá, this act of violence makes the Æsir into oath-breakers, and Óðinn goes to seek wisdom. The next stanza opens a new section of the poem, bringing the narrative to the present, with Óðinn arriving to question the seeress, and then to the future, when the actual prophecy begins. She describes the arrival of Valkyries (LINK) and their preparation to ride over the earth, and the death of Baldr (LINK) by his brother, Hóðr (LINK). Loki's punishment for his role in Baldr's death is followed by descriptions of monstrous places, the halls of giants and in Hel (LINK), where false oath-swearers and murderers wade in rough waters, and the serpent Níðhöggr (LINK) sucks on corpses. In Jarnviðr ("Iron Wood"), an old woman gives birth to Fenrir's (LINK) children, the wolves who will swallow the sun and moon. Fenrir himself breaks free of his bonds and runs free. The final section begins when the seeress describes that she knowns the Doom of the Gods.

This is begun with the most famous stanza, stanza 44:

        Brothers will fight / and be each other's slayer / sister's sons / will violate the bonds of kinship / hard it is in the world / a great whoredom / axe-age, sword-age / shields are cloven / wind-age, wolf-age / before the world falls apart / no man / will spare another.

Yggdrasill is lit on fire and begins to shudder and shake, and Heimdallr (LINK) blows the Gjallarhorn (LINK) while Óðinn seeks wisdom from Mímir's head. Giants begin to march against the gods, including the ship Naglfar (LINK), which is steered by Loki, and the wolf Fenrir. Surtr (LINK) arrives with his blazing sword, and Freyr goes to fight him. Óðinn goes out against Fenrir, and is killed but avenged by his son, Viðar (LINK). Þórr and Miðgarðsormr (LINK), the world-serpent, fight and are the death of each other. The sun turns black, the earth sinks in to the sea, the stars vanish, and flames engulf the heavens. Then, the earth reemerges, purified and green, and Baldr and Hóðr return, the children of the gods, and everything seems good. However, in the final stanza, Níðhöggr returns as a shadow flying over the hills, the return of death and another foreshadowing of future destruction. 

Interpretations & Analysis​

Völuspá as a source for Norse heathenism and the question of Christian influence

Aside from inspiring artistic production and stimulating academic analysis, perhaps the largest impact of Völuspá is in its use as a source for the worldview, religious beliefs, and mythology of the pre-Christian Icelandic (and wider Scandinavian) society which produced it and the other eddic poems. While dates of manuscripts are easier to ascertain (at least in some cases), as with Codex Regius belonging to the second half of the 13th century, the date of composition of poetry as an abstract thing, the story behind the words, is much more complex and likely impossible with complete certainty. Old Norse scholars generally agree that parts of the mythology predate Christianity, and therefore Latin script which allowed their written recording, existing in the form of oral stories that were performed and remembered through mnemonic techniques (ways of remembering things). However, writing is not a neutral act, and as is implied by the mention of Christianity and writing coming as a package deal, written culture came with access to Christian narrative and all its connections with medieval European thought going back to classical philosophy. Writing an oral poem down fixes it in time and place, and implies choices of presentation and arrangement, where oral poetry itself is flexible, interchangeable, and variable. It is also well-founded to say that these mythological poems were originally performed, rather than read privately.

Certain features of Völuspá and references to it in older poems which we have preserved elsewhere, in particular Þorfinsdrápa, make it possible to at least say that this material originates no later than the 10th or 11th century, although its subject matter is much older. Secondly, questions of whether an 'original' poet was pagan or Christian are both unlikely to be answerable and are also not overly important, as the poem we have clearly blends elements of native Norse material with continental Christian European aspects and perhaps its framework is of foreign origin; and even before Christianization proper (different times in different Nordic regions, but from the 10th to the 11th century), Nordic peoples had contact with Christian Europe, especially through trading and military activities. In all, Völuspá has to be thought of as only the written echoes of a tradition of the poem that stretches from its inception, possibly only as fragments and imagery, until its different written versions after the importation of Latin writing. It is neither purely pagan, nor only the result of Christian learning and theology, but a blend of these things. John McKinnell, in the 2013 collection of articles titled The Nordic Apocalypse, conducted a short yet thorough survey of the elements he considered to be genuinely pre-Christian, and discusses the context in which writing about genuine pagan material would have been acceptable in a Christian society.

Regardless of this debate, Völuspá is likely the most well known of the Old Norse poems, with its powerful imagery, haunting refrains, and its vivid depiction of the Norse idea of the end of the world. In addition to reading it, as I highly recommend you do, you can also find modern interpretations of what it would have been like as a performance, as it most likely was originally intended as. The most dramatic and fully realized performance of this type is that by Einar Selvik of Wardruna, of the History Channel's Vikings television series soundtrack fame.