A plot for gods at the end of the rainbow

According to this story just in from AFP and also running in the Norway Post: Norwegian worshippers of the ancient Norse gods are to get a special burial site in Oslo.

The new grave will be shaped like a ship, and cremation urns of ashes of followers of the 'old religion' will be 'buried' there.

The special space in one of the city's cemeteries was requested by the Bifrost fellowship. In Norse mythology, bifrost is the rainbow bridge that connects the realm of the gods, asgaard, to earth. It means the 'tremulous way'.

Margaret Eckbo, the director in charge of Oslo’s cemeteries, told AFP that the city wanted to respect the last wishes of all its citizens. 'We already have spaces reserved for Muslims, Baha’i, the Salvation Army, Humanists, Romani,' she said.

Bifrost spokeswoman Stine Helen Robertson said the group had long been performing marriage ceremonies in accordance with ancient Norse customs. 'It was also important to offer a burial site,' she said.

The group wants to build a pile of stones shaped like a ship inside which the ashes of up to 200 of their Norwegian members can be kept. 'It will take time before it’s full,' said Robertson.
Funeral ceremonies could include readings from the Havamaal, an anthology of ancient Norse poems, and mourners holding up burning torches. 'We can also drink to the deceased by passing round a bowl of mjoed,' said Robertson, referring to a beer brewed by the Vikings over a thousand years ago.

Top of the Norse gods is Odin, who plucked out his own eye and later hung himself. Odious indeed. Thor was his son, who some have used to supplant the father.

Odin wrote the Havamaal, it is believed.

Here are his maxims for all men to take you all into the weekend, (yes even you, Elizabeth R!)

80.
Praise day at even, a wife when dead,a weapon when tried, a maid when married,ice when 'tis crossed, and ale when 'tis drunk.

81.
Hew wood in wind, sail the seas in a breeze,woo a maid in the dark, -- for day's eyes are many, --work a ship for its gliding, a shield for its shelter,a sword for its striking, a maid for her kiss;

83.
The speech of a maiden should no man trust nor the words which a woman says;for their hearts were shaped on a whirling wheeland falsehood fixed in their breasts.

84.
Breaking bow, or flaring flame,
ravening wolf, or croaking raven,
routing swine, or rootless tree,
waxing wave, or seething cauldron,

85.
flying arrows, or falling billow,
ice of a nighttime, coiling adder,
woman's bed-talk, or broken blade,
play of bears or a prince's child,

86.
sickly calf or self-willed thrall,
witch's flattery, new-slain foe,
brother's slayer, though seen on the highway,
half burned house, or horse too swift -
be never so trustful as these to trust.

87.
Let none put faith in the first sown fruit
nor yet in his son too soon;
whim rules the child, and weather the field,
each is open to chance.

88.
Like the love of women whose thoughts are lies
is the driving un-roughshod o'er slippery ice
of a two year old, ill-tamed and gay;
or in a wild wind steering a helmless ship,
or the lame catching reindeer in the rime-thawed fell.

[Ruth Gledhill]