KVASIR AND BEET JUICE

 Here is another story from Norse Mythology. You are bound to love this guy!

KVASIR

God of Inspiration, Knowledge and Beet Juice.

First a little background information on the different tribes of Gods and the worlds they live in. Since the Nordics like nines, there are nine worlds. Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life, has nine roots which feed or lead to different realms. Starting from the bottom up, they are:

1 : HELHEIM, HEL's Domain of the Dead

2 : NIFLHEIM, the frosty Realm of Ice

3 : JOTUNHEIM, Land of the Giants

4 : NIDAVELLIR, the Land of Dwarfs

5 : SVARTALFHEIM, the Domain of the Dark Elves

6 : MIDGARD, Middle-earth, our bit, the Realm of Mankind

7 : ALFHEIM, the Land of the Light Elves

8 : VANAHEIM, the World of the VANIR

9 : ÅSGARD, the World of the AESIR

Aesir are the Norse top gods, like Odin, Thor and Loki. Vanir are rival gods to the Aesir. They were mostly wild and rough nature gods and detested the more noble warrior gods of the Aesir. After a number of battles and betrayals, the two sides were reconciled. After the final war , all the Gods made a truce by spitting into a bowl. They stirred up the mixture and created a new God of Knowledge. His name was KVASIR and he was made the most amazing diplomat to prevent further disagreements.

KVASIR

Minnie-ism for today

"Got to hand it to these Gods, they needed a mediator so they just made one!"

Sadly he didn't last long as he was slaughtered by treacherous dwarves, who drained his blood, mixed it with honey and fermented it into a highly potent mead. This became known as Kvas, the mead of inspiration, a fiery brew the color of beetroot. Drinking it was a highly enlightening experience.

The entire supply of Kvas was then taken from the dwarves by a giant named Suttung in payment for a family feud, and hidden in the mountains where the giants sister guarded it.Through a series of disguises and schemes, Odin managed to break into the cave and seduce the giant’s daughter.

For three nights, he drank the mead; on the third night, he changed into an eagle in order to escape. Suttung discovered the theft, and changed into an eagle as well to give chase. Some of the mead escaped Odin’s mouth as he flew and some he allowed to drop in order to distract the giant close behind him. When he finally made it over the walls of Åsgard, he spat out the bulk of the mead into vessels the gods had prepared, making his plan complete.

But as the story ends, the gods themselves cannot claim all of the precious mead for themselves. Both deliberately and by accident, some of the mead fell on the earth, where it touched some of the living; those whom the spilled mead fell upon became poets.


Such was the short but enlightened life of Kvasir. It was pointed out to me that I forgot to mention some simularities regarding the story of Idun ( which is pronounced Eden), Eve and her love of apples. I don't want to bore you with the simularities between theology and mythology, but it is worth a thought.
Do you recognize any simularities to Christian stories or other mythology?