LIBRARY
Varg Vikernes
Thulean Perspective
The Dwarf: Meaning & Origins
Dwarves? What are they based on? What ARE they?
They were originally maggots in the corpse of Ymir, the primordial ettin, and they were given a human-like shape by the gods.
Quite enigmatic, isn't it?
The thing is, the ettin (the ogre of the fairy tales) is "the twin" that we know, for example, from the tale of Romus and Romulus, and that is always killed in the myths. It is killed because it has to...
Again rather enigmatic, isn't it?
Yes, and it is intentionally so. Because the purpose of our mythology was to test the young, their wits, and their ability to remember. Therefore, it was intentionally enigmatic, and intentionally impossible. Yes! Filled with creatures that don't exist, situations that are absurd, claims that are contradictory, and quite simply impossible. The first step to uncover the hidden meaning behind these myths is to acknowledge that: "This is impossible".
When you understand that it is indeed impossible, you can also understand that there must be something else said by this. If there are no eight-legged-flying horses, or goats pulling wagons through their air, or ettins, or dragons, or hammers that return to your hand when you cast it, then these things must be something else. They must represent something else.
In Norse, we know such things as kennings, or "poetic metaphors", as we would say in English, but also as heiti, or "compound metaphors", as we would say in English.
Now, you can always believe that these impossible creatures and powers are real, and I would be a fool trying to deny you this belief! Be my guest! Remain in ignorance! See if I care! In fact, you should remain in ignorance, if you cling to these childish beliefs and refuse to listen to what I have to say about this, because that means you are not worthy. You do not understand, and you do not remember. You are probably not a reincarnated ancestor. Just some brand new "spark" in this world, with no roots, no past, and no future. This is not for you, pleb. Send your wish list to "Santa Claus", and keep believing.
If you, on the other hand, understand that there must be something else in these myths, you have the wits needed, and you probably do because you remember.
I just made this up? Like some claim?
No. If you remember Socrates, who in Plato's dialogues discusses the idea that learning is actually anamnesis; a form of remembering. This is well known from "Meno", where Socrates suggests that the soul already possesses knowledge from past existence, and that what we call learning is merely recollection.
So no. I am not making this up. This is not just some philosophical dialogue from Greece, but actually how all pre-Christian Europeans saw things. The mythology is the means to test this, to see if the child remembers. If the child doesn't remember? Then he is not a reincarnated ancestor... As simple as that.
But if the children do remember what the compound and poetic metaphors of the myths actually mean, what the myths tell us, their own past name even, then they are their ancestors, and will be allowed to claim their own identity. And possessions...
And these children, who started out life in the womb of the mother as little "maggots", alongside their grotesque "twins" (placentas), grew and grew, and whilst growing they learnt from their ancestors, Óðinn, by drinking from the Well of Mímir (that "by chance" means "remembrance"). That is, in normal terms: they were built and shaped and nourished in the womb by the placenta, via the umbilical cord.
At birth they had to fight a dragon, and cut its head off. That is, they had to cut the umbilical cord.
So much for birth...
Those who "remembered" would, around age 7, be allowed, after proving that they indeed remembered, to enter the burial mounds of their ancestor, to claim his possessions, his life, his name, and his spirit, for themselves. Therefore, they took his thigh bone (life), his skull (mind/spirit), and his valuables (memories), that he had been buried with, and emerged – from the burial mound, the womb of Mother Earth – reborn as him. Themselves given to themselves. Not born, but reborn.
And when they did, they were called "dwarves"...
Greedy? Because they craved for the valuables, gold, in the grave, and greedily collected it, to re-possess it.
Small? Because they were 7-year-old children.
Bearded? Because they held the bearded head of their ancestors above their heads, when they emerged.
Skilled? Well, they held in their hands only the most precious items they had owned in a previous life. Well-crafted items of high quality!
Underground creatures? Because they emerged from the burial mound...
Yeah, that is the mythological Dwarf. And what do you think "dwarf" means? The meaning was lost for a long time, but we (I actually) have remembered it. We can tell from the female form, "dyrrgjá", from proto-Nordic "dwerge", meaning "door" (dyrr) "opening in the ground" (gjá). Yes, it is a reference to whence they come: from the opening of the burial mound. Before that, when the child enters, it is just a child. He has no bearded skull in his hands. He only becomes a Dwarf when he emerges with the bearded skull from the opening in the ground.
I could say more, there is much more to say about this, but not today.
