Road To Hel.pdf

THE

ROAD TO HEL

A Study of the Conception of the Dead in

Old Norse Literature

HILDA RODERICK ELLIS

M.A., Ph.D.

Sometime Marion Kennedy Research Student of Newnham College

Assistant Lecturer in English, Royal Holloway College

NEW YORK 1968

GREENWOOD PRESS, PUBLISHERS

NORA CHADWICK

who has given me so much

First Greenwood reprinting, 1968

Library of Congress catalogue card number: 88-23286

Reprinted with the permission of

Cambridge University Press

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Contents

Preface

page vii

INTRODUCTION

viii

CHAPTERS

I. FUNERAL CUSTOMS: THE EVIDENCE OF ARCHAEOLOGY 7

The disposal of the dead in heathen times, p. 7; The funeral ship, p. 16

II. FUNERAL CUSTOMS: THE EVIDENCE OF LITERATURE 30

Cremation and inhumation, p. 30; Ship—funeral, p. 39;

Human sacrifice, p. 50; The funeral feast, p. 59; Conclusion, p. 61

III. THE CONCEPTION OF THE FUTURE LIFE 65

The conception of Valhöll in the poems, p. 66; The Valkyries, p. 69;

The realm of the gods, p. 73; The everlasting battle, p. 78;

The underworld realm of the dead, p. 83; The dead in the

mountains, p. 87; The grave-mound, p. 9o; Conclusion, p. 96

Worship of the dead and of the grave-mound, p. 100; The custom

of sitting on a howe, p. 105; Elves and land—spirits, p. 111;

Conclusion, p. 119

Shape-changing, p. 122; The animal fylgja, p. 127; The guardian

hamingja and dis, p. 130; The idea of rebirth, p. 138;

Conclusion: the idea of survival, p. 147

121

VI. NECROMANCY 151

The waking of the sleeper, p. 152; The animation of the dead, p. 156; The restless

corpse, p. I62; Conclusion, p. 165

Abbreviations

IV. THE CULT OF THE DEAD

V. THE CONCEPTION OF THE SOUL

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

VII. THE JOURNEY TO THE LAND OF THE DEAD page 170

The journey acknowledged as such, p. 171; The journey through

the wall of fire, p. 174; The realms of Guðmundr and

Geirröðr, p. 185; The entrance into the burial mound, p. 191;

Conclusion, p. 194

CONCLUSION

198

Index

203

PREFACE

In the literature of Old Scandinavia we meet with something unique in mediaeval

Europe: a great and rich literature composed before the thirteenth century; clear incisive

prose, and poetry whose stormy music can deal fittingly with the tales of gods and

heroes; and a remarkable clarity of vision, showing itself in understanding of human

strength and weakness and full awareness of the greatness of the issues involved.

Comparison with the literature of Ancient Greece is not unfitting; the mingling of

humour and tragedy in the Icelandic Sagas recalls the world of Homer while it

foreshadows Shakesperian drama. But the appreciation of mighty issues in the lives of

simple folk which we find in them is something as new as the perfect mastery of a

narrative prose style; neither was to appear again in Europe for centuries.

The religion of a people who could produce such a literature as this must be worthy of

study, especially as we can see the results of northern heathenism developing until the

end of the tenth century without interference either from Christian thought or from the

Latin culture so closely bound up with it. The doors between Scandinavia and the East

were still open when this literature came into being, and memories of a pre-Christian

Celtic culture yet remained alive. It is a setting of another kind from that to which we

have grown accustomed, that of Mediterranean influences impinging early on the

Germanic world; and there are great riches awaiting the explorers of the realm of thought

in that complex and vigorous age about which all too little is known. Of men’s attitude to

life the literature tells us much, and we must recognise the strength amid sanity of it; how

much can it tell us of their thoughts concerning death and the soul? This work is an

attempt to begin the answer to this question, and if it can reveal something of the variety

and richness of the lost religion of the North it will have served its purpose. Originally

this book formed Part of a thesis accepted in 1940 for the degree of Ph.D. in the

University of Cambridge. It was while holding a research studentship from Newnham

College that I completed the greater part of the work, and my first acknowledgment must

be to the College for the generous help it has provided. To

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