Learning from the Great Mediator
(Revised April 2011)
The third among the Æsir is he that is called Njördr: he dwells in heaven, in the abode called Nóatún. He rules the course of the wind, and stills sea and fire; on him shall men call for voyages and for hunting. He is so prosperous and abounding in wealth, that he may give them great plenty of lands or of gear; and him shall men invoke for such things. Njördr is not of the race of the Æsir: he was reared in the land of the Vanir, but the Vanir delivered him as hostage to the gods, and took for hostage in exchange him that men call Hœnir; he became an atonement between the gods and the Vanir.
—Gylfaginning (The Prose Edda, Broedur translation)
I’ve had the honor of working under the patronage of Njord for over a decade. I’ve always shirked the responsibility of writing public devotionals because I never felt that anything I had to say possessed the organization of more prolific Northern Tradition authors, and that my understanding of any God was ever-evolving, and I feared it being a still snapshot that I’d later view as misguided.
Much of what follows is UPG (unsubstantiated personal gnosis) or PCPG (peer-corroborated personal gnosis) with little if any basis in Eddic, Saga, or secondary source materials. I should also state that while I remain in strict orthodoxy to Heathen thew, moral strictures, and fealty to the High Ones of the North, that my personal religious practice and journey has led me to take an indigenous natural holistic pragmatic approach to my faith, and led me on the path of the mystic besides. By no means is this intended to be a dogmatic or authoritative look at Njord. I merely intend this to be a catalyst for the reader to meditate upon Him differently and find the motivation to seek out, accept mentorship from, take the time to honor, and rethink their relationship with the Great Mediator.
Still, I do not know if I can adequately put into words the depth and intensity of love that I feel for Him. Likewise, I do not know how well I can convey much of what He has taught me, nor will I dare speak for him or pretend to know the complexities of His mind, His favorite flavor of Skittles, or determine if He wants you to give him a devotional streaking through the parking lot of Wal*Mart on alternate Sundays at 3pm. If anything, He has never once made a dogmatic request of me.
I will unequivocally state that knowing Njord and having Him as my surrogate father in the otherworlds has made me an immeasurably better person. I constantly understand him on new levels. What follows is a compilation of my impressions of the great Vanic father, brilliant negotiator, and one of the best wights I have ever been in contact with at deciphering the intention of the heart.
Were I to choose a single word to describe the very essence of my understanding of Njord, it would be “Greatness”. I think all of the Gods are remarkable in some way; Odin for his wisdom, Loki for his cunning, Tyr for his virtue, Frey for his integrity and so forth. But when it comes to Njord, many practitioners tend to take a ridiculously superficial view. Ask your average Heathen or Norse/Germanic-worshipping Neo-Pagan on the street the first thing that pops into their head when they think of Njord, and you’d hear simplistic answers like “safe harbors, “nice feet”, or “hostage”. Let me begin by addressing these common perceptions by sharing a little bit about how they’ve affected me.
This sounds ridiculous and crass as anything, but one of the motivators for me to initiate contact with Njord back in 1994 had to do with the fact that He was known as a god of “safe harbors”, and street-parking my car in an urban environment was a severe challenge. I was a college junior who’d landed a great internship position at a progressive publishing house located in the non-on-the-trains suburbia. This involved driving my car up to Boston where parking was rigidly zoned and could literally take hours. A friend suggested a round of “Hail Njord” while circling the block, and a space would come available within minutes.
I’m embarrassed to admit that Njord wooed me quite easily with freely available urban street parking. In return, he has a preference for Gin, Armignac, Cognac, or vintage Brandy, which I would gladly and regularly offer in faining and filled to the rim on his altar-cup. I should note that the Vanic patriarch has expensive tastes, so if budget is an issue, a mediocre gin is a preferable option to cheap nasty brandy or sugary blended cognac drinks.
“Safe harbors” traditionally refers to sea travel, although it is
appropriate to ask his blessings for unscathed travel in automotive, train, or
air journeys. Njord is very much a protector and a warm, supportive, and loving
father figure. (This is in stark contrast to the other main patriarch, Odhinn,
who sired one son to avenge another and speaks in rather “salty” terms to his
son Thor in the Eddic verse Lay of Harbard. Perhaps it’s just better
stated that they express parental love differently). Of all of the Northern
Gods, I’ve developed the most father-daughter type bond with Him, as He reminds
me the most of my own father, who in my case is an extremely positive person in
my life. Njord’s protective side is miraculously touching.
