When most people think of the ancient Norse view of the afterlife, they think of Valhöll first. Often they think of Hel’s realm as well. And a few will think of Freyja taking half the battle slain to her hall, Folkvangr. That is about all your average Joe Pagan knows of the Norse view of the afterlife.
Many would be surprised to learn that the Norse afterlife is much more complicated and elaborate than they could imagine. Part of the reason for this is that the regions that fall under the term “Norse” covered a number of different tribes with beliefs that varied from tribe to tribe. It is also due in part to the way the Norse people conceptualized the soul. To explain that would take more room than I have here, so I will just say that in the Norse beliefs, the soul has many parts to it. This means that while part of the soul may die, another part may go on to live with Oðin in Valhöll, while yet another part may go on to be reborn in a descendent.
But that’s not all of it. It is always best to start from the beginning. The beginning of most discussions of Norse lore is Snorri Sturlson, the Christian poet who wrote the Prose Edda. The conception that we are most familiar with of Valhöll, the warriors fighting all-day and feasting all night, is a vision of Valhöll that is given only by Snorri.
Other sources simply say that Valhöll is a hall where warriors sit at peace together and dwell with Oðin. These warriors are always called the Einherjar and they are sometimes said to have the power to choose whom among the slain will go with them to Valhöll. It is also only in the Prose Edda that the Valkyries are represented as serving maids to the Einherjar. Elsewhere Valkyries appear in many different guises, though they almost always have a connection with death. In some cases, the Valkyries appear as noble ladies in full armor, following the will of Oðin by giving victory in battle to whomever he wills. At other times they appear as fierce and crude women who exult in blood and carnage, waving bloodstained clothes over those about to fight. Yet other stories show them as supernatural protectors of the men they favor, sometimes following them into death and rebirth, and sometimes allowing themselves to be born into a woman to become the wife of their charge. In all guises, the Valkyries have some connection with Oðin and they are always supernatural women. They are sometimes akin to elemental spirits or some type of lesser deities. But whatever they are, it is clear that they are key figures of death in Norse lore.
Part of the discrepancies among the Valkyries may come from discrepancies with the lore of Oðin. Earlier lore depicts Oðin as a dark god of the dead to whom slain were offered, while later lore depicts him as the ruler of Asgard who lives among the gods. In this light, it is clear that the bloodthirsty view of the Valkyries go along with the death god Oðin, while the handmaiden view goes along well with the King of the Gods.
The next most common version of Norse afterlife is Hel’s Realm. Hel is said to be the monstrous daughter of Loki who is thrown into the land of the dead to rule over it. There does not seem to be a set rule as to who goes to Hel’s realm. Snorri tells us that only those who dies of old age or sickness goes to Hel, but then says that Balder, who died from a weapon, is in Hel’s realm. Either way, Hel’s realm is most often depicted as a quiet place to rest after the labors of life. It is possible that the word ‘Hel’ means death or dying, and earlier poets may have used the term “going to Hel” as a poetic way to say that someone is dying.
This terminology may have been so widespread that eventually the lore of a goddess named Hel grew up around it. Interestingly, the concept of her dwelling in the ground, with quiet rest and feasting is actually quite similar to the concepts of the burial mound and of the ancestral mountains that will be discussed later in this article.
In the Gylfaginning, Snorri says, “Wicked men go to Hel and on to Niflhel”. Very little is mentioned about Niflhel. It appears to be located beneath Hel’s realm (sometimes called Niflheim) and is where people who committed great evils go to be punished. It is the closest thing in Norse lore to the Christian version of Hell.
Many of the other gods are said to take the dead into their halls. Snorri says that Freyja “allots seats in Folkvangr, to whom she will, and she has half the slain that fall each day while half belong to Oðin.” There are strong connections between Freyja and the Valkyries, but the nature of this connection is never made clear.
Gefion is said by Snorri to be attended by women who die. Ran, the wife of Aegir, is said to receive drowned men into her hall. Holda is said to have unborn babies in her care. Oðin, in disguise, taunts Thor by saying that Oðin has the jarls, while Thor has the thralls (serf or slave). The common interpretation of this is that Thor takes peasants or commoners (possibly whoever no one else will take) into his hall, Thrudheim.
However, the options don’t end there, as there are many stories of life continuing on in the earth. These stories take two forms: the dead live on inside a mountain, which is not necessarily where they were buried; or the dead live on in the grave-mound. In both of these cases, however, the mountain or mound is seen as a house or hall of the dead.
