Frey and Freya were not only brother and sister but also man and wife; this was, we are told in the Eddas, a trait of the Vanir-Gods. The names 'Freya' and 'Frigg' seem to stem from the same root-word, so we can assume that Freya is not only the brother and husband of Frey, but also 'The Mother'. We find recorded the name of Frey and Freya's father, Njord, but not of the mother; yet Tacitus (Germania) tells us of a Goddess Nerthus who was worshipped by certain Germanic Tribes including the Angles. However, I am not a language scholar, but I have read that the name 'Nerthus' is male. This could be a misunderstanding, or perhaps another way to emphasise the lack of 'The Mother'. Whatever the case, Nerthus is a Goddess of the Underworld, as the name suggests. What we are dealing with here is perhaps not so much the physical 'waters' but the AEP (AP/AB) - the 'Waters of the Netherworld'.
In the Vedas, Agni is sometimes referred to as Apam Napat - 'apam' being the 'Waters of the Netherworld'. Indeed, we have here Ingwe-Frey as almost always associated with the 'waters', and Agni almost always associated with 'fire'; and yet we can see here that both have association with Fire and Water, or more precise 'Fire-in-Water'. In Norse Lore Ingwe-Frey is associated with 'Water', and in Vedic Lore Agni is associated with 'Fire', linking the two together we see things in a different light.
The word 'pyramid' can mean 'Fire-in-the Mid'; this has 4 sides, each one a unilateral triangle. The Number 4 can thus be equated with - Fire. There is another number equated with Fire & Kingship - the Number 27 (3 x 9). Man's ancestor is Ash and the Ash-Tree, Iggdrasil is known as a 'Measurer' - the 'Measuring-Tree'.We measure in numbers which hints of the importance of the numbers concerned with the World Ash. Firstly we have its 3 roots, which may be in fact 3 x 3 roots - i.e. the Sacred Number 9. Iggdrasil means, I believe, the 'Steed of Igg', which directly equates to Sleipnir who has 8 legs - the Sacred Number 8 (2 x 2 x 2). The Number 9 and Number 8, when multiplied make 72, a number associated with the Precession of the Equinoxes and the Circle.
There is nothing in the Christian texts to suggest that their Jesus Christ has 'Five Wounds', and yet this came into Christianity later, used on the banner of Saint Cuthbert, so it must have originated somewhere. The 'Five Wounds' do however come into Njal's Saga where Hoskuldr Hvitanesgoti is cut down by five killers whilst sowing in a field. He wears a scarlet robe and is associated with a chest that contains the robe and the blood from the five wounds. (There is another Hoskuldr who has 16 wounds.) Scarlet, it seems, was associated with the corn and corn-growing, and in these ideas we find a similar tale of Osiris in Egypt. Osiris is a 'God of the Corn' or 'God of Grain', who (in some versions) is cut into 16 pieces, put together by Isis and Nepthys after which Isis mounts the body and Horus the Avenger is born of this. (Osiris = As-Ar).
In one Egyptian Text we find that Osiris is the animating-force behind the inundation of the Nile each year, this being the only way that crops could grow in such an area. In one version Osiris is cast away in a boat - this fits with our own Scef. As the 'God of Grain' Ingwe-Frey is also associated with the waters, as I have said earlier. Of course, going back to Part One of this post, the cutting down of the 'God of Grain' can be found in the famous Folk-Song, John Barleycorn. In this he is also associated with 'water' and with 'fire'.
On the subject of Iggdrasil and the 'Measuring-Tree' we have also the Skapker Heidrunar which is the 'Measurer of Heidrun' - the Goat-Constellation of Capricorn. This, it seems, is the 'Northern Gateway to the Gods'. Capricorn is associated with the Winter Sunstead and Yule, the turning-point of the Solar-Year. In The Sacred Triangle of Pagan Iceland Einar Palsson outlines some of this stuff in far more detail, and sees both the chest holding the Scarlet Robe & Blood and the Skapker Heidrunar as the 'Horn of Plenty' - the Womb of the Great Mother and Womb of Creation. Without knowing any of this at the time, back in the spring of 1997 when the Hale-Bopp Comet was seen in the Northern Skies I had the dream that this was 'sent by Morgana' and that 'Capricorn - the Horn of Plenty' was important.
The Skapker Heidrunar is the horn that nourishes the Einheriar after their daily battle and dying-to-rebirth. This suggests that it is this that revives the Einheriar that they may continue the Everlasting Battle. The 'Horn of Plenty' is clearly associated with the harvesting thus directly to Ingwe-Frey. Einar Palsson may well be on the track here, but I cannot as yet see where this links to the 'Holy Grail', although this does act to regenerate the Royal Kingship and the Land. We may have to look a little differently at the Myth of the Einheriar, since this could be seen in a different way.
Valhalla, as I have said before, is a 'training-ground' for Woden's Chosen Warriors, where they fight each day, die each day and are 'resurrected' to fight again the next day. Here the Skapker Heidrunar contains the Sacred Drink that 'resurrects' the Divine Heroes. Maybe we should extend this to their role in the Eternal Conflict (Everlasting Battle), since they go the 'Way of the Gods' by going to Valhalla, and from there being reborn at will to fight again here in Middle-Earth. In which case we can see the Skapker Heidrunar as containing the draft that is given to them in order that they can be reborn again and again into this Eternal Battle.
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