by David Day
In the “good” Wizard Gandalf, we see his wisdom and strength of will in his refusal to take possession of the One Ring for a single moment, for fear of his own corruption. He knows full well that he would be morally destroyed by it, as surely as was Saruman.
WANDERING THE NINE WORLDS
In the myths of the Norsemen, all these particular dilemmas did not exist. These morally conflicting aspects are all embodied in the single figure of Odin the Wizard in his quest for dominion over the Nine Worlds. We see the lonely figure of Odin the Traveller, who had nothing but his wits to acquire the power he desired. In his wandering years, we see that his life ultimately was a ring quest for his own “One Ring”. This was the magical ring called Draupnir, whose acquisition was a proclamation to all that Odin had become the “Ring Lord of the Nine Worlds”.
Although the worlds of the Norsemen were not complicated by Tolkien’s moral scruples, they were nevertheless aware that such quests exacted a price. Odin the wanderer was a seeker of knowledge and visions. He travelled the Nine Worlds, asking questions of every living thing: giants, elves, dwarfs and spirits of the air, water, earth and woods. He questioned the trees, plants and the very stones themselves. Odin often endured many trials and dangerous adventures, but from each he wrung what wisdom there was from all things he encountered.
Inspired by Odin – Middle-earth’s greatest magicians: Gandalf the Grey and Sauron the Ring Lord
As Odin wandered unnoticed about Midgard – in much the manner as Tolkien’s Istari, or Wizards (who in origin were Maiar, lesser spirits who served the Valar), wandered Middle-earth – his wisdom and power increased. Like Radagast the Brown, Odin learned the languages of the birds and beasts. Like Saruman the White, he acquired the honeyed tongue of poets and orators. Like Sauron the Ring Lord, he acquired mastery over wolves and ravens (or crows, in Sauron’s case). Like Gandalf the Grey, Odin acquired a magical horse which could outrun the storming winds.
YGGDRASIL
In Norse myth, Yggdrasil, the great ash tree, possesses mighty limbs that encompass the Nine Worlds. Yggdrasil’s top is in the heavens above Asgard, and its roots are beneath Hel. Beyond its purpose as a pillar to support these worlds, Yggdrasil is the means by which Odin makes the journey between them. Thus, we seem to have the reason for the name Yggdrasil, which literally means “the steed of Ygg [Odin]”. In many respects, Odin is the “supreme shaman”. For just as the shaman climbs or rides up his tree in his trance, so Odin rides Yggdrasil to the Nine Worlds.
It was on Yggdrasil that Odin underwent his most harrowing rite of passage. Similarly to the crucified Christ, Odin was wounded by a spear and hung from the sacred tree for nine days and nine nights. Hanging from the tree in great pain, Odin maintained a state of meditation on the markings cut in the stone by Yggdrasil’s roots. By the ninth night Odin deciphered the marking and discovered the secret of the magical alphabet known as runes.
By the power of the runes his own resurrection was achieved. From Yggdrasil he cut the limb he was hung from and made his magician’s staff. By the magic of runes Odin could cure, make the dead speak, render weapons powerless, gain women’s love, and calm storms by land and sea.
Then, ever thirsting for more knowledge, Odin went to drink from the Fountain of Wisdom at Yggdrasil’s foot, but for this too there was a price. For one deep draught from the fountain, Odin had to sacrifice an eye. Without hesitation he drank, and from that time he was always the one-eyed god.
In The Lord of the Rings, we see something of Odin’s rites of passage in Gandalf the Grey’s seemingly fatal battle with the Balrog. This conflict and a subsequent mystic inner journey, not unlike Odin’s, eventually results in the resurrection of a “supercharged” Gandalf the White. Gandalf, who already knew how to read runes, rapidly demonstrates many new powers, the least being the ability to render weapons powerless.
With the evil Sauron, we see a Necromancer insanely obsessed with the acquisition of power. Odin becomes the one-eyed lord because he sacrifices the other eye in his quest. Sauron becomes the one-eyed lord because he sacrifices everything but that one evil eye. Nothing remains of his spirit and soul but that one fiery evil eye.
