The Eagle, the Phoenix and the Divine Blood

n the early nineteenth century the desire for a German identity led scholars to seek for cultural origins. The humiliating defeats of the disunited German states by Napoleon's armies were still fresh in German memories. In its quest for national identity Germany turned to the literature of the Middle Ages (such as the Nibelungenlied), to legends of heroes such as Barbarossa and in search of whatever might remain of the culture of the old Germanic or Teutonic tribes. Scholars devoted themselves to finding and translating old manuscripts relevant to German history, not just old German sagas but the medieval literature of Scandinavia, such as the writings of Saxo and Snorri. Although Christianisation had effectively destroyed all traces of the old Germanic religious beliefs, except for accounts preserved in the writings of Roman authors such as Tacitus, it was believed that something could be reconstructed from Scandinavian sources. The Grimm brothers discovered in German folklore (Märchen) the diluted remains of tales that earlier had appeared in the sagas and poems of northern Europe.

ven in Scandinavia, which had been converted to Christianity in and around the 11th century, the priests and monks had managed to destroy most traces of paganism. Some poems, either heroic or religious, survived; but even the best manuscript (the Codex Regius) of the collection of ON poems known as the Poetic Edda is incomplete. In addition to the heroic poems there are mythological poems that provide some tantalising glimpses of the old Scandinavian religious beliefs and by doing so shed some light on the beliefs of the Germanic tribes. Around 1200 AD the Icelandic scholar Snorri Sturlason wrote a manual for poets which has become known as Snorri's Edda or the Prose Edda. This book gives a more extensive description of the mythology of pre-Christian Scandinavia, the subject matter of the poetic tradition that Snorri was attempting to salvage from oblivion. Unfortunately it is evident that Snorri's knowledge was partial and some of the book seems to be no more than guesswork; in others words some of the mythological tradition had already been lost. At that time, however, it is likely that many of the myths still survived in the form of poems, some already written down. Although Snorri, who was not primarily concerned with preserving the myths in prose, sometimes contradicts himself and although his accounts often diverge from the poems, the Prose Edda gives a much more complete picture than could be obtained from the few surviving poems and sagas alone. Other writers such as Saxo Grammaticus provide some corroborating evidence about the heros, deities and creation myths of Norse mythology.

evertheless many of the surviving myths feature Oðin. One of them, related by Snorri in the part of his Prose Edda called Skáldskarpamál tells of how Oðin stole the dwarfs' mead of poetry from the giant Suttung. Another character in this myth is Kvasir, an individual known only from Snorri's Edda and his Heimskringla. Snorri inconsistently refers to Kvasir variously as the wisest of the Æsir (possibly confusing him with Mimir) given as hostage to the Vanir, as the wisest of the Vanir, and as a creature created out of the fermented spittle with which the two parties sealed their alliance. The name Kvasir is related to words in the Scandinavian languages and in Russian that mean "fermented juice" although this might be no more than a reference to the myth.

he story of the mead of poetry begins with the murder of the sage Kvasir. According to Snorri: ... he was so wise that no one could ask him any questions to which he did not know the answer. He travelled widely through the world teaching people knowledge, and when he arrived as a guest to some dwarfs, Fialar and Galar, they called him to a private discussion with them and killed him. They poured his blood into two vats and a pot [or cauldron]; the latter was called Oðrerir, but the vats were called Son and Boðn. They mixed honey with the blood and it turned into the mead, whoever drinks from which becomes a poet or a scholar. The dwarfs told the Æsir that Kvasir had suffocated in intelligence because there was no one there educated enough to be able to ask him questions. Curiously, the names of the three vessels appear elsewhere in relation to three subterranean fountains which (according to Snorri) nourish the roots of the world-tree; they are also called the cauldron of Hvergelmir, source of the great rivers; Mimir's well, which gives wisdom and to which Oðin already had access by the forfeit of an eye; and Urd's well, from which the dead drink before entering the underworld.