Galina Krasskova wrote a truly beautiful piece of PCPG (peer corroborated personal gnosis) published in Jotunbok (Asphodel Press, 2006), in which Loki had relayed to the author a tale wherein he told a touching story of Njord finding and rescuing an orphaned Sigyn and raising her as his own. Njord has two biological children dwelling with him in Asgard, Frey and Freya. His defense and loyalty to his children is well documented. In the Eddic lay Lokasenna it is hinted that their parentage is of a Vanic-culturally-accepted union between sister and brother. Please keep in mind that the rules and cultural norms that apply to Gods versus humans deviate substantially. I will explicitly state that Njord will not harbor, give refuge to, or protect rapists or child molesters who violate their own kin. He is fundamentally a God of manifest integrity.
While Ran’s domain is the current that drowns the sailors, and the nine daughters’ would be the capricious ebb and flow of the ocean, Njord protects the shore. Beach erosion, for example, is an environmental issue close to his interests. Climate change, ocean pollution, and man-made factors concerning marine life are also important to Him. Political and environmental action in deed or donation, if mindfully intended as a devotional act, is a wonderfully creative and meaningful way to pay tribute to him. On a personal level, I volunteer locally during sea turtle season to help clean up the nesting area and protect turtle eggs and nests along with financial contributions to environmental charities in service to Njord. So it logically follows that “beachy” things are related, complimentary, or sacred to Njord. As Odhinn is known for sending murders of his ravens as omens, Njord’s followers look for sea birds such as seagulls, pelicans, cranes, and egrets.
In 2008, I made a major life decision based upon a seagull omen in the
middle of a Nor’Easter while living in the Pioneer Valley area of Western
Massachusetts. As a result of this
omen, I now spend at least an hour per day most days beside the Atlantic Ocean or
a nearby inlet as a devotional act to Njord.
Ironically, having made the move from New England to Florida based upon
the seagull omen, I landed a job in my career field a block from the Atlantic
Ocean that happens to offer a 90 minute lunch break in order to facilitate this
work. I have begun studying basic
information about tides and currents.
One day I came home to find my dog frantically barking. It seems that a Brown Pelican had decided to
nest on my waterside highrise balcony. I left the glass door shut for a few weeks and observed. The day that the pelican babies hatched on
my balcony, a woman I deeply respected, who had a close relationship with Njord
and had gifted me with a statue in his image just prior to her passing, died
after a long illness. I have no idea if
there is any link between death and pelicans with Njord or in Old Norse
culture, but in Greek and Roman Catholic myths, pelicans are seen as symbols of
self-sacrifice and there is a famous story in Catholicism about a time of
famine where a Pelican family is expecting babies and have no food. The father pelican commits suicide so that
the mother pelican can feed the babies his blood so that they may live. In the case of the devotee who passed, she
was a very self-sacrificing individual and I found the symbolism beautiful. When Njord sends you a sea bird omen, pay
close attention.
Things like sand, shells, driftwood (or driftwood runes), sea bird feathers, sea glass, and vials of ocean water are quite appropriate for His altar. Deep blues and greens as well as sand or beiges are fitting colors. Along with expensive high end gin, congac, armingac, and fine liquors, he likes salted licorice, caviar, capons, green olives, sea grape jelly, and mangrove honey.
I later obtained a blue glitter foot air freshener which hung in my car when I lived in New York City in his honor. The foot of course is symbolic of the story in which Skadi chooses Njord as her bridegroom seeing only his feet (after having been treated to the antics of court jester/dad-killer Loki in his creative and unusual animal act). Of all of the Gods, Skadi found his sandy toes to be the fairest, and mistook his feet for Balder’s. There were irreconcilable differences. Njord was not a fan of the icy mountainous terrain of Jotunheim, and Skadi complained about the cackle of the seagulls and the cacophonic surf. After rotation periods in each environment, they deigned it best to primarily live apart, but remain married. So when you hear about Njord’s beautiful feet, this is where that story comes from.
And into the nitty-gritty: the third well-regarded thing that people know about Njord is that he was sent as an ambassador by the Vanir in order to keep peace between the once-warring Aesir and Vanir clans during the first war. He managed not to get decapitated, and integrated himself well into the daily politics and running of Asgard society. This is no small accomplishment. His son and daughter Frey and Freya respectively accompanied him to make Asgard their home, but technically, Njord arrived there as a hostage, although he appears to have as much freedom as the Aesir Gods in terms of travel. (He regularly spent time with Skadhi in Jotunheim without issue, and additionally was so considered one of the Aesir that he was offered up as a groom in order to solve a dispute.) Frey and Freya are widely loved; Aesir gods have risked their lives to help them on multiple occasions, and even in Lokasenna, Frey is called the best among the Aesir and without impure action. Clearly Njord was such an effective ambassador that the war bonds of forced bloodstained frith have been replaced with genuine love, trust, and affection.
