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| (pron. GAY-leesh) Name of several early Irish princesses. The oldest evocation of the Swan Maidens is by the filid of ancient Ireland when they sang at wakes in the Caer Glas: Green Castle during the reign of Danann. They take the form of white swans with white-silver or red-gold chains, necklaces or crowns. They are divinely beautiful women with skin as white & as fragrant as lilies. They have large eyes. They live at Mimir fountain beneath the roots of Yggdrasil, a palace suspended in the clouds by 4 golden chains, the Blessed Isles, the Rhine, the Danube, Lettermore, Glashancally & Cashla Bay. The man who can steal her swan-skin will have her in his power. They are goddesses of the moon. They invented water-lilies, elder flowers, the silver reflection of the white birch, white marsh butterflies, white graphite for whitening the veils of the night washerwomen, snow & clouds. (197) Yggdrasil is a holy ash tree surrounded by 9 worlds guarded by 9 nío ídidiur: wood-ogresses according to the Norse Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson of the 13th century. The branches extend into the heavens. Sky-world Asgård: God Enclosure is ruled by Æsir Odin, his 2nd son Baldruus: Light & wife Nanna & guarded by The Norns: Fates at Urdarbrunnr Well. Andlangr: Endlong is the next highest sky-world [Vanaheimr: Vanir Land ruled by Njordr, Freyr, Freya-Frigg: Lady: fertility. Its portal Tana-Vana Fork, Don River] & amp; the highest Vídbláin: Wide-blue or Álfheim/Elfhame: Elf Land ruled by Ullr. A rainbow bridge: Bifröst: Shimmering Path connects the tree with other worlds. The tree is supported by 3 roots that extend into other locations. Beneath the 1st root lives Hel at Niflheim: Mist Land’s Hvergelmir Spring guarded by snakes near the fire giants’ Múspelheimr: Múlspel Land. Under the 2nd root live jötunar a.k.a eotin-ettin: frost giants at Jötunheimr: Giant Land who raised the Völva: Snake Goddess at Mímisbrunnr: Mimir’s Well of Wisdom. Fornjótr: Old Giant, father of Kári: Wind, Logi: Flame, & Hlér or Ægir (the ruler of the sea). Beneath the 3rd root is Midgårdr: Middle Enclosure. During a complex creation myth in which the cosmic cow licked Buri free from the ice, the sons of Buri’s son, Bor & the frost giantess Bestla of Bolthor, Odin: Divine, Vili: Sacred & Vé: Desire, constructed the universe & put Midgård in it as a residence for the 1st human couple whom they created from driftwood trees. Beneath Midgard is Nidavellir: Dark Fields /Svartálfaheimr: Dark Elf-Land where dwarves live. Yggdrasil creatures include the dragon Nídhöggr: Snake who bites Mist Land from beneath, Fafnir: Dragon, Iormungand: Adder, squirrel Ratatoskr who runs up & down the tree, hawk Vedrfönir: Wind Bleached who sits between the eyes of an eagle of knowledge at the top, & 4 red stags Dáinn: Dead One, Dvalinn: Unconscious One, Duneyrr & Durabrór who eat foliage from the highest boughs. Odin says more serpents lie beneath Yggdrasil than any fool can imagine & lists them as: Góinn: Viper & Móinn the sons of Grafvitnir: Ditch Wolf, Grábakr: Greyback, Grafvölludr: The One Digging Under the Plain, Ófnir: The Winding One, & Sváfnir: The One Who Puts to Sleep, who will forever gnaw on the tree’s branches. Yggdrasill: drasill: horse + Yggr: Terror , 1 of Odin’s many names. Edda poem Hávamál describes Odin sacrificing himself by hanging in a tree for 9 nights, making the tree Odin’s gallows: the horse of the hanged. The portal to Asgård is the Tanais or the Don River flowing into the Black Sea. Múnón of Troy married Priam’s daughter Tróán & their son, Trór, pronounced Thor in Old Norse, was raised in Thrace. At age 12 he was whiter than ivory, had hair lighter than gold, & could lift 10 bear skins at once. His son, Odin, led a migration to the northern lands, where they took wives & had many children. (35: 8) |
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