![]() ![]() ![]() The medieval Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus describes the hero Hadding discovering just such a place in the underworld. However, other lines of evidence suggest that it was at least sometimes seen as being located underground, like the more general underworld.Īs we’ve noted above, the continual battle that takes place in Valhalla is one of the place’s defining features. The most famous description of Valhalla in Old Norse literature, that of Grímnismál, portrays it as being located in Asgard, the gods’ celestial fortress. And, indeed, when Old Norse sources mention particular people residing in Valhalla, they almost invariably fit that description – along with elite practitioners of other roles that the hall of a Viking Age chieftain would have contained, such as the poet Bragi. The ranks of Valhalla would therefore predominantly be filled with elite warriors, especially heroes and rulers. While entrance to Valhalla seems to have ultimately been a matter of who Odin and his Valkyries chose to live there rather than any particular impersonal standard, it seems reasonable to surmise that Odin would select those who would serve him best in his final battle. Nevertheless, Snorri probably wasn’t entirely off-base. This neat, tidy distinction between Hel and Valhalla is certainly an invention of Snorri’s – a product of his tendency to attempt to systematize Norse paganism, which was never a neat, tidy system while it was still in practice. No other source makes this distinction – and several offer further examples to the contrary, some of which we’ll explore below. Yet Snorri blatantly contradicts this statement in his account of the tale of the death of Baldur, who was killed violently and was nevertheless borne to Hel. According to Snorri, those who die in battle are taken to Valhalla, while those who die of sickness or old age find themselves in Hel, the underworld, after their departure from the land of the living. Snorri wrote many generations after Norse paganism had given way to Christianity and ceased to be a living tradition, and he often went out of his way to artificially systematize the disparate material in his sources (many of which we, too, possess). The only Old Norse source that provides a direct statement about how people gained entrance to Valhalla is the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson, a thirteenth-century Icelandic scholar. Valhalla’s battle-honed residents are there by the will of Odin, who collects them for the perfectly selfish purpose of having them come to his aid in his fated struggle against the wolf Fenrir during Ragnarok – a battle in which Odin and the einherjar are doomed to die. They are waited on by the beautiful Valkyries.īut the einherjar won’t live this charmed life forever. They thereby enjoy an endless supply of their exceptionally fine food and drink. For their drink they have mead that comes from the udder of the goat Heidrun (Old Norse Heiðrun, whose meaning is unknown ). Their meat comes from the boar Saehrimnir (Old Norse Sæhrímnir, whose meaning is unknown ), who comes back to life every time he is slaughtered and butchered. They surely work up quite an appetite from all those battles, and their dinners don’t disappoint. But every evening, all their wounds are healed, and they are restored to full health. All day long, they fight one another, doing countless valorous deeds along the way. The dead who reside in Valhalla, the einherjar, live a life that would have been the envy of any Viking warrior. Its gates are guarded by wolves, and eagles fly above it. Seats made of breastplates surround the many feasting tables of the vast hall. ![]() Valhalla (pronounced “val-HALL-uh” Old Norse Valhöll, “the hall of the fallen” ) is the hall where the god Odin houses the dead whom he deems worthy of dwelling with him.Īccording to the Old Norse poem Grímnismál (“The Song of the Hooded One”), the roof of the “gold-bright” Valhalla is made of shields, and has spears for its rafters. Book Review: Neil Price’s The Viking Way: Magic and Mind in Late Iron Age Scandinavia.Who Were the Indo-Europeans and Why Do They Matter?.The Swastika – Its Ancient Origins and Modern (Mis)use.The Old Norse Language and How to Learn It.The 10 Best Advanced Norse Mythology Books.The Vikings’ Conversion to Christianity. ![]()
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