In terms of his mediation, it is a mixture of logic, intuition, and divination. We know little of Vanic magic. Through personal gnosis, I offer one aspect that I am, through intense and daily devotional work over years, only beginning to understand conceptually. Asgard, where Njord lives as a hostage/diplomat, lies at the top of Yggdrasil. The ocean alongside Noatun trickles via evaporation/precipitation down to the roots of the world tree, with it carrying fates and potential outcomes. Through a divinatory system involving the patterns and ripples in the ocean and the shapes and density of storm clouds, Njord prophesizes likely problems and situations, and then uses his negotiation skills to prevent strife and to understand the most likely pending issues faced by the nine worlds. I am not sure if his sexual encounters with the Nine Undines mentioned in Lokasenna hold any sort of magical or divinatory relevance.
Why would a Northern practitioner look to Njord’s example in times of conflict? In the Aesir clan there are two Gods specifically focused on justice. There is Tyr/Tiw who focuses on justice and the notion of balance and right action, and additionally, there is Forseti who hears and mediates civil disputes. Njord represents a third path of justice, the path of mediation. He embodies the path of finding a common middle ground, and is focused more in pragmatic solutions and frithful resolution than blaming one side for rightness or wrongness. Njord looks at the tools, skills, attributes, and mitigating external conditions of a situation. He gauges the emotional strengths and weaknesses, personal factors, and the sheer pragmatism of a situation. Mediation is a vital life skill for personal success, and He will often help with this if asked. Those serving in clergy roles would do well to take his example when solving interpersonal disputes
In order to achieve a happy medium or mediation, the mediator must mitigate by possessing a hybrid of analytic, empathic, and longitudinal planning skills. Additionally, one must be able to view any situation from a multiplicity of paradigmic factors and understand the unique viewpoint of each individual in question in tandem with static or unchangeable elements of a given situation. Perhaps the most important thing that Njord has taught me is the notion of situational relativism. In order to effectively navigate conflict in a lasting sense, one must learn to bend the paradigms of others to suit a situation, keeping in mind the fundamental nature of said individual and using it to the advantage of resolution. If anything, Njord is a pragmatist. One of his most basic yet important lessons involves analyzing the resources and tools that one has available and using whatever items at hand to fix or solve a given predicament. This is the very embodiment of industriousness. His gifts include the ability to see strengths in people and to utilize what is at hand in order to reach desired results. Non-linear thinking skills are a must for his folk.
In the UPG of Valisgodhi Ruther Skae, it is believed that Njord and his children represent the sanest voices of the Vanir, who are somewhat clannish, short-sighted, and warlike in their nature. There is a severe cultural divide between the customs of the Aesir and Vanir clans. The seeress in the eddic lay Voluspa, Gullveig is believed to be of Vanic origin, her name literally translating to “Gold-Drunk”. The Vanic clan exhibit characteristics like greed, sexual excess, xenophobia, violent temper, incest based in social class preservation, and short-sightedness. These flaws are not so evident in Njord’s lineage. When working with Njord, it is vital to understand his perspective as someone who is very much an outsider, both within the conventions of his own clan and as a hostage-in-name to the Aesir. There is a long-standing cross-cultural mythic tradition of the outsider as savior. In Nordic lore, he fulfils this role in an understated way.
We know little of the initial conditions leading to the first war between
the Aesir and the Vanir, other than that it was a bloody stalemate. We do know
that the Aesir’s ambassador Mimir paid with his head for failing to mediate
successfully. Hoenir did not even fare that well. Part of Njord’s success comes
from the notion that he is consummately and inherently inhabiting the mental
and emotional state of "otherness", thus allowing him to analyze and utilize
resolution tactics from a wide range of perspectives and take on a largely impartial
role. He is less focused on what is right than what is going to bring a
workable and agreeable solution to a given problem.
Njord is by nature fair in his assertions and analysis. He embodies honor, forthrightness, compassion, and peacefulness. There is a profound beauty to his character in that he is a forever outsider, and yet he seeks to bring balance to his surroundings and serve in the interest of the common good. His actions, perhaps paralleled only by Loki among the Norse Gods, are almost always beneficial to others in his adopted society in the long run. His character is complex and multifaceted. His nature is kind. His intent is honorable. Njord is worth getting to know and can be a great help to those lucky enough to be in his embrace.