In Norse myth, this last inward journey of Odin on Yggdrasil was his making as the Magician–King. Odin ascended to Asgard, where the other gods saw his might and wisdom, and all acknowledged them. Similarly, in Tolkien, all the “Free Peoples” of Middle-earth recognized the might and wisdom of the resurrected Gandalf; and the forces of darkness recognized and accepted the dominion of Sauron in his final resurrection as the “Eye”.
In his resurrected form, Odin was a fearful god to look on. He was stern, one-eyed, grey-bearded and of gigantic size. He wore a grey cloak with a broad blue mantle and a warrior’s eagle-winged helmet. At his feet crouched the two fierce wolves of war (“Ravener” and “Greed”), and on one shoulder perched his two raven messenger-spies (“Thought” and “Memory”). Tolkien’s king of the Valar, Manwë the Lord of the Air, is rather more in the style of the Olympian Zeus; however, he does share some of Odin’s characteristics. He is stern, grey-bearded, of gigantic size, and wears a blue-mantled cloak. He is also the god of poetry, and the wisest and most powerful of gods.
THE HALLS OF ODIN
As the king of the gods, Odin possessed three great halls in Asgard. The first was Valaskiaff, where he sat on his golden throne called Hlidskialf. From here Odin’s one eye could see all that happened in all the Nine Worlds.
In Tolkien’s world there are three variations on Odin’s throne. Manwë, the king of the Valar, is enthroned on Taniquetil, the highest mountain in the world, and his all-seeing eyes can see over all the world. Sauron’s One Eye has similar, if somewhat more limited, power in its ability to see and command his domain from the Dark Tower of Mordor. And Frodo Baggins, the Hobbit, discovers the “Seat of Seeing” on Amon Hen, “the hill of the eye”. Once he sits on its stone throne, like a little Odin, he can see telescopically for hundreds of miles in all directions.
Taniquetil, the highest mountain in Tolkien’s world of Arda
Winged Valkyrie battle maidens carrying slain heroes to Valhalla
Odin’s second hall was called Gladsheim. This was the Council Hall of the Gods, where Odin presided over the throne ring of the 12 other gods. This is comparable to the Ring of Doom, or Council of the Valar, presided over by Manwë, at the gates of Valmar in the Undying Lands of Aman.
Most famous of all of Odin’s halls was Valhalla, the “hall of the slain”, the golden hall of warriors. This is the great feasting-hall with 540 doors and a roof fashioned from shields of polished gold, presided over by Odin, Lord of Victories. Here warriors who fall in battle are rewarded for their bravery by unending feasting and drinking. And there they remain until the time of Ragnarök. In Tolkien we have the rather more gloomy Hall of Awaiting in the Mansions of Mandos, the Speaker of Doom, in the Undying Lands. However, in common with the Viking warriors, the spirits of slain Elves await the call for the final cataclysm of the World’s End.
As emblems of office, Odin was presented with two great gifts. Odin’s magician’s staff was taken to Alfheim, where the elf-smith Dwalin forged the head of the spear, Gungnir, the most fearful weapon of the Lord of Victories. In Tolkien an echo of this weapon is seen in the magical spear Aeglos, the most dreaded weapon of Gil-galad, the last high king of the Elves of Middle-earth.
DRAUPNIR
However, the supreme gift, and the ultimate manifestation of the wealth and power of the Magician–King, was the ring called Draupnir. In Tolkien’s tale, all the skill of the Elf Celebrimbor, the most wondrous smith of Middle-earth, and all the wisdom of Sauron, went into the forging of the Rings of Power. In Norse myth all the skill of the dwarfs Sindri and Brokk, the greatest smiths in the Nine Worlds, and all the wisdom of Odin were invested in the forging of the ring Draupnir.
Draupnir means “the dripper”, for this magical golden ring had the power to drip eight other rings of equal size every nine
days. Its possession by Odin was not only emblematic of his dominion of the Nine Worlds but consolidated his accumulated powers by giving him a source of almost infinite wealth. Draupnir gave Odin, in his capacity as the king of the gods, the greatest ring-hoard and allowed him to become the greatest ring-giver in the Nine Worlds.
