Curiosity: In old Lusitania

For those of you who dont know where Lusitania is or was, i will help you with that:


Lusitania was the country where the Lusitanian people lived, in the Iberian peninsula in the continent of Europe, where today exists the modern countrys of Spain and Portugal.
The Portuguese people and some of the spanish people, are decendents from the Lusitans, often people think about the Lusitans, as Iberians or Celtiberians, but in truth, the Lusitanian people were Celts. The Celts start their expansion over the European territories something like 1200 B.C./B.C.E. and that was the year when they first arrived to the Iberian peninsula, 200 years before they went to Great Britain. There were a lot of Celtic tribes in Spain and Portugal, and each tribe settled in a place, one of those tribes of Celts, were the Lusitans, or the Lusitanian peoples. Probably their name wasn't that, because the Romans called them Lusus/Lusos, probably they had an other name, a Celtic one. These tribe had the biggest part of Central Portugal and they became the most powerful people in the Iberian peninsula. They were no longer a Celtic Tribe, now they were a nation. They conquered most of Portugal exept the North that belonged to their other Celtic brothers, and conquered a large territory of Spain. Today we know that their language was of germanic source, it was found in archaeological discoveries, that they wrote in the celtic language called Ogham and also in the Runic Alphabet, not with the runes we know today, but with the first symbols where the runes came from, called ur-runes.


We have all heard about the Druids, but before the Druid's time, the Lusitanian people had already a spiritual guide, elders in each Lusitanian tribe, called Endre, in plural, Endres. These men and probably women, were something between a shaman and a druid, they were teachers of philosophy, anatomy, spiritualism, science etc. and they knew how to work with the neolithic monuments such as Dolmens, henges, sacred mounds, menhirs etc.


So this is very important to know, because most people think that the Lusitanian people were just Iberians, but in fact they were Celts, and the Celtiberians were the mixture with other Celts from the Central Iberian peninsula, with the Iberian people that were the native folk from the Cost line of Spain to the East and Northeast.

Also a very curious thing, when the Celts arrived in Irland, they have not passed through england to get there, they came by sea from the Iberian peninsula, some Celts, some Iberians and many Lusitans. So many people in Irland, have the same ancestry as the Portuguese people.

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Mankind of today Versus Nature

Our biggest problem is, that we have become too "civilized" to believe that the earth is alive. We live in a lifestyle that is totally civilized, or rather, too rooted in the city life and its ways. We believe that the great metropolis and cities are the natural and perfect sites to be, live and work. For our culture, the countryside is a kind of urban space, a mere mixture of beautiful landscapes and areas where you do the production of food for our cities, which is now much improved thanks to the resources of science, technology and modern economy. The countryside is a place to run away from the bustle of the city whenever we want, for a car ride, to have a comfortable and modern home to spend the weekends. Except for some problems that no doubt will be resolved shortly by the steady progress of science and technology, our world and how we see it is safe, nature is tamed, and does what we sent it to do.We live on the order and laws of the city and the power it has over us all.


But despite all the power this image of order has, it is only just that, an image. Because this image lives under the forces of nature, the religious beliefs of rural people, pagan beliefs, no matter what effort we make to try to deny it. And these are more or less subtle forces of nature, pagan cultures were based on the acceptance of those forces, and our civilization is based on an artificial separation of human beings from the relation to nature, based on the belief that we can be "above", or beyond  these forces and control them to suit our whims.


We may think we have everything, but the level of poverty of our modern civilization, is incredibly high. The wealth of quality of life, dignity and the great wisdom of the pagan cultures, are conspicuously absent from our lives. Despite centuries and centuries of lowering these people and despising them, the pagans still have much to teach us about living with the reality of the forces of nature.

Do you have any Questions for me?

Hey dear followers! Many times i get a lot of questions here at the blog and in other diferent places, so i decided to creat account in an online program, to focus all of your questions there, it is easy for me and for you to obtain a quick response. So here it is the link to it , just click ---> [Link]

Or you can click on the label above my blog page where it says "Ask me Questions here!"
I Hope i can help you with any question you have, i'm eager for it.


Hope to hear from you soon!


Best Regards


Arith Härger

Friggablót - 20th May

At the 20th of May, there is a celebration held by the Norse pagan folk and those who follow that path, called Friggablót. As the name suggests, this is a celebration in honor to the goddess Frigga and to better understand this celebration, we must frist be familiarised with this goddess and in what kind of ways she works.

Who is the Goddess Frigga?

Frigga or Frigg, is the wife of the god Odin, and queen of Asgard, also the mother of the god Badlr. She is also a goddess of fertility, but her powers go beyond that, she is the goddess of motherhood and protection, of love and of home, domestic affairs and ease of transition ( dying ) and the goddess of the family. It is said taht she can predict the future and from where she stands, she knows all about everything that goes on in the universe, she is often called the Silent Goddess for she does not speak of what she knows.

Frigga uses her spinning wheel to weave the clouds, and this shows her works in terms of weather, and the coming of seasons, the constant changes on earth and in nature, in order to have balance and prosperity.

In what ways does this goddess works?

