Oldal 113 [113]
A MYSTERY AMONG THE MYSTERIES: ARE THERE OLD ICELANDIC MYSTERIES
by the excellent translator Lee M. Hollander as “if they offer up sacrifice.”!°
The scene takes place in a stead, a stable (stallr), which is rendered sacred,
perhaps purified (for the service). In this case, there was a small room in
a building, which was prepared for the sacrifice. The other examples from the
Verse Edda tell us the same: that there was no special place or building for
preparing a performance of the mysteries. In one word, the simple dwellings
(hof) of the peasants were used for the purposes of everyday life as well as for
private religious practice. Hörgr might be a larger building but still not one
specifically designed for the rites.
There are differences as to time and place in the terms or names for
“shrine” and “sacrifice.” The main tendency is, however, the same among the
Norse: there is no proof that these terms should have been names of places
or buildings specifically used for performing mystery rites. We learn about
“holy forests,” “holy groves” etc., but not as places specific to the mysteries.
HIDDEN KNOWLEDGE AND EUHEMERISM
Hidden knowledge is not a rare motif in Old Icelandic literature. There are
several texts in which a hero (usually Odin in disguise) is questioning a “wise”
person, usually a dwarf, giant, or other supernatural being, about hidden or
lesser known parts of Old Icelandic cosmology and mythology. The stories are
without direct references to an initiation into mysteries. In such stories, Odin
is the omniscient hero. There are several versions about how Odin learned his
wisdom: from Mimir’s head or by drinking from Mimir’s well. He acquires
knowledge in a mysterious way but there are no allusions to mysteries with
human participation.
As an exception, one of the most complicated narratives of how Odin
learnt the runes and acquired wisdom is told in an independent short poem,
inserted into strophes 138—141 ofthe Havamal, as follows:
138. I wot that I [Öthin] hung on the wind-tossed tree
all of nights nine,
wounded by spear, bespoken to Öthin,
bespoken myself to myself, ...
139. Neither [drinking] horn they upheld nor handed me bread;
I looked below me —
aloud I cried —
caught up the runes, caught them up wailing,
16 Lee M. Hollander, The Poetic Edda. Translated with Introduction and Explanatory Notes,
Austin, University of Texas Press, 1990, 151.
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