Sunday, September 09, 2012

The Genetic Memories of Gollveig-Heid

In follow-up to my previous two posts (here and here), Gollveig is an earlier name for Heid (also written Heith). Heid is my Teutonic sacred name.

Many thanks and much appreciation to my friend OneEye who provided this information from the lore of Northern Tradition:

From Voluspa in the Poetic Edda:

21. The war I remember, | the first in the world,
When the gods with spears | had smitten Gullveig,
And in the hall | of Hor had burned her,
Three times burned, | and three times born,
Oft and again, | yet ever she lives.

22. Heith they named her | who sought their home,
The wide-seeing witch, | in magic wise;
Minds she bewitched | that were moved by her magic,
To evil women | a joy she was.

23. On the host his spear | did Othin hurl,
Then in the world | did war first come;
The wall that girdled | the gods was broken,
And the field by the warlike | Wanes was trodden.


Traditional commentary on these stanzas:

[21. This follows stanza 20 in Regius; in the Hauksbok version stanzas 25, 26, 27, 40, and 41 come between stanzas 20 and 21. Editors have attempted all sorts of rearrangements. The war: the first war was that between the gods and the Wanes. The cult of the Wanes (Vanir) seems to have originated among the seafaring folk of the Baltic and the southern shores of the North Sea, and to have spread thence into Norway in opposition to the worship of the older gods; hence the "war." Finally the two types of divinities were worshipped in common; hence the treaty which ended the war with the exchange of hostages. Chief among the Wanes were Njorth and his children, Freyr and Freyja, all of whom became conspicuous among the gods. Beyond this we know little of the Wanes, who seem originally to have been water-deities. I remember: the manuscripts have "she remembers," but the Volva is apparently still speaking of her own memories, as in stanza 2. Gollveig ("Gold-Might"): apparently the first of the Wanes to come among the gods, her ill treatment being the immediate cause of the war. Müllenhoff maintains that Gollveig is another name for Freyja. Lines 5-6, one or both of them probably interpolated, seem to symbolize the refining of gold by fire. Hor ("The High One"): Othin.

22. Heith ("Shining One"?): a name often applied to wise women and prophetesses. The application of this stanza to Gollveig is far from clear, though the reference may be to the [fp. 11] magic and destructive power of gold. It is also possible that the stanza is an interpolation. Bugge maintains that it applies to the Volva who is reciting the poem, and makes it the opening stanza, following it with stanzas 28 and 30, and then going on with stanzas I ff. The text of line 2 is obscure, and has been variously emended.]

[23. This stanza describes the battle and the victory of the Wanes, after which the gods took council, debating whether to pay tribute to the victors, or to admit them, as was finally done, to equal rights of worship.

This is simply stunning. I'm in that moment when you know you are where you are supposed to be. This is my story! All of these years and decades I've searched for it, and here it is!

Gollveig means Gold-might. In some traditions, gold symbolizes harsh judgment. So, the bifurcation discussed in my previous post here could be a separation of ancestral might from the force-quality of harsh judgment. This actually fits very well with my memory as described in the "bloody" poem.

I'll have to look at what the runes have to say about these particular arrangement of letters in the name Gollveig.

In the commentary to the lore
the Volva who is reciting (communicating) the poem ... (is) the Volva (who) is apparently still speaking of her own memories

I'm trembling.

In the commentary to the lore

The cult of the Wanes (Vanir) seems to have originated among the seafaring folk of the Baltic and the southern shores of the North Sea, and to have spread thence into Norway in opposition to the worship of the older god

My genetic motherline is U5b1b1 (actually U5b1b1* which has extra nucleotide transitions than the plain U5b1b1, and also has the same backmutation as Saami-specific motif U5b1b1a) with my deep autosomal ancestral genetic root in Sweden. I also have genetic match-connections to Baltic Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland (as well as North Sea Norway, England, Ireland, Scotland etc), so this fits too.

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Dare to be true to yourself.