Abstract

The article explores the idea of an echo, both literal and structural, that connects Old Norse cosmogony and eschatology. The motif of a bellowing sound or cry appears in cosmogony in the figure of Ymir, “Crier”, who is killed by the Æsir, and from his body the world is created. During the eschatological events the booming sound recurs when Heimdallr blows his horn shortly before the Æsir themselves are killed by their adversaries. A cry is also emitted by Óðinn when he sacrifices himself on the Cosmic Tree. The booming bellow is thus associated with death, especially in the context of implicit or explicit sacrifice. The structural resonance between cosmogony and eschatology is composed of a series of five motifs that reappear in the same sequence at both liminal moments. The eschatology seems to be structurally a repetition of the cosmogony, but with inverted roles: the victims are the gods and the sacrificers are the giants, which is the inverse of the situation during cosmogony. The present analysis sheds light on the sacrificial pattern hidden behind the two events, and helps contextualize the motif of the mighty sound that reappears at both moments in the cosmic history.

Highlights

  • The article explores the idea of an echo, both literal and structural, that connects Old Norse cosmogony and eschatology

  • The survivors start living their life anew, playing games, and having an abundance of everything in a new instance of the ‘golden age’ (Vǫluspá st. 61). The scholarship on these two topics is enormous, exploring all the various details and motifs found in cosmogony and eschatology, interpreting them both within the Old Norse symbolic system and comparatively linking them to analogous motifs in other Indo-European cultures – for example, the theme of cosmogonic sacrifice and the creation of the world from the anthropomorphic body has been studied by Bruce Lincoln (1975; 1986), and the Indo-European motifs in Vǫluspá by Åke Ström (1967)

  • The intention of this article was to explore the idea of echo – both in the literal and metaphorical senses – in connection with Old Norse cosmogony and eschatology

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Summary

Old Norse cosmogony and eschatology

From the Eddic poems, with a little help from Snorri, we get these basic contours of the Old Norse cosmogony: in the beginning there was ginnunga gap (Vǫluspá st. 3), a giant gaping space. The land rose from the sea after the flood, and there the gods build their halls, play games, and live in a kind of golden age.6 They are confronted by the first of a series of problems that disturb their playful happiness. The scholarship on these two topics is enormous, exploring all the various details and motifs found in cosmogony and eschatology, interpreting them both within the Old Norse symbolic system and comparatively linking them to analogous motifs in other Indo-European cultures – for example, the theme of cosmogonic sacrifice and the creation of the world from the anthropomorphic body has been studied by Bruce Lincoln (1975; 1986), and the Indo-European motifs in Vǫluspá by Åke Ström (1967). In this article I want to try a slightly different approach, which combines the standard historical and comparative methods with a tinge of what is called amplification in analytical psychology, that is, following up associative connections expanding from a certain motif while still not losing the distinction of an intracultural versus a transcultural layer

The sound of the shofar
The scream of creation
Enn ór hans brám
The cry on the tree
The roar of Ragnarǫk
The echo of creation
The sequence
Conclusion
The background structure which connects
122 Bibliography
Secondary Literature
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