Draugars and Einherjar

Another unique feature of the Nordic myth is that it not only outlines various “borderline” states and levels of consciousness, but also offers an entire body of methodological guidance for working with them.

One such “borderline” form is the “restless dead” — beings poised on the edge of life and death, yet not crossing completely to either side. If virtually all cultures and traditions describe one group of such beings — vampires, then Scandinavian legends speak of two more important forms — “undead” (draugars) and “warriors” (einherjar).

We have already discussed the tradition of creating draugars, widespread in ancient times.

However, of no lesser significance is the army of the einherjar, the “guard of Asgard,” defending the worlds from invasions of “evil” dead.

Contrary to widespread interpretations, neither the einherjar nor the valkyries who “choose” them are “incorporeal” beings. Both have a physical body which acquires a semi-divine quality. The einherjar are not fully dead warriors, but rather mortally wounded, dying heroes whom the valkyries must find and bring to Valhalla before they die. If the valkyries do not find them in time, their souls will go to Hel — the abode of the dead.

Einherjar who make it to Valhalla continue to exist in a state of “eternal dying”: they take part in battles, receive wounds, and each evening they come back to life again. This gives them a dual nature — they are simultaneously both alive and dead, expressing a tense readiness for the great battle of Ragnarök.

In the same way, the Valkyries are special beings: on the one hand, their connection with Odin and their ties to the afterlife endow them with supernatural qualities, but in myths one often encounters mentions that they can be wounded or even killed. In a number of legends, valkyries form relationships with humans, which emphasizes their bodily, and therefore mortal, nature, albeit with considerable magical protection and power.

Accordingly, Valhalla and Fólkvangr  are special intermediate spaces, “waiting halls,” where warriors between life and death continue to exist, training for the coming Ragnarök. This space is intended for heroes who are neither fully alive nor fully dead: they fight, are wounded, die, and come back to life again. In this sense, Valhalla and Fólkvangr are unique spheres where beings remain in a special cyclical state.

Sources that sustain the einherjar’s vitality in their special state of “undeadness” are two magical creatures associated with Valhalla: the boar Sæhrímnir (“Boiled-and-smoked”), killed and resurrected daily, whose meat serves as food, and the goat Heiðrún (“Light-heavenly”), from whose udder flows life-giving mead. These animals are the sources of the life force that nourishes the host. In this sense, Sæhrímnir embodies the same principle of rebirth as Thor’s goats — Tanngnjóstr and Tanngrisnir, also resurrecting after being eaten or sacrificed. They express the world cycle of repetition, the yearly circle, and in general — self-sustaining natural cycles. Heiðrún can be compared with the cow Auðumbla — a source of life force, from whose udder flowed the four Rivers of Life that nourished the Proto-Giant Ymir. At the same time, the image of Auðumbla connects two hostile, opposing groups of beings in Old Norse mythology — thurses and Aesir, since she fed the frost giant Ymir with her milk and brought forth the god Búri — the forefather of all the Aesir and ancestor of Odin. Thus, she personifies a source of life force undifferentiated and undirected, and therefore universal.

Thus, Valhalla is a “universe in miniature,” with its life cycles and sources of energy. In a similar way, Fólkvangr is the same kind of “self-contained” world, in which the role of the energy source is performed by the Great Goddess of Life — Freyja, and the cycle is maintained by the warriors’ sexuality, driving energy flows.

The notion of such subspaces is important for a holistic approach to describing worlds and the Interworld because it shows that the boundary between them is often unclear, and with corresponding energy sources present, it becomes blurred altogether. It is important to understand that the great confrontation of Ragnarök is a conflict of life and death, order and chaos, and therefore only living warriors can fight for the gods in it — and these turn out to be the einherjar.