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From: dustin@ocf.berkeley.edu (Dustin Tranberg) Newsgroups: alt.mythology Subject: SOMA AND NORSE MEAD (LONG) Date: 21 Dec 1992 21:46:35 GMT Message-ID: <1h5dvrINNin5@agate.berkeley.edu> Organization: U.C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility Lines: 445

This is a paper I wrote for a class on Hindu mythology that I thought might be of general interest. Some introductory definitions follow. All incomplete citations refer to the notes at the end of the paper.

Comments and questions are encouraged, either posted or by e-mail.

soma - In Hindu belief, a plant, the sacrificial liquid pressed from the plant, and the god representing the sacrificial drink.

"the pressed-out juice of a plant imbibed at the fire sacrifice; also identified with the moon which contains it."(Dimmitt, Cornelia, and J.A.B. van Buitenen, _Clasical_Hindu_Mythology_, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, p.358.)

"the ambrosial offering to the gods, by which they sustain their immortality; ... and sometimes incarnate as a god." (O'Flaherty, p.354.)

mead of poetry - In Norse myth, a liquid retrieved from giants by Odinn, which allowed poetic speech. An accidentally spilled portion (the "poetaster's share") gave this ability to some humans as well.

Vanir - A subgroup of the Norse gods, as distinguished from the AEsir. Their prominent members are Njord, Freyr, and Freyja. The Vanir seem to be primarily gods having to do with varying kinds of fertility (sex, food, wealth, etc.). Note that "AEsir" is used generically for all gods as well.

Ashvins - In Hindu Vedic belief, "horse-gods, twin sons of the sun and a mare. The physicians of the gods...."(O'Flaherty, p.340.)

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And now, heeeere's...

SOMA AND THE MEAD OF POETRY: Magical Liquids in Indic and Norse Mythology Dustin Tranberg

12/10/92

The connections between the Indic and Norse myths have proven useful in understanding each, especially since the work of Georges Dumezil. In this paper, I hope to look at a few similarities in detail, and to use them to illuminate other aspects of the two mythos.

I. SOMA AND THE "MEAD OF POETRY"

The Vedic soma and the "mead of poetry" found in the _Prose_ _Edda_, share several qualities. For example, both are connected to the idea of "pressing," as of pressing the juice from a fruit. In the hymns of the _Rig_Veda_, soma is pressed out in bowls.<1> The Icelandic _Skaldskaparmal_ tells of the manufacture of the mead of poetry from the blood of a being named Kvasir <2>, which name "has often been associated with Danish 'kvase' (to squeeze to extract juice), [and] with English 'quash'...."<3>

A more involved similarity between the two liquids is a motif found in many parts of the Indo-European world, that of the inspir- ational drink which is retrieved by an eagle (or falcon), often from a mountain where it has been hidden by enemies of the gods. This retrieval is usually marked in the Indic and Norse traditions by a close pursuit of the bird by these enemies.

Indra is the recipient of the soma in a number of Vedic hymns. The eagle variously bears Indra on his back or simply brings the soma to him, and in one case has a tail feather shot off by the soma's guardian.<4> The _Kathaka_Samhita_ reports that Indra himself took falcon form to steal the life-restoring "ambrosia" from the demons.<5>

The Norse God Odinn is said to have escaped from a giant's mountain, in eagle form, with the mead of poetry. The giant also takes eagle form and pursues Odinn so closely that Odinn, in his haste, spills some of the mead.<6>

The mead of poetry does not, however, provide the immunity from aging that soma does. This function is filled by the apples of the Norse goddess Idunn, wife of the god of poetry, Bragi. We see that she and her apples are taken on very much the same sort of journey as the soma and the mead of poetry. According to the _Skaldskaparmal_, after being lured out from Asgard on a pretext by the trickster Loki, she and her apples are seized by the giant Thjazi, who had taken the form of an eagle. The gods, quickly growing old, deduce that Loki is to blame and coerce him into rescuing her. He changes into a falcon (using the goddess Freyja's falcon coat) and rescues Idunn, changing her into a nut for the journey back. Thjazi, however, quickly pursues them back to Asgard, but is entrapped by a fire created by the waiting gods, and slain.<7> Both the mead of poetry and the goddess of the apples of immortality are carried about by eagles in the same manner as the poetry-inspiring, life-prolonging soma.

Furthermore, both the soma and the mead of poetry follow a "law of threes." When they are hidden from the gods, each is hidden in three parts. Once retrieved by the gods, each is con- sumed in three parts as well.

