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28-670: In the poem Grímnismál collected in the Poetic Edda , Odin (disguised, or Grímnir ) tells the young Agnar that Freyja allots seats in her hall Fólkvangr to half of those that die, while Odin receives the other half ( Fólkvangr is here anglicized to Fôlkvang and Folkvang ): Benjamin Thorpe translation: Henry Adams Bellows translation: In chapter 24 of the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning , High tells Gangleri (described as king Gylfi in disguise) that Freyja

56-435: A connection between Fólkvangr and a variety of other Germanic words referring to the afterlife that contain extensions of Proto-Germanic * wangaz , including Old English Neorxnawang , potentially pointing to an early Germanic ' *wangaz of the dead'. Early in the 20th century, Karl Ernst Osthaus developed the "Folkwang-Gedanke" or "Folkwang-Konzept", that art and life can be reconciled. Several cultural institutions bearing

84-608: A full horn from which to drink, saying that his father, the king, was not right to torture him. Grímnir then spoke, saying that he had suffered eight days and nights, without succour from any save Agnarr, Geirröth's son, whom Grímnir prophesied would be Lord of the Goths . He then revealed himself for who he was, as the Highest One, promising Agnarr reward for the drink which he brought him. Shifting from prose to poetry for Odin-as-Grímnir's monologue, Grímnir describes at great length

112-577: A ship and a field, which has broader implications and may connect Freyja to the "Isis" of the Suebi : Perhaps each source has preserved a part of the same truth and Sessrúmnir was conceived of as both a ship and an afterlife location in Fólkvangr. 'A ship in a field' is a somewhat unexpected idea, but it is strongly reminiscent of the stone ships in Scandinavian burial sites. 'A ship in the field' in

140-607: A valkyrie, literally 'the one who chooses the slain'. Siegfried Andres Dobat comments that "in her mythological role as the chooser of half the fallen warriors for her death realm Fólkvangr, the goddess Freyja, however, emerges as the mythological role model for the Valkyrjar and the dísir ." In a 2012 paper, Joseph S. Hopkins and Haukur Þorgeirsson propose a connection between Fólkvangr, Sessrúmnir, and numerous stone ships found throughout Scandinavia. According to Hopkins and Haukur, Fólkvangr and Sessrumir together paint an image of

168-534: Is "the most glorious of the ásynjur ", that Freyja has a dwelling in the heavens called Fólkvangr, and that "whenever she rides to battle she gets half of the slain, and the other half Odin, as it says here: [the stanza above from Grímnismál is then quoted]". High then continues with a description of Freyja's hall Sessrúmnir. In Egils saga , when Egill Skallagrímsson refuses to eat, his daughter Þorgerðr (here anglicized as "Thorgerd") says she will go without food and thus starve to death, and in doing so will meet

196-619: Is an Old English noun used to translate the Christian concept of paradise in Anglo-Saxon literature . Scholars propose that the noun originally derives from Germanic mythology , referring to a "heavenly meadow" or place without toil or worries. While the second half of the word, - wang , is widely acknowledged to mean 'field' (and its cognate waggs appears for 'paradise' in Gothic ), scholars have yet to reach an agreement regarding

224-573: Is one of the mythological poems of the Poetic Edda . It is preserved in the Codex Regius manuscript and the AM 748 I 4to fragment. It is spoken through the voice of Grímnir , one of the many guises of the god Odin . The very name suggests guise, or mask or hood. Through an error, King Geirröth tortured Odin-as-Grímnir, a fatal mistake, since Odin caused him to fall upon his own sword. The poem

252-483: Is taken as a possessor of a ship, then this ship iconography may lend support to positions arguing for a connection between a Vanir goddess and the "Isis" of the Suebi, who is associated with ship symbolism in Tacitus’s Germania . Afterlife beliefs involving strong nautical elements, and, separately, afterlife fields, have been identified in numerous Indo-European cultures …" Hopkins and Haukur additionally propose

