THE LEGEND OF SCEF.
There is a tale of a figure named Scef (‘Sheaf’) who was brought as a child in a ship without oars, asleep with a sheaf of corn as a pillow, and was fostered by the people of the land he sailed to. He was said to have ‘reigned in a town that was then called Slaswic and now called Haithebi (Hedeby). Now that district is called Old Anglia…from it the Anglii came to Britain’. This is a story and from my research there is no reason to see this as anything more than a tale which was developed in order to hide a far more profound secret. It appears that this is far, far older than the lands here mentioned, going way back into the mists of time, as I will show here.
In ‘Looking for the Lost Gods of England’ Kathleeen Herbert tells us that in the reign of King Edmund I (941-946 CE) the monks of the Abbey of Abingdon were in dispute of a piece of land, and to resolve that dispute they put a sheaf of corn and a lighted taper onto a round shield and launched the shield onto the Thames. Basically, this is yet another ‘tale’ that hides a very profound secret, for here we have –
A Sheaf of Corn,
A Lighted Taper – Fire,
A Shield – a Boat or Ship.
The Shield with a Sheaf occurs as Scyld Scefing – Shield, Son of Sheaf – which forms part of the Beowulf Saga. In this Scyld Scefing comes as a ‘wonder-child’ alone over the seas. Around 990 CE a nobleman of royal descent, Ealdorman Æ∂elweard, added this piece to the genealogy of the Royal House of Wessex –
‘This Sheaf came to land in a light boat, surrounded by weapons, on an island in the ocean which is called Scani. He was indeed a very young child and unknown to the folk of that land. However, they took him up and looked after him as carefully as if he were one of their own kin and afterwards elected him king. And King Æ∂elwulf came from the line of his descendants.’ By the time of William of Malmesbury this tale was retold in the version that I have given earlier where the scene is changed to Hedeby.
THE LEGEND OF AGNI.
Now let us go way back in time, not to the Northlands, but to Aryan India and the Rig Veda, not forgetting that this Sacred Aryan Text shows clearly that the Arya originated in the North, indeed around the Arctic Circle. We look to one of the most important Vedic Gods – Agni.
Mataricvan, the father of Agni, caused his son Agni to come to the Bhriguians, bringing with him the Sacred Fire – Fire-by-Friction. Agni, as a small child was found at the ‘confluence of the waters’, since he had come over the seas. The Bhriguians adopted him as their own, and he dwelt among them as the ‘Immortal amongst mortals’. The descendants of the Bhriguians are called the Bhargavans. Bhrigu, from whom the Bhriguians descended, and Manu were the first to use this Sacred Fire. As you will notice, this is the same as the Legend of Sheaf. These are Archetypal Myths that recur over and over again through the Cycle of the Ages.
The myths surrounding Agni show clearly that he is the counterpart of the Norse God named Heimdall, so we can now look at this Norse God. One of his names is Vindill which stems from a Root vinda meaning ‘to twist’, ‘to turn’, or ‘to wind’. This links Heimdall with the World Mill and the Turning of the World-Mill, again associated with Fire-by-Friction. This is borne out by two of Heimdall’s mothers – Angejya (‘she who makes islands’) and Eyrjafa (‘she who gives sandbanks’); notice the name Ang-ejya because this will become important as this work progresses. The father of Heimdall is Mundilfore – the World Turner and God of Cyclic Time.
Another title of the god Heimdall is ‘Stigandi’ which is related to another title ‘Rati’ meaning ‘The Traveller’, from a Root *rata meaning ‘to travel’, ‘to move about’, and whose mysteries are found in the Rad-Rune. This was originally from a Root *vrata giving the Gothic ‘vratan’ meaning ‘to travel’, or ‘to make a journey’, all of which can be found in the Old English Rune-Poem under the Rad-Rune. To emphasise the connection between Agni and Heimdall in the Vedas the Sacred Mead is concealed in the mountain of the Dasyus, the enemies of the Gods (The Joten-Thurs): Agni splits open the mountain with his Tongue of Fire, his Ray of Light penetrating the darkness. Trita (Vata) slew a giant monster (Three-Headed Serpent) and found the ‘cows of the son of the work-master’ (meaning the Sacred Light of SWAR). This is the Myth of Knit Mountain where obviously Woden is aided in his regaining the Sacred Mead by the god Heimdall. This we know because he used Rati to bore into the mountain. We can also surmise that Ratatosk is indeed Heimdall, the god who ‘travels’ up and down the World Tree as ‘The Messenger’ or ‘The Traveller’.