At this blót, this goddess is honored in order to receive her protective powers at our homes, because each home is the defencive castle of each family, is the place where we can find peace and joy with our families, our folk, our ancestors. She is the protecter of our children, and nowadays we are all in need of this goddess, because the society and the political order are doing the best to destroy our homes and families and the goods energies taht we all should feel at home. Its like the neverending fight against the forces of chaos with the forces of balance and harmony.

If there isn't balance at home, we shall never find peace in it, and if we don't, there is no other place to search for peace if first we dont find peace in our ourselves, and the family helps with that, the good cosy places of harmony indoors, going outside, with so much stress, and turmoil, the constant pollution and the awful sounds of the city life, the only place where you are eager to go and get some rest, is at home, your hideout, your confort place, to run away from the conflicts outside.

Reading the Runes for Others

Reading the Runes for Others

The most important thing to bear in mind when reading the runes is that mesterious, ancient symbols are never, ever flippant. Even if they are consulted on a trivial matter, the Runes will swiftly strip away the nonsense and address an issue that is much more important and life-changing. Like Tarot cards and other forms of divination, the runes will tend to focus on dramatic events, strong emotions and periods of soul-searching. If you draw a single rune to provide the reading, it is important to remember that this drama may either have occurred in the past, be happening right now or will manifest itself in the future. Whatever it might be, you can be sure that the runes will home in on it so don't immediatly assume that a troubling rune, such as Hagalaz or Uruz, is the certain next step in a person's  fate. The event indicated might just as easily have already happened and it may be that you are being consulted in the aftermath of the experience.

The First Step

When you begin a rune reading, it is a good idea not to attempt to look into the future immediatly. Begin by drawing a single rune to represent the background to the reading. It may be that this rune alone will immediately answer the unspoken question of your client and provide the solution to a problem. However, it may just as easily reveal the problem that is weighing on your client's mind.

The Second Step

After interpreting this initial rune, put in the back with the others and turn your attentiion to the present circumstances. You may choose either to draw another single rune to represent the present or to lay out a few runes in one of the simple arrangements, such as the three Norns pattern ( something i will explain in further posts ), to provide a general impression of the present circumstances. If this portion of the reading is accurate, you can safely assume that your attempt to part the veil of the future will be too. Now return to their bag or pile and mix them again.

The Third Step

The person for whom you are reading should now mix the runes together and choose a number of runes to represent the general pattern of the future. It's best if you have already decided which arrangement is to be used and can tell the enquirer how many runes are needed. If you like, you can literally cast all of the runes onto a plain, flat surface ( tradition suggests a plain, white cloth ) and allow your intuition to guide you to the ones that are to be read. However, this is generally considered to be too confusing for a beginner, so perhaps at the stage its best if you stick to one of the more formal arrangements.

The Fourth Step

If the person from whom you are reading does not feel that their concerns have been adequately dealt with by now, you can return to the first or second step to answer any specific questions. Remember, the runes never provide flippant answers, so if they start to repeat the messages that they have already given, that is all that your client is permitted to know at this time. You may also wish to examine your client's date and time of birth according to the runic calendar to ascertain their life purpose. It might also be an idea to translate your client's initials into runic script to provide further information concerning their character and fate.

Reading the Runes for yourself

Reading the Runes for yourself


No matter how you choose to consult the runes, it is important to bear in mind that their meaning may not be immediately obvious to you. One cannot help but be subjective about one's own life, so you are bound to have strong preconceptions about what the runes will reveal, even before the first one is cast.
You may be presented with the answer to a pressing question, only to find that you don't understand it. Having said that, it is possible to read the runes for yourself. One way of getting around the difficulties involved is to keep a rune notebook and write down the names, meanings and positions of the runes for future reference. You will find that it is easier to interpret their often subtle message once you have taken a step back, so to speak, and can look at them again with a cool head.