The _Skaldskaparmal_ tells us that the mead of poetry was manufactured from the blood of Kvasir, killed by two dwarfs:

These called him aside for a word in private and killed him, letting his blood run into two crocks and one kettle. The kettle was called Odrorir, but the crocks were known as Son and Bodn. They mixed his blood with honey, and it became the mead which makes whoever drinks of it a poet or a scholar. The dwarfs told the AEsir [the gods] that Kvasir had choked with learning....<8>

The dwarfs then kill a giant and his wife, but the giants' son, Suttung, captures the dwarfs, who "begged Suttung to spare their lives offering him as compensation for his father the precious mead, and that brought about their reconciliation. Suttung took the mead home and hid it in a place called Hnitbjorg and he appoin- ted his daughter Gunnlod as its guardian."<9> It is from this hiding place that Odinn will retrieve the mead, by seducing Sut- tung's daughter, Gunnlod.

The soma, likewise, is hidden from the gods in three parts. In one hymn of the _Rig_Veda_, it is hidden while in its trad- itional form of butter:

In the cow the gods found the butter that had been divided into three parts and hidden by the Panis. Indra brought forth one form, Surya one, and from the very substance of Vena they fashioned one.<10>

The Panis who hide the soma are said in other hymns to hide cattle in mountain caves<11>, much like the giant Suttung's mountain. The similarity is made still closer if we follow R.L. Griffith's note to the hymn above, which states that Vena is "the seer iden- tified with the sun-bird."<12> If Vena is indeed a seer who is made into soma, it places him very closely in concept to the wise Kvasir, made into the mead of poetry.<13> This speculation aside, the two drinks are indisputably hidden from the gods in three parts.

Once hidden, the inspirational drink is inevitably found by the gods, and one god in each pantheon stands out as the prin- cipal consumer. Even as the drinks were hidden by threes, they are consumed by threes.

Indra is the premier soma-drinker of the Vedic gods.<14> To empower himself before his greatest act in the myths, the slay- ing of the serpent Vrtra, "he took the Soma for himself and drank the extract from the three bowls in the three-day Soma ceremony." <15> Three vessels and three days figure exactly into Odinn's consumption of the mead of poetry as well.

Odinn, like Indra, is a great drinker. Although Thor shows quite a capacity for drinking in _Thrymskvida_ and the tale of Utgardr-Loki, the mead of poetry is Odinn's special province. Odinn (with Bragi) is the god of poetry, and furthermore, Odinn is said in both _Gylfaginning_ and _Grimnismal_ never to eat, existing only on wine.<16> His acquisition of the mead of poetry from the three vessels of the giant Suttung took three days. After penetrating the mountain where Suttung's daughter Gunnlod guarded the mead, he:

came to where Gunnlod was, and slept with her for three nights, and then she promised him three drinks of the mead. At his first drink he drank up all that was in Odrorir, at his second, Bodn, and at his third, Son -- and then he had finished all the mead. Then he changed himself into an eagle and flew away at top-speed.<17>

Three nights is also the period of time which the god Heimdallr, as Rig, was supposed to have spent in the beds of the mothers of each class of humans (thrall, freeman, and earl) when he fathered the human race, according to the poem _Rigsthula_. Lee M. Hollander, in his translation of Rigsthula, suggests that three days was the standard stay for a guest.<18>

Odinn's devouring of all of the sacred mead in three drinks is sharply reminiscent of Vishnu's three steps, in which he encom- passes the universe. It is similarly interesting to consider the tale from the _Satapatha-Brahmana_ in which the gods regain the universe from the demons by enclosing Vishnu, who is the sac- rifice, reclaiming the altar and therefore, by analogy, the uni- verse.<19> If the mead and the soma are related, then perhaps, in collecting all of the mead of poetry in himself, Odinn is also reclaiming a holy sacrifice, and therefore the universe.

Soma and the mead of poetry figure strongly in the relations between sets of gods within each pantheon. Specifically, the gods who represent Dumezil's third function, fertility, in both pantheons, have their integration into the divine society inex- tricably entwined with the inspirational drinks. These gods are, of course, the Norse Vanir, and the Indic Nasatyas (or Ashvins).

II. THE VANIR AND THE NASATYAS

Dumezil noted the correspondences between these groups of fertility deities in his _Gods_of_the_Ancient_Northmen_.<20> In his analysis, which is convincing and rests on its own merits, he focuses almost exclusively on simple fertility functions of these deities: "health, youth, fertility, and happiness."<21>

Here, I wish to explore some further similarities, delving into the areas of horse-associations, sun-associations, incest among siblings, and the status of these third function figures as priests among the gods.

