Bestla - Mother of Odin

Many Goddesses in the Norse Pantheon have the importante role of motherhood, and all gods came from somewhere, from both a male and a female being. We often hear about Odin, after Thor his own son, he is the mosr famous of all the gods, but seldom we hear about his own mother, so today i will speak of her, or at least the few knowledge i have of her, acording with the lore.

Bestla is the mother of Odin, she is a very powerful frost-giantess, the daughter of Bolthorn. She is the mother of Odin, Vili and Vé. Her brother is Mimir, the famour god whose head is deep in the well called Mimirsbrunnr.

Bestla is often called by mothers who have very difficult children in any ways, be that behavior, fears that might be difficult to understand and may ruin the child's daily life, night terrors, illness, well any kind of difficulty people have with children, but she probably helps fathers as well. Its hard for parents to have any kind of peace when they have troublesome children or very sick children, so Bestla is the goddess to be called upon to helps the little ones and to help the parents having a bit of peace but also strength to endure the years of childhood of their sons and daughters, to ease the worries.

The Nine Worlds: Helheim

In the Norse cosmology there are nine different worlds, connected to each other, worlds with their own fauna, natural landscapes and beings. Some see these worlds as separate planets, but in truth, the world is the same, but each continent is so vast, that it seems that each ream is a different world, with landscapes differing from each other.
We know of these places as the world of the gods, spirits and the dead, in other words, the afterlife. Through ages before history was recorded, certain humans had the ability to travel into these places, spiritual leaders of each tribe, shamans, who could travel in trance to these places, even today these kind of people exist and they can do the same work others did, so we might have a vast lore about the landscapes, the creatures and other beings that inhabit each realm. The Norse/Germanic people called the other world as the Nine worlds, and each world has its name and also lands within, but in truth it's just one huge world, the first to travel there by trance had the perception that it each landscape were different worlds because they didn't had the chance to stay there too long in order to travel from one continent to another, from land to land, and each time they visited, they were in just one, also in ancient times it was thought that the earth was flat and it would eventually end in a endless waterfall into the black abys of the surrounding universe, so this was also thought to happen in the other world, because traveling in certain continents eventually one would end up near the ocean, and this was why people thought that one world ended there and beyond started another one. Fortunately our knowledge of things grew, and as some of us can still travel to the other world by trance, we have a better perception of the landscapes, and we know that these worlds are all connected in one, oceans might divide one continent from another, but we know that rivers, forests and mountains also do, and by crossing those, we can reach the other realms.
As i have been talking here in my blog about all the other realms, i left Helheim as the last one on purpose, because it lies in the far south of the other world, but also because Helheim isn't what most people think it is, as you know, it is from Helheim or the goddess ruler of this realm, Hela/Hel, that the Christian Hell comes from, the scary, horrific place to scare people, but in truth, Helheim from the Norse mythology ins't such a place and i am about to describe it for you.

Helheim

 

 

Before it was called Helheim, its name was Jormungrund, this was the underworld, the realm of the dead which had a lot of souls of dead Jotnar the great giants, and also some live ones lived there. This name can be translated to "huge-surface" or "huge world" because in this time, Asgard didn't exist and much of the entire world was in the domain of the Jotnar, so Jormungrund might be refering to a huge portion of lands. Jormungrund was ruled by Hel, but apparently it wasn't the same Hel we know today, because someone has to take care of the dead but not forever, or at least it used to be like this, the name Hel and this rulership over the dead is passed on to another when the former ruler retires, and so that was what as been happaning till Hela the daughter of Loki took this title. There is the need to watchover the dead because as legend says, when one of these "Hel" died, the dead roamed all the nine realms for seven years. Mimir, the consort of the last Hel did whatever he could do to keep things in order until one from another race was chosen to the task of keeper of the dead. Each race of the nine realms wanted to have a member of their own to this task, it would give them great power, even between tribes of the Jotnar this was so, and Angrboda, the leader of the Wolf clan of the Jotnar, and would become the leader and queen of all the clans hereafter, had a daughter with Loki, her name was Hela and she had the mark that she would be the next to be tasked for the "job" of keeper of the dead, and so it was, she claimed rulership over the dead lands and became the death goddess.

Hela took over Jormundgrund and changed it completely, renaming it Helheim. The place used to be filled with dark caves, but she turned the land into a better and beautiful place, planting orchards, and different types of trees and grass grew, the land became peaceful and colorful fields and forests, and it seems it is always in the autumn season and in this place she built the castle Elvidnir. Hela was different than all the other before her who had this task to watch over the dead, her great power was spread all over the land, giving to it a better place for the dead, to rest, to be at peace and joy. Helheim is the biggest of all the nine realms, but it is hard to say how big it is because the places where the dead are, very few can enter, even that live in the other realms, so most visit Helheim in certain parts of it, but aren't able to see it in its fullness. This is because Hela loves her realm and the people in it, either the living or the dead ones, protecting them, the place is well guarded, only those who live there, are able to go to and fro, others not from that area can only enter if they are invited by Hela herself. Since Helheim is far to the south, it is a rarity to have daylight, most of the time is night and dark, however the sky is of a light blue as if the moon was there, and it is filled with stars, but in some places it's dusk, or a late afternoon atmospher, probably to the northwest. A chain of mountains are the border between Niflheim and Helheim, huge and covered with snow most of them, for the cold of Niflheim is felt near them. The famous river Gjöll begins in these mountains and run all the way into Helheim, also making a boundary separating the area that can be visited by anyone, from the area where the dead live.

Being a huge realm, Helheim has many entrances, gates well protected by guardians who are seldom seen, unless one of those guardians is Mordgud, she is a famous deity. However, the main gate called Helgrind, is the most important entrance into Helheim, or the easier to get to for all the others are hidden, or are very hard to find. Passing the bridge over the great river Gjöll is the only way into the Main gate. At the other end of the bridge lies Mordgud's tower, made of black solid stone, and none enters in Helheim without stating their business to this etin woman.

Helheim is a beautiful realm, nothing to do with the Christian Hell, even if this place is most of the time in the darkness of the night, it isn't that dark at all, however it might be scary in some areas, the dense autumn forests are beautiful but many creatures live there, and the air is filled with all sorts of wild noises, also by the shore, especially to the south, lies the ocean, cold and of a very thick dark blue almost black, speaking for myself, i don't like dark waters at all. But the most horrifying place in Helheim is Nastrond, the great hall of serpents, as you might imagine by the name, it is filled with serpents coiling in the roof of the hall, and the place is filled with tormented souls down below, in agony while the venom of the serpents falls in them and burns the skin, this place might have been what made the christians think of their Hell as the place for sinners, who need to be punished and tortured for their deeds, however Hela isn't a malicious goddess that amuses herself by torturing people for no reason ( this might had led christians to create the profile of the Devil ), Nastrond has a purpose, it isn't just the home of snakes and the great wingless dragon Nidhog, in this place, those who are there choose to be there, no one is tossed by force, the people who think they have done something wrong in life, murder, robery, or anyother thing you can imagine as wrongness, go into this place, because they feel the need to be punished somehow in order to learn something, the first step to their eventual change into becoming better people. Everyone is free to enter and leave, the doors are not locked, but those who choose this place in a ordeal matter, have great courage and the sense that they did awful things.

 

Here it ends the nine worlds, who can read more about the other realms in the respective lable here in my blog.

 

Note: The artwork to illustrate this post is a painting made by me called Helheim, where you can see the mountains as a natural border between Niflheim and Helheim, in it's shadows over the misty land below. If you have any questions for me or if you want to see my artistic works, check out my Facebook page and make a Like if you can by following this link --> http://www.facebook.com/ArithHarger

 

Working with the gods: Mimir

Knowledge is the most precious thing one can possess, besides love. Your home can be lost, loved ones can go away, wealth, power, health, also could be taken from you, even your own freedom and your own life... but no one can take away the things you know, the knowledge you gained with time, that is a treasure well preserved and no one can get that from you unless you give it to them. But with all that knowledge, you have to use it well, with great purposes.

In the Norse pantheon, there is a god, whose gift is, knowledge it self. His name is Mimir, the oracular god who dwells in the sacred well Mimirsbrunnr in Jötunheim. The god gives great wisdom to those who seek him, but nothing of what he gives is free, even the gods must pay a price to learn from him, for instance, Odin gave his own eye to earn Mimir's wisdom.

People speak about Mimir in two different myths. In one, he is a mountain giant, guarding his sacred well. For too long he stood still that he grew with the mountain and became part of it, and in this way, he was turned into a guardian of living stone.
In the other myth, he is brother to Bestla, mother of Odin, Vili and Ve. He was the keeper of the sacred well of wisdom, and whomsoever drank from those waters, gained great mental powers. When his sister married into the tribe of the Aesir, he was also welcomed there. After the war with the Aesir and with the Vanir, both sides agreed in exchange hostages, so Odin sent two gods to the Vanir, Mimir and Hoenir, the Vanir were not pleased with this, and decapitated Mimir. Odin took Mimir's head and cured it with magic and herbs, and brought it back to life. This last myth has two versions. In one, Odin is carrying Mimir's head with him and consulting it for advice, in the other version, Odin droped Mimir's head into the Sacred well of Wisdom, Mimirsbrunnr, and whenever Odin is wandering, he goes to the well and asks Mimir for wisdom and in one time he asked for magical gifts, and so Mimir gave him two ravens, Huginn and Muninn ( Thought and Memory) and what he asked from him in turn, was to dig out his own eye and drop it into the well, in this way, Odin lost his eye and ever since Odin was one-eyed. This shows the importance of wisdom, that one might even lose something of great value in exchange for knowledge, for knowledge might also bring other things of great value if it is used with wisdom.

Mimir does demand offerings in exchange for his wisdom or for some answer to a question you might ask him. He has the power to go into the depths of the sacred Well of Knowledge, but he always wants something in return. He may ask for a lot of things from your part, all sort of things. Sometimes he might ask for a drop or two of blood (your own), and some times alcohol or perhaps a deed that you must perform before he will give you your answer. Be certain of this, that even if the deed sounds easy, when you actually are in the verge of doing it, it will be difficult. Mimir wants to see you work for it, because knowledge never comes for free, you know that, even in your daily life, you have to study or pass through certain happanings in your life, to learn from life it self, and sometimes it isn't pretty.
Another possible offering to him is to offer to be his eyes for a day. If things come up to this, then for one entire day, everything you see, he sees as well. While he may request that you make an effort to observe certain things, he is more likely to let you choose and then see what you pick. He will judge you on what you choose to show him, and he may reject it if he feels that it was not worth the answer.