Warrior Week : Einherjar, Viking Warriors of the Apocalypse

As the daughter of a military helicopter pilot (*waves* Hi Dad!) I've always been fascinated by soldiers, both modern, historical, and mythological. My favorite soldier story comes from Norse mythology, the apocalyptic warriors known as the Einherjar. (in-HAYR-yar). In honor of Warrior Week, I wanted to share a little bit about them with you.

Most people know about these guys, they just don't know they have a name--or a purpose. One of the most recognized stories from Norse mythology is that soldiers who die in battle go to Valhalla, the home of Odin. (Valhalla literally translates to "hall of the slain.") I've heard it called Viking Heaven before. I suppose if your idea of heaven is a grand hall where you fight all day then insta-heal at night to go party with roast pork, mead, valkyries, and the best entertainer the world has ever seen (Bragi, the poet/entertainer of the gods) then...well, yeah, I imagine that is Viking heaven.

Not all soldiers who die in battle go to Valhalla. At he behest of Freyja, a gorgeous goddess of magic and leader of the valkyries (literally "choosers of the slain"), valkyries fly half of the slain to her home at Folkvangr ("field of the people"). Less is known, from the spotty texts left to us from medieval Scandinavia, what those soldiers do there. This is completely hypothetical on my part, but I wonder if there's some sort of gender divided afterlife. Recent archaeological finds have shown that Viking warriors were less likely to be all male than we'd originally thought. Apparently researchers used to assume burial with sword = man; burial with brooch = woman. But then somebody got around to analyzing bones and realized...wait a minute; quite a few of these are chicks with swords.

Back to einherjar. The ones taken to Valhalla are not just there to party but to train for a very serious purpose. According to Norse mythology, the world began with the collision of fire and ice and will end when a winter like no other (fimbulvinter) leads to an attack from fire giants. Loki, the great trickster god, will break free from his prison and sail on a ship made of dead men's fingernails to a great field of battle. Yggdrasil, the world tree, shudders, Jormungandr, the world serpent, begins to writhe bringing great tidal waves, and Heimdall blows his horn (much like Gabriel) signalling the end of the world. This is Ragnarok, and it ends with the destruction of the world and the death of the gods. It's been foretold. The gods will lose. And yet Odin and Freyja gather the einherjar for the very specific purpose of fighting on this day.

Can they change fate and stop Ragnarok? Probably not. Unlike Greek myths, in Norse mythology people don't tend to create their own bad fates by trying to stop it--gathering the einherjar won't inadvertently cause Ragnarok like Oedipus' family's attempted infanticide caused of the murder and incest they were trying to prevent. In Norse myth, the things that are going to happen will happen, and there's not much that can be done one way or the other. But that doesn't prevent Odin, Freyja, Thor, and the others from trying. For a mythology full of grim stories, it's oddly hopeful. Or maybe just stubborn.

To me, the einherjar represent the will to fight for what's right, even when you know you'll lose. They train for the impossible, they never give up, and when the day comes, they'll go to battle even knowing the outcome. In the meantime, knowing that horn could blow any moment, they'll party like rock stars because enjoying today is the only guarantee we have.

I think that's a good lesson for any of us.

For your enjoyment, here's the hilarious saga of Bjorn, an aging Viking who just wants a worthy death so he can join the einherjar in Valhall. Sadly for Bjorn, this proves harder than one might think.

Writing in Norway

It’s always been my dream to travel to Scandinavia. I am of Swedish descent, and the myths of the Norse people have always fascinated me. I use them regularly in my books! After some sadness in June, my husband and I decided to splurge and GO. As I write this, we’re here! In a tiny town in the mountains of Norway between Oslo and Bergen.

We've met cool people and seen some amazing things. There were two things I wanted to do for book research purposes while here. The first was visit the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. Three viking burial ships were found in southern Norway and are on display there along with the grave goods. Two of the ships have been reconstructed so you can see what they would've looked like in the 9th century. The size of them was amazing and the sleek shape fearsome. My husband stood beside one, peered waaaay up at the curved bow and commented, "I can see how someone standing on the coast and seeing these coming at them would totally lose their s***." Me too.

The next hasn't come yet. We'll be heading for Tromso at the end of the trip. There we'll hopefully see the Northern Lights! But for sure I'll be doing research on the town for a book and traveling down to the Lofoten Islands to see the Viking Museum there. (Notice a Viking theme? Uh...yeah. I'm obsessed.)

Tonight we drove through the mountains to get to a tiny town where we'll shelter for the night before heading into Bergen and touring the fjords. As night fell, and the tone of the scenery changed from breezy fall to nightly shadow, the feel of the mythological sagas came alive in a way I hadn't felt before. Tiny human lights beaconed in the gloom of rising peaks like safety in a threatening wilderness. The Norse people likened the mountains to frost giants--called Jotuns--and Thor was the god who protected them with his sacred hammer Mjolnir. The Norwegian ancients wrote poetry in a style we call dróttkvætt, and though I'm not a poet I felt inspired to give it a try.  The last line doesn't quite follow the rules, but I think I did the rest of it correctly!

Star and rock, I sing your
Silence. Looming, gloomy
Giant’s peaks ring wraith-like
Round the highway. Oh, the
Myths they call. I mind and
Mumble awe tonight. Come
Mjolnir guard my path this
Moonlit way through Jotun-home.

What's the most inspiring trip you've ever taken?