Under the Cloak

Going under the cloak can be done for a short while or a long while, and it means basically that you literally get a blanket or a cloak and lie underneath it, and then depending on how extreme you want to make the thing, you put rocks on your chest, as the Druids used to do, to depress your breathing, and that alters your state. You can have your helpers cover you up with earth, all but just a small area on your face so you can still breathe, but you're going to be carbon-dioxide-stressed, because it isn't the same amount of oxygen, and it is stressful.
You want to have ground crew for this, so you can stay alive. They need to be able to very unobtrusively check on your physical well-being, to keep their energy to themselves, and be comfortable in the space. Warding is good if they can do it, but it's not always necessary. If you're going to go and do something like this you probably want to put up wards first anyway, however you see those things. The ground crew keeps checking that the blanket is still becoming moist from your breath. If you stay there for many hours, then you have to get used to the idea that you'll probably have to urinate, so you might want to dig a shallow grave or trench and lay there on a sheet and have it all covered over except for the breathing part of your face. You can be there for twenty hours if necessary. The Earth is quite a good insulator, and it's a weird experience.
Traditionally it's three whole days, but that's pretty severe and rarely done. You can do a whole long fast before that so you don't have any issue with solids, but you will urinate. You need water; if it's less than 18 hours you can do without as long as you don't have any heart, kidney or bladder problems; you won't do irrevocable damage, but for more than that you need water. We modern people have soft bodies and we aren't used to hardship. So you would set up a little tube or a camelback that you could sip from without actually getting outside interference. But three days is excessive, for the most part. Overnight is more than enough for most people. We find that usually six hours is more than enough for most people, and you can certainly do without water for six hours.
The experience of having the earth on you is weird as well. The weight of it feels strange, and you also have the earth over the third eye part of your forehead. You get cramps and twitches, huge claustrophobia, panic attacks and weird sensations, even if you're not usually prone to it. You can't move, and you definitely get sore, and that's kind of part of the deal, detaching from that. Of course, spending three days under the earth is neither safe nor basic. But using a mummy bag for a few hours...even just spending the night sitting vigil in the woods is enough to creep most people out. And that's not a bad thing...getting a good fear on will put you into an altered state.
In contrast, float tanks are great, but that's very high comfort. When I do a float tank, I kind of feel like I'm cheating, because it's not hard at all. It's really nice. It's dark and weird and creepy and you can't distinguish the boundary of your body from the water. You can also make a modern witches' cradle or cat's cradle out of a good army surplus hammock and just tie it up, but I've found it rather time-inefficient.
We do a thing where we just stopper up the ears and the eyes and put a hood on and get in a mummy bag and be wrapped up with duct tape. If you have someone who is adequately knowledgeable about bondage, you can do it as being tied up. Make sure that there's plenty of room for circulation. Or use a big sack, a mailbag or spandex body bag, and a darkened room, and just lay there. The first hour, you'll feel silly. The second hour you'll feel silly and uncomfortable. The third hour you'll feel silly and uncomfortable and claustrophobic, but after that it starts getting interesting. It's a very labor-intensive way of doing things. But the key things are regulating and/or limiting the breath, sensory deprivation, and doing awareness exercises, and the length of time that it goes on.

Supported by Lydia Helasdottir and RavenKaldera

The Art of Reading the Runes

The runes of the Elder Futhark can be read in many ways.
Many people prefer to draw a single rune to provide a complete reading in itself. Others literally cast the runes onto a plain, white cloth and allow their intuition to guide them. There is also a more formal technique in which the runes are arranged in various meaningful patterns ( these arrangements are correctly known as "shoats").


How to Begin

It doesn't really matter whether you are reading the runes for yourself or for someone else, because the mental process for the rune reader remains the same in either case. Take a few deep breaths to help you to calm your system and clear any extraneous thoughts from your mind. Allow yourself to drift into a passive mental state as you play with the runes to mix them. If you keep your runes in a bag, then at this point you should be shaking the bag to make sure that they are randomly jumped together. If you use rune staves, then you can simply hold them in your hand at this point.

When you are content that you are in a receptive frame of mind and that the runes are well mixed, you may then either cast them or pick some out and lay them in one of the set patterns. If you are rune-reading for someone else, he or she will have to mix the runes together thoroughly before you do this. If you have, or the person you are reading for has, a specific question, this query should be thought about while the runes are being mixed. It may be helpful to ask this question out loud just as the runes are laid down, but this is not strictly necessary if privacy is an issue.

Note: Remember and keep in mind , you can make your own runes, with stones or pieces of wood. Dont buy runes made out of plastic, those have no power, nor any connection with nature, so those will not work. Plastic runes are hollow, they havent been part of nature in any time, so the powers of nature were not absorbed by the plastic runes, but the wooden runes or stone runes have.

Bealtaine - The May Celebration

Bealtaine is the Irish/Gaelic name for "May", its meaning is "Bel-Fire", and it reminds us of the bonfires in honor of the god Bel, or as the mediteranians call him, Belenus. There are some associations that link Bel to the god Cernunnos, the horned god.

Bel is the god of light and fire.

In this time of this celebrations, the agricultural calendars have no activity whatsoever, so this time is dominated by the fruitfulness of the trees that are revered in parties of communion with nature.
These calendars also attach a significant meaning to love and freedom.

Bealtaine is the polar festival of Samhain, a special day when time and space vanish and new rules for inversion and regression are open for the evolution of the human soul. The dead and the living contact again, but this time under the rules of unconditional love. It is a festival that celebrates the ripening of the Sun God.

This is also a time to be connected and in line with the upper and lower worlds, and just as the Samhain, this is a night when the veil between the worlds is thinner and a gap opens, allowing the living to contact with the dead and have an experience like no other.

April's Posts

I'm sorry i haven't written too much on the month of April, but this new month of May, i will try to keep up the pace and write as many knowledge as i can. I've been too busy on some personal projects, artistic and non artistic, more like, academical ones.

