I am the union of fire and ice – where their streams meet1. I am energy and have no state. Nothing I grasp – and what have – do not hold. I am only I who knows, and all that I am is that knowing. I Am: for I know my Self to be apart from what I am not. Selves change – world is eternal. Self-reappears, goes about in new forms – Self is eternal. World about changes – worlds come and go. I release it and selves change beyond the selves they are. Ginnunga-gap is eternal – screaming void between Fire and Ice. It cares not for me nor not-for-me. The Void I have formed; the Void forms me – the Jötuns2 and Tívar3 both, were before, and will follow too. Conscious became the Void, became first thought, and gave first word, and it was: Wod4!
My Interpretations
The Ginnunga-gap is the space between, where the most primal fire and ice stand side-by-side. I always see something like plasma flow, or the distance between atoms. Probability fields.
Things are always in motion, never truly at rest.
The conscious mind is self-aware. Our self-awareness sets us apart from other beings, and the world around us. People come and go, but the world at large goes on. We come back in different forms, so our essence carries on in the world. Societies change, they rise and fall. We learn to ride the waves, like plasma flow.
The vacuum of space and the space between atoms aren’t even aware I exist, even though I am made of stardust.
The giants and the gods rise and fall again and again.
I think there is a difference here between the self and the Self.
Notes on Sprëhhan 1
- Ginnunga-gap.
Wright cites the Völuspá 3: “First, in ancient time, was old Aurgelmir’s fixed abode, the triple enclosure; when there was no sand or sea, no cooling wave. There was no earth anywhere, no heaven above, only Ginnunga-gap, the seething void, and nowhere herb.”
As well as the Völuspá 22, where the Gylfaginning describes the collision of Fire and Ice into the Ginnunga-gap: “…the resulting sound birthed Aurgelmir and Audhumla, primal force and form, or energy and matter.” - Jötuns/Jötnar.
The first being that rose from the merging of Fire and Ice was Aurgelmir, the first Jötun. Hyndluljóð 33: “Iotnar allar fra Aurgelmir komnir./Jötuns all from Aurgelmir come.” The Jötuns occupy their own Jötunheim/Útgarðr (home/outyard). - Tívar (plural), Tívi (singular), Tíva (‘goddess’).
Wright notes that Tívar is identical to Latvian divus, Sanskrit devas, Greek deus, Proto Indo-European deiwos, all of which mean deity or “god, divine; celestial, shining” and is mentioned in at least ten of the Eddas. - Wod.
Wright notes that several Old European languages have this word as “mind, wit, soul; madness, violent agitation; furious, to rage.” It can be understood as a philosophical and theological way of unknowing, or the means by which one is able to discern hidden information. It is also the process in which this inspiration is received.
lokis.dottir 