#bilskirnir

The Minor Afterlives of Norse Myth

No-one can say with certainty what waits us in the Afterlife. But we can hope. We can aim for. We can set sail for or mark out a path.

I *hope* I end up in Thor’s Hall, Bilskirnir. If not, then it’ll be Hela’s Realm, one part of. Straw death and all that. Perhaps.

Reincarnation? Not for me...not unless reincarnation allows for us to go retrograde in what we know as linear time so I can be rebirthed into the Viking Age itself.

Or perhaps I may be able to become a Disir, and guard my grandchildren and guide them from the Afterlife, and theirs.

The thing about Thor and the “thralls/slaves”, well...Thor was a god of the common people. Bear in mind, flyting, insulting one another was a common practice back in the day.

Those who worked the land, who held down homesteads, longhouses and land held Thor amongst the others, as their god. They weren’t all slaves. Many of them *had* slaves. But given that it’s clear those headed for Valhol are pretty exclusively noble born warriors (and Freyja has full pick remember) then it makes sense that those who were not warriors would look to Thor, Ran, Freyr, and others and expect to end up in their Halls, their terrain, in the Afterlife.

Given Viking Age heathens, particularly the earlier peoples, were largely animists, I do see reincarnation as part of the heathen mindset, despite it falling out of favour later in the Viking Age.

But if we’re given a choice, it won’t be for me.

And even the gods are not immortal, it needs to be remembered, as Odin himself was told. ;)

So there is a “Beyond”, for want a better word, a place beyond the Halls of the Gods, a place unknown even to them.

If Thor, or one of the Vanir can find me a spot with a little piece of land, a few cattle and sheep and a cabin/small longhouse, and let me live my Afterlife out there, I’d be happy, thanks.