SCANDI – THE SHINING ISLAND.
But, we can gleam some mysteries that take us back much further in time, indeed the English version tells of an island named Scandi and this is also reflected in the Origins Myth of the Langobards (Lombards) who moved from the North to the area of Italy (Lombardy). This is also found in the Origins Myth of the Goths, who originated in Scandza. These terms mean ‘Shining Island’. This is very important since the name which evolved of the Bhriguans – the Bhargavans – stems from the IE Root *bharg- meaning ‘to shine’. From this root we get the following –
Germanic – bertha meaning ‘bright’, ‘clear’, ‘shining’.
OS Berht meaning as above,
OE beorht meaning as above.
This also gives rise to the Germanic Berchter who appears as Borgarr in the Norse Sagas; Bhrigu appears with Manu, as Berchter appears with Halfdan-Mannus. Agni has the Bull as his symbol, and Heimdall the Ram, but the original Root *ve∂r means ‘yearling’, thus applying to either the Bull or Ram. One section of the Folk adopted the Bull, the other the Ram.
Heimdall, according to Viktor Rydberg, is the son of Mundilfore – the World Turner, the god who turns the World Mill. The term möndull means ‘handle’, the handle of the World Mill, and this term stems from manthula meaning ‘swing-tree’ and coming from the Sanskrit manthati meaning ‘swing’, ‘twist’ or ‘bore’, from the Root *manth which has these meanings. I am here thinking of the term vindill which has the same meanings, and which could have given rise to the Germanic name Waendal. The figure of the Long Man of Wilmington is that of this god Waendal. These ideas lead us to see Mundilfore or Waendal as the God of Cyclic Time. He turns the World Mill which is the Precession of the Equinoxes, moving through the Zodiac Signs over a period of some 26,000 years.
The Greek God named Prometheus gets his name from Pramantha and he is the God who stole the Sacred Fire of the Gods for mankind. For this he was bound in the Caucasus Mountains by the tyrant-god Zeus; each day an Eagle picked at his liver, and each night the liver healed again. It is a fact that the liver is the one organ in the human body that regenerates itself! The word Pramantha has been associated with the Fylfot-Swastika, which, when spun around as a Wheel of Fire, produces the Fire-by-Friction at its centre. In India this is how the Sacred Fire was kindled, or put another way, how Agni was born. Originally, Agni was concealed from Gods and Men as the element of light and warmth found in all beings and things. Agni was the Heat of Life that creates the sap of the plants – the rasa – another secret held in the Rad-Rune. The Red-Rune is thus the ‘Wheel of Fire’.
“Agni (The Fire) is the Son incarnate of Savitri (Heavenly Father) conceived and born by the virgin Maia, and had the carpenter Twasti (The Maker of the Swastika) as his earthly father. In the Cave of the One of Both Sticks, which has the name ‘The Mother’, lives the Goddess Maia, the embodiment of Creative Powers, and gives birth to The Son under the influence of Vayu (The Spirit), the breeze of the wind without which the Sacred Fire cannot be lit.”
“The first spark that came from the cavity (The Cave) of the sacrum of Maia, by turning the Fire-Twirl (Cweor∂) Pramantha (The Swastika) represents the birth of Agni. This spark is called ‘The Child’.”
A God born of a ‘virgin’, the son of a ‘carpenter’ – ‘The Son’ or ‘The Divine Child’. Before the Need-Fire can be kindled this requires ‘air’ (Spirit), which is the Vedic God Vayu, whom we know as Ve or Weoh, an aspect of Woden. The ‘Cave of Both Sticks’ refers to the ‘cavern’ or Womb of the Mother-Goddess, where the ‘Two-Sticks’ are rubbed together as Friction-Fire. The Spirit is here akin to the ‘Holy Spirit’, thus making it clear where the Middle-Eastern Myths arose much earlier. This is why I do not reject the Aryan Krist, rather the political Zealot whose tale was woven around the Avatar of Krist.
THE GOLDEN AGE.