The Ashvins have very strong associations with horses. Their very name means "the two with horses."<22> Their mother conceived them while she was in horse form.<23> They are even said to have the heads of horses.<24> Evidence for such a connection to the Vanir is not as multiplex, but is paradoxically one of the few solid pieces of information we have about actual religious prac- tice in the corpus. The horse was sacred to Freyr, and figured importantly in his cult, with sacred horses said to belong to the deity.<25>

In associations with the sun, a similar pattern emerges. The Ashvins are the sons of Vivasvat, the sun, and thus, their solar connection cannot be denied.<26> Freyr, again, must serve as our connection with the rest of the Vanir this time. He con- trols the weather, not unusual for a fertility god, and it is said of him that "he decides when the sun shall shine."<27>

Both groups of gods have sexual relations between siblings. The Ashvins are said to have married their sister Surya, the daug- hter of Surya, the sun (who is the same as Vivasvat).<28> (In another hymn, however, they are said to be unsuccessful suitors of her.<29>) Further, there exists another who is both brother and lover to the goddess Surya, Pushan.<30> The incestuous habits of the Vanir are well-known. "While Njorth lived with the Vanir he had his sister as wife, because that was the custom among them." <31> _Lokasenna_ also accuses Freyr and Freyja, and Njord and his sister, of incestuous relations.<32>

Finally, the two sets of gods occupy a most curious position, that of priests among the gods. "Othin appointed Njorth and Frey to be priests for the sacrificial offerings, and they were 'diar' [gods] among the AEsir. Freya was the daughter of Njorth. She was the priestess at the sacrifices."<33> Likewise, the Ashvins, according to the _Satapatha-Brahmana_, officiate over the sacrifices performed by the gods.<34>

Many other figures serve priestly functions in the Indic tradition, having to do with the sacrifice, and some of them ex- hibit Vanir-like characteristics. Agni, as the sacrificial fire itself, is described as a priest <35>, and, in his form as the Child of the Waters, is presented as a horse, who, living deep in the water, possesses great riches.<36> (This is strikingly similar to Njord, the Vanir ocean god who is proverbially wealthy. <37>)

Purusha himself, the god who is the cosmos, exercises priestly functions in that he is sacrifice, sacrificer, and recipient of the sacrifice. <38> In doing do, he resembles not so much the Vanir as he does the Norse figures of Ymir and Odinn. Odinn, like Purusha, sacrifices himself to himself, and gains power in this fashion.<39> Ymir is like Purusha in that the cosmos is created through his sacrifice and dismemberment.

III. KVASIR, MADA, GULLVEIG, AND KACA

In his _Gods_of_the_Ancient_Northmen_, Dumezil compares the figures of Kvasir and Mada as intercessories of sorts in the int- egration of the third function fertility deities into the divine society. He noted that Mada, "drunkenness," is created in order to force the integration of the Ashvins into the gods' sacrifice, while Kvasir is created as a result of the successful integration. Mada is then divided into four parts that are harmful to man, and Kvasir into three parts that help man and the gods.<40>

Gullveig is an enigmatic figure in the _Poetic_Edda's_ _Voluspa_, who seems to be at the root of the conflict between AEsir and Vanir due to her ill-treatment at the hands of the AEsir. Dumezil sees in her an attack on the AEsir by the Vanir, as a sort of "secret weapon," the power of money, third function wealth in a negative mode. Her name is often etymologized as the "insob- riety of gold," or "drunkenness of gold," reflecting the corrupting power of money.<41> Her appearance in the poems is as follows:

I ween the first war in the world was this, when the gods Gullveig gashed with their spears, and in the hall of Har [Odinn] burned her -- three times burned they the thrice reborn, ever and anon: even now she liveth.

Heith she was hight where to houses she came, the wise seeress, and witchcraft plied -- cast spells where she could, cast spells on the mind: to wicked women she was welcome ever.<42>

She has often been equated with Freyja, by Turville-Petre among others, due to her witch-like character and use of seidr-type magic. (Seidr was supposed to have been taught to the AEsir by the Vanir, and particularly to Odinn by Freyja.<43> It has etym- ologies which link it to the English word "seethe," suggesting yet another (and related?) magical liquid.<44>)

Her strange story may be partially illuminated by that of Kaca, a _Mahabharata_ character who goes to the demons to get the secret of reviving the dead from them. He is killed three times, by dismemberment, pulverization, and burning, and each time is restored to life by the demons' brahman, under whose tutelage he is studying. The third time he is killed, he is burned to ashes and mixed in wine, and given to the brahman to drink. It is this final time which necessitates that the brahman give him the knowledge of the chant.<45>

Kaca exhibits an almost bewildering display of similarities to characters in both mythos. He seduces and abandons the secret- holder's daughter, like Odinn. He is dismembered like many Indic characters, notably Purusha, Mada, and Agni, as well as Ymir and Kvasir. He is pulverized and mixed with liquid, like Kvasir. He is killed three times, like Gullveig. He is burned to death, like Gullveig, and perhaps like Soma himself. His ashes are mixed with wine, and drunk, and it is this form, the alcoholic drink, which is successful in obtaining the secret.<45>

In conclusion, Gullveig is often assumed to be the "drunken- ness of gold," gold-lust, but in a poem (_Voluspa_) in which Kvasir is, after all, absent, she may be his counterpart, a goddess wise in brewing spells who cannot be killed (especially in a fire), because she IS the "golden drink," Soma-like, and therefore immortal.

