Jotunheim Part IV

There is no doubt that the source of magical power in Jotunheim, is the famous Iron Wood. From the distance it might look like a common thick forest, but its magical energy causes great transformations in every living organism there. Those who born inside this forest will certainly have strong magical powers but also great physical deformities. No wonder why the children of Loki and Angrboda, Jormundgandr, Hela and Fenris, born in the Iron Wood, have the physical aspect that we all know.
As I have mention in the previous post, Angrboda is the chieftess of the wold clan and also the seer of the nine clans of this place. She gained the title of Chief of Chiefs after many battles between the tribes. All clans have still have chieftains, but lets put it in this way, Angreboda is the "King" and the other chieftains are the nobles that govern in each place that belong to the realms of the "king" they are like the Jarls (since we are speaking of themes related to the Norse, a Jarl was a nobleman/chieftain of the Norse people, rulling over one place).
But since this post is about the places of Jotunheim and not those who live there, lets continue with that matter. Angrboda's halls lie inside Iron wood as it is expected. Huge gates with lots of bones and skulls hanged, a terrible sight that turns many away.

Outside Iron Wood, high on a mountain, lies the fortress of Gymir, the father of Gerda, Freyr's wife. 
There is a hut and a mill, a very small village with only two sister as residents, it is called Grotte and the sisters Fenja and Menja. Whatever is going on there, it is dangerous, and not much is known about the place.
Hyndla lives in the northern mountains of Jotunheim, deep within a cave, the same Hyndla who guarded the mead of poetry in Svartalfheim.

Fenrir the god of destruction

We are use to judge things just by what we hear or what is told to us, this happens with all things in life because it is a rarity in the human nature to delve deep into any subject, trying to understand the meaning of things, to see all the sides of something, seldom anyone goes through the "trouble" of studying the true nature, essence and meaning of a variety of subjects, this is why i will be writing about Fenrir today. Those familiar with the Norse myths and stories know well who Fenrir is, it is one of the names often heard especially when the subject is Ragnarök, but do they know full well who this Fenrir really is and his purpose?

Fenrir is the god of destruction in the Norse pantheon, he is the son of Loki and Angrboda and he is father to Hati and Skoll, the two wolf brothers who chase the Sun and the Moon. Fenrir takes the form of a great black wolf and he is imprisoned in a cave, bound by a magical chain, locked away because he desires to devour all things, including the world of mortals and everything in it.
His mother, Angrboda, is the wolf mother, and as a leader of the wolf clan in Iron Wood, most of her children are giant werewolves. Her eldest son with Loki was fiercer, larger, wilder than all the other children she had, when he grew to adulthood, he began to kill and devour everything in his path, no one nor anything could restrained him or stop him, he was too strong and too large. The Aesir gods tried to hold him in a magical chain called Laeding and then with another one called Dromi, but both were broken. The Aesir called upon the Duergar ( Dwarves ) for forge a chain out of gold melted along with six impossible things ( the roots of a mountain, the footfall of a cat, the beard of a woman, te nerves of a bear, the breath of a fish and the spittle of a bird ), in this way they would chain Fenrir. The rest of the story of how he was chained we know, or at least we have heard of many times and it can be found anywhere, suffice to say that he now lies in a cave under a mountain on Lyngvi's Island located in the Lake Amsvartnir in Niflheim. There he waits for the day he can fee himself again and have his revenge.

It is easy to fear such a thing, however, Fenrir isn't a monster nor a demon as the Christians wanted people to believe, Fenrir is a deity of tremendous power, and because all things are sacred in their manner, also the nature of Fenrir is sacred. We are too used to divide the world into bad things and good things as each gives us certain feelings and emotions, we separate what gives us pain and sorrow into the group of bad and evil, and what gives us pleasure and happiness into the group of the good side and we tend to creat a perfect world with all the good things but we forget that without the bad things there couldn't be any good at all, for we must taste sadness and pain in order to give the proper importance to all that is good, like all things in nature are balanced, good and evil cannot life without each other, so this is why people don't understand the true nature of Fenrir, because his nature alone is already a mystery, not easy to comprehend, and if one goes in mind that he is all evil and must be put aside and forgotten, it will be even harder to understand. To understand his purpose, we have to look at nature and how it works. Nature isn't all about beautiful things and happy stuff, nature has its cruel side and a terrible destructive power, in order to create life, the eternal balance between chaos and order. We must took at Fenrir as the personification of that natural destruction, the symbolism of chaos, as a volcano spitting fire and lava, killing, burning creating wastes of dust and black earth, but a great fertilizer for the soil, and life will sprout out of that ground, in this way the world was created, think of Fenrir as the great sea waves that devour the land and take lifes but it is a natural happaning to create new lands, clean and wash away dirt, think of Fenrir as the great stars that burst releasing an enormous power, or even galaxies, like our own that will desintegrate some day in order to create new stars, worlds and life. This is a good way to start understanding the naure of Fenrir, the terrifying side of nature, beautiful sometimes, majestic, magnificent, imposing respect, but also with a benevolent side. Fenrir exists so we may never forget that we are part of nature and we are bound to its laws, and we aren't above nature, nor can we escape from its terrible powers. Often the powers of the devine are reflected on nature, in its beauty and also in its cruelty, not that the divine are cruel, but these actions in nature must exist once again in order to balance all life, to take it away and replace it with new life. Fenrir is the destruction that must be chained, but some day will come out and devour the world, the symbolism that this world will come to an end when nature is ready for it, and there isn't nothing you can do to stop it, nor it will have any compassion for you, nor it will make a special exception for you, nature is as it is, like Fenrir is what he is, nothing will change it, that is his own nature, you have to accept the way things are, but new life will be created again, as our own world was created, by fire and ice, with dust and bits of worlds that exploded. This is Ragnarök also, or at least a part of its true meaning, but about that i will write a post just for Ragnarök and its full meaning.
The world isn't easy, it isn't black and white, even if we try to hid that fact or forget the not so much pleasant side of nature, we need to understand things, we have the power to make our own choices and make our own fates, but when it comes to the nature's laws, we aren't above it and we must accept how it works.
Fenrir in nature is very much like us mortals, with both good and bad, capable of living naturally but containing the beast within, because some times we want to burst in anger, but we need self control, but we also need to release that in some way, and Fenrir teaches us to do so, not only if one might speak with him and learn his wisdom, but just by reading his story and understanding the full meaning of it.