The stories of the dead living inside a mountain come mostly from Iceland. There are descriptions of a great hall inside a mountain near the family home where the fallen of the clan gathers and feasts. This may have begun with Thorolf, a follower of Thor who, upon immigrating to Iceland, saw a mountain near his land and stated that his family would go there when they died. When his son drowned after Thorolf himself had died, a shepherd was said to have seen the mountain open up and the son welcomed in. This belief also seems to have some connection to Thor, as many who were said to do this were known to be followers of Thor.
The stories of life continuing within the grave are much more varied. There are stories of warriors who fight eternal battles inside a grave mound, of animated dead within the mound (called draugrs) who guard their possessions jealously and wreak havoc on those nearby, and of those who live peacefully within the grave mound. In the latter cases, good men are seen resting at peace in their graves, retaining some interest in the affairs of the living. Some ask that their graves be positioned so they can look out over their lands or talk to their friends in nearby grave mounds. There are also references to offerings being made to grave mounds in hopes that those dwelling in the grave mound would bring fertility and fruitfulness to the land. Offerings often included food, drink and wealth, quite often in the form of silver. These offerings appear to be one of the oldest traditions in the north. There are even stories of Freyr being in one of those burial mounds and being given offerings for his gifts of fertility.
This indicates some sort of connection between Freyr and those who live on in their burial mounds. Related to this concept is the practice of mound sitting, the act of sitting on a person’s burial mound to commune with the dead, which is referred to frequently.
Another type of life after death is shown in the Disir, ancestral mothers who watch over their descendents and guide them in life. The Disir are often seen in the lore as supernatural guardians who attach themselves to certain warriors who they protect in battle. In this light they are somewhat similar to the Valkryies. However, the Disir generally cannot follow their hero into the afterlife as the Valkyries do. There are cases where the Disir come to claim their kin upon death, but they usually foretell the death just before it happens, rather than appearing after death.
At times, when they come to claim their kin, they appear aggressive, and “foe-like”. This role of the Disir is akin to the wail of the Bean-Sidhe in Celtic lore.
As mentioned previously, the Disir are often depicted as warding their kin in battles, sometimes actually taking part in the battle by sending arrows flying out of their fingertips, unfastening bonds on their warriors, and paralyzing the enemy. There is evidence that people made offerings tostatues of their clan-goddesses before battles.
The Disir were also shown to be very much related to birthing and to fruitfulness, and were called upon for help in conceiving. They appeared to newborn children to give them their fate, and to pass on the luck of the clan at birth. In this capacity, the Disir are closely related to the Norns, to the Latin Fates, and to fairy godmothers. The Disir were also sometimes called upon for advice. In at least one case a Disir is called from her grave to come and give her stepson advice and aid. Disir were often honored and invoked as protectors of the family line.
Along with the Disir, there are a variety of related beings in Norse lore that have the name Alfar. The light Alfar are akin to the Gods, and particularly closely connected to Freyr. Very little is known about them. Land-spirits are sometimes given the name Alfar as well, though the name is not used for them often. The Swart Alfs
are more frequently called Dwarves, who are closely associated with death. It is possible that the Swart Alfs are dead men as some have names such as Dáinn, which means “Dead One” and Nár, which means corpse. The Dark Alfar are almost always depicted as the male ancestors of a clan. They are called mound-elves are most likely the dead dwelling in the burial mound that were mentioned previously. The Dark Alfar and Swart Alfar seem to be quite similar, and are always seem to be male. The connection between the Alfar and Freyr reflects back to Freyr’s connection to the mound-dead mentioned above, and further supports the theory that the Alfar are one and the same as the mound-dead. The main difference between the Alfar and the Disir is that the Alfar are more connected to the land, while the Disir are more connected to their descendents.
The fact that one group is male and the other is female is quite possibly a distinction that occurred because of the roles of men and women in society. Men primarily looked after the land, while women primarily looked after the family, so it makes sense that their ancestral roles would follow this structure. However, these roles sometimes blurred in daily life, and most often blurred at times in how the Disir and the Alfar were viewed as well.
House-ghosts are a common type of Alfar. The belief in them is wide-spread in the Germanic world has lasted to the present day.
They seem to be a type of mound-dead who dwell in mounds, although not necessarily the mounds in which they were buried. They are strongly associated with places of living or of business. They are depicted as protectors of the farm, business or home, and often bring or take away prosperity and luck, depending on how they are treated. There are some house-ghosts though who are not very helpful and are rather unpleasant troublemakers. These are sometimes said to be babies who have been abandoned to die, who then stay and torment a family through generations.
