The Three Maids - Gullveig Part 1

The Three Thurs Maids

This is where this journey truly begins, and what the basis of this whole blog is really about. 

The Eddas are the most important pre-Christian Scandinavian manuscripts, filled with all sorts of weird and wonderful mythological tales. One of the most important ones is the Voluspa, offering a prophetic glimpse into the destinies of giants, gods, worlds, and mortals.

The saga begins with the grand tale of the cosmos' creation, featuring a Chaos-giant who spawns offspring before meeting his brutal demise at the hands of the gods. From his dismembered form, the gods fashion the very fabric of the universe.

After that, it's sunshine and rainbows for the gods. They're living the high life, building epic temples, crafting sweet gear in their forges, and having a blast in their divine playgrounds. Then - dun dun dunnnnn - things take a turn when these three powerful thurs maidens crash the party from the giant realms. That's when things get interesting because it's the beginning of the end - Ragnarok is on the horizon, and Michael Bay is in the director's chair.

In this post, I will try to establish the three thurs-maids (mentioned in the Voluspa) as Gullveig-Heidr-Aurboda, the thrice burned and the thrice born, but to make things confusing - after all this is mythology, I will list 5 figures.

I should start by saying this isn’t an entirely new idea. It’s been floated for centuries, and by scholars old and new, and people in between. This is my attempt to make sense of it, weed out the "I made it the fuck up" bullshit and make it understandable, and I have added a ton of my own research and ideas as well.

A good primer to this would be Ymir and the Origins of Giants

It is important to note, that within this theory, there is a difference between a byname or heiti and a "rebirth," and yes, it’s confusing, and yes, sometimes it doesn't quite make sense, but I will do my best to try and explain why and how they are different.

After the Voluspa tells us how the world was made, and how all the gods came to be, something interesting is said;

Voluspa 8

Tefldu í túni, teitir váru,
var þeim vettergis vant ór gulli,
uns þrjár kvámu þursa meyjar
ámáttkar mjök ór Jötunheimum.

In their dwellings at peace | they played at tables,
Of gold no lack | did the gods then know,--
Till thither came | up giant-maids three,
Huge of might, | out of Jotunheim.

The three giantesses who spoil the good times of the gods are often identified as the three Norns, but I dont think the Norns would be called "ámáttkar þursar" and are also mentioned separately in the same poem (Voluspa 20.)

ámáttkar definition: used in poetry as an epithet of witches and giants.

The Three Maids circa 800 AD - Colourised

Who I will outline in this series of posts as the "Three Maids" are:

Gullveig - First Burned
Gullveig's time before the war between the Aesir and Vanir in the Voluspa is largely unknown and we are left to wonder and imagine her time before then.

Heidr - First Born, Second Burned  - (byname Hljod)
This is Gullveig's time spent on earth, teaching her "wicked ways"

Aurboda - Second Born, Third Burned - (byname Hyndla)
This is Gullveig's time with Freyja, her time in Ásgarð.

Thats the three "thurs-maids", but we will also go over Gullveig's retirement plan, and those times she did a few cash jobs as a Seeress.

Angrboda - Third Born (byname Hyrrokin)
This is where Gullveig retires, in the Ironwood with all the doggos, where she remains.

And just for completion, not a name, more of a title, like a "builder" or similar, but something I will address;
The Volva - The unnamed seeress in the Voluspa

There are two accounts of Odin summoning a volva or seer in the myths, I believe they are both the same being, and the apparition of Gullveig. A spiritual form if you will. 

Next post in the series: Heiðr - Gullveig Part 2

Popular posts from this blog

The Edda's - From the Desk of Snorri Sturluson

Image
The Edda's, a Heathens primary source of mythic information. Most of what we know today of the Gods, their worlds and their adventures is found in the Edda's, and lets be real we wouldn't have the works of J.R.R. Tolkien if not for them and that alone should raise the importance of this work 10 fold. I'll start by saying what this isn't. This isn't a biography on the very interesting life of famed lawmaker Snorri Sturluson (read 'Songs of the Vikings' by Nancy Marie Brown for that, it's excellent). This isn't an examination of translations we read today, the Christian influence or detailing and examining the contents of the poems themselves. It's merely an overview of  where  and  when they came from, mainly for a couple of reasons; I think there is already a healthy discussion out there about the politics of the myths and detailing all that nuance is one hell of a job, and I'm not getting paid to do this, and there seems to be a confusio...
Read more

Jotun Worship - Historical or Modern?

Image
This one might be seen as a little bit of a spicy one although its not intended to be, just some people have opinions about worshipping the big bad giants because they are evil and inviting that into your praxis and lives will somehow bring on the end of the world as we know it. Little bit dramatic but it’s rhetoric I see time and time again. One of the cornerstones of this argument is that it is not historical. Well lets see if we can shed some light on that and see if that statement is true, or perhaps * clutches pearls * people of ye olden days were not that much different to us and worship was as diverse as it is today. I came across this paper written in ancient times, when phones were hard wired and used for talking, American Ninja was peak cinema and watching it involved riding your BMX to the local blockbuster and hoping someone hadn't already rented it, mixed tapes consisting of UB40, Eurythmics and Phil Collins and were the best way to win a love interests heart. The year...
Read more

Angrboða - Gullveig Part 4

Image
Angrboða / Angrboda  distress bringer Previous post in this series:  Aurboða - Gullveig Part 3 I think the relationship between Angrboda and Gullveig is the easiest to demonstrate, and has most solid evidence to support it. In this entry, we will tie Angrboda to the growing list of connections to Gullveig. Now, for someone so important in the myths - parent of the World Serpent, the Wolf that is said to destroy Odin, and the Ruler of the Underworld - we don't really hear a lot about Angrboda. I went over this in the intro post, but I believe that this is at least in part due to the time these poems were transcribed, and witchcraft being generally taboo... much more taboo than just a changing religion. Let's start out with what we do know about Angrboda: Voluspa in skamma 11 & 12 [ 11 ] The wolf did Loki | with Angrbotha win, And Sleipnir bore he | to Svathilfari; The worst of marvels | seemed the one That sprang from the brother | of Byleist then. [ 12 ] A heart ate Loki,...
Read more