Winifred Hodge Rose
Holy Frigg, Norn-wise,
You know no tongue with which to tell
What is and what shall be,
To sort the spinning strands of possibility
Into a span of words.
Yet with your spindle and your well-strung loom,
You weave the airy clouds
And send the winds to shape them,
Writing your wordless wisdom-runes
Across the ever-changing valleys of the sky.
Teach us, Lady, to heed
The wisdom that lies beyond all words:
Echoes that resound
After words have fled.
This was the first formal Heathen prayer I made, and the one I have most often spoken during close to thirty years of my Heathen life. I was moved to write it after meditating on Freya’s words about Frigg in Lokasenna v. 29: “Of orlog Frigg has full knowledge, I think, although she does not speak (of it) herself”; and also after viewing the lovely painting of Frigg spinning the clouds by J.C. Dolman (I’ve included an image of this painting in my article “Frigg as Soul-Spinner” https://heathensoullore.net/frigg-as-soul-spinner/)
It was only recently that I realized how profoundly Frigg has been answering this prayer through the many years of my work on Heathen soul lore and other studies of ancient words. These studies are simply preparation for the longer journey of exploration. I start with words to point the way, and I use words to express my thoughts in my articles. With words we shape and share our thoughts, and this is a great blessing. But the words are not the journey itself.
My undertaking is to explore, experience, understand, and live with and through my souls in a way that is shaped by Heathen faith and tradition, both ancient and modern. And to grow and refine my souls, and learn to perceive and relate to the souls of others: humans and other beings, whether embodied or disembodied in Midgard. These are experiences that go far beyond words, deep into the domain of Vor, the Goddess of Awareness, whom I perceive as a soul-daughter or emanation of Frigg, an embodiment of her power of Awareness. Vor herself has an echo or resonance within each of us, stimulating and guiding the full development of our own powers of awareness.
The last two lines of my prayer are newly added: ‘Echoes that resound after words have fled.’ The meaning of the ‘words that have fled’ is twofold. One meaning refers to the ancient soul-words now lost or greatly changed in modern language and thought. These words, nevertheless, echo through time, stirring our souls deeply even now. The other meaning lies in the fact that when one plunges into experiential explorations of the souls, after a certain point words are left behind and one’s awareness flows through fields of resonances, resounding echoes, that reach backwards and forwards through and outside of time, and all around ourselves to touch many other souls of humans and other beings. Up to a point in these explorations, words are necessary and useful. Beyond that, they tie us down, limiting us and getting in the way of pure awareness and full experience of these wordless resonances. These are the same type of resonances that one can sense in the presence of the Norns and their Well, hence I call Frigg ‘Norn-wise’ to honor that connection.
Thus, I feel like I understand, at least in part, why Frigg does not speak of what she knows: she cannot, because it is not Word-knowledge, but Being-knowledge that she mediates to us through her ‘daughter’ Vor. There are so many clues all around us, to lead us toward this wordless knowledge. ‘Wispy clouds in a windy sky’ is only one among endless images, visions, sensations, experiences that can point us toward Frigg’s wisdom, toward Vor’s domain, toward the living knowledge of our own souls.
My deepest thanks to Frigg and Vor for their subtle, wordless, ongoing response to my loving prayer repeated over the years.
Bookhoard
Guerber, H. A. Myths of the Norsemen From the Eddas and Sagas. Dover Publications, New York, 1992.
Jonsson, Finnur, ed. De Gamle Eddadigte. G.E.C. Gads Forlag, Kobenhavn, 1932.
This article was first published in Idunna: A Journal of Northern Tradition, #118, Winter 2018.