Gilgalad, Last High King of the Noldor with Aeglos, the spear before which “none could stand”
With the acquisition of Draupnir, Odin’s quest for dominion was completed. It can be no accident that Draupnir spawns eight other rings of equal weight in nine days. Through Draupnir, Odin rules Asgard, while the other eight are used by Odin the Ring Lord as gifts of wealth and power by which the other eight worlds are governed. Like the earthly Viking king who as a “ring-giver” rewards his jarls (earls), so Odin maintains the order of the other eight worlds by his gift of rings to chosen heroes and kings. The ring on his hand is the ultimate source of all magical rings and all wealth. Through his control of Draupnir, Odin literally becomes the “Lord of the Rings”.
Among the many legends of Odin, one above all others deals with the ring Draupnir. This is the legend concerning the death of Odin’s favourite son, Balder. After his slaying, his corpse was placed in the huge funeral ship called Ringhorn and all the gods gathered to pay homage. Each laid a gift of unspeakable wonder in his ship. However, so great was Odin’s grief that, in a frenzy of despair, he placed Draupnir on his son’s breast just as the ship was set alight
and entirely consumed in flames.
This was a tragic error, for without the ring Odin’s mastery of the Nine Worlds was in danger of being challenged by the giants. The ring was needed to restore order to the Nine Worlds. Fortunately, the ring did not perish in the funeral flames, but went with the spirit of Balder into the dark realm of Hel, the prison of the dead.
THE QUEST FOR THE RING
So a journey has to be made down the “cosmic tree”, Yggdrasil, to recover the ring. To achieve this quest, Odin mounts his magical eight-legged steed, Sleipnir, and rides down into the deepest realm of Hel. Once there, Sleipnir leaps over the chained Hound of Hel and the great gate it guards as well. Both rider and steed enter into the domain of the damned, seize the sacred ring and ride back. Once Draupnir is restored to Odin in Asgard, peace and order are restored to the Nine Worlds.
In Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings we have exactly the opposite scenario in Sauron the Ring Lord’s evil quest to recover his One Ring. Sauron is master of a domain of the damned – the hell-on-earth called Mordor – when the One Ring is taken from him. The Ring should then have been consumed by the flames of Mount Doom, but instead it is taken out of the kingdom of the damned into the mortal world, where it is lost. Once Sauron returns to Mordor, he sends his Dark Riders into the living world in an attempt to recover the One Ring. It is obvious that, if his ring quest is achieved and the One Ring is restored to Sauron in Mordor, the result will be exactly the opposite of Odin’s tale. Chaos and war would certainly consume and destroy all of the world.
Bilbo Baggins on the Seat of Seeing on Amon Hen, the “Hill of the Eye”
PART
FOUR
THE VÖLSUNGA SAGA
The most famous ring legend of the Norsemen is told in the Völsunga Saga. The epic tale is one of the greatest literary works to survive the Viking civilization. Within the Völsunga Saga is the history of many of the heroes of the Völsung and Nibelung dynasties. In earliest recorded sagas, the Nibelungs were called the Guikings. However, the names appear to be used interchangeably. Iceland’s Snorri Sturluson, in the 13th-century Younger Edda, states: “Gunnar and Hogni were called Nibelungen or Guikings; therefore the gold is called the Nibelungen hoard.” To minimalize the confusion in view of later Germanic traditions, I will use the Nibelung name for the dynasty.
The fates of the Völsung and Nibelung dynasties were bound up with that of a magical ring called Andvarinaut. This was the magical ring that once belonged to Andvari the Dwarf. It seems to have been an earthly Draupnir. Its name means “Andvari’s loom” because it “wove” its owner a fortune in gold, and with that wealth went power and fame. The tale of Andvarinaut has become the archetypal ring legend, and is primarily concerned with the life and death of the greatest of all Norse heroes, Sigurd the Dragonslayer.
