Wednesday, April 13, 2011

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?

27 comments:

Unknown said...

You're getting me hooked on Nordic mythology again. The three nights reminds of Christ's resurrection - and of course the drinking of the blood.

Unknown said...

I need to get me some of that mead!

walk2write said...

I love this stuff! Isn't it amazing that these stories were passed down through umpteen generations by storytellers? Mead lovers, of course.

Crazy Life of a Writing Mom said...

I LOVE these myths! They're awesome.

Hart Johnson said...

Oh, GREAT story! I can't see anything about beets, though, without thinking about Jitterbug Perfume (a book that includes Pan, God of virility--and beets are involved--teehee) And I totally didn't realize until you laid it out like this how much of Tolkein's world building had Norse mythology at its base.

As for Christianity and mythology... I happen to think those early Christian public relations guys stole whatever they could fit from any culture they encountered so they could make conversion easier...

Laura Eno said...

I have to agree with Hart about "borrowing" myths and adapting them into Christian culture. So many holidays were usurped from Pagan ones.
I'm loving your Nordic myths!

Anonymous said...

There are some slight resemblances. I think mythology is fascinating. I had not heard of this one thanks for sharing it! As usual great post!

Bossy Betty said...

I am pretty sure I dated this guy in college.

Bob Scotney said...

I hadn't heard of Kvasir; I'll remember this everytime I see mead.

J.L. Campbell said...

For one thing, there always seems to be a battle between good and evil. The story of our lives.

Matthew MacNish said...

This is awesome.

Angela said...

I notice some similarities to the Norse Mythology Carrie Jones points to in her "Need" series. Cool stuff.

Unknown said...

The poor fellow has to be the god of beet juice! He probably raised such a stink about getting shafted like that, when other gods were getting to be gods of war and fertility, that they went ahead and gave inspiration and knowledge to soften the raw deal.

Thanks for visiting my blog. I hope you'll come back often.

Lucy

Ellie Garratt said...

I read the title too quickly and thought it said Beetlejuice!

Another fascinating post. Can't wait for more!

Ellie Garratt

Marjorie said...

I love Norse Mythology. I was reading a book of the most common myths and I must not have gotten to this one. My favorite God is actually Loki, the trouble maker. I mean what is life without a bit of fun and pranking. I'm just kidding really. I do like Loki, but Thor is my first favorite.

Talli Roland said...

Another great Norse myth! Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Mythology has always fascinated me!

M Pax said...

Mythology intrigues me. I loved reading this.

Emily Rose said...

This is so great!

Gail M Baugniet - Author said...

You've chosen wisely! I enjoyed the story. I recently read American Gods by Neil Gaiman and Odin plays a role in the story.
Yes, mythology and theology do mingle; who's to say there isn't truth in all?

Michael Di Gesu said...

Loved these, Siv.

I have some Norwegian family background so I always enjoy reading about their myths.

And yes, there are many similarities between mythology and theology. In my previous post of Isis, they used her as mother of all, like the Virgin Mary.

Jules said...

Popped over to thank you for all the lovely comments lately. I'm just not having a good month but I made it and I'm sorry I'm late :)
Jules @ Trying To Get Over The Rainbow

Martha said...

Most definitely some similarities!!

~Mikal said...

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MM the Queen of English said...

Siv Maria, congratulations, you have the April Workshop with MM the Queen of English for commenting on the interview that Aday Kennedy did of the Queen.
Please e-mail me at queenofenglish@live.com for details. The workshop starts April 25th.

btw, I love mythology -- Norse especially.

MM the Queen of English
http://queenofenglish.wordpress.com/

Roland D. Yeomans said...

Would you believe my hero, Hibbs the bear with 2 shadows, got into all his trouble by rescuing the squirrel, Ratatosk, who had been climbing up and down Yggdrasil carrying insults between the eagle at the top and the Midgard serpent, biting at the roots?

I love Norse mythology and decided to bring my Lakota Bear legend into conflict with it. As always, you have a fun, enlightening post. Roland

Tuneroll said...

Wow love this!