Observations placeholder
Poetic Edda - Grimnir's sayings [Extract]
Identifier
017134
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
In Norse mythology, the raven – because the bird tended to eat the flesh of rotting corpses after a battle, - was symbolic of death and the afterlife. But they also had a special role in Odin's court. Odin had two ravens Hugin and Munin – thought and memory.
The Norsemen believed that ravens Hugin and Munin sat on the god Odin's shoulders and saw and heard all.
A description of the experience
The Poetic Edda
from Grimnir's sayings
Hugin and Munin fly every day
over the wide world;
I fear for Hugin that he will not come back
yet I tremble more for Munin
An illustration from an 18th century Icelandic manuscript depicting Huginn and Muninn sitting on the shoulders of Odin