NOTES:

1) Griffith, R.L., _The_Hymns_of_the_Rg_Veda_Translated_with_a_ _Popular_Commentary_. (1963) 9.74, 10.94: pp.121-6, in _A_Reader_in_Indian_Mythology_, S.J. Sutherland, ed.

2) Snorri Sturluson, _Skaldskaparmal_, in the _Prose_Edda_, trans. Jean I.Young. (University of California Press, 1954) p.100.

3) Turville-Petre, E.O.G., _Myth_and_Religion_of_the_North_. (Greenwood Press, 1964, 1975) p.40.

4) _Rg_Veda_, 4.26-7: pp.128-31; 4.18.13: p.143.

5) _Kathaka_Samhita_, in _Hindu_Myths_, Wendy O'Flaherty, trans. (Penguin, 1975) p.281.

6) _Skaldskaparmal_, p.102.

7) " pp.98-9.

8) " p.100.

9) " p.101.

10) _Rg_Veda_, 4.58.4: p.127.

11) " 10.108: pp.156-8.

12) " 4.58 n.4: p.128.

13) Another source, Pratap Chandra Roy's translation of the _Mahabharata_of_Krishna-Dwaipayana_Vyasa_, vol.VIII (Oriental Publishing Co., Calcutta), gives Vena as an evil king killed by rishis, who then pierce his right thigh and hand which produce, respectively, a wicked race of dark non-Aryans (Nishadas), and a godlike king (Parthu). (Mhb XII,59) This is immediately reminiscent not only of Purusha, whose body parts become different classes, but of the Norse Ymir, a very similar cosmic progenitor whose legs produced trolls or giants when he was slain.

14) _Rg_Veda_, 8.14.15: p.160; 2.12.13: p.162.

15) " 1.32.3: p.149.

16) Snorri Sturluson, _Gylfaginning_, in the _Prose_Edda_, trans. Jean I. Young. (University of California Press, 1954) p.63.

_Grimnismal_, St.19, in _The_Poetic_Edda_, trans. Hollander, Lee M. (University of Texas Press, 1962) p.57.

17) _Skaldskaparmal_, p.102.

18) Hollander, p.121, n.7.

19) _Satapatha-Brahmana_, in O'Flaherty, pp.177-8.

20) Dumezil, Georges, _Gods_of_the_Ancient_Northmen_. (University of California Press, 1973) pp.16-18, etc.

21) Dumezil, p.16.

22) Goldman, Robert P., lectures on Hindu Mythlogy 9/25/92.

23) _Markandeya_Purana_, in O'Flaherty, p.69.

24) O'Flaherty, p.56.

25) Turville-Petre, pp.167-8.

26) _Brhaddevata_, in O'Flaherty, p.61, and _Markandeya_Purana_, in O'Flaherty, p.69.

27) _Gylfaginning_, p.52.

28) _Rg_Veda_, 1.116.17: p.183, and 1.116 n.14: p.185.

29) " 10.85 n.7: p.272.

30) " 10.85 n.13: p.272.

31) _Ynglingasaga_, Ch.4, in Dumezil, p.10.

32) _Lokasenna_, Sts.32 and 36, in Hollander, p.97.

33) _Ynglingasaga_, Ch.4, in Dumezil, p.10.

34) _Satapatha-Brahmana_ IV,1,5,15 in Julius Eggeling, _The_ _Satapatha-Brahmana_According_to_the_text_of_the_Madhyandina_ _School_, in _A_Reader_in_Indian_Mythology_.

35) _Rg_Veda_, 1.26: pp.99-101.

36) " 2.35: pp.104-107.

37) _Gylfaginning_, p.51.

38) _Rg_Veda_, 10.90.16: p.31; 10.81.5: p.35; 1.164.50: p.81.

39) _Havamal_, St.138, in Hollander, p.36.

40) Dumezil, pp.22-3.

41) Dumezil, p.24.

Turville-Petre, p.159.

42) _Voluspa_, Sts.21-2, in Hollander, p.4.

43) Turville-Petre, p.159.

44) Lindow, John, lectures on Scandinavian Myth and Religion 10/91.

45) _Mahabharata_, in O'Flaherty, pp.282-9.