The Rudolf Steiner Archive

4. Germanic Mythology

[ 1 ] You know that when we trace the evolution of our race back, we arrive at the Atlantean root race, whose realm is the bed of the [present-day] Atlantic Ocean. And if we go back even further, we arrive at the Lemurian root race; this is a race that you must conceive of as having a completely different constitution than our present-day root race—and even different from the Atlantean one. The people lived on a continent that stretched south of the Indian subcontinent and which has now also become the ocean floor. Some descendants of this population still exist in Australia. But where are we to look for the second human race? Here we must take into account that the third human race, the Lemurians, also looked quite different from us and quite different from the fourth human race, the Atlanteans. The Lemurians did not possess what we call memory, imagination, or intellect; these faculties had only begun to develop in them. In contrast, the second human race was endowed with a high level of spirituality, which, however, did not reside in people’s minds but must be conceived of as a continuous revelation from outside. The second human race was called the Hyperboreans. They lived around the North Pole, in Siberia and Northern Europe, including the areas that have since become seas. And if you imagine this land with a sort of tropical climate, you’ll get a rough idea of what the land was like back then. It was originally populated by people who, as individual beings, wandered about like dream creatures. Had they been left to their own devices, they would have been incapable of anything. Wisdom, so to speak, was in the air, in the atmosphere. It was not until the Lemurian epoch that wisdom united with the soul, so that we must imagine the entire spirituality of human beings prior to that as something misty. These were the seeds of the misty spirit and the seeds of the spirit of light. The spirituality that sprouted as a seed within the sons of the fire mist—which still seems familiar to us—must be sought in the southern regions, in Lemuria. In the regions located to the north of us lived people, peoples endowed with a dream consciousness that was clearer than the Pitri consciousness. On the whole, we need not imagine that the people who lived up there remained there. They undertook migrations that led southward. And these migrations extended well into the times when the Lemurian race had sprung up in the south. There was, so to speak, a northern Lemurian race and a southern Lemurian race. There were twelve great migrations. These twelve great migrations gradually brought the inhabitants of the various regions into contact with one another. They also brought these people to regions not far from our own—regions that can be referred to as central Germany, France, central Russia, and so on.

[ 2 ] Now you must imagine that we are speaking of a time when what we call higher animals already existed. The Lemurians were depicted as a kind of giant, and they came into contact with the people arriving from the north. This gave rise to two races. One race emerged that, in the prehistory of humanity, became the foundation of the Atlanteans; all these people intermingled at that time in what is now Europe. We must not imagine this as simply as it is put into words here. Now, from this intermingling of the Hyperboreans, the Lemurians, and later also the Atlanteans, initiates emerged who differed from the initiates whom we must regard today as our teachers; the latter originate primarily from the south, the Lemurian continent. In the north, a sort of misty world developed, and the three principal initiates whom we must seek here on this “island of humanity”—they were called, in the era that extended even into the dawn of our Christianity: Wotan, Wili, and We. These are the three great Nordic initiates. They traced their origins quite literally—or, to put it in layman’s terms—to the Earth Realm, which still contained, in an unmixed state, everything that is now distributed among human beings. In layman’s terms, one could say that a race emerged from this Earth Realm that was very unlike present-day humanity. This race was governed by universal wisdom. The teaching priests called this all-wisdom “Allfather.” Then there is mention of the two realms: Nebelheim and Muspelheim. Nebelheim is the Niflheim of the North, the twilight mist of the Hyperborean root race, in contrast to Muspelheim. Twelve rivers are described that dammed up and then turned to ice. From this arose a human race, represented by the giant Ymir, and then the animal race, the cow Audhumbla. The sons of the Frost Giants descended from Ymir. Human beings, who were already endowed with reason, came into being later—also in the sense of the “Esoteric Teaching.” And so the German legend also tells that [the descendants of Ymir and Audhumbla]—Wotan, Wili, and We—walked along the shore and formed humankind. This refers to those humans of the “Secret Doctrine” who came into being only later and who were endowed with reason.