o begins the story of the mead of poetry. We should keep in mind that the purpose of Snorri's Edda was not to reawaken a dead religious tradition, but to preserve the northern European tradition of skaldic poetry, which found its traditional subject matter in mythology. In those poems there is an allusive device known as kennings. A kenning is a form of periphrasis in which a metaphor is substituted for a simple term. For example, "otter's ransom" is a kenning for "gold", in which the meaning is clear to a listener familiar with the tale of the Otter (Otr) and Andvari's hoard of gold (which became the Nibelung hoard). Kennings were an important part of the poet's trade. With the story of the mead of poetry Snorri was attempting to explain to the apprentice poet why the kennings for poetry (his main subject) included "Kvasir's blood", "dwarf's ale", "Suttung's drink", "Odin's mead", "sea of Hnitbjörg" and "liquid of Oðrerir, Boðn and Son".

he story continues with the murder of Gilling and his wife by the dwarfs, followed by the revenge of their son Suttung, who spares their lives in exchange for the mead. Suttung retreats into the mountain Hnitbjörg with his daughter Gunnlöð. In quest of the mead Oðin, the shapechanger, arrives in the guise of Bölverk. He drills a hole into the mountain, then changing himself into a snake slides down the hole into Gunnlöð's bedroom. The stranger sleeps with her for three successive nights and each time she gives him mead to drink from a different one of the vessels. Then Oðin turns himself into an eagle and flies back to the Æsir, for whom he regurgitates the liquid, which has been blended in his stomach, into waiting pots. Subsequently Oðin's valkyries use the mead to revive the dead heroes on their arrival in Valhall. So this is not just the mead of poetry (although that is the extent of Snorri's interest), it is also a drink of regeneration. Wagner referred to the reviving mead served by the wish-maiden in Valhall when he wrote his Nibelung Mythus — in which the dying Siegfried greets Brünnhilde: Happy me thou chosest for husband, now lead me to Valhall, that in honour of all heroes I may drink All-father's mead, pledged me by thee, thou shining Wish-maid!

n the Eddic poem Havamál, a compilation of sayings and narratives, Oðin relates part of the story of the mead of poetry:

With a drill's teeth I cut my trail, I gnawed right through the rock; over and under me wound the giants' ways - a perilous path I travelled. On her golden chair Gunnlöð gave me a cup of costly mead; an ill reward she had in return for her quick kindness for her heavy heart. From that good bargain I gained a lot, now I've no lack of wisdom; the magic drink *, the mead of poetry, left with the Æsir's lord. I don't believe I could have come back from the giant's court were it not for Gunnlöð, that good woman who lay in my arms for love. The next day the frost-giants found the High One in his hall; they asked if Oðin were with the Æsir or if Suttung had slain him. Oðin didn't honour his oath on the ring** - what good is any pledge he gives? He stole the mead from Suttung's feast, and Gunnlöð grieves.

* One variant of the poem refers to the mead as Oðrerir, which according to Snorri is the name of the pot, one of the three vessels. ** Possibly Gunnlöð's wedding ring; one interpretation of the poem is that Oðin took the form of her betrothed and that the feast was their wedding feast.

urning from the Scandinavian tradition to the Aryan tradition of the Indus valley, we find another story about a magic drink. This is Soma (Sanskrit: सोम): an exhilarating and intoxicating drink, sometimes described as a drink of immortality, extracted from a plant of some kind. It is personified in the being Soma, who descended from heaven. It is often referred to as "honey" but also as "fiery juice". The Rig Veda describes Soma as follows:

This restless Soma - you try to grab him
but he breaks away and overpowers everything.
He is a sage and a seer inspired by poetry.

he Rig Veda also describes how the god Indra stole the drink of immortality. Riding on an eagle, he took it from heaven. Intoxicated with the Soma, the god destroyed the fortresses of the demons and released the waters. Then he gave the divine "fiery juice" to the ancestor of mankind, Manu.