In this chapter, the Völsunga Saga is retold. It should be noted that the epic is a collection of over 40 linked but individual saga tales. These were the final outcome of an oral tradition of diverse authorship composed over many centuries. The resulting texts therefore often result in a somewhat irregular plot structure, although the overall outline is clear. In this retelling, those parts of the saga concerning the ring are emphasized in detail, while peripheral adventures (particularly those that precede the appearance of Sigurd) are told in synopsis form.
Readers will find many parallels between the Völsunga Saga and Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. Rather than break up the tale with interjections, these parallels will be examined later, along with comparisons with the legends of King Arthur, Charlemagne, Dietrich von Berne, and numerous other heroes and traditions, including the medieval German epic Nibelungenlied and a score of fairy tales.
THE VÖLSUNGS
The Völsunga Saga begins with the tale of the hero Sigi, who is the mortal son of Odin. He is a great warrior who by his strength and skill becomes the King of the Huns. King Sigi’s son is Reric, who is also a mighty warrior, but cannot give his queen a child and heir. So the gods send to Reric a crow with an apple in its beak. Reric gives this apple to his wife, who eats it and becomes heavy with child. But the child remains in his mother’s womb for six years before he is released by the midwife’s knife. This child is Völsung, who becomes the third in this line of kings.
Völsung is the strongest and most powerful of all the kings of Hunland. He is a man of huge physical size and he sires ten sons and one daughter. The eldest of his children are the twin brother and sister, Sigmund and Signy.
One day a grey-bearded stranger with one eye appears in the great hall of the Völsungs in the midst of a great gathering of Huns, Goths and Vikings. Without a word, the old man strides over to Branstock, the great living oak tree that stands in the centre of the Völsung hall. He draws a brilliant sword from a sheath and drives it up to its hilt in the tree trunk. The ancient stranger then walks out of the hall and disappears.
No mortal man could have achieved such a feat, and all know that this old man can be none other than Odin. All the heroes in the great hall desire this sword, but only Sigmund has the strength to draw it from Branstock. All know that, armed with Odin’s sword, Sigmund is the god’s chosen warrior.
With this sword, which can cut stone and steel, Sigmund wins great fame, yet terrible tragedy soon befalls the Völsung family. Sigmund’s sister, Signy, is married to the King of Gothland, who treacherously murders King Völsung at the wedding feast. He then imprisons Völsung’s ten sons by placing them in stocks in a clearing in the wild wood. One son is torn to pieces each night for nine nights by a werewolf, who is actually the witch-mother of the king. However, on the tenth night, Sigmund (with the help of his sister Signy) manages to trick the werewolf and slays her by tearing out her tongue with his teeth.
SIGMUND AND SIGNY
Sigmund escapes and lives for many years as an outlaw in an underground house in the wild wood. Signy’s desire for vengeance for her father and brothers is great, even though she remains the wife of the King of Gothland. She casts a spell on Sigmund and goes to his underground house. Sigmund does not know it is his own sister and makes love to her. Months later, Signy has a child from this incestuous union. He is named Sinfjötli, and when he is grown, Signy sends him to Sigmund in the wild wood, so together they may avenge Völsung’s death.
Sigmund the Völsung drawing the sword of Odin from Branstock
After many trials, including stealing and wearing werewolf skins and being buried alive in a barrow grave, Sigmund and Sinfjötli set fire to the
great hall of the Goth king. Signy secretly returns Odin’s sword to Sigmund, and all who attempt to escape the fire are slain. Seeing the Goth king and his kin slain, Signy confesses the price she has paid to exact her revenge, including incest with her brother, and leaps into the flames.
Sigmund returns with Sinfjötli to his homeland and claims his father’s throne as King of Hunland. He rules successfully for many years, although his son Sinfjötli dies by poisoning. Shortly after King Sigmund marries the Princess Hjordis, two armies of Vikings ambush Sigmund. However, they fail to slay him [[p69]]because of his supernatural sword. Into the fray of battle comes an ancient, one-eyed warrior. When Sigmund strikes this old man’s spear shaft with his sword, the blade shatters. Sigmund knows his doom has come. The ancient warrior can be none other than Odin. Sigmund’s enemies strike him down.
