What is Valhalla? The viking representations of the Vikings

Valhalla, or Valgalla, is a place that in later Scandinavian mythology played the role of a paradise for warriors. More about what Valhalla is, as well as about the various features of the other world of the Vikings, we'll talk in this article.

Definition of Valhalla

Monuments of the Scandinavian epic brought to us a certain image of Valhalla, which, apparently, was a reflection of the beliefs and after-deaths of these warlike tribes. Usually, when answering the question of what Valhalla is, the mythologists say that it is something like a heavenly hall belonging to the Supreme God Odin, where the bravest and worthy warriors who fell during the battle fall after death. After migration to Valhalla, they are called einherias. The very word "Valhalla" is most often translated as "the palace of the fallen." And localize this place in Asgard - the highest world on the tree of Yggdrasil.

The nature of Valhalla

Although, when talking about what Valhalla is, it is often compared with paradise, this analogy is still rather conventional. Of course, getting there after death was a dream and a cherished desire of any viking. But the expectations of these warlike people from paradise were slightly different than those with which the heavens are associated above us - the heirs of a centuries-old Christian culture.

Valhalla in the view of the ancient Viking is a huge palace (you can say, simply a hall or a tent, considering the concept of palaces among ancient Scandinavians), whose roof is made up of gilded shields supported by spears. This palace is led by 540 gates. The morning in Valhall begins with a bloodbath. All its inhabitants wear armor and fight with each other to the death, while no one remains alive. Then all the warriors miraculously resurrected, their wounds heal, and the severed parts of the body grow again. Resurrected and healed warriors continue their day with a grand feast. The main dish of this feast is the inexhaustible meat of a boar named Sekhrimnir. It is pierced daily by the cook Odin, and, like the soldiers themselves, he daily resurrects from the dead unharmed. A drink for feasting einheriev serves as honey milk, which is abundantly given by the goat Haydrun. This animal also lives in Valhalla and feeds on the leaves of the Yggdrasil tree. The completeness of the picture of the military paradise is, of course, attached to girls, called Valkyries. They appear every night, at the end of feasting, and throughout the night they indulge the inhabitants of this wondrous place. And all these activities of the daily program are headed by God One - the head of the Scandinavian divine pantheon.

That's how the ancient Vikings imagined the ideal world - roughly, mundane and somewhat mercantile. However, what else was required for the ancient soldier, in addition to the extreme battle and sensual pleasures? But there was another option after the death for the Vikings, since Valhalla is not the only refuge of the dead.

The Scandinavian Worlds - Volkwangr

When the battle ends, according to Viking legends, Odin descends to the ground and takes half the souls that he takes away with him to Valhalla. The rest is waiting for a different place, namely Volkwangr. The name of this place is translated as "the field of people", and the goddess Freya is in charge of it . How we study myths in order to understand what Valhalla is, we also need to approach the question of the role and character of Volkwangr. However, the information about him has remained much less. It is only known that, like the palace of Odin, it is the palace or the throne room of Freya, the goddess of love and warfare of the Gentile Vikings. However, in addition to half of the killed soldiers, the best of women also fall into this world. And the last did not even have to die in the war. Unfortunately, nothing is known about what Volkwangr people did, scaring the innumerable days and nights of their heavenly existence. However, apparently, the stay there was just as honorable and was seen as a blessing.

Dark World Hel

In addition to the two described afterlife, we also need to mention the world called Hel. According to the scheme of the tree, Yggdrasil is a lower, other world, characterized as a dark and bleak place. For the ancient Viking, all the other afterworlds were preferable to this place. Its name comes from a word meaning "hide." The Hel peasants do not have their own naming. And their pastime consists in feasting with Hel - the goddess and the mistress of this world, bearing her name. However, later legends mention that sinners and violators of oaths suffer in the northern part of Hel. However, this may be a later Christian layering. In general, it is believed that Hel is the most archaic form of Scandinavian representations about the afterlife. There all the dead fell. With the further development of the mythologeme and the differentiation of the worlds, Hel began to be regarded as a refuge primarily for those who died from illness or from old age.

Development of ideas about Valhalla

Since we are primarily talking about Valhalla, we need to say a few words about the development of ideas about this place. Initially, it was not the residence of the Viking military elite after their death. The most archaic value of the valr root is associated in the Indo-European language with the deceased in general. And only on the basis of German spirituality does it gradually acquire a narrowly specialized meaning. But even in its narrowest sense, at the earliest stages, Valhalla was the place where the souls of enemy captive warriors fell, which were then sacrificed to Odin. Hence the name of the girls - the inhabitants of Valhalla, that is, the Valkyries. Valkyries were originally called women who passed among the ranks of captured soldiers and selected from them those who were to be brought to the altar of Odin. "The one who chooses the dead" - this is how the word "Valkyrie" is translated. Only later they turned into supernatural warriors, helping Odin to select souls for himself on the battlefield. The road to the Valhalla of the elect was also provided and accompanied by them.

Scandinavian eschatology

But the stay in Valhalla, as the Scandinavians believed, would be temporary. When the day of the last battle of Ragnarok comes, eight hundred warriors will come out to every gate of Valhalla and will face the whole of the monsters, as well as the dead from the world of Hel, on the side of the Ases (gods). In the end, almost all will die: people, monsters and gods. Valhalla, like all other afterlife, will no longer exist. Survive only a few aces and two people - Liv and Livtrasir, from which a new human race will occur.