Well, nobody is realy interested in my blog, only a few, but for those few i write this and i am glad, thank you all for your support :)

Best Regards

Arith Härger

Svartalfheim & Nidavellir IV Part

Durin's Hall

Durin was one of the Eldest of the Duergar Fathers. He built the World-Mill to create fertile soil in Svartalfheim, but it did not work for him, and was eventually bought by Frey, who is far more skilled at using it. He (along with his friend and partner Dvalin) was also the crafter of the cursed sword Tyrfing of Germanic legends. Durin was chosen as the first chieftain of the Duergar, and his memory is still loved and revered. His death is considered unlucky to speak of for some reason, unless you are one of his close relatives, and even they are closemouthed about it. His hall is one of the grandest cavern-mazes in Nidavellir, but rather than keeping it as a private hall or passing it along to the next chieftain, his relatives decided instead to open it to the public as a place of respite and peace.
To stay in Durin's hall is quite possible, but rather expensive unless you are a friend of the family. The atmosphere is somewhere between a high-class hotel and an ashram, with bubbling hot springs and quiet, peaceful, beautifully carved caverns glittering with lights and mica mosaics. Don't disturb the quiet by making a ruckus; if you want to do that, getting a room at a local tavern will give you plenty of noise and partying.

Dvalin's Hall

Dvalin is one of the most powerful Duergar in Nidavellir, and the most skilled runemal in that world. He is actually half-Jotun, as his father was the famous Mimir, who had an affair with the famous Duergar-woman Lovar, and sired Dvalin and his three brothers, Alfrik, Berling, and Grer. Dvalin's daughters (for he had several wives) became the progenitors of the Lovar family of dwarves. The four of them are a sort of corporation, creating beautiful items on commission. Their most famous creation was Brisingamen, the fairest necklace in the world. Freya desired it, and paid for it by spending four nights making love to the brothers. Even though they didn't get a single piece of gold for it, they still consider it to be their greatest sale.
At first, Dvalin was just a powerful Duergar-lord in Svartalfheim, and then through a miracle of near-death at the moment of Odin's torment on the Tree, he received the Duergar-runes into his hands. He taught them only sparingly, to a secret society of hand-picked Duergar, and eventually he mysteriously vanished, only returning home a few times during the long Svartalfheim year. His family know where he is, as do many of his people, but it is considered bad luck to speak of it. What happened is that he - along with a Jotun, an Alf, and a mortal man - shapeshifted into one of the Deer of the World Tree, who guard the paths of energy so that no one else can rip open Ginnungagap and bring in what they choose.
It is very rare to find Dvalin at home, as he does not answer pleas for aid that have to do with Duergar matters - he considers his other work to be more important, and figures that there are enough of his people around who could answer any ordinary question quite handily. If your problems are issues relevant to his other job - which would be very serious issues indeed - you won't have to travel to Svartalfheim to talk to him about it. Indeed, he would more likely show up no matter where you are, accompanied by his three co-workers. None of the others - Dain the Alf, Duneyr the Midgardian, and Durathor/Asvid the giant - bother to keep earthly halls or realms any longer; Dvalin was the only one of the four who had an extensive family to keep his hall going, and so he visits his descendants periodically. Among the Duergar, he is treated with quiet reverence, rather like a living saint - the first and greatest of the Duergar runemasters. If you catch him at home, don't bother him with petty issues; he is busy with greater matters and would rather spend his precious home time playing with his great-great-grandchildren. Pay your respects, leave a gift (which he will probably pass on to his family, as alone among Duergar he has rather gone beyond a need for material objects) and go.
His hall is administered in his absence by his three bachelor brothers, who are still acclaimed as some of the best master craftsmen among the Duergar, and are decent runemasters as well. They have extensive workshops in the hall, with many apprentices learning under them. If you have questions about craft, it is better to approach them, as they are still very much in the family business. Don't ask them rude questions about their nights with Freya; they consider it a sacred subject and will not have their memories degraded by lewd gossip.

Aurvangar

Aurvangar is the place in Joruvellir (an area of Svartalfheim's surface claimed by the Duergar) where grave-mound of Svarin and Lovar is found, from which came the Lovar family of Duergar. They were the first Duergar couple to mate and have a child together, although both often took other lovers. Aurvangar refers to both the above-ground and the underground areas. The great grave-mound towers in the midst of the flat area; theirs is the only above-ground grave of a famous Duerg. It is usually covered with offerings, and is guarded - a hidden door to Nidavellir, with guards who watch over the grave, is nearby in the mountainside.
The grave-mound lies near Juruvale Marsh, the only place in Svartalfheim with wetlands, and the only sacred bog. It is used by both races to drop offerings. The Duergar generally drop in items, and the Dokkalfar generally drop in freshly murdered bodies. They try to make their visits not coincide with each other.

