Winifred Hodge Rose
There is one called Heimdall;…he is great and holy. … He lives in a place called Himinbjorg (Heaven-fortress) by Bifröst. He is the Gods’ watchman and sits there at the edge of heaven to guard the bridge against mountain-giants. He needs less sleep than a bird. He can see, by night just as well as by day, a distance of a hundred leagues (around 300 miles). He can also hear grass growing on the earth and wool on sheep, and everything that sounds louder than that.” (p. 25, Sturluson.)
Here I celebrate Heimdall as both the warder of the atmosphere, and the warder in the atmosphere. As Heimdall wards the bridge to Asgard, he also wards the boundary between the Earth and the Sky or the Atmosphere. If we envision some of the giants as embodiments of harmful influences, then Heimdall can be seen as the one who helps to prevent those harmful influences from impacting Earth’s atmosphere. Pollutants of many kinds, particulates, and heat itself, travel from the Earth into the atmosphere. Humans are responsible for large parts of this, as are also natural processes that can be viewed as Jotnar and their actions.
Heimdall alone cannot prevent all of this from happening. He is a watchman, a warder. He cannot defend against hordes of giants, or pollutants, all by himself. What he does is raise the alarm: alerting the Gods, or alerting us, that danger approaches. Then, it is up to all of us, Gods and humans—and perhaps Jotnar too—to gather together and respond appropriately to the danger.
I suggest that Heimdall has expanded his already-amazing sensing capacities, as described in the Edda passage above, into a far greater range of action: all of our high-tech remote sensing capabilities! And in particular, all of the capabilities that warn of dangerous influences and conditions. For example: weather satellites, satellites that sense groundwater and surface water supplies, ocean temperatures, drought and stressors on forests and crops, pest invasions, extent of deforestation and wildfires, sea level rise, glacier retreats, and many other ‘eyes in the sky’. And ground-based sensors, too, such as those that warn of stresses and movements within the earth, setting up conditions for earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. These are Heimdall’s ‘ear or hearing in the Well.’ There is even a new computer system in Europe, intended to help manage climate-related emergencies, that is named HEIMDALL. (https://www.cimafoundation.org/foundations/projects/heimdall.html. My thanks to Wechtari Angelo Faresin for pointing this out to me!)
As warder of the boundaries, Heimdall also deals with limitations—not only the boundaries between us and dangerous phenomena, but also the boundaries that limit our own disruptive and dangerous actions. Sometimes, humans can be more destructive than Jotnar! Humans don’t take kindly to limitations, but they are necessary for balance: for ecological and natural balances, and also for balance within our complex and widespread social systems, and our individual behavior.
All of the remote-sensing capabilities I described are extensions of Heimdall’s ability to ‘see for a hundred leagues, and hear the growth of grass and wool on the sheep.’ Heimdall’s warding of the boundaries and demarcation of border and ‘no-go’ zones are relevant to us as humans, as well as to Jotnar and the dwellers in Asgard.
But none of Heimdall’s amazing abilities to discern and demarcate and warn of danger will do much good, unless we pay attention to these warnings and take appropriate action. As the Gods take counsel with each other, and with other beings, when faced with intimations of Ragnarök, so also should we humans take counsel with each other, with Deities and landwights, ancestors and other beings, and find the best path forward under the threatening conditions of climate change and other environmental impacts on our treasured Earth.
I suggest that Blots, prayers, calls, meditations and symbels dedicated to Heimdall can help us take the steps that are necessary here. We need clear sight, the ability to observe accurately, and clear thought, to develop an objective view of what is actually happening. We need wisdom, courage, determination, to develop, implement and support remedial measures and different ways of doing things, in response to the dangers. We need to adapt, where we cannot immediately remediate. We need to help one another around the world, recognizing that there are no boundaries to the harm that is happening, nor to the needs that are arising for humans and other beings as well.
Heimdall sounds the call, and all should answer: living humans and ancestral powers, Holy Ones, all the wights and powers of Nature and the Earth. Let us not be blind in the face of his penetrating Sight, nor be deaf to the bone-deep roaring of his mighty Gjallarhorn. Hail Heimdall!
Bookhoard
Sturluson, Snorri. Transl. Anthony Faulkes. Edda. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Co. 1995.
First published in Idunna: A Journal of Inclusive Heathenry, #128, Winter 2023.