Asgard's Wall

The Milky Way
by Peter Krüger
©2012
 
 [Germanic Astronomy]  

 

 The Prose Edda, Gylfaginning 42, tells the story about the construction of the walls of Asgard:

Þá mælti Gangleri: "Hverr á þann hest, Sleipni, eða hvat er frá honum at segja?" Hárr segir: "Eigi kanntu deili á Sleipni, ok eigi veiztu atburði, af hverju hann kom, en þat mun þér þykkja frásagnar vert. Þat var snimma í öndverða byggð goðanna, þá er goðin höfðu sett Miðgarð ok gert Valhöll, þá kom þar smiðr nökkurr ok bauð at gera þeim borg á þrim misserum svá góða, at trú ok örugg væri fyrir bergrisum ok hrímþursum, þótt þeir kæmi inn um Miðgarð, en hann mælti sér þat til kaups, at hann skyldi eignast Freyju, ok hafa vildi hann sól ok mána. Þá gengu æsirnir á tal ok réðu ráðum sínum, ok var þat kaup gert við smiðinn, at hann skyldi eignast þat, er hann mælti til, ef hann fengi gert borgina á einum vetri, en inn fyrsta sumarsdag, ef nökkurr hlutr væri ógerr at borginni, þá skyldi hann af kaupinu. Skyldi hann af engum manni lið þiggja til verksins. Ok er þeir sögðu honum þessa kosti, þá beiddist hann, at þeir skyldu lofa, at hann hefði lið af hesti sínum, er Svaðilfari hét, en því réð Loki, er þat var til lagt við hann. Hann tók til inn fyrsta vetrardag at gera borgina, en of nætr dró hann til grjót á hestinum. En þat þótti ásunum mikit undr, hversu stór björg sá hestr dró, ok hálfu meira þrekvirki gerði hestrinn en smiðrinn. En at kaupi þeira váru sterk vitni ok mörg særi, fyrir því at jötnum þótti ekki tryggt at vera með ásum griðalaust, ef Þórr kæmi heim, en þá var hann farinn í austrveg at berja tröll.







Then said Gangleri: "Who owns that horse Sleipnir, or what is to be said of him?" Hárr answered: "Thou hast no knowledge of Sleipnir's points, and thou knowest not the circumstances of his begetting; but it will seem to thee worth the telling. It was early in the first days of the gods' dwelling here, when the gods had established the Midgard and made Valhall; there came at that time a certain wright and offered to build them a citadel in three seasons, so good that it should be staunch and proof against the Hill-Giants and the Rime-Giants, though they should come in over Midgard. But he demanded as wages that he should have possession of Freyja, and would fain have had the sun and the moon. Then the Æsir held parley and took counsel together; and a bargain was made with the wright, that he should have that which he demanded, if he should succeed in completing the citadel in one winter. On the first day of summer, if any part of the citadel were left unfinished, he should lose his reward; and he was to receive help from no man in the work. When they told him these conditions, he asked that they would give him leave to have the help of his stallion, which was called Svadilfari; and Loki advised it, so that the wright's petition was granted. He set to work the first day of winter to make the citadel, and by night he hauled stones with the stallion's aid; and it seemed very marvellous to the Æsir what great rocks that horse drew, for the horse did more rough work by half than did the wright. But there were strong witnesses to their bargain, and many oaths, since it seemed unsafe to the giant to be among the Æsir without truce, if Thor should come home. But Thor had then gone into the eastern region to fight trolls.
En er á leið vetrinn, þá sóttist mjök borgargerðin, ok var hon svá há ok sterk, at eigi mátti á þat leita. En þá er þrír dagar váru til sumars, þá var komit mjök at borghliði. Þá settust goðin á dómstóla sína ok leituðu ráða ok spurði hverr annan, hverr því hefði ráðit at gifta Freyju í Jötunheima eða spilla loftinu ok himninum svá, at taka þaðan sól ok tungl ok gefa jötnum. En þat kom ásamt með öllum, at þessu myndi ráðit hafa sá, er flestu illu ræðr, Loki Laufeyjarson, ok kváðu hann verðan ills dauða, ef eigi hitti hann ráð til, at smiðrinn væri af kaupinu, ok veittu Loka atgöngu. En er hann varð hræddr, þá svarði hann eiða, at hann skyldi svá til haga, at smiðrinn væri af kaupinu, hvat sem hann kostaði til.