Ivaldi's Hall

Ivaldi is the Emperor of the Duergar, also called "Vidfinnar" and "Svigdar", both nicknames referring to his ability as a champion drinker. His children by his first (Duergar) wife are the champion craftsmen Brokk, Eitri, and Sindri. With his second wife, the Aesir Valkyrie Hildegun, he sired Iduna, Bil, and Hjalfi. Hildegun was captured coming off of a battlefield by Ivaldi and his men, who took her as an inadvertent prize of war. The story is unclear as to whether she stayed with him so long by force or choice, or first one and then the other.
Ivaldi is a tall (for his race) Duergar with dark skin, long black hair, and a long jet-black beard that he is quite vain about. He is handsome, in a hook-nosed, craggy way, and he is quite brilliant; he did not get to be the emperor of his canny, fractious race through accident. He holds the title of Emperor - a rather pretentious title, given that the Duergar hold only one world - by wealth, bribery, force of arms, and general charisma. He is also one of the greatest sorcerers among the Duergar. He is the son of Svarin and Lovar, and thus of Lovar family descent, and the half-brother of Dvalin.
He lives surrounded by a court full of his kinsmen, including his umpteen Lovar brothers and sisters - Draupnir and Dólgthrasir, Hár, Haugspori, Hlévangur, Glói, Dori, Ori, Dufur, Skirfir, Virfir, Skáfidur, Ái, Eikinskjaldi, Frosti, Finn and Ginnar. His brother Andvari has his own hall, and his brother Yngvi fled to Niflheim where he is the custodian of Fenris. His remaining two brothers, Fjalar and Galar, were the infamous pair who were exiled due to their habit of murdering people, and eventually killed Kvasir the Vanir in order to make the Mead of Poetry from his blood.
Ivaldi's Hall is located high in one of the mountains; it is not difficult to get in, but seeing him personally is less easy. If you speak to Ivaldi, make sure that you gift him as the King that he is. He is canny, and his first thought about anyone he meets is how he can best use them to further his ends, if it is possible. However, he is not an unfair man, and will return fair service with fair accounting. Like many skilled leaders in the Nine Worlds, he is good at telling when someone is lying to him, so don't blow yourself up or exaggerate your powers or abilities. He will just look right through you with those cynical dark eyes and you will feel like shriveling up. His courtiers enjoy a good song or story, but he is more interested in news of the outside worlds, any of them.

Byrgir
This is an empty well standing on a mountaintop in Svartalfheim. At one time it poured forth magical waters that gave the gift of poetic power and ecstasy, but Ivaldi magically emptied it, which stopped its flow and ensured that the holy water was in limited supply, and thus more valuable. When Ivaldi's brothers Fjalar and Galar came to him with Kvasir's blood, he lent them enough water to make the blood into the Mead of Poetry, intending on a share of it. However,they fled with the Mead of Poetry and Ivaldi's price on their heads and curse at their backs, saying that they would not live another six turns of the Moon - which was true, as Sutting hunted them down and killed them soon after for the spiteful murder of his parents.
While their mother, Hildegun, was still a prisoner at Ivaldi's court, her three children were hostage to her safety. The eldest, Iduna, escaped to Asgard where she became the gardener-goddess there. The younger two, Hjuki and Bil, a daughter and son, had the job of bringing back buckets of holy water from Byrgir, a job which Ivaldi would not entrust to anyone else. He thus slowly emptied out the well and sold its contents bit by bit to the Aesir. On the last trip, however, when the children were dredging up the very last bucketful, the Moon-god Mani (whom the Duergar name Nepur) seized them and the bucket up to the sky. (This story is said to be the basis of the "Jack and Jill" rhyme.) The Moon-god had a history of attempting to rescue children from mortal parents who abused them, but he had not counted on their father Ivaldi, the Emperor of the Duergar and a determined and powerful sorcerer.
The tale goes that Ivaldi chased the Moon across the sky through many worlds in pursuit of his children, and finally caught up with him under a mountain. He fought Mani withsingleminded wrath and a great axe, and the frightened Moon-god (never much of a warrior) fell back before the Duerg-King and yielded. Ivaldi reclaimed his children and his holy water, and returned to his hall in Nidavellir. There, with an empty well and weeping children, he reconsidered, decided on mercy, and allowed Hildegun and their children to go to Asgard. Bil later renamed herself Saga and became the goddess of lore, and one of Frigga's handmaidens. Hjuki, on the other hand, returned to his father's side where he lives mostly at court, and is Nidavellir's ambassador to Asgard.
The empty well is something of a shrine to the Duergar, and they throw offerings down into it. They also throw in gravel and sand and concrete, in order to discourage people from climbing down and stealing the offerings.

Andvari's Hall

The Duergar Andvari is one of the top ten smiths in Nidavellir, and one of the few who will actually take commissions from non-divine people, if you are willing to pay his extremely high prices. He specializes in jewelry, although he is quite capable of forging anything from pots to armor. Andvari seems to be fonder of humans than many other of the Duergar. Indeed, he is an odd sort of Duergar, much given to wandering about in his earlier days, and he used to hole up in a pond by a waterfall in Jotunheim, where he would change himself into a salmon. His treasure was hidden behind the waterfall. The Duergar have many tales about their folk doing such things - temporarily hiding out with one's hoard in a paranoid fear of being robbed - and it is referred to as "dragon disease", in memory of the half-Duergar Fafnir who turned himself into a dragon in order to better guard his hoard. Generally it is considered a kind of temporary insanity that one outgrows, with the implied idea that the powers of Wyrd will set you up to lose such hoarded treasure anyway, as is what happened with Andvari.
Currently, Andvari keeps a hall in Nidavellir with his several grown sons. Narvi, the eldest, is a fine smith in his own right. He has close ties with Loki, who named his own ill-fated eldest son with Sigyn for him. He drives a hard bargain for work, so be careful and stay sober when negotiating with him.

