Lif and Lifthrasir - Asgardian Tales - Book 1

Chapter Two - Mortal Signs

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Chapter Two - Mortal Signs?

Sera

A few million years ago Odin became obsessed with the future of the Realms he loved, looking upon them every day from his throne Hlidskjalf, realizing that he wouldn't be around forever to protect them. In his worry, he sought wisdom to protect the beings he dearly loved, even more intensely then he had in the past.

Considering that he allowed himself to hang by the neck from a noose on the branches of Yggdrasil for 9 days and nights, with no food or water, and then proceeded to impale himself with his own spear, bleeding out for a while, just so he could understand the runes along the base of the trunk of Yggdrasil is really the only example I need to bring up that shows Odin believes knowledge is more important than his own life.

He even went to Mimir's Well, where the severed head of Mimir drinks every day, asking for aid. No one, not even the Gods, goes there unless they need help. Crossing into that sacred ground without intent gets you cursed. Many consider the assistance a curse, and, in a way, I have to agree.

Knowledge comes a price.

For Odin, that price came in the form of his left eye (the highest amongst the other abuses he put himself through considering that he cannot regenerate said eye).

I've never heard him complain about it though.

Truth be told, he considers it a fair trade. He loses an eye and is hindered on the battlefield yet he says that, instead of a hindrance, the knowledge he gained allowed him to see the battle more clearly than ever - a battle between Life and Death of the Souls, with the Realms caught in the middle, clashing to uphold or destroy the greatest rule of the True Father: Death.

Apparently, the Jotuns decided that the problem against them controlling everything isn't just the other beings in the Realms which they cannot conquer - it's the fact that they themselves die.

As the proclaimed first beings (and, according to themselves, the strongest) they think that they should not have to die. True to their beliefs, if they don't like it, they destroy it, usually by devouring everything within their sight.

Hence they believe that, instead of honoring life and death as the natural balance, they just need to destroy their enemies or those beings they think do not deserve to exist, send them to the Underworld and then destroy Yggdrasil so that the realms of Life and Death are no longer connected, leaving them alive and in control forever.

It sounds like the worst punishment imaginable to me, living forever without dying and having no hope of crossing into the afterlife for rest.

I guess that I have a unique perspective on living beyond others. I'm an Adhain, a "True Child of Yggdrasil" as the people so deem. One of the few mortals born every 250,000 years or so destined to fight in a Great War between the Realms because they always end up fighting with each other eventually.

Thankfully the fights aren't anywhere near the horror level of the Aesir-Vanir or the Realms Wars'. These are mostly a few or up to 6 of the Realms fighting together against the Jotuns of Jotunheim, Muspel, and Nifleheim.

Somehow the Jotuns don't get the meaning of a peace treaty. They honor Comharrachadh Beatha, although I think that most of them only do that so they can come here and compete with everyone to prove their power and superiority. A few factions are actually peaceful, but they have a hard time surviving the civil wars that plague their homelands.