Fornyrðislag

[k_a_nitz]

Fornyrðislag formally consists of eight line stanzas. Each line of the stanza has two vocally stressed syllables, also known as "lifts", with a somewhat arbitrary number of other syllables. Through the use of alliteration, lines join into couplets. Generally, in the first line of fornyrðislag, both "lifts", or stressed syllables alliterate. In the second line of any given couplet, only one of the two stressed syllables is alliterated, usually the first—this is the "head-stave" (or, hǫfuðstafr). - Wikipedia

Hail mead-maker
  highest of Asgard!
May victory lie with
  the Valkyries' chosen!
Self-sacrificed skald
  sing our destiny
That our wyrd is ever
  worthy of Baldr's return.

Thanks to J.P.'s posts for pushing my thoughts in this direction.

Comments

[jprussell]

Very nice, this one nails it!

[k_a_nitz]

Yes, the more I read it the more I like it. I think it helped to focus on what Odin's role is in it and keeping in mind that the heathen way is to not be meek but rather heroic, so trying to express that in it - reaching to emulate rather than submissive.

[jprussell]

Thank you for this, that's a helpful insight for my own further drafts! For a while, I bristled at any "submission," as I think most Heathens do, and lately I've been trying to correct for that by cultivating reverence, awe, and related feelings that acknowledge the Gods as "greater." This comment reminds me not to go too far to the opposite extreme of meekness from "I kneel before no man or God!"

[k_a_nitz]

One way of thinking about it that I've picked up from Krebs/Kerning and reading about Iamblichus's theurgy (in Shaw's Hellenic Tantra) is that the submission is more about repressing the earthly so we can rise to the divine.

Or to put it another more Christian way, emphasising our divine eternal part, the soul, in favour over the lower part which is this current bodily incarnation, ie rising to the divine is about contacting with something higher that is already within us. So following my Valhalla is within us thought the other week, seeking to have our inner Valkyrie choose us as worthy is as much about cultivating reverence for the gods within us (the mapping of the tree of life/Kabbalah onto the 9 worlds could probably fit in here).

[jprussell]

I agree that these are healthy and helpful ways of looking at it, but for me at least, it's also been helpful to acknowledge other, external powers and Beings that are, in fact, greater than me, and worthy of respect, even worship.

I'm prone to a raging ego if I'm not careful (Leo ascendant; Jupiter, Uranus, and Mars strongly placed; lots of fire), so something I've been working on is a strong sense of myself and my worth that doesn't stray into egotistism.

To tie these two thoughts together, I've found it helpful to acknowledge the help I need from those greater than me in suppressing my earthly parts to reach for the divine parts.