Hall of the Four Directions

This is less a hall than a temple. While the Duergar have few buildings that could be considered temples or shrines - their worship is more of a homely sort of thing, done in privacy by families - the biggest exception is the Hall of the Four Directions, a sort of ongoing architectural artwork dedicated to the Dwarves of the Four Directions, who guard the far corners of the World Tree. These entities are not actually Duergar - at least according to the Duergar themselves - but greater deities invoked into the Nine Worlds by Odin, who set them to guarding the four directions.
According to Duergar myth, they looked down at the various races inhabiting the Nine Worlds and noticed that the Duergar seemed to have gotten the worst of things. The Aesir, the Vanir, the Alfar were all powerful and beautiful, with lovely worlds near the top of the tree. The Jotnar, for all they had been disenfranchised, were the most numerous and still claimed the most land - four worlds' worth. The Duergar, on the other hand, were scorned as mere maggots, cast into the darkness of the lower limbs of the Tree through a power struggle they did not understand and had no part in; struggling to carve a living out of a cold world of mountains. The four Guardians admired their strength and persistence and creativity, and chose to take on the form of dwarves themselves in honor of their favorite race. The Duergar revere them as Gods, and swear their most sacred oaths by their names - Austri, Vestri, Sudri, Nordri.
The temple itself takes up the entire top section of one of the highest mountains in Svartalfheim. The central chamber is perforated with many glassed windows to let in light, and the four wings spreading out from it are each decorated with statuary, mosaics, and some of the most amazing and intricate carving in the Nine Worlds - all in honor of the Four Guardians. Austri's wing is themed as a field of spring flowers, with every petal a jewel inlaid in a stem of precious metal. Sudri's wing is filled with more gold than is seen in any one place in the Nine Worlds, with a great golden sun filling the whole ceiling, and a floor like the iridescent ocean itself. Vestri's wing is decorated like a multicolored autumn, with entire trees built of copper twigs and leaves of precious stones, the floor a stone mosaic of a forest floor. Nordri's wing is decorated in silver and alabaster and thousands of glittering crystal gems, with a ceiling of blued steel and a marble floor so slick that one could skate on it.
The Duergar are constantly adding tiny bits to this living, growing sculptural temple; the four wings keep expanding outward and becoming more glorious. They are generally pleased to have people visit their great temple of devotion, as it is a noted tourist attraction. If you go, bring an offering, but give it to the temple keepers; don't lay it in the temple itself. Only the finest offerings are eventually added to the permanent temple, and to assume that yours is worthy would be considered an act of hubris. No one ever steals anything while there; they wouldn't dare. If so much as a petal was removed from a gemmed flower, the horde of praying Duergar who were visiting that day would rend them to pieces for the great insult.


Supported by RavenKaldera , Rod Landreth and Elizabeth Vongvisith

Svartalfheim & Nidavellir III Part

Nidavellir:  The Realm Below
Nidavellir isn't like a city or just one location. It's a complex labyrinth of "territories." They're sort of like main corridors that are like freeways and nobody really owns them. Then you have personal dwellings that just branch off. Often a wrong turn would walk you into someone's bedroom or dining room. One 'castle' has a clearly lit doorway, and thus you know that you are incide" and not just of thearea/village.
Residents: The Duergar