Maybe you can remember the rest all by yourself?
Our "scholars" sure don't...
They were originally maggots in the corpse of Ymir, the primordial ettin, and they were given a human-like shape by the gods.
Quite enigmatic, isn't it?
The thing is, the ettin (the ogre of the fairy tales) is "the twin" that we know, for example, from the tale of Romus and Romulus, and that is always killed in the myths. It is killed because it has to...
Again rather enigmatic, isn't it?
Yes, and it is intentionally so. Because the purpose of our mythology was to test the young, their wits, and their ability to remember. Therefore, it was intentionally enigmatic, and intentionally impossible. Yes! Filled with creatures that don't exist, situations that are absurd, claims that are contradictory, and quite simply impossible. The first step to uncover the hidden meaning behind these myths is to acknowledge that: "This is impossible".
When you understand that it is indeed impossible, you can also understand that there must be something else said by this. If there are no eight-legged-flying horses, or goats pulling wagons through their air, or ettins, or dragons, or hammers that return to your hand when you cast it, then these things must be something else. They must represent something else.
In Norse, we know such things as kennings, or "poetic metaphors", as we would say in English, but also as heiti, or "compound metaphors", as we would say in English.
Now, you can always believe that these impossible creatures and powers are real, and I would be a fool trying to deny you this belief! Be my guest! Remain in ignorance! See if I care! In fact, you should remain in ignorance, if you cling to these childish beliefs and refuse to listen to what I have to say about this, because that means you are not worthy. You do not understand, and you do not remember. You are probably not a reincarnated ancestor. Just some brand new "spark" in this world, with no roots, no past, and no future. This is not for you, pleb. Send your wish list to "Santa Claus", and keep believing.
If you, on the other hand, understand that there must be something else in these myths, you have the wits needed, and you probably do because you remember.
I just made this up? Like some claim?
No. If you remember Socrates, who in Plato's dialogues discusses the idea that learning is actually anamnesis; a form of remembering. This is well known from "Meno", where Socrates suggests that the soul already possesses knowledge from past existence, and that what we call learning is merely recollection.
So no. I am not making this up. This is not just some philosophical dialogue from Greece, but actually how all pre-Christian Europeans saw things. The mythology is the means to test this, to see if the child remembers. If the child doesn't remember? Then he is not a reincarnated ancestor... As simple as that.
But if the children do remember what the compound and poetic metaphors of the myths actually mean, what the myths tell us, their own past name even, then they are their ancestors, and will be allowed to claim their own identity. And possessions...
And these children, who started out life in the womb of the mother as little "maggots", alongside their grotesque "twins" (placentas), grew and grew, and whilst growing they learnt from their ancestors, Óðinn, by drinking from the Well of Mímir (that "by chance" means "remembrance"). That is, in normal terms: they were built and shaped and nourished in the womb by the placenta, via the umbilical cord.
At birth they had to fight a dragon, and cut its head off. That is, they had to cut the umbilical cord.
So much for birth...
Those who "remembered" would, around age 7, be allowed, after proving that they indeed remembered, to enter the burial mounds of their ancestor, to claim his possessions, his life, his name, and his spirit, for themselves. Therefore, they took his thigh bone (life), his skull (mind/spirit), and his valuables (memories), that he had been buried with, and emerged – from the burial mound, the womb of Mother Earth – reborn as him. Themselves given to themselves. Not born, but reborn.
And when they did, they were called "dwarves"...
Greedy? Because they craved for the valuables, gold, in the grave, and greedily collected it, to re-possess it.
Small? Because they were 7-year-old children.
Bearded? Because they held the bearded head of their ancestors above their heads, when they emerged.
Skilled? Well, they held in their hands only the most precious items they had owned in a previous life. Well-crafted items of high quality!
Underground creatures? Because they emerged from the burial mound...
Yeah, that is the mythological Dwarf. And what do you think "dwarf" means? The meaning was lost for a long time, but we (I actually) have remembered it. We can tell from the female form, "dyrrgjá", from proto-Nordic "dwerge", meaning "door" (dyrr) "opening in the ground" (gjá). Yes, it is a reference to whence they come: from the opening of the burial mound. Before that, when the child enters, it is just a child. He has no bearded skull in his hands. He only becomes a Dwarf when he emerges with the bearded skull from the opening in the ground.
I could say more, there is much more to say about this, but not today.
Maybe you can remember the rest all by yourself?
Our "scholars" sure don't...
Varg Vikernes
12.03.2025