Getting back to Sheaf, we can now put together the symbolism surrounding him –
A Sheaf of Corn – Agriculture.
Weapons – Hunting and Battle.
A Lighted Taper – Fire.
A Shield – a Boat/Ship.
All of these suggest that Sheaf appears at the end of the fabled Golden Age, and age of peace and plenty, and an age when people did not need to grow food, for it grew in abundance, and neither did they need fire, nor weapons, nor maybe even boats or ships to travel. All of this changed, as found in Norse Mythology and Iranian Mythology, when a Great Winter set in, followed by a Great Flood. Sheaf thus appears just before the Great Winter and Great Flood in order to educate his Folk in new ways to cope with the coming changes. He is a god who incarnates in physical form. The ‘God of the Golden Age’ was Kronos to the Greeks and Saturn to the Romans, but we do know of a figure named Frodi who ruled over a ‘Golden Age’. Frodi is in fact Fro-Ing associated with Ingvi-Frey of Norse Mythology. He is no doubt the basis of Tolkien’s ‘Frodo’ of the Shires. What we have to remember here, though, is that Sheaf, Heimdall, Ingus, Frodi etc. are Mythical Archetypes and this type of figure incarnate upon Earth in slightly different forms. Thus, the True Krist was accepted by the English Tribes and the Ingwaeons because they would have considered him to be alike to their own Divine Ancestor – Ingus. We shall look at this later.
Can we date the fabled ‘Golden Age’? Well, there are no doubt times of peace and plenty when men have considered this to be a ‘Golden Age’, but what we refer to here is the ‘First Time’ or ‘Dawn Time’. The Precession of the Equinoxes moves through a 24,000 or 26,000 year cycle, made up of four times around 6,000 years. This would have the Golden Age end around 20,000 years ago! There are others who believe a ‘Great Year’ to be a 12,000 year cycle, which is the belief held in Tolkien’s works. This would make the end of the Golden Age as 9,000 years ago. ‘Lord of the Rings’ was set at the end of the Third Age, 3000 years ago according to Tolkien, and we today are at the end of the Fourth Age – the last and darkest age of the Great Year Cycle.
THE MYSTERIES OF INGUS.
Scef-Heimdall has another name, a god known to the English as Ing or Ingus. Like Tolkien (who used the term Ingwë) I believe, after years of research and intuitive thought, Ingus was the Divine Ancestor of the Ing-Wines of which the English Tribes formed a part, and that these at one time occupied the North-West landmass (Dogger Bank) which began sinking around 12,000 years ago, and suffered a great cataclysm again around 7,000 to 8,000 years ago, and which I have called At-al-land meaning ‘Race-Homeland’. This forms part of the Oera Linda Book, a Frisian document (not a historical document but it does contain legend) which relates how Atland sank beneath the seas around 4,000 years ago. This must have been the last catastrophe of the cycle of catastrophes.
Many tribes of the North-West, around the areas around the sunken landmass, were known to be ‘Ing-Wines’, some of which are most famous Germanic Tribes – the Angles, the Goths, the Langobards, the Cimbri, the Teutons, the Ambrones (Ymbre), Swedish and Norwegian Royal Lines, and Frisians. Many of these make up what was to become the English Nation, some being here in these islands before the Romans came here as attested to by various place-names around England and even in Scotland, Ireland and Wales. What are we to make of the name Ængus (*) whose legend centres around Newgrange, and whose myth is clearly that of Ingvi-Frey? The figure of Ingus goes back into the mists of time here in these islands – back to At-al-land.
(*) Ængus is of the Tuatha de Danaan, a tribe who came down from the North to Ireland. His myth is so similar to that of Invi-Frey that they must have had a common origin in the North.
We have very little to go on to find the connection between Ingus and Agni, save for their names, Ing being a nasalised form of Ag. The divine beings who do the work of Agni, his ‘projections’ shall we say’ are actually named the Angirases, thus using the nasalised form, which was probably the oldest. But there are connections that can be found, and here I am going to give examples –
The root of the word ‘Agni’ is the IE Root egni-/ogni which means ‘fire’, but not in the inanimate form where we use the word ‘fire’ (Feoh-Rune), but in the animate form which gives rise to ‘ignite’, ‘ignition’, ‘igneous’ and such Latin words. Ingus is a variation of the word with the same meanings.