It is with Fenrir and his story that we can find a meaning for Baldr's death. Fenrir and Baldr are both sacrificed gods, in one way or another. The Aesir sacrificed the god of destruction, the darkest deity of them all, in order to save all living beings from his wrath and terrible destructive powers and on the other hand, Loki and Hella arranged a well planned scheme in which Odin might had known and played his part, to sacrificed Baldr the brightest of all the gods, the exact opposite of Fenrir, again in order for all living creatures survive after Ragnarök, where it is said that he will rule. Each one of them was sacrificed in his own manner to safeguard the future, one will bring the end of things and the other will bring the new beginning, the renewal of life after a chaotic destruction, just as it happens in nature.

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Mythology around Runes: Tiwaz

Mythology around Runes:

Tiwaz

Tiwaz is an ancient name for the god of War and Justice, who was first mentioned by the Roman writer Tacitus, who claimed that Tiwaz was the king of the Germanic Gods.
When this role was later assumed by Odin, Tiwaz took a humbler form as the God Tyr. To the Saxons, he was known as Tiw, and it is from his name that we derive our word "Tuesday". His most famous story involves a monstrous wolf called Fenris, who had grown so large that he threatened to devour the whole universe to satisfy his ravenour hunger. The gods tried to bind the monster with ropes and chains, but these proved to be no restraint to Fenris, who broke them with a shrug. Eventually, one of the dwarf craftsmen made an enchanted ribbon that was as fine as a woman's hair and swore that this alone would be strong enough to fetter the beast. However, scenting magic, the wolf refused to allow the gods to bind him. Then brave Tyr stepped forward and offered to place his right hand in the mouth of the monster as a guarantee that all would be well. To the relief of the gods, the binding held and the Fenris wolf was imprisoned. Now the monster took his revenge by biting off Tyr's extended hand, which was nobly sacrificed for the good of all.

Midvintersblót - 13 January

Note: The Painting was made by me.



Midvintersblót

Midvintersblót is the ritual of prosperity.
In ancient times, this was a celebration to the God Tyr in the countries of Scandinavia and a celebration to the God Tiw in old England, in this time of the year, we celebrate the half of the year, deep in the shadows of the winter, and the coming of the glorious sun and the heat, fertility and the warm weather. The Midvintersblót ( blót of the verb blóta: worshiping a deity, by means of a sacrifice ) revives the profitable forces of nature, ( it begins about twenty days after the Winter Solstice ) and it ends with the ritual to Frey at the begining of Jól/Jul.
In the ancient English calendar, the Tiugunde, the year is celebrated in honor to the God Tiw; and to the Nordic people it was the ending of the celebrations of Jól, it was in 14th of December till the 13rd of January.
The sacrifices made in Jul, before the christian convertion, would be officiated on the night of 12nd of January. The Heimskingla speaks of the plenitude of winter, or the pagan Jól, it started precisely on that day, and in the medieval Scotland was consider to be the last day of the year.
A Time of peace and living with the family, feast, games, and to remember the ancestors.
In a time when the soils were more fertile. Sumptuous banquets, plenty of beer and mead, painting the cold atmosphere with joy and happiness, thus promoting the growth of life in the soils.
The blood of animals, and sometimes of humans, "ran down" the hörgr ( altar made of piled stones ) to be collected in a sacred vessel ( hlautbollar ) with which the gódi ( priest ) sprinkled with a stick or a branch with leaves, the participants of the meeting ( thing ), the walls of the temple (hov/hof) and the statues of the gods. This was a plea for abundance, health, peace and harmony between the people and the divine powers.

The Midvintersblót had the magic property to appeal to the generosity of the productive forces of the earth. Just as the sacrificial blood ( hlaut ) served to eradicate the destructive forces, in this blót, it is summoned the triumphant powers of the god who has mastered the forces of chaos, symbolized by the wolf Fenrir. Tyr embodies the power of order, justice and the triumph; and it was thanks to his self sacrifice, in which he lost his right hand, that has restored stability and harmony till the day of Ragnarök.
During this time, the houses where cleaned and the houseworks were often, as a preventive measure against any sign of disturbance.
The Midvintersblót creates an environment able to control and cure all that chaotic tendency of winter.