Ecstatic with Soma I shattered
the nine and ninety fortresses of Shambara all at once,
finishing off the inhabitant as the hundredth,
as I gave aid to Divodasa Atithigva.

O Maruts, the bird shall be supreme above all birds,
the swift-flying eagle above all eagles,
since by his own driving power that needs no chariot wheels,
with his powerful wings he brought to man
the oblation loved by the gods.

Fluttering he brought it down,
the bird swift as thought shot forth on the wide path;
swiftly the eagle came with the honey of Soma
and for it won fame.

Stretching out in flight, holding the stem,
the eagle brought from the distance
the exhilarating and intoxicating drink.
Accompanied by the gods,
the bird clutched the Soma tightly
after he took it from that highest heaven.

When the eagle brought the Soma,
he brought it for a thousand and ten thousand pressings at once.
The bringer of abundance left his enemies behind there;
ecstatic with Soma, the wise one left the fools.

  in the tale of the mead of poetry it is an eagle that carries the divine drink. In this case, however, the eagle brings the plant that must be pressed (perhaps with mortar and pestle), filtered and fermented to produce the drink. This fits better with the (10th century AD) Old Norse kenning for poetry as "the seed of the eagle's beak"; a kenning that Snorri did not explain. Another aspect of the Vedic tradition that can be related to the tale of the mead of poetry is the three-day feast. The Rig Veda describes the Soma ceremony as taking three days. The Soma was poured into three bowls and the participants, like Oðin, drank of a different bowl on each of the three days.

t might be tempting to conclude from the above that the Norse god Oðin (among the Teutons called Wotan) is equivalent to the Vedic god Indra. It is more likely, however, from other correspondences that Oðin is the equivalent of the Vedic wind-god Vata. The theft of the divine drink was at some stage transferred from Indra (or an earlier god who became Indra) to Oðin/Vata. The common motives of the eagle and the three-day feast strongly suggest that the story of the mead of poetry as related by the Norse skalds was a later version of the myth of the theft of Soma from heaven, written down about 2500 years earlier in the Indus valley.

hen Indra brought the "fiery juice" from heaven he gave it to Manu, the ancestor of mankind. It is difficult to avoid drawing the parallel with Prometheus, who stole fire from heaven and gave it to man (or that of Tantalus, who stole the food of the gods). Unlike Indra, who rode on the eagle, Prometheus was punished by Zeus, who commanded the eagle to eat the offender's liver, which was renewed each night to be chewed again.

anu was the ancestor of mankind as the only human survivor of the Great Flood. Therefore he is the same mythical character whom the Sumerians called Utnapishtim and whom the Hebrews would call Noah (although he is also equivalent to the Biblical Adam). Manu caught a little fish that warned him about the coming deluge. So Manu was able to save himself and many other creatures. Then lacking a wife he offered to the gods, who turned his offerings into a woman. This couple generated the human race. In the Mahabharata, the fish is identified with the god Brahma, while in the Puranas it is Matsya, the fish incarnation of the lord Vishnu.

he Indo-Germanic universe was cyclic: after periodic destruction the world begins anew. What is common to these and other myths is that the world is destroyed (whether by war, fire, flood, ice or pestilence) and with it the gods. Thus the purifying Ragnarök is also Götterdämmerung. In the Norse myth, gods, giants and most other creatures are destroyed; then (according to the poem Völuspá) a new Earth rises from the waters, some of the gods return and (according to the poem Vafthrúdnismál) from somewhere called Hodd-Mimir's grove there appear Leifthrasir and Lif, the only surviving human couple. Whether they are to be identified with the first couple Ask and Embla (in the poem Völuspá) is not clear; it is possible to see in this pair a later tradition — because it is unlikely to be coincidental that the first letters of their names are also those of the Biblical Adam and Eve. Like Manu and his unnamed wife, each of these couples represent the mythical ancestors of mankind. After Ragnarok, on the new Earth, from some hidden sanctuary in which they have been preserved in life by some divinely potent sustenance, a human pair appear, to regenerate mankind.