Influence of the belief in “the hall of the slain”—A warrior’s death a pass to Valhalla—Figurative offer of warriors to Odin—Self-sacrifice to Odin—Entrance to Valhalla—Food and drink in Valhalla—Odin’s welcome to warriors.

The belief in a Valhalla (the hall of the slain) by the ancestors of the English tribes was destined to exert a most potent influence upon the future history of Europe. It made the people of the North most powerful and skilled warriors; it infused into their minds an utter disregard of death, and led them to accomplish great deeds of valour in their own and distant lands. To fall gloriously on a battle-field was held to assure a certain entry to Valhalla; it was a sign of the favour of Odin. This part of the Valhalla faith was so deeply rooted in the minds of the people that it lasted to the very end of the Pagan era, or about the 12th century.

In Grinismal, which gives a description of the home of some of the gods and of the goddesses, Freya and Saga, we read:—

To those men of old, death was but one of the phases of their lives; it had no terrors for them, and they faced it smilingly, bravely, and contentedly. It was in their eyes preferable to dishonour, or the humiliation of defeat; vanquisher and vanquished when dying parted friends, and praised the deeds of each other, one bidding the other speed to Valhalla as the fire was lighted on the pyre, or as the burning ship that was to consume the body sailed from the shore. The victor often mourned that he had not been among the slain and chosen, and consoled himself by thinking that he must obtain more renown and do braver deeds before he could aspire to meet Odin. There is something grand and noble in this despising of life, and in aspiring, during its continuance, to do great and noble deeds.

Before the fight the combatants told each other that they would go to Valhalla, and the hosts of the enemy were figuratively given to Odin by throwing a spear over them;^[352] King Vikar, of HÖrdaland, was thus given to the god by his mother.^[353] Odin himself steered Harald HilditÖnn’s war-waggon in the battle, and killed his favourites with Harald’s weapons for he was old, and could not bear the brunt of any more fighting. Eirik the victorious threw over StyrbjÖrn’s host the spear which Odin gave him, accompanying the action with the words “Odin owns you all.”

“King Vikar sailed from Agdir north to HÖrdaland with many men. He stayed a long time in some islands and had strong headwinds. They threw chips (sacrifice-chips) to get fair wind, and it fell thus that Odin was to receive a man out of the host to be hanged by drawing of lots. The host was divided for lot-drawing, and the lot of King Vikar was drawn. At this all grew silent, and it was resolved that the counsellors should next day have a meeting about the difficulty. About midnight HrosshÁrsgrani (Odin) roused his foster-son Starkad, and asked him to go with him. They took a little boat and rowed to an islet inside the island. They walked up to a wood, and found a clearing crowded with men. A Thing was held there, and eleven men sat on chairs, but the twelfth was not occupied. They went forward to the Thing, and HrosshÁrsgrani (Odin) sat down on the twelfth chair. They all greeted Odin. He said that the judges should judge about the fate of Starkad. Thor said: ‘Alfhild, the mother of Starkad’s father, chose a bad JÖtun as father for her son instead of AsathÓr, and I forecast for Starkad that he shall neither have a son nor a daughter, and thus end his kin.’ Odin answered: ‘I forecast for him that he shall live as long as the lives of three men.’ Thor said: ‘He shall do a nithing’s deed in each of the three lives.’ Odin answered: ‘I forecast for him that he shall have the best weapons and clothes.’ Thor said: ‘I forecast for him that he shall neither own land nor sea.’ Odin answered: ‘I give him that he shall have very much loose property.’ Thor said: ‘I lay on him a spell which shall make him think he never has enough.’ Odin answered: ‘I give him victory and skill in every fight.’ Thor said: ‘He shall become maimed in every fight.’ Odin said: ‘I give him skaldship so that he shall make poetry as quickly as he talks.’ Thor said: ‘He shall not remember the poetry he makes.’ Odin said: ‘I forecast for him that he be thought the greatest by the most high-born and best men.’ Thor said: ‘He shall be disliked by all people.’ The judges judged all that they had said of Starkad to be his fate, and then the Thing was dissolved. HrosshÁrsgrani and Starkad went to their boat. HrosshÁrsgrani said to Starkad: ‘Now thou must reward me well, foster-son, for the help I gave thee.’ Starkad assented. ‘Then,’ said Grani, ‘thou shalt send King Vikar to me, and I will tell thee how to do it.’ He handed Starkad a spear, and said it would look like a reed. They came back to the host when it was nearly day. The next morning the counsellors of the king met to take counsel, and agreed to make some semblance of sacrifice, and Starkad told their counsel. There stood a fir-tree near them, and a high stump near it; low on the fir was a slender shoot which reached up to the limbs. Servants prepared the food of the men, and a calf was killed and cut up. Starkad had the entrails taken out, mounted the stump, bent down the slender twig, and tied the entrails to it. Then he said to the king: ‘Now a gallows is ready for thee, king, and it will not seem very dangerous for men. Go hither and I will lay the string round thy neck.’ The king said: ‘If this contrivance is not more dangerous than it looks to me, then I do not think it will hurt me; but, if it is otherwise, then fate will rule it.’ Then he mounted the stump, and Starkad laid the string round his neck, and stepped down from the stump. Then he struck him with the reed, and said, ‘Now I give thee to Odin.’ He let go the twig, and the reed changed into a spear which pierced the king; the stump sank down under his feet, the calf’s entrails were turned into a strong withy, and the twig rose and lifted the king up to the limbs, and there he died” (Gautrek’s Saga, c. 1).

