The Nine Realms Below Niflhel

 

The lore is funny. First it was all written down by Christian monks in a time where you might not want to promote any sort of wild ideas about how cool pagans were. I recently picked up a book that a list of nine vices that Heathens will be punished for in Náströnd. Náströnd a place in Hel where Níðhöggr lives and chews on corpses. It is the afterlife for those guilty of murder, adultery, oath-breaking, and so on. Völuspá 38-39 talks about this realm and the book, which I will not mention, list locations in the lore where we can see examples of their vices and their punishments. This is an attempt to justify the vices. Punishments, and Náströnd itself.

I have always been skeptical, thus these nine realms as a place of punishment for misdeeds have always seems suspect and a lot like the Christian Hell to me. So, a long time ago I put this aside and said… “I’ll get back to this.” Well, the time has come. So, let’s look at this. The nine so called vices are, murder, perjury, adultery, sacrilege, greed, thievery, treason (treachery), slander, and cruelty. I do not think that most of us would disagree on most of these vices being a bad thing. However, I do think that many an educated Heathen might say, “Hold on there! If we go to the lore many of the gods have committed these acts. Some more than once!”  We all know Oðinn was married to Frigg. We also know he loved the ladies. No offence there, it is just the facts.

The Poetic Edda says that Náströnd, “Its gate faces north, poison drips from its ceiling, and snakes coil on its floor.” This comes from Völuspá which\ is rife with Christian influence. When we exam the lore and the Norse concepts of the afterlife the idea of a place of eternal damnation seems out of step with their pre-Christian worldview. Surely this must derive from a Christian depiction of Hell? Each of the nine vices have sources that try to prove the point. Völuspá is sited as a source for five of them, Sölarljód for six, and Skáldskaparmál for two. The latter two we know to have heavy Christian influences. The other sources are reputable primary sources, some such as Historia Danica Book and Germania are subject to interpretation and can be misleading.

We also have Wyrd and Orlog. Every action has a reaction, and that reaction reverberates. Not exactly wyrd and orlog, but think about, what you do has an effect on those that come after you (your children and family) and what your family and ancestors did have affect how you are and what happens to you. Therefore, if you are a total dick in life, you might just get treated like a total dick in the afterlife. You might be cast aside and have to live in a world or “darkness”.

I also took a look at early English law when researching this. Æthelberht of Kent (589-616) was kink of the Anglo-Saxon land of Kent. He was a pagan, he did convert. His laws were written down from a pagan-Christian viewpoint. His laws on some of these vices can be seen. There are the usual laws on theft and murder, If a person kills a free man, 50 shillings to the king as lord-payment. Laws concerning infidelity also can be seen, If a freeman lies with a free man’s wife, let him buy [him/her] off [with] his/her wergild and obtain another wife [for the husband] [with] his own money and bring her to the other man at home. Then there are a whole bunch of laws about losing body parts due to fighting. What this tells me is that they made a law because it was a common action. The sagas tell us that murder due to a previous injustice was common, historical evidence says adultery was common, not to mention greed, thievery, and treasury. However, the lore in general says that there was consequence to these injustices or vices.

The idea that there is some realm of damnation just seems foreign to me in general. I did not buy that shit when I was forced to go to church. I am not discrediting the sources, but we have to remember they were written down by Christian monks who were not sympathetic to pagan in any way. The same goes for most academic sources today, academics are most likely not Heathen and think our religion is bunk. When I do my research into the lore, I tend to ask myself if the source would fit into the bible stories. If the answer is yes, then I have o decide how I want to deal with. Much like the idea of Náströnd, I tend to put it aside until I have the time.

As for these vices, for the most part I agree with them. They are things you should try not to do. But some times a man needs to steal to survive, sometimes a man loves a woman he should not, and sometimes a man says things in anger he should not. Can, should a man be damned for occasional improprieties? Perhaps it is the Christian influence from my past, but I believe a man should be judged on the whole of his actions, the whole of his life and not a few vices that he may have. Perhaps that is not Christian at all, but Heathen.