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Setting Up Odin
Loki and Gullveig-Angrboda,
Were singing evil Galdr,
Upon Odin’s son Baldur,
Causing him to have Night-Mares.
Every time when Baldur,
Laid down to sleep,
His dreams haunted him,
He soon began to feel that his doom was near.
After awhile all of the Aesir,
Began to notice a change in Baldur,
That he no longer was smiling,
And laughing like he always did.
One day Odin asked his son,
What was bothering him,
Baldur then told his father,
All about his dreams.
Odin then called all of the Aesir together,
To discuss Baldur’s dreams,
After sitting and talking about there meaning,
They could not come to understand what they meant.
Odin then said he knew of a way,
To find out what the dreams meant,
Upon the back of Sleipnir Odin leaped,
Riding hard toward Niflheim.
Odin hardly heard Garm,
As he howled from,
His dwelling above,
Riding hard to Hel’s Hall.
When Odin arrived,
He made his way to a place,
Where he knew that,
A Vala was buried.
Then standing over the Vala’s mound,
Odin sang Galdr Songs to awaken her,
Slowly the Vala,
Arose from her long sleep.
The Vala was Angrboda in disguise,
She asked who had awoken her?
Odin said “I am Vegtam”,
“Tell me about the news going around Hel’s Hall”.
Odin spoke with the Vala for a long while,
He asked her about his son’s dreams,
The Vala told Vegtam,
Hodur will kill Odin’s son Baldur.
Odin then asked“Who will revenge Baldur?”
She then told Vegtam,
That Rind will lay down with Odin,
And their son Vali.
Will avenge Baldur,
When he is just one night old,
Unwashed and uncombed,
Will he slay Hodur.
The then looked hard at Vegtam,
And said “ You are not Vegtam”
“You are none other than Odin”,
Now leave me and bother me know more”
Odin looked the Vala in the eye,
And said “ And you are no Vala”
“Nor a woman of wisdom”,
“You are the Mother of three thurses”.
Odin then mounted Sleipnir,
And rode up out of Niflheim,
Toward Midgardr land,
Then crossing Asbru into Asgardr.
Once back home in Asgardr,
Odin related to Frigga,
What the Vala told him,
All except about him seducing Rinda.
Odin sat thinking for many days,
Upon what he was told,
And felt he could not trust the information,
That the Vala had given him.
So Odin traveled down to Midgardr,
There he found a seer named Rostiof the Finn,
Rostiof was Loki in disguise,
He confirmed to Odin what the Vala had told him.
Rostiof told Odin,
“The daughter of the Rutenian King Rinda,
Will bear thee another son”,
“The Aesir had deemed that Odin’s son would avenge Baldur”.
Taking the advice Rostiof had given him,
Odin went to the Rutenian King,
Using Magic Galdr Odin seduced Rinda,
Soon Vali would be born in Vestrsalir.
While Odin was way in the Rutenian Kingdom,
Gullveig-Aurboda was in Asagardr,
All she could talk about was Gold,
And started to stir up Gold-Greed among the Asynjur.
One day she went to find Hodur,
She knew that he secretly loved Nanna,
The wife of his brother Baldur,
And wanted her for his own wife.
Gullveig-Aurboda and Hodur spoke,
Playing on Hogur’s feelings for Nanna,
She gave him a magical drink,
That caused anger and suspicion towards Baldur.
When Odin returned to Valholl,
He heard about all this talk of Gold,
That Gullveig-Aurboda was spreading around,
So he had her bound and brought to Valholl.
Gullveig-Aurboda is so angry over this,
That in front of all the gathered Aesir and Asynjur,
She tells how Odin seduced,
The daughter of the Rutenian King.
Odin and the gathered Aesir and Asynjur were overcome by shock,
Odin then grabs Gungnir and hurls it at Gullveig-Aurboda,
The rest of the Aesir follow suit,
At hearing such insults.
Gullveig-Aurboda was wounded,
But she was not killed,
So the Aesir tried to burn her,
Those hot flames did not kill her.
They tried a second time,
And still she lived,
The Aesir burned her a third time,
This time it seemed to work.
But unknown to the Aesir,
There still was left,
A half burnt heart,
They then gathered the ashes and tossed them over the walls of Asgardr.
While this was going on Loki was down in Midgardr,
He was in the shape of a cow,
One day he was grazing he happened upon and ate a half burnt heart,
Loki became even more darker than before and part of Gullveig-Aurboda would live
on.
After a time Loki still in the shape of a cow,
Saw Frigga down in Midgardr,
Speaking to talking with the trees and rocks,
And he happened to over hear her.
She asked all things not to bring harm to her son,
And Loki thought this was interesting,
So he followed her,
He noticed that she stopped to ask of the Mistletoe but seemed to change her
mind and moved on.
When Frigga was out of sight,
Loki changed back into his normal form,
He then took some of that Mistletoe,
And then made his way back to Asgardr.
One day the Aesir and Asynjur gathered in Galdsheim,
To play at throwing missiles at Baldur,
Because nothing could harm him,
All gave their word to Frigga that they would bring Baldur no harm.
Loki then snuck into Gladsheim,
With the idea of killing Baldur,
He had made a arrow out of the Mistletoe,
Making his way through the crowd.
He made his way to Hodur,
For he knew about what Gullveig-Aurboda gave him,
And how Hobur felt about Nanna,
He asked” Why aren’t you shooting at Baldur like the rest?
Hodur said “I am out of arrows”,
Loki said “Here take this one”,
Hodur took the arrow and shot it,
And Baldur fell down dead.
Loki made a quick exit,
As the Aesir and Asynjur rushed to Baldur’s side,
Everyone soon turned to face Hodur,
For they knew he had shot the arrow.
One night Rinda brought Vali to Asgardr,
And what had been told to Odin,
Vali killed Hodur while being only one night old,
Fulfilling the vengeance that Odin sought.
The the Vanir saw that,
What Gullveig-Aurboda had said was true,
And asked Odin for compensation,
In the killing of one of their own.
Odin refused to give them the compensation that they sought,
Because he thought he was completely justified in doing what he did,
For he knew he had been set up,
Taking Gungnir in his hands he threw it over the heads of the Vanir.
This started a the Aesir and Vanir War,
They fought for a long time,
With neither side really beating the other,
And so peace was made.
It was at this time that Odin was stripped of his office,
And was made an Outlaw,
And was exiled from Asgardr,
In his place Ullr became chief among the Aesir and Asynjur.
In time Odin was able to convince,
All of the Aesir and Asynjur,
That he was set up,
So Odin was given back his office of Chief among the Aesir.
©
Robert James Etter, March 2008
Author´s note: I would like to thank Carla O’Harris for her kind permission
to use her
research and for the inspiration for this poem.
Author of
"A Devotional: Honoring Thor and Family"
and "Thor,
Midgard's Veurr, and the Fylgja",
Both together in one book:
Thor,
God Of The Common Man