Men occasionally sacrificed themselves by throwing themselves from cliffs so that they might be acceptable to Odin and go to Valhalla.

“Once King Gauti, of Vestr Gautland, was hunting and lost his way; he found a small farm where the people were afraid of him. When he went to bed a girl came to him, and when he asked about her family she answered: ‘My father is called SkafnÖrtung (pincher), because he is so stingy that he cannot bear to see food or anything else which is his decrease; my mother is called TÖtra (tattered), because she never wants to wear any clothes but those which are worn and in tatters; she calls that thrift.’ The king asked: ‘What are the names of thy brothers?’ She answered: ‘One is called FjÖlmÓdi, the second Imsigul, the third Gilling.’ The king asked: ‘What art thou and thy sisters called?’ She answered: ‘My name is Snotra,^[354] because I was thought the wisest of us all; my sisters are called HjÖtra and FjÖtra. There is a rock close to our farm called Gillingshamar, and near it a steep rock, which we call Ætternisstapi (family rock); it is so high and so steep that anything alive falling down from it is killed. We give it the name Ætternisstapi, because by its help we reduce our family in number when it seems to us that some great wonders happen. All our forefathers died there without any sickness, and then went to Odin; we need not have any burden or sulkiness from our fathers and mothers, for this place of joy has been equally easy for all our kinsmen to get to; we need not live with loss of property, or want of food, or any other wonders or portents that may happen. Now my father thinks it the greatest wonder, that thou hast come to our house; it would have been a very uncommon thing even if a man of low birth had taken food here; but this is most strange that a king, chilled and without clothes, has come to us, for that has never before happened. To-morrow my father and mother intend to divide the inheritance, among us their children; they will then with the thrall go down the Ætternisstapi, and journey to Valhalla. My father will reward the thrall for his goodwill, in intending to drive thee from the door, with nothing less than that he shall enjoy the happiness with him, for he is sure that Odin will not go to meet the thrall unless he is in his company.’^[355] Then she slept with the king, who when he took leave asked her to let their child, if a boy, he called Gautrek.

“When Snotra came home, her father said: ‘A great wonder has happened that this king has come to our farm and eaten up a great deal of our property which we least of all wanted to lose. I think we cannot maintain our family on account of poverty, and therefore I have brought together all my property, and want to divide the inheritance between my sons. I and my wife and my thrall intend to go to Valhalla. I cannot reward the thrall better for his faithfulness than by taking him with me; Gilling together with his sister Snotra shall get my good ox; FjÖlmÓdi and his sister HjÖtra shall have my gold-bars; Imsigul and his sister FjÖtra shall have all the corn and the fields; but I ask you, my children, not to increase your number so that you cannot preserve my inheritance.’ When SkafnÖrtung had said what he liked they all went up on Gillingsrock, and they led their father and mother down on the Ætternisstapi, and they went cheerfully and merrily to Odin. Now when they came home they consulted how to manage; they took wooden pins and pinned the vadmal (thick woollen cloth) round every one, so that none of them touched the other naked; they thought this the best way of preventing their number increasing. Snotra became aware that she was with child; she moved the wooden pin in the vadmal so that she could be touched with the hand, and affected sleep. When Gilling woke he touched her cheek with his hand, and said: ‘This is bad that I have hurt thee; it seems to me thou art much stouter than before.’ She answered: ‘Hide this as well as thou canst.’ He said: ‘That shame I will not have, for this cannot be hidden when our number is increased.’