280-483: Is written mostly in the ljóðaháttr metre, typical for wisdom verse. The work starts out with a lengthy prose section describing the circumstances leading up to Grímnir's monologue . The monologue itself comprises 54 stanzas of poetic verse describing the worlds and Odin's many guises. The third and last part of the poem is also prose, a brief description of Geirröth's demise, his son's ascension, and Odin's disappearance. The prose sections were most likely not part of

308-420: The cosmogony of the worlds, the dwelling places of its inhabitants, and himself and his many guises. Eventually, Grímnir turns to Geirröth and promises him misfortune, revealing his true identity. Geirröth then realized the magnitude of his mistake. Having learned that he is undone, he rose quickly to pull Odin from the fires, but the sword which he had lain upon his knee slipped and fell hilt down, so that when

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336-493: The end & beginning of said reversal stemming from the left-to-right-or-right-to-left freedom of runic writing, suggesting an original *G rœ̄n(e)nawang , meaning 'green field'. He then suggests an entirely Christian origin of the term rather than a pre-Christian one, stating "Cryptic names for Paradise, and its interpretation with 'green,' are found in early Insular Latin." and points to the Old Saxon Heliand using

364-756: The first element's meaning – though at least a dozen attempts to interpret it have been made. Scholar Rudolf Simek states that it is possible to consider the term as a Proto-Germanic term for ' Asgard ' or 'Other World' due to the noun's unclear meaning, that Christian authors who used it seemed to have a poor understanding of it as well, and that it corresponds with the North Germanic terms Iðavöllr (possibly 'field of activity' or 'the continually renewing, rejuvenating field') and Glæsisvellir ('the shining fields'). 19th century scholar Jacob Grimm observes that etymological connections have been proposed between Norn and Neorxnawang , but says that

392-504: The god Ullr dwells, and Freyja's Fólkvangr have been lost. Britt-Mari Näsström places emphasis on that Gylfaginning relates that "whenever she rides into battle she takes half of the slain," and interprets Fólkvangr as "the field of the Warriors." Näsström comments that: Freyja receives the slain heroes of the battlefield quite respectfully as Óðinn does. Her house is called Sessrumnir, 'filled with many seats', and it probably fills

420-650: The goddess Freyja: Britt-Mari Näsström says that "as a receiver of the dead her [Freyja's] abode is also open for women who have suffered a noble death." Näsström cites the above passage from Egils saga as an example, and points to a potential additional connection in the saga Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks , where the queen hangs herself in the dísarsalr (Old Norse "the Hall of the Dís ") after discovering that her husband has betrayed both her father and brother. Näsström comments that "this Dís could hardly be anyone but Freyja herself,

448-554: The king stumbled he impaled himself upon it. Odin then vanished, and Agnarr, son of the dead King Geirröth, ruled in his father's stead. The 12th album of the comic Valhalla is loosely based on the poem. In the 2017 Starz television adaptation of Neil Gaiman 's American Gods , the character Mad Sweeney refers to Mr. Wednesday as Grimnir. Mr. Wednesday later emulates Odin's reveal of his identity through his various names when revealing his own true nature. Neorxnawang Neorxnawang (also Neorxenawang and Neorxnawong )

476-417: The man the dogs wouldn't attack, which they did. Odin-as-Grímnir, dressed in a dark blue cloak, allowed himself to be captured. He stated that his name was Grímnir, but he would say nothing further of himself. Geirröth then had him tortured to force him to speak, putting him between two fires for eight nights. After this time, Geirröth's son, named Agnarr after the king's brother, came to Grímnir and gave him

504-508: The mythical realm may have been conceived as a reflection of actual burial customs and vice versa. It is possible that the symbolic ship was thought of as providing some sort of beneficial property to the land, such as good seasons and peace brought on by Freyr’s mound burial in Ynglinga saga . Evidence involving ships from the pre-Christian period and from folklore may be similarly re-examined with this potential in mind. For example, if Freyja

