Hermóðr

Summary

Hermóðr is a son of Odin in the Scandinavian myths, whom Snorri calls "Hermóðr the Bold"; he is the one who rode to the house of Hel to ask for the return of his brother Baldr after Baldr was killed.

When Höðr had killed Baldr with the sprig of mistletoe, the gods were struck speechless and overcome with weeping, and Odin grieved most because he knew best what they had lost. When they had recovered, Frigg asked who among them would win her love and favour by riding the road to Hel to seek Baldr and offering Hel a ransom if she would let him come home to Asgard. Hermóðr undertook it; Sleipnir, Odin's horse, was led out, and he mounted and galloped away. He rode nine nights through dark, deep valleys where he could see nothing, until he reached the river Gjöll and its bridge roofed with shining gold. The maiden who guards the bridge, Móðguðr, asked his name and kin and said: yesterday five troops of dead men crossed the bridge, and it did not ring louder under them than it does under you alone, and you have not the colour of the dead; why do you ride on the road to Hel? He said he was seeking Baldr, and she told him Baldr had crossed the bridge, and that the road to Hel lies down and to the north. At the wall of Hel's house he dismounted, girthed the horse tight, mounted again and spurred it, and it leapt over the gate without touching it. He went into the hall, saw his brother Baldr sitting in the high seat, and stayed the night.

In the morning he asked Hel to let Baldr ride home with him and told her how greatly the Æsir wept for him. Hel said: let it be tested whether he is as beloved as they say; if everything in the world, living and dead, weeps for him, he will go back to the Æsir, and if anything refuses or speaks against it, he stays with me. Baldr led him out of the hall and sent the ring Draupnir back with him to Odin as a keepsake; his wife Nanna sent Frigg a linen garment, and a ring to her servant Fulla. Hermóðr rode back to Asgard and told all he had seen and heard. The gods sent messengers through the whole world asking that Baldr be wept out of Hel, and men and beasts, earth and stones, trees and every metal wept for him, as these things are seen to weep when they come out of frost into warmth. As the messengers came home they found a giantess in a cave who called herself Þökk, and asked her to weep; she said: Þökk will weep dry tears at Baldr's burning; alive or dead I had no good of the old man's son; let Hel keep what she has. Men think she was Loki. Gylfaginning 49.

The idea the story turns on is that the journey to the house of the dead succeeds in everything but the last step. Hermóðr reaches the house, leaps the wall, sees his brother, wins from the queen of the dead a condition for his return, and comes back alive; he is the only one in the northern stories who goes to Hel to fetch someone dead and returns. But what comes back with him is a ring and a garment, not Baldr, and the condition he won fails for want of a single tear. Baldr returns only after Ragnarök, when he and Höðr come out of Hel's house into the new world.

We read the name in the Arabic tongue like this, as a reading proposed on the method, since the essay does not read it. The final r of Hermóðr is the nominative ending; the dative is Hermóði. What remains, Hermóð-, is in Norse two parts: her-, "host, army", and móð-, "wrath, courage". The Germanic h of her- goes back to an old k, by the regular law that makes Latin cornu English horn, and the same word is Lithuanian kãrias, "army, war". So the first part is Arabic karr: in Lane karra is the charge in war after wheeling away, and a return to the world, as in "would that we had a return (karra)". The second part we read as it is read in the name of Móði, māda, to surge and be violently agitated. On this reading Hermóðr is the one who charges with a surging heart, and that is what the story makes him: he carries to the house of the dead the request for a karra, Baldr's return to the world, and himself returns from it.

Linguistic Root

Hermóðr and karr

Cleasby–Vigfusson gives herr as "a host, multitude", then people in general, then an army, with Gothic harjis, by which the Gothic Bible renders "legion". Orel sets the Germanic word *xariz beside Middle Irish cuire, "crowd", and Lithuanian kãrias, "army, war", and makes Odin's name Herjann identical with Greek koíranos, "king, head of the army". He derives móðr from a Germanic word meaning anger in Gothic and mind, spirit and courage in Old English.

Lane, under k-r-r: karra, "a return", as in "would that there were for us a return", that is, to the world or to a former state; hence "the return to life"; then "a return to the fight, after wheeling away, or retiring", and simply "a charge, or an assault, in war". Makarr is a place of fighting where the combatants return time after time, mikarr one who returns often to the fight, and faras mikarr a horse fit for returning to the fight and charging.

The comparison passes through the law that turns old k into h in the Germanic languages, the law by which the "horn" word is cornu in Latin and horn in English, as this project's sound-change notes record; r is r, and the doubled r of karr answers the doubled r of herr. One thing remains: the reading joins two proposals, and the second, māda, is still open on Móði's page.

Other readings

The first part could also be read as ḥayy, a tribe or community, or jarrār, in Arabic a numerous army that drags itself along. The first keeps the h but has no r; the second keeps the r but needs j where Norse has h. The essay does not read Hermóðr's name; it reads his brother Baldr as badr, the full moon.

Key Mythic Narratives

Hermóðr in Hyndluljóð

At the start of Hyndluljóð Freyja prays that "the Father of Hosts", Odin, who gives gold to his followers, may be gracious, and says that he gave Hermóðr a helm and mail-coat, and Sigmundr a sword. Here Hermóðr is one of Odin's heroes, taking arms of war from him.

Hermóðr and Bragi at the door of Valhalla

In Hákonarmál, the poem the skald Eyvindr made on the death of King Hákon the Good, a valkyrie carries word of the king to Odin, and Odin says: Hermóðr and Bragi, go to meet the prince, for a king who is counted a champion is coming to this hall. Then Bragi tells the king: you shall have the peace of all the champions; drink ale with the Æsir. So Hermóðr, who rode to Hel to fetch a dead man, goes out here to receive a dead man at the door of Valhalla. Hákonarmál 14–16.

Symbolic Reading

The Norse rereading essay reads Baldr's death and return as the yearly cycle of the sun, from winter to spring. It does not mention Hermóðr, but Snorri's own text brings the weeping he asked for close to a thaw: stones, trees and metals wept "as you will have seen these things weep when they come out of frost into warmth". On the essay's reading Hermóðr's ride is a request for the light to return before its time, the condition is a thaw that must reach everything, and the giantess weeping "dry tears" in her cave is the ice that will not melt, so the spring is put off until after the end.

Cross-Cultural Parallels

Zeus sends Hermes to the house of Hades to bring Persephone back to her mother; he brings her, but she has eaten a pomegranate seed and must go back below for a third of every year. Hermóðr is another messenger who reaches the house of the dead and wins a condition from its ruler, but Hel's condition is not met and Baldr does not come back at all. Izanagi follows his wife to Yomi and is bound not to look at her; he looks and flees, while Hermóðr keeps his side and the condition fails through someone else. His ride is a Norse witness of Descent to the Underworld, his attempt to bring Baldr back belongs with Death and Return in Myth and Ritual, and Þökk's refusal is a case of the trickster. Homeric Hymn to Demeter 334–403.

Iran has another bridge on the road of the dead where a maiden stands, the dead person's own conscience, who carries the righteous soul across to Ahura Mazda, while the bridge narrows for the wicked to a razor's edge; see Chinvat Bridge.