“Two black snakes crept on the gold-bars of FjÖlmÓdi, who therefore with his wife threw himself down from the Ætternisstapi. Imsigul saw a bird take corn from his field; therefore he and his wife went down from Ætternisstapi. Gilling, the third brother, did the same after Gautrek, Snotra’s boy, had slain his ox. Snotra being left alone went to King Gauti” (Gautrek’s Saga, c. 1, 2).

The scald Eyvind composed a poem on King Hakon Adalsteinsfostri after his death in the battle of Stord against the sons of Eirik Blood-axe, and in this poem we see how he made his entrance into Valhalla, and how Odin sent Valkyrias to choose those he loved.

“The body of King Hakon Adalstein’s foster-son, after the battle, was carried to Soeheim in Lygrisfjord, in North HÖrdaland, and a mound thrown up over it. Before he fell eight sons of Harald (fair-hair) had been slain in light, as Eyvind has told, and he has said that the king went to Valhalla, for it was the belief of the heathen that all who died of wounds were taken to Valhalla.”^[356]

The warriors who went to Valhalla were named Einherjar, and their food and drink are thus described:—

“Then said Gangleri: ‘Thou sayest that all men who have fallen in battle since the beginning of the world have now come to Odin in Valhalla: what has he to give them to eat? It seems to me that there must now be a great multitude.’ HÁr replied, ‘Thou sayest true that there are very great hosts of men there; but there will be many more, nevertheless they will be thought too few, when the wolf comes; but there are never such hosts in Valhalla that there is not more than enough of the flesh of the boar called SÆhrimnir. He is boiled every day, and every night he is whole again. As to this question which thou now askest, I think few are wise enough to be able to tell the truth about it’” (Later Edda).

“Then Gangleri said: ‘What have the Einherjar^[376] to drink which may last as long as the food? Is water drunk there?’ HÁr answered: ‘Strangely dost thou ask; as if AllfÖdr (Allfather = Odin) would invite to him kings or jarls or other powerful men and give them water to drink; and, by my troth, many of the comers to Valhalla would think the drink of water dearly bought if no better cheer were to be had there, and they have before suffered pains and wounds unto death. I can tell thee another thing. The goat HeidrÚn stands on the roof of Valhalla, and bites buds off the branches of a very famous tree, Lerad, and from her teats flows a mead which fills a large vessel every day; the vessel is so large that all the Einherjar may get quite drunk out of it.’ Gangleri said: ‘That is an exceedingly useful goat for them; the tree on which she feeds must be very good.’ HÁr said: ‘Still more remarkable is the stag Eikthyrnir which stands on Valhalla and feeds on the branches of this tree. From his horns there falls such a large drop that it comes down into Hvergelmir, and thence fall the rivers named, Sid, Vid, Sekin, Ekin, SvÖl, GunnthrÓ, FjÖrm, Fimbulthul, Gipul, GÖpul, GÖmul, Geirvimul, which run through the Asa-land’” (Later Edda, Gylfaginning, c. 39).

The warriors in Valhalla appear to have divided their time between drinking and fighting.

In GrimnismÁl we are told that the cook in Valhalla was called Andhrimnir, and the cauldron Eldhrimnir:—

“Then Gangleri said: ‘A great many men are there in Valhalla; surely Odin is a very great chief, as he rules over such a host. What is the entertainment of the Einherjar when they are not drinking?’ HÁr answered: ‘Every day after having dressed they put on their war clothes, and go out into the enclosure and fight and slay each other. This is their game; near day-meal^[377] they ride home to Valhalla and sit down to drink^[378]’” (Later Edda, c. 40).

Odin did not eat, for wine was to him both food and drink.

“Then said Gangleri: ‘Has Odin the same fare as the Einherjar?’ HÁr: ‘The food which stands on his board he gives to his two wolves, Geri and Freki;^[379] he needs no food, for wine is both drink and food to him.

“King Eirek (blood-axe of Northumberland), son of Harald Fairhair, one summer made warfare west of Scotland, and in Ireland, and in Bretland (Wales), and did not stop before he came south to England, and ravaged there as in other places, because King Adalstein (Ethelstan) was then dead, and his son Jatmund ruled England” (Fagrskinna, c. 27).

“Eirik had a host so large that five kings followed him. As he was a man of great bravery and a victorious man he trusted so well himself and his host that he went far inland with warfare. Then King Olaf, King Jatmund’s tax-king,^[380] came against him; they fought, and Eirik was overpowered by the land-host, and fell there with all his men. Arnkel and Erlend, the sons of Torfeinar (jarl in the Orkneys), fell there with him” (Fagrskinna, c. 28).

After the death of Eirik, Gunnhild (his wife) caused a poem to be made on him, how Odin welcomed him, which gives us an idea of the belief of people about the Valhalla.