"Now when the winter drew nigh unto its end, the building of the citadel was far advanced; and it was so high and strong that it could not be taken. When it lacked three days of summer, the work had almost reached the gate of the stronghold. Then the gods sat down in their judgment seats, and sought means of evasion, and asked one another who had advised giving Freyja into Jötunheim, or so destroying the air and the heaven as to take thence the sun and the moon and give them to the giants. The gods agreed that he must have counselled this who is wont to give evil advice, Loki Laufeyarson, and they declared him deserving of an ill death, if he could not hit upon a way of losing the wright his wages; and they threatened Loki with violence. But when he became frightened, then he swore oaths, that he would so contrive that the wright should lose his wages, cost him what it might.
   
Ok it sama kveld, er smiðrinn ók út eftir grjótinu með hestinn Svaðilfara, þá hljóp ór skógi nökkurum merr ok at hestinum ok hrein við. En er hestrinn kenndi, hvat hrossi þetta var, þá æddist hann ok sleit sundr reipin ok hljóp til merarinnar, en hon undan til skógar ok smiðrinn eftir ok vill taka hestinn, en þessi hross hlaupa alla nótt, ok dvelst smíðin þá nótt, ok eftir um daginn varð ekki svá smíðat sem fyrr hafði orðit. Ok þá er smiðrinn sér, at eigi mun lokit verða verkinu, þá færist smiðrinn í jötunmóð. En er æsirnir sá þat til víss, at þar var bergrisi kominn, þá varð eigi þyrmt eiðunum, ok kölluðu þeir á Þór, ok jafnskjótt kom hann, ok því næst fór á loft hamarinn Mjöllnir. Galt hann þá smíðarkaupit ok eigi sól eða tungl, heldr synjaði hann honum at byggva í Jötunheimum ok laust þat it fyrsta högg, er haussinn brotnaði í smán mola, ok sendi hann niðr undir Niflheim. En Loki hafði þá ferð haft til Svaðilfara, at nökkuru síðar bar hann fyl. Þat var grátt ok hafði átta fætr, ok er sá hestr beztr með goðum ok mönnum.



Svá segir í Völuspá:

"That same evening, when the wright drove out after stone with the stallion Svadilfari, a mare bounded forth from a certain wood and whinnied to him. The stallion, perceiving what manner of horse this was, straightway became frantic, and snapped the traces asunder, and leaped over to the mare, and she away to the wood, and the wright after, striving to seize the stallion. These horses ran all night, and the wright stopped there that night; and afterward, at day, the work was not done as it had been before. When the wright saw that the work could not be brought to an end, he fell into giant's fury. Now that the Æsir saw surely that the hill-giant was come thither, they did not regard their oaths reverently, but called on Thor, who came as quickly. And straightway the hammer Mjöllnir was raised aloft; he paid the wright's wage, and not with the sun and the moon. Nay, he even denied him dwelling in Jötunheim, and struck but the one first blow, so that his skull was burst into small crumbs, and sent him down bellow under Niflhel. But Loki had such dealings with Svadilfari, that somewhat later he gave birth to a foal, which was gray and had eight feet; and this horse is the best among gods and men.

So is said in Völuspá:

   

Þá gengu regin öll
á rökstóla
ginnheilög goð,
ok um þat gættusk,
hverr hefði loft allt
lævi blandit
eða ætt jötuns
Óðs mey gefna.

 

25. Then all the Powers strode
to the seats of judgment,

The most holy gods
council held together:

Who had the air all
with evil envenomed,

Or to the Jötun-race
Ódr's maid given.

Á gengusk eiðar,
orð ok særi,
mál öll meginlig,
er á meðal fóru;
Þórr einn þar vá
þrunginn móði,
hann sjaldan sitr,
er hann slíkt of fregn."

26. Broken were oaths then,
bond and swearing,

Pledges all sacred
which passed between them;

Thor alone smote there,
swollen with anger:

He seldom sits still
when such he hears of."

 

 

The Milky Way as seen in the Death Valley, California, USA.

     
      

An unnamed giant started the work at the first day of winter and promised to finish the work by the first day of summer. But when do  winter and summer begin?

In classic texts the starting points of winter and summer are often brought into connection with the rising and setting of the small asterism of the Pleiades.  

Hesiod, Works and Days 392 ff : (approx. 700 BC)

"When the Pleiades . . . are rising, begin your harvest [in May], and your ploughing when they are going to set [in November] . . . strip to sow and strip to plough and strip to reap, if you wish to get all Demeter's fruits in due season, and that each kind may grow in its season."

