Vikernes, Varg - Varg Vikernes - Sorcery and Religion in Ancient Scandinavia

In addition to the fact that only men and women of Jarl's kin were welcome in Valhöll, only the wolves known as Geri ("perfect", "full", "good") and Freki ("hard", "string", " strife ") were allowed to eat by Óðinn's side in the hall. So the only ones who had access were those who had won the bride races, the kings (sorcerers), who were travelling to the burial mound to learn the secrets, and only the old (replaced) queens (sorceresses) who had to teach them the secrets they needed to know to be kings.

The sorcerer's spells and verses teach us a lot about Valhöll. A wolf hangs above the entrance, and above the hall an eagle bends its head. Outside there was a grove called Glasir ("make excellent"), whose leaves were of pure red gold. The field surrounding the hall was fenced in and had a very old gate. Very few knew how to open this gate. In addition, three rivers, Þundr ("elevated"), which was also a name for Óðinn, Valglaumr ("noisy chosen/fallen ones") and Ífing ("uncertainty", "doubt") kept intruders out. The fish of Þjóðvitnir ("wolf people", "wolf pack") swam in these rivers. The current was so strong that not even Sleipnir could cross the rivers. On the roof of the hall a goat called Heiðrún ("light secret") stood, and she ate from a tree called Hlæráðr ("obey Óðinn/the mind", "listen to Óðinn/the mind", or "sea of Óðinn/the mind", "spirit sea"). A river of clear mead flowed from this goat's teats. Mead filled up a bowl which stood on the ground. It was so big that the warriors could drink as much as they wanted without fear that it would run out of mead. They used the skulls to drink from. A deer, Eikþyrnir ("protective oak", "oak surrounded by thorns"), stood on the ground and ate from Hlæráðr's branches. Thirty six rivers flowed from its antlers and down into the well Hvergelmir ("year old draft"). Twelve for the gods, twelve for men and twelve for the dead.

We do not know the names of all these rivers, but we know the names of the twelve which ran down Hvergelmir for the dead; Svöl ("cool"), Gunnþrá ("yearning for battle/strife"), Form ("form"), Fimbul ("great", "powerful"), Þul ("verse", "long string of words"), Slíðr ("cruel"), Hríðr ("storm", "bad weather"), Sylgr ("drink", or "fire eater"), Ýlgr ("the howling"), Við ("forest"), Leiptr ("shine", "light") and Gjöll ("sound", "call", "echo").

Warriors in the hall ate only meat from the boar Sæhrímnir ("sea hostility"), which was prepared by the chef Andhrímnir ("spirit hostility") every day in the pan Eldhrímnir ("fire hostility"). The boar was slaughtered every night and then rose from the dead the following morning. There were only a few who understood what the combatants' nutrition was really made up of.

Most of the symbolism of the myth of Valhöll is quite obvious to us when we know as much as we do at this time. A holy warrior, a sorcerer/god, had sacrificed a wolf by the entrance to the hall, and had hung his clothes in a tree that grew on top of the burial mound; an eagle (a spirit shape) bowed its head, because it was hung. The rivers surrounding the hall, where the wolf pack (called fish) prevented unwelcome visitors from coming in, was a party consisting of already initiated men (the berserks). They would keep out those who were not welcome in the burial mound; only those of Jarl's kin were allowed access. Those who were not welcome could not even disguise themselves (“ride Sleipnir”, the Trojan horse,) to get across the river to the burial mound. They would be stopped, ransacked and interrogated by the "fish" before they got that far. All doubts about the visitor's right to be there had to be removed.

By the entrance to the Meters ("mother") sanctuary in Phaistos on Crete, we find an inscription that suggests that they also elsewhere in Europe had the same strict control over who could or could not have access to the Chamber of Secrets. There is written a declaration that the goddess, who offers a great miracle to anyone who can guarantee their descent, refuses to listen to the prayers of those who unjustly force their way into the divine family. We also know that the initiates of Hades were forced to provide a statement that, "I am son of Earth and of the starlit Sky", which can be interpreted as a guarantee that the initiate was son of a queen and a king who personified the Earth goddess and the Sky god, the two most important deities. He guaranteed that he was of noble family.

One of the reasons for the strict control in Scandinavia, where they primarily used the burial mound as Chamber of Secrets, was probably that they would ensure that valuable objects in the family tomb was not taken by someone other than their own relatives, not to mention that the queen/wife who was waiting inside the tomb should not teach and entertain complete strangers. Many places in Europe they used a house as a Chamber of Secrets instead, where many could enter at the same time, after having brought the key (the mistletoe or some other wand) and had given the correct synthemata ("password"). They were initiated all at once, but rather than participate in any mystic plays the uninitiated in these houses only observed what happened between the king and queen, or high priest and high priestess, who taught them the secrets, with mythos ("stories") and logos ("speech)". Mystery religion never evolved in this way in Scandinavia due to the simple fact that they had more than enough burial mounds for every king/sorcerer in the scarcely populated Scandinavia.

The fact that Valhöll was made up of weapons and armour can be explained by the fact that the dead were buried with all their military equipment. Originally they were sitting in their grave, but with time they were placed to rest in a lying down position. The goat Heiðrún was a picture of the bright and beautiful sorceress/goddess, who was to teach them the secrets, or the beast that was slaughtered on the grave mound so that the blood flowed down into the grave below. If the sorcerer/god drank the blood, he would learn the art of poetry. The fact that they used skulls to drink from suggests that this mead was actually knowledge and that they, rather than actually drinking something, just filled up their heads with knowledge. The deer Eikþyrnir was certainly the oak god Baldr and/or his wife Nanna, who are surrounded by thorns and because of that cannot get away. They were the Sleeping Beauty, sleeping in the grave, waiting for their rescue.

The names of the twelve rivers that flowed into the Hvergelmir are for us a repetition of something we already know, namely, it is a description of a sorcerer's/god's journey into the underworld and what happens there; the hunt for Höðr and the final battle of Ragnarök. The cold autumn, the warrior without form, because his clothes are hanging in the sacrificial tree, the mighty god (Óðinn) who is impersonated, verses learned in the grave, the cruel hunting of bears and wolves, autumn weather, Fenrir who charges forward, howling wolves in the forest, the fire used to kill them, and finally the Gjallarhorn sounding every year.

Inside the grave the warriors were strengthened by the hostility they were met with, when they met the difficult and hard sorceress/goddess. They had to first soften her up, by giving her the correct password and showing to her the key (the mistletoe) that they had brought with them. She would become friendly only when they did this. He had to learn the secret verses she taught him and to know them perfectly in order to advance in his education. Each verse learned by him was the password needed to be given to her for her to teach him more.

Warriors in Valhöll gather outside each day, to fight and die. They are revived and the next day re-enter Valhöll and are given more nutrition. The initiation lasted three days and nights, and each day they had to leave the grave, maybe to rehearse and memorize the verses and other secrets learnt inside. They then had to “die” again, every day to gain access to Valhöll. After the third day they were ready to start the hunt for Höðr/Fenrir.