Ingus gives his name to the ‘Inglenook’ which is the ‘nook’ beside the Household Fire; Agni was a God of the Household or the ‘Household Fire’.
Ingvi-Frey is often shown as a Phallic-God, obviously a God of Fertility, but perhaps more so of Male Virility. The IE Root *engw means’ groin’, a symbolism that is connected to the idea of virility and fertility.
The IE Root *angwhi- means ‘snake’, and with the IE Root egni-/ogni meaning ‘Fire’ we can gleam a dim recollection of Ingus as the God of the Fire-Serpent (Kundalini), since Agni is the God of Kundalini.
The name Ingvi-Frey means ‘Lord of Ingvi’ or ‘Master of Ingvi’ and thus he is not the same as Ingus who is the personification of the Sacred Fire. The word Inguna is often used as ‘Inguna-Frey’.
Agni, when spelled backwards, is Inga; another connection, and thus arises the Folkish Wodenist term – the Inga-Fire or the Inga-Force. Remember, Agni was hidden in the ‘sap’, i.e. he is the force that is hidden in the life-energy that pervades all life. The ‘sap’ in Man is the Sacred Blood.
The Ing-Rune, in its English Form, is the DNA Spiral and this is the ‘Rune of the Blood’. It is the ‘Gift of Ing’ which we shall look at now. The ‘spiral’ mentioned here, to me, suggests that the Sacred Blood moves around the body in a spiral form.
HAMA OF THE ENGLISH.
I have used the term 'Heimdall' which is the Norse God, but we English use the name Hama which at one level (like 'heim') means 'home'. But this word has another meaning related to the IE Root *kona-mo- meaning 'shin', 'leg' 'bone', which gives rise to the OE hamm meaning 'ham', 'thigh'. The term 'thigh' has the same symbolic meaning of 'groin' and thus Ingus and Hama are linked through their names, merely using different symbolism for the same meaning. Agni is the 'God of the Home' or more precisely 'God of the Hearth-Fire'. A piece of ham is a piece of pork, again associated with the boar-pig, sacred symbols to the Northern Folk.
SCYLD SCEFING.
We find the figure of Scyld Scefing in the Saga of Beowulf where as a child he sails to the Scyldings, the Royal Line of the Danes. He becomes a great warrior-king and at his death he is laid in a ship loaded with treasures, weapons of war, battle-garments, swords and mail-coats. They set up over his head a Golden Banner, and the ship was set adrift in the seas where he had come from as a child. He had a son named Beowulf Scyldinga (Beowulf, Son of Scyld), who had a son named Heafldene (Halfdan - 'Half-Dane'). This, of course, is not the Beowulf the Geat of the saga, and these two should not be mixed up. The Saga of Scef has here been transferred to his son Scyld. This is not unusual in mythology. The name 'Beowulf' may be a mistake, since some genealogies have Beaw, Beow, or Beo.
A note on the name 'Scani' or 'Scandi'; the latter is the earlier term since the 'd' was lost in later manuscripts. In Beowulf this is 'Scedeland' or 'Scedenig', the latter thus being 'Scede-Island' confirming that this was an island in the Northlands. There is an OE Sconeg which obviously means 'Scon-Island'. The sequence - Scef (Sheaf), Scyld (Shield) and Beaw (Barley) may well be seen to link to the song called 'John Barleycorn'.
SACRAL KINGSHIP.
Agni is sometimes called Apam Napat who appears with the same name in the Iranian Tradition, where he is associated with the hvarena which is the 'Solar Matter', the 'Fiery Radiance' associated with kingship. In the Iranian Tradition Apam Napat hides the hvarena at the bottom of a lake. This is the 'Fire-in-Water' associated with Agni and thus Ingus/Hama. In an Irish Legend the Well of Nechtan emits powerful waves of radiant light; Nechtan is Neptune, and this is the Well of Segais, the source of imbas forosnai ('wisdom that burns or illuminates') or teinne laeda ('shining'/'burning'), and the source of the poet.
Loki steals the Necklace of Freya - Brisingamene - and Hama retrieves it from a lake; again the symbolism of 'Fire-in-Water'. The source of this 'Fire-in-Water' is clearly the Waters of Apsu which lie below the Void, and so it is necessary to bring the consciousness down into The Void into the Apsu below this level.
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