Most of what this guidebook says about dealing with the Duergar can be found in the chapter dedicated to the characteristics of their race. They are the absolute masters of this world; while the Dokkalfar rule in their forests, they are aware that they still inhabit this world at the whim of the Duergar.
Visiting Nidavellir is not that difficult. The main areas of Nidavellir are a hub of trade from all the worlds except Helheim, and there are hundreds of visitors coming and going at any given time. The Duergar take advantage of this, with fairly high prices for food, drink, and the crowded displays of saleable items. Capitalism is alive and well in this part of the Nine Worlds, where every bit of gold eked from tourists and traders enriches this barren country. Assuming that you bring at least some reasonably quality goods for sale, or the means to buy something, you can walk right in.
Duergar guides to the area are, as we have mentioned, easily for sale. They know better than to walk you into private homes or off-limits areas, so they are quite worthwhile. You don't generally need to worry about being led into a dark alley and rolled for your meager pocket change; harm done to tourists and traders is bad for business and is sharply punished. The young Duergar who make a trade out of guiding tourists are generally smarter than that. There is no rule, however, against constantly jacking costs for anything "off the beaten path". That includes helping you to find certain famous names among the Duergar, and their various halls, and getting an introduction for the possible purpose of training or education. For each of these specialties, the price will go up, and it is up to you and your pocketbook as to whether it will be worth it.
Usually what travelers have come for is to shop, and the main guided tours will be the hundreds of shops in the main area of the city, filled with gorgeous trinkets of metalwork, woodcarving, jewelry, statuary, etc. While other races might make lovely things, it is agreed by all that the Duergar are better at making it, whatever it is. The sole exception might be fiber arts, as they must import all their fiber and it is not a common art, but the few Duergar women who do weave and embroider are said to make breathtaking pieces.
Not only are they highly talented as a race, their work ethic shows in everything they make. Every piece offered for sale will be finished to the best of that dwarf's ability. The idea that they would make shoddy work in order to save money and cheat customers is an insult. Cheaper pieces were made by less skilled craftsmen, perhaps apprentices still learning the trade. The Duergar guilds - in some cases more like secret societies - monitor all work sold to the public with their seals of approval. Quality is far more important to them than quantity, which is why they have the reputation that they do, and why there are waiting lists for some particularly high-demand objects.
They also have a very good idea of what their work is worth, and what the market will bear. No Duergar, even an apprentice, sells his labor for pennies - at least to outsiders. They will drive hard bargains; although the buyer, thinking of his purse, may feel that the prices are unfairly inflated, to the dwarf that he is facing it is simply a fair measure of his time and labor. One doesn't go to Nidavellir hoping to get a bargain on cheap toys with a bit of glamour on them; for that, one should find an Alfar peasant-merchant with a homely little caravan. Dwarves make high-quality luxury items, or solid practical things that will last several lifetimes and give good wear. Generally they will not mar the perfection of their creations with any glamour that shows them to be other than they are; to them, the quality of the creation should be able to stand on its own without help, or it should go back into the furnace to be melted down again. You can guarantee that a Duergar-make piece will be all that it looks and feels to be. On the other hand, they might lay a galdr on it that subtly calls out to passersby, attracting their attention and possibly sparking their greed, that they might suddenly find themselves craving the fine piece and impulsively buying it. To the dwarf, this is not such an unethical thing, because the workmanship is excellent and your life will be enhanced by owning the item, won't it? As they know a good deal about greed themselves, making a greed-galdr is an easy thing for them.
The most famous and skilled smiths, most of whom won't take commissions for mere mortals, are: The four Lovar brothers Dvalin, Alfrik, Berling, and Grer. The sons of the Duergar-King Ivaldi, Brokk, Eitri, and Sindri. Andvari the Fish, as he is called in Nidavellir, and his son Narvi. The last two are your best bet if you want someone who will deal with human beings.
For food, they keep extensive underground caverns filled with food that can be grown in the light and heat from magical artificial lightning - mostly root crops - or without any light at all, such as the famed hundred varieties of edible mushrooms (a few of which are valuable medicinals, or even hallucinogens). Duergar ale, in fact, is root-based, rather like vodka which is made from potatoes, rather than grain-based Vanaheim beer. It is said that they even make fungus-derived alcoholic drinks, but it is also said that it is unwise for the traveler to partake of them. Physically, the Duergar have a huge tolerance for alcohol, unrivaled even by most average-sized Jotnar. Their sturdy bodies can burn it off at a great speed, so accepting a challenge to a drinking contest with Duergar is extremely foolish.
Wealthy Duergar also keep herds of goats for their milk and meat; unlike sheep and cows, goats can survive on brush rather than grass, and they are kept in caverns and fed on branches brought in during the winter. In the summer, they are herded up the mountains daily for forage; Duergar goatherds are well-armed and well-paid, as nearly all the skirmishes between them and the Dokkalfar have come from goat-poaching. Some of the richer dwarves have imported pigs, raised in underground caves on roots and food scraps. Flocks of tame pigeons are the most common livestock, flying out daily through vent-holes in the caves and returning to underground roosts where their droppings are added to the underground gardens. Some poorer Duergar use and eat bats in the same way; it is a sign of the rather tenuous peace with the Dokkalfar that one of the names for a livestock bat is also applied to their elven neighbors.
Accepting food and drink from the Duergar is generally safe; it is very rare that they would attempt to poison or ensorcel someone with food. That's much more of an Alfar danger. At worst, they might try to get you drunk and then chivvy you into agreeing to something that you wouldn't dream of accepting while sober. Since turning down their gifts - including liquor - is considered terribly rude, you might try investing in a magical tankard that turns all liquid to water as soon as it is poured in. Make it sturdy-looking but not that attractive, so that it won't flag their covetous interest; you might put a sloppily sentimental line about some fictitious ex-lover on it as an excuse for only drinking out of that one cup. Another possibility is to provide them with a small-to-moderate quantity of very excellent alcohol, which you will be excused from imbibing in order that there be more for them.
Gifts - or payment, if you wish to buy from them - should come in the form of raw materials for their craftwork, especially things they don't have access to - exotic gems and precious stones, pure precious metals, shells, raw or spun fiber, fine hardwoods. You can also bring them food and drink, especially bread, fruit, and sweets, or herbs and spices. If you trade, be prepared to bargain hard, but remember that they will not take less than they think their work is worth.


