On account of its mythological signification and application, it is very natural that the word litr should in every-day life acquire on the one hand the meaning of complexion in general, and on the other hand the signification of hamr, guise, an earthly garb which persons skilled in magic could put on and off. Skipta litum, vixla litum, have in Christian times been used as synonymous with skipta hömum, vixla hömum.
In physical death the coarser elements of an earthly person's nature are separated from the other constituent parts. The tabernacle formed of earth and the vegetative material united therewith are eliminated like the animal element and remain on earth. But this does not imply that the deceased descend without form to Hades. The form in which they travel in "deep dales," traverse the thornfields, wade across the subterranean rivers, or ride over the gold-clad Gjallar-bridge, is not a new creation, but was worn by them in their earthly career. It can be none other than their litr, their umbra et imago. It also shows distinctly what the dead man has been in his earthly life, and what care has been bestowed on his dust. The washing, combing, dressing, ornamenting, and supplying with Hel-shoes of the dead body has influence upon one's looks in Hades, on one's looks when he is to appear before his judge.
Separated from the earthly element, from the vegetative material, and from the blood, the lit is almost imponderable, and does not possess the qualities for an intensive life, either in bliss or in torture. Five fylkes of dead men who rode over the Gjallar-bridge produced no greater din than Hermod alone riding on Sleipner; and the woman watching the bridge saw that Hermod's exterior was not that of one separated from the earthly element. It was not litr daudra manna (Gylfaginning). But the litr of the dead is compensated for what it has lost. Those who in the judgment on daudan hvern are pronounced worthy of bliss are permitted to drink from the horn decorated with the serpent-symbol of eternity, the liquids of the three world-fountains which give life to all the world, and thereby their litr gets a higher grade of body and nobler blood (see Nos. 72, 73). Those sentenced to torture must also drink, but it is a drink eitri blandinn miok, "much mixed with venom," and it is illu heilli, that is, a warning of evil. This drink also restores their bodies, but only to make them feel the burden of torture. The liquid of life which they imbibe in this drink is the same as that which was thought to flow in the veins of the demons of torture. When Hadding with his sword wounds the demon-hand which grasps after Hardgrep and tears her into pieces (see No. 41), there flows from the wound "more venom than blood" (plus tabi quam cruoris—Saxo, Hist., 40).
When Loder had given Ask and Embla litr goda, an inner body formed in the image of the gods, a body which gives to their earthly tabernacle a human-divine type, they received from Honer the gift which is called ódr. In signification this word corresponds most closely to the Latin mens, the Greek nous (cp. Vigfusson's Lexicon), and means that material which forms the kernel of a human personality, its ego, and whose manifestations are understanding, memory, fancy, and will.
Vigfusson has called attention to the fact that the epithet langifótr and aurkonungr, "Longleg" and "Mire-king," applied to Honer, is applicable to the stork, and that this cannot be an accident, as the very name Hænir suggests a bird, and is related to the Greek kuknos, and the Sanscrit sakunas (Corpus Poet. Bor., i. p. cii.).[2] It should be borne in mind in this connection that the stork even to this day is regarded as a sacred and protected bird, and that among Scandinavians and Germans there still exists a nursery tale telling how the stork takes from some saga-pond the little fruits of man and brings them to their mothers. The tale which now belongs to the nursery has its root in the myth, where Honer gives our first parents that very gift which in a spiritual sense makes them human beings and contains the personal ego. It is both possible and probable that the conditions essential to the existence of every person were conceived as being analogous with the conditions attending the creation of the first human pair, and that the gifts which were then given by the gods to Ask and Embla were thought to be repeated in the case of each one of their descendants—that Honer consequently was believed to be continually active in the same manner as when the first human pair was created, giving to the mother-fruit the ego that is to be. The fruit itself out of which the child is developed was conceived as grown on the world-tree, which therefore is called manna mjötudr (Fjölsvinnsmal, 22). Every fruit of this kind (aldin) that matured (and fell from the branches of the world-tree into the mythic pond [?]) is fetched by the winged servants of the gods, and is born á eld into the maternal lap, after being mentally fructified by Honer.
Ut af hans (Mimameids) aldni
skal á eld bera
fyr kelisjúkar konur;
utar hverfa
thaz thær innar skyli,
sá er hann med mönnum mjötudr.
Above, in No. 83, it has been shown that Lodurr is identical with Mundilföri, the one producing fire by friction, and that Hœnir and Lodurr are Odin's brothers, also called Vei and Vili. With regard to the last name it should be remarked that its meaning of "will" developed out of the meaning "desire," "longing," and that the word preserved this older meaning also in the secondary sense of cupido, libido, sexual desire. This epithet of Lodurr corresponds both with the nature of the gifts he bestows on the human child which is to be—that is, the blood and the human, originally divine, form—and also with his quality of fire-producer, if, as is probable, the friction-fire had the same symbolic meaning in the Teutonic mythology as in the Rigveda. Like Honer, Loder causes the knitting together of the human generations. While the former fructifies the embryo developing on the world-tree with ódr, it receives from Loder the warmth of the blood and human organism. The expression Vilja byrdr, "Vili's burden," "that which Vili has produced," is from this point of view a well-chosen and at the same time an ambiguous paraphrase for a human body. The paraphrase occurs in Ynglingatal (Ynglingasaga, 17). When Visbur loses his life in the flames it is there said of him that the fire consumed his Vilja byrdi, his corporal life.
To Loder's and Honer's gifts the highest Asa-god adds the best element in human nature, önd, spirit, that by which a human being becomes participator in the divine also in an inner sense, and not only as to form. The divine must here, of course, be understood in the sense (far different from the ecclesiastical) in which it was used by our heathen ancestors, to whom the divine, as it can reveal itself in men, chiefly consisted in power of thought, courage, honesty, veracity, and mercy, but who knew no other humility than that of patiently bearing such misfortunes as cannot be averted by human ingenuity.
These six elements, united into one in human nature, were of course constantly in reciprocal activity. The personal kernel ódr is on the one hand influenced by önd, the spirit, and on the other hand by the animal, vegetative, and corporal elements, and the personality being endowed with will, it is responsible for the result of this reciprocal activity. If the spirit becomes superior to the other elements then it penetrates and sanctifies not only the personal kernel, but also the animal, vegetative, and corporal elements. Then human nature becomes a being that may be called divine, and deserves divine honour. When such a person dies the lower elements which are abandoned and consigned to the grave have been permeated by, and have become participators in, the personality which they have served, and may thereafter in a wonderful manner diffuse happiness and blessings around them. When Halfdan the Black died different places competed for the keeping of his remains, and the dispute was settled by dividing the corpse between Hadaland, Ringerike, and Vestfold (Fagerskinna, Heimskringla). The vegetative force in the remains of certain persons might also manifest itself in a strange manner. Thorgrim's grave-mound in Gisle's saga was always green on one side, and Laugarbrekku-Einar's grave-mound was entirely green both winter and summer (Landn., ii. 7).