532-804: The name Folkwang (the German spelling of Fólkvangr) were founded on this concept. These institutions include the Museum Folkwang in Essen (opened 1902), the publishing house Folkwang-Verlag (founded 1919), Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen (founded 1958), Folkwang-Musikschule in Essen (founded 1974), and Folkwang University of the Arts , focusing on music, theater, dance, design and academic studies. Gr%C3%ADmnism%C3%A1l Grímnismál ( Old Norse : [ˈɡriːmnesˌmɔːl] ; 'The Lay of Grímnir')

560-630: The name Fólkvangr is "surely not much older than Grímnismál itself", and adds that the Gylfaginning description keeps close to the Grímnismál description, yet that the Gylfaginning descriptions adds that Sessrúmnir is located within Fólkvangr. According to Hilda Ellis Davidson , Valhalla "is well known because it plays so large a part in images of warfare and death," yet the significance of other halls in Norse mythology such as Ýdalir , where

588-507: The natural leader of the collective female deities called dísir, and the place of the queen's suicide seems thus to be connected with Freyja." John Lindow says that if the Fólk- element of Fólkvangr is to be understood as "army", then Fólkvangr appears as an alternative to Valhalla. Lindow adds that, like Odin, Freyja has an association with warriors in that she presides over the eternal combat of Hjaðningavíg . Rudolf Simek theorizes that

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616-490: The original oral versions of Grímnismál. Henry Adams Bellows suggests that they were added in the 12th or 13th century and based on some sort of narrative tradition regarding the poem. This is not entirely certain. The poem itself was likely composed in the first half of the 10th century. Odin and his wife, Frigg , were sitting in Hlidskjalf , looking out on the worlds. They turned their eyes towards King Geirröth, who

644-538: The phrase ne wyrcan , meaning 'no working'. In a 1979 article, Alan K. Brown proposes that neorxena- is an artificial distortion of OE grœ̄ne (alternative form of grēne ) 'green' using then in-vogue 8th century literary tricks of reverse spelling and isolated rune use, in this case the Elder Fuþark and the Anglo-Saxon Fuþorc rune ᚷ (Proto-Germanic *gebu , Old English ġifu ) 'gift', to mark

672-499: The same function as Valhöll, 'the hall of the slain', where the warriors eat and drink beer after the fighting. Still, we must ask why there are two heroic paradises in the Old Norse View of afterlife. It might possibly be a consequence of different forms of initiation of warriors, where one part seemed to have belonged to Óðinn and the other to Freyja. These examples indicate that Freyja was a war-goddess, and she even appears as

700-564: The term ' grôni uuang ' as a noteworthy kenning for Paradise, and similar phrases in Genesis A and Guthlac A to suggest the term originally being created simply as a semantic loan of Latin Paradisus . In a 1985 paper, Jane Roberts expounds her interpretation of nēo-rixena as "corpse- rushes ". In a 2012 paper, Joseph S. Hopkins and Haukur Þorgeirsson propose a connection between Old Norse Fólkvangr , an afterlife location overseen by

728-489: The theory raises etymological issues and other problems: "The A. gen. pl. neorxana, which only occurs in 'neorxena wong' = paradisus, has been proposed, but the abbreviation would be something unheard of, and even the nom. sing. neorxe or neorxu at variance with norn; besides, the Parcae are nowhere found connected with paradise." Late 19th and early 20th century philologist James Bright proposes that neorxena- derives from

756-541: Was reigning in the stead of his late father, King Hrauthung . Geirröth and his older brother Agnarr had been raised by Odin and Frigg, respectively. The god and goddess had disguised themselves as a peasant and his wife, and had taught the children wisdom. Geirröth returned to his father's kingdom where he became king upon his father's death, while Agnarr dwelt with a giantess in a cave. In Hliðskjálf, Odin remarked to Frigg that his foster-child Geirröth seemed to be prospering more so than her Agnarr. Frigg retorted that Geirröth

784-470: Was so parsimonious and inhospitable that he would torture his guests if he thought there were too many of them. Odin disputed this, and the couple entered into a wager in this respect. Frigg then sent her maid Fulla to Geirröth, advising him that a magician would soon enter his court to bewitch him, and saying that he could be recognised by the fact that no dog was fierce enough to attack him. Geirröth heeded Fulla's false warning. He ordered his men to capture

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