There are references to reincarnation in the lore as well. The most clear reference to this is the story of King Olaf the Holy, who is said by some to be the reincarnation of Olaf Geirstaðaálfr. There actually are strong indications that Oðin has something to do with this reincarnation. The reincarnation required someone to go into Olaf Geirstaðaálfr’s tomb, cut off his corpse’s head, and steal some important items from him.
The items are then given to a particular woman who is pregnant. She is told that the child should be named Olaf if he is a boy. This occurs and Olaf the Holy is born. Throughout his life, there are references to Olaf being the reincarnation of Olaf Geirstaðaálfr, including a very strong denial of this by Olaf himself after he becomes Christian. That Olaf Geirstaðaálfr’s corpse has to be mutilated before the person can be reincarnated seems to be significant. The mutilation of a body allowing the person to move on happens frequently in stories of draugrs
as well, especially the cranky ones. When a draugr is making trouble, often the only way to stop it is to cut off its head or to burn the body.
The most important theme presented in the story of Olaf is that of the baby being named after the man who is reincarnated. Other indications of reincarnation in the lore are not quite as clear as the story of Olaf, however the importance of the name seems to occur quite often. There are cases of men having marks on them where their father or grandfather of the same name were wounded. There are also stories of dying men asking to have a baby named after them. From the stories, it seems as though the point of this is so that they will be reborn.
The belief in reincarnation also seems to be connected to the burial mound, as in the story of a young nameless boy receiving a name at last while sitting on a howe. A Valkyrie named Svava gives him the name Helgi. Helgi and Svava may have been lovers in a past life, and are brought together again as Helgi and Kara. Svava is an example of a Valkyrie who follows a man in life, death, and again in rebirth.
Like the Disir who are guardian spirits that protect and aid their descendants in life when necessary, and the Valkyries who are protective spirits who follows their charge in life and may appear to a warrior to take him to Valhöll after he dies, the Hamingja are usually attached to a person throughout their life. A person’s Hamingja appears as a single woman who is the embodiment of the luck of the person. When a person dies, his or her Hamingja moves on to another person within the family. As the embodiment of luck, the Hamingja is intertwined with the soul and the fortunes, or misfortunes, of a person in such a way that it actually is a part of the person’s soul. The better a person lives his life, the better his or her Hamingja is. By passing on the Hamingja, a person is able to pass on a part of who he or she is. So, in a sense, passing on the Hamingja is a type of rebirth.
As should be clear by now, this is a hard topic to summarize. There are so many different beliefs in the afterlife that are all tied up in the same belief system that it is hard to know what to make of it. One could go to Thor or Oðin, Freyja or Hel, or to any number of other gods. One could live the burial mound or in their ancestral mountain. One could go on to become a Disir or an Alfar, or possibly be reincarnated. It is possible to link certain types of afterlifes to certain gods, such as saying that if you go to Thor, you go to your ancestral mountain, which could be a representation of Thrudhiem; or if you go to Freyr, you live within your burial mound, or become one of the Alfar (although this could be seen as going to Hel as well); if you go to Oðin, you become one of the Einherjar in Valhöll; and if you go to or Freyja, you become a Disir. Then there are types of deaths. Sacrifices and great warriors go to Oðin, except in the cases of warriors like Baldur and Sigurdr, both of whom were killed by weapons and wind up in Hel’s realm, and Sinfjötli, who dies of poison and goes to Valhöll. People who die of sickness go to Hel, except for the son of Egill Skalla-Grímsson who dies from fever and goes to Valhöll.People who drown go to Ran, except for the other son of Egill who went to Valhöll after drowning, and the previously mentioned son of Thorolf
who went into his ancestral mountain. Or the type of burial – people who are cremated go to Oðin, except for Baldur. Well, I think the point is made. There are no set rules for the Norse beliefs in the afterlife.
All these various options do not have to be contradictory however. Many people who follow the Norse path believe that those among the fallen who have gone to the hall of one of the gods, usually the god with whom they were closest, may be able to move about freely. They are not stuck in the god’s hall. They could live in the hall, and then go visit their descendents when they are needed, and maybe stop by to visit their clan partying in their own hall. Personally, I like to imagine a grand hall with all my friends and family sitting around drinking, feasting, and telling stories, and Thor popping in from time to time to have a drink with us.
References:
“Snorri Sturluson Edda”, Translated by Anthony Faulkes (Orion House and Tuttle Publishing, Vermont, 1987)
Road to Hel by H.R. Ellis
“Our Troth, Chapter XXVI: Soul, Death, and Rebirth”