[ 3 ] This Proto-Germanic legend contains an ancient truth. It also tells us about the two great migrations that later took place, from the Far East to the West [and from the West to the East]. We must imagine that the Celtic population was there first, and that they then formed a colony. This original Celtic population was entirely under the influence of its initiates. These initiates carried on the original teachings of Wotan, Wili, and We and their priesthood. The Celts had priests whom we call Druid priests. These were centered in a great lodge, the Nordic Lodge. This has been preserved in the legend of King Arthur and the Round Table. In fact, this lodge of the Nordic initiates existed—the sacred Lodge of Ceridwen—the White Lodge of the North. Later, it came to be known as the Order of the Bards. This lodge persisted for a long time, well into later eras. It was not dissolved until the age of Queen Elizabeth. Then the Order withdrew entirely from the physical plane. This is the source of all the Old Germanic legends we have. All Germanic poetry traces its origins back to the original Lodge of Ceridwen, which was also called the Cauldron of Ceridwen. The one who was most active well into the first centuries after the birth of Christ was the great initiate Meredin, who has been preserved in our memory under the name of the wizard Merlin. He was called “the wizard of the Nordic Lodge.”

[ 4 ] All of this is directly contained in ancient Celtic esoteric teachings. There you will find hints of what the initiates of the East had to offer. And what the Celts gave back to them was the Baldur saga, the saga of the god of light and the god of darkness. Thus, the initiates of the West gradually introduced this saga to the initiates of the East, with the wise intention of conveying something important to them. And in the belief that something more was yet to come, they added to this saga something that lay in the future—namely, the downfall of the gods in the future. Baldur could not withstand the downfall. A second phase was therefore prepared following the twilight of the gods. It was said that a new Baldur would arise, and this “new Baldur,” who was announced to the people, is none other than Christ. Here in the North, these things could not develop in the same way as in the South, for example in Greece. In the North, the gods were more masculine; in the South, people were more devoted to the cult of beauty. The entire Nordic element had something unique about it—something that endured for a long time but was at the same time the seed of ruin: a combative nature. So in the North we have Wotan, the Wili, and the We, and alongside them, Loki. Loki represents desire and longing, and this gives the Nordic world a combative nature that contains within itself the element of the Valkyries. They inspire people to battle. They are something that the Nordic element has always possessed. Loki was the son of desire; Hagen is the later form of the original Loki.

[ 5 ] And now a few words about what an initiate was like in those days. When he was initiated and thereby introduced to spiritual powers, people expressed it by saying: He undertook the journey into the realm of the good dead, into the realm of the elves, to Alfgard, so that he might retrieve the gold of Niflheim—gold being the symbol of wisdom. Siegfried was the initiate of the ancient Germanic tradition at the time when Christianity was spreading. He was actually invulnerable, but he still had one vulnerable spot, because Loki—the god of desire in the form of Hagen—was still present in this Norse initiation. Hagen is the one who kills the initiate at his weak spot. Brünnhilde is a similar figure in the Nibelungen saga, a female deity akin to the Greek Pallas Athena. In the North, she embodies the wild, deadly element of battle. You have embodied the ancient Germanic initiate in Siegfried. The element of combat is expressed through the ancient Germanic chivalry. Since it was primarily a worldly element, worldly chivalry had to trace its origins back to Siegfried as an initiate well into the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries. The origin of this line of knights was King Arthur’s Round Table. That was where the great knights came from—or rather, those who wished to become leading secular knights had to go to King Arthur’s Round Table. There one learned secular wisdom, but it was mingled with the will to fight, the Loki-Hagen element.

[ 6 ] In particular, something had to be prepared within the Germanic element that could emerge most distinctly within the Nordic element. Here, something could be prepared that is connected to the development of the human being on the physical plane. We know that what took place there was the descent of the Highest down to the physical plane; the personal is the form of the Highest on the physical plane. Thus, the personal element developed—the personal fighting spirit—which was perhaps most highly developed in Hagen.

[ 7 ] Let us return to the Lemurians. Among the Lemurians, what modern humans call “love” did not yet exist. There was no love between man and woman. Sexuality did indeed emerge; but it was only later that love came to sanctify sexuality. Love in the modern sense was not yet present even among the Atlanteans. Only when the personal element had attained that level of importance could love develop. Toward the end of the Lemurian era, a peculiar system existed in certain regions. The population living in specific areas was systematically divided into four groups. This was interpreted to mean that a person from the first group—let’s say Group A—was never allowed to marry a person from Group B. People from Group A had to marry people from Group C, and people from Group B had to marry people from Group D. This prevented personal caprice; in other words, it excluded the personal element. This division was established for the benefit of all humanity. At that