Aratus of Soli, Phaenomena (270 BC):

“[253] Near his left thigh move the Pleiades, all in a cluster, but small is the space that holds them and singly they dimly shine. Seven are they in the songs of men, albeit only six are visible to the eyes. Yet not a star, I ween, has perished from the sky unmarked since the earliest memory of man, but even so the tale is told. Those seven are called by name Halcyone, Merope, Celaeno, Electra, Sterope, Taygete, and queenly Maia. Small and dim are they all alike, but widely famed they wheel in heaven at morn and eventide, by the will of Zeus, who bade them tell of the beginning of Summer and Winter and of the coming of the ploughing-time.”

Hyginus (second century AD):

“Our writers call these stars Vergiliae, because they rise after spring. They have still greater honour than the others, too, because their rising is a sign of summer, their setting of winter - a thing is not true of the other constellations.”

There are some compelling reasons to assume that the author of the builder myth also had the rising of the Pleiades in mind. As described in my essay Mjöllnir – The Short Handled Hammer of Thor the shape of the Pleiades matches  the mythic description of Thor's lightning-weapon, Mjöllnir.

 
 
Pleiades

The appearance and behavior of this constellation are also a perfect fit to the story of the building of Asgard's wall.

On the first day of summer, Mjöllnir (the Pleiades) rises over the horizon, as if to smash the giant-builder (i.e. as he is setting). The giant started his work at the first day of winter just after the Pleiades set (described as Thor travelling to the east to slay trolls). That the Pleiades indicate the starting point of the building of Asgard means, however, that we have not only the exact timing at hand but can also locate the walls of Asgard in the sky!

The walls were built up near the gate of the stronghold at a time just before the Pleiades and Taurus are rising. This must be a reference to the ancient “Silver Gate of Man”. This is an ancient designation for the nexus of the Milky Way and the ecliptic between Gemini and Taurus. In other words, the wall the giant is erecting is the arch of the Milky Way! After the setting of the Pleiades the Milky Way has indeed reached its lowest position in the sky,  and reaches its highest one at the rising of the Pleiades.  

 

 

 

Is it also possible to locate the giant-builder?

If the walls had to be finished by building the gate at one nexus of the Milky Way with the ecliptic surely  the gate at the other side of the Milky Way was also known. This nexus, the “Golden Gate of the Gods”, is located between Sagittarius and Scorpius. I assume this gate is identical to the Gjallarbru with the guard Modgud (Antares) in the myth concerning Hermóðr's ride to Hel (Gylfaginning 50).

As the giant-builder seems to be inside the walls, I assume he is identical to Sagittarius, a constellation that I previously have identified with the giant Hrymr in Völuspa and Hrungnir in Skáldskaparmál. The parallels between the myth of the deaths of Hrungnir and the giant-builder, beneath Mjöllnir are striking.

In Gylfaginning, the giant-builder constructs the wall with “grjot”. In Skaldskaparmál, Hrungnir stands  on Grjóttunagard before his defeat. In Völuspá 52, we find the word Grótbjörg

Surtr ferr sunnan
með sviga lævi,
skínn af sverði
sól valtíva;
grjótbjörg gnata,
en gífr rata,
troða halir helveg,
en himinn klofnar.

52. Surt fares from the south
with the bane of branches.
the Val-god’s (or Valgods') sun
shines from the sword;
The stony hills gnash,

gifur totter
;
men tread the Hel-way,
and heaven is cloven.

It’s interesting to note that grjót not only means 'stones', but that the low German word grott corresponds to gravel. This might be further evidence that all of these words refer to the same concepts (to the wall and to the Milky Way).

The giant erects the walls with the help of his stallion. I assume this stallion is a parallel to the famous Greek horse Pegasus that is depicted as a constellation in the sky. It rises some time after Sagittarius, that’s the reason he did not have its help from the beginning. During the last phase of building up the walls, just before the rising of the Pleiades the stallion was distracted by the appearance of a mare. I assume this refers to the constellation Aries rising latest before the Pleiades. I will shown in other investigations that Aries corresponds to Gullinborsti, the golden boar of Freyr and to Gullfaxi, the stallion of Hrungnir. Here, however, it seems to be connected to Loki in the form of a mare.

 Therefore in the builder myth, we find  star lore describing the rising of the Milky Way and the constellations on or near the ecliptic including Sagittarius, Pegasus, Aries and Taurus with the Pleiades.

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