Supported by Rod Landreth and RavenKaldera

Svartalfheim & Nidavellir II Part

Residents: The Dark Alfar

We know little of the actual beginnings of the War, as neither side will speak of it, but we do know that a fleeing band of exiles came to Svartalfheim after being expelled from their home. Apparently they got no warm welcome in Asgard or Vanaheim; Jotunheim, Niflheim, and Muspellheim were Jotun-controlled and they did not wish to cohabit with giants and trolls; and moving in on Midgard would invoke the wrath of both the Aesir and the Vanir. As Helheim was only for the Dead, there was but one other choice, and they trooped to the realm of the Duergar and asked for shelter.
They were granted it, but the price was high. The Duergar extract a regular toll from the Dokkalfar as rent, and at first the Dokkalfar resented being tenant to another race which they considered inferior. By this time, however, the two races have come to the point of living together in reasonable peace and harmony. The Duergar outnumber the Dokkalfar many times over, and although the Dokkalfar control the trees on the surface, the Duergar are allies with most of the land-wights, including the spirits of the mountains themselves. Although they are canny and drive a hard bargain, they hold fairly to agreed-upon terms, and thus the Dokkalfar consider it in their best interests not to anger their hosts. There is considerable amicable trade between them, although they mostly keep to themselves, and even the occasional intermarrying.

Since their exile, the Svartalfar have formed their own society which is a near mirror-image of Ljossalfheim, complete with a ruling House. They are less exclusive than the Ljossalfar, though they're quite a bit scarier and tend to fight among themselves much more (the Ljossalfar prefer intrigue and backstabbing, thinking it more civilized). Many years of living alongside the Duergar, who are accustomed to having visitors and friends from other lands, has changed their attitudes towards outsiders, and while they're still very secretive, fiercely loyal to their own kind and not inclined to allow many into their lands, they don't look down on people from the other Nine Worlds, the way the light-elves do.

Niorun's Hall

Niorun is the little-known goddess of dreams. Unlike most of the other deities, she chooses to live in Svartalfheim, where she is honored and revered by both the Dark Elves and the Duergar. Of all the places in Svartalfheim that might be considered halls, Niorun's place is the only one where a traveler could claim sanctuary and be unopposed by residents. However, as soon as one leaves, one is on one's own again. There is also the fact that Niorun's hall is a strange place, and not altogether safe. It is filled with distorting mists of many colors, and one is often overcome by the compulsion to lay down and sleep. If you are a skilled lucid dreamer, her hall can be a good jumping-off point for prophetic dreamwork; if you aren't, it can be deadly.
Niorun herself can be seen as a veiled figure walking through the misty halls, her face almost never seen. If approached, she will speak in riddles and poetry, or say things that one later cannot remember. Offerings to her include colored glass balls and prisms that she can hang up in her hall to rotate and add to the ambience.

Svartalfheim & Nidavellir

Svartalfheim is a dual land, divided above and below by the two races that live there - the Duergar, who claim primary ownership of the world, but who choose instead to live underground in mountain caverns; and the Dark Alfar, who are immigrants and live partially above the earth and partially under it.

Some people call these immigrants the Dokkalfar or the Svartalfar.

When the worlds broke apart in the great deluge, the Duergar found refuge on a piece of Ymir's body, supposedly his lower spine, and excavated themselves a world. Although trees did grow on the surface of their dark, windy, spine-mountainous world, the Duergar hardly cared. Instead, they dug out amazing halls under the earth, carved with stunning artwork and architecture. When the Dokkalfar moved into the upper surface of the world, they and the Duergar struck a truce deal, with separate territories. Although the Dokkalfar do live in underground dwellings as well, theirs are generally surface caves and mounds, while the Duergar halls extend a mile or more under the surface. They call the Duergar-inhabited part of their world Nidavellir, as opposed to not-Nidavellir, which is what they call anything controlled by the Dokkalfar.

Time and Seasons:

Svartalfheim is said to have the longest year of any of the worlds, discounting Helheim where all time and seasons are artificially maintained by Hela. A Svartalfheim year is equal to several Midgard years. There is little variation between summer and winter, and nothing in the way of spring and fall. The only variations seem to be a greater propensity to rainfall (or snowfall in the higher altitudes) during winter, and more high winds during summer. Days, like years, are two to three times the length of days in other realms; the ratio depends on the realm in question. Even in summer, days are shorter than nights - maybe a little less than half the time - and in winter, the Sun barely shows Her face in Svartalfheim. The Dokkalfar have adapted wonderfully to an almost entirely nocturnal existence, and indeed find the extensive daylight of other worlds oppressive.
The Duergar venture out of their tunnels only during daylight, and most of their lives are spent underground in a world of cavern-cities, which they can make just as bright as they choose, so the outside time and season hardly matters to any of them. The are aware of the seasons, though, in a rather idealized way; when they picture them in carvings and art, they show the lush beauty of the seasons in other worlds such as Vanaheim, Asgard, or Jotunheim. Indeed, the Duergar live almost as if they are pretending they are somewhere else; only a few goatherds venture out during the summer, and a few others on pilgrimages to shrines.

Geography:

Svartalfheim is more difficult to get into. The dwarves operate by their own rules and have a great many more visitors and travelers going in and out of their realm than the elves do. Once you are inside the elf lands, moving about is actually easier than in Ljossalfheim, as the Svartalfar don't usually care where you go once you've earned their permission to enter in the first place. Svartalfheim is just as magically potent as Ljossalfheim, but it's also a colder, scarier and creepier place. The dark-elves are often malicious and untrustworthy, and few spirit-workers who wander into their realm want to hang around longer than necessary.

Supported by RavenKaldera and Elizabeth Vongvisith ( Spirit-Worker )