Younik By Valery Slauk (Belarusian, 1947 - )

I knew something was wrong

the day I tried to pick up a

small piece of sunlight

and it slithered through my fingers,

not wanting to take shape.

Everything else stayed the same—

the chairs and the carpet

and all the corners

where the waiting continued.

-Dorothea Grossman

The Scottish Highlands, 1875 by Gustave Doré (French, 1832–1883)

"Some Old Norse sources also indicate that Óðinn may be reached by travelling down through water (Heide 2011: 67–68); some place names and cult places indicate the same thing. The small lake Odensjön in Scania, named after Óðinn, if indeed the name is ancient*, is one example. The water of the lake is gathered in a circular, crater-like hole in the flat landscape; the lake lacks inflows, and in old times it was believed to be bottomless (Nordisk familjebok 1888: 101). This has a similar character to the north Sami sáiva ponds (cf., e.g., Pakasaivo in northern Finland), which are typically small and without inflow, believed to be bottomless and containing passageways to another pond rather than the visible one (Wiklund 1916, Bäckman 1975, Mebius 2003: 82). There is reason to believe that this passage was considered in the past to be a link to the otherworld – the noaidis (Sami shamans) most often used the guise of a fish as transport when they went to the land of the dead; they were said to ‘dive’ when going there (Olsen 1910 [Etter 1715]: 45, cf. 46; Heide 2006: 232–33), and in southern Sami regions, sáiva – in the form saavje (aajmoe) – means ‘ancestral mountain’ of a similar type to the Old Icelandic Helgafell (Eyrbyggja saga: 19, Landnámabók: 125) and Kaldbakshorn (Njáls saga: 46). Judging from its name and from the examples of the sáiva ponds, there is reason to believe that Odensjön was imagined to be a passageway to Óðinn / Valhǫll. The argument is corroborated by sáiva / saajve being to all appearances a loan from Proto-Scandinavian saiwa-R ‘lake’ (the etymological ancestor of sea / sjö / See; Weisweiler 1940), which indicates that the ideas of such water passageways existed in old Germanic tradition. This is confusing in that one is able to travel through water to a mountain visible on earth, but this is also the case in Eyrbyggja saga and Njáls saga: both Þorsteinn Þorskabítr and Svanr of Svanshóll drown before they can enter the mountain."

-Eldar Heide, from "Contradictory cosmology in old norse myth and religion – but still a system?"

*Stig isaksson (1958: 29) believes that the name Odensjön is a learned invention from the early modern age, but if so, we ought to have heard of an older name. We have not, and Isaksson does not seem to have conclusive arguments. His strongest is that d- in Oden- is pronounced, while it is not in Scanian legends about Odin (Odens jakt). But there are many examples of peculiarities in the pronunciation of place names, and very many have had their pronunciation influenced by writing, without being for this reason learned constructions. There are many examples that an inter-vowel d because of spelling pronunciation is pronounced in ancient names (e.g. Eide in numerous places in Norway), in dialects that normally skip the d in this position.

"Never reproach another for his love:

It happens often enough

That beauty ensnares with desire the wise

While the foolish remain unmoved."

Hávamál - The Sayings of Hár, stanza 93 (Hollander trans.)

Odin and Brunnhilde, Ferdinand Leeke (1898)

Fenrir howls terribly before the doors to Hel. The wolf will break its bonds and run. I know much wisdom, I see deep in the future, all the way to Ragnarök, a dark day for the gods.

Hrym advances from the east with a shield before him, and the Midgard-serpent is in a monstrous rage. The serpent beats the waves, and the eagle screams eagerly, splitting corpses with its pale beak. Naglfar, the giants' ship, is released.

That ship sails from the east, bearing giants over the sea, and Loki is its captain. The giants are coming together with Fenrir, and Loki too is with them on that voyage.

What news from the gods? What news from the elves? All Jotunheim is roaring, the Aesir are in counsel, and the dwarves, creatures of the mountains, tremble by their doors of stone. Have you learned enough yet, Allfather?

Surt comes from the south with a bright light in his hand. Yes, the Sun shines upon the sword in his grasp. The mountains collapse, the trolls fall, men walk the roads to Hel, and the skies divide above.

— Voluspa 47-51

by Cortney

Gullveig's Return

"Burned, broken, but never lost. She speaks in embers and sees what the gods fear."

They called her Heiðr, the Shining One, yet her fate was forged in fire. Three times she burned, and three times she rose—each time stronger, her veins filled not with blood, but with the molten whispers of Seiðr magic. Now, clad in blackened ceremonial armor, adorned with golden runes, and flanked by two crows, she walks the line between prophecy and defiance.

She is Gullveig reborn, a forgotten Vanir sorceress who sees the unraveling threads of fate, knowing that the gods themselves fear what she might reveal.

She carries the Scroll of Ash, an artifact that holds the rewritten history of those who tried to silence her. The words on its pages shift and burn, revealing truths only to those who dare to seek them.

In the fields of battle and the halls of kings, her name is whispered in awe and fear.

Troll woman (a skogsrå, traditionally described as with either a tail like a fox, a back covered in bark, or a back that was hollow like a trough.) or huldra (tail, and usually hooves) putting the moves on a woodchopper.