Observations placeholder
Baldrs draumar - Odin goes to Hel
Identifier
004536
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
In Norse myth, the journey via caves to the underworld takes you to Hel – where Hel is not ‘Hell’ but the spirit world. Baldrs draumar, for example, describes a journey which Odin makes to Hel…………….
The dog is Garm and like Cerberos in Greek myth, Garm guards the caves of Hel – more particularly the one in which the souls of the dead are to be found…………..
A description of the experience
Baldrs draumar
Then Óðinn rose, | the enchanter old,
And the saddle he laid | on Sleipnir's back;
Thence rode he down | to Niflhel deep,
And the hound he met | that came from hel.
Bloody he was | on his breast before,
At the father of magic | he howled from afar;
Forward rode Óðinn, | the earth resounded
Till the house so high | of Hel he reached
The Poetic Edda
from the Seeress's prophecy
Garm bays loudly before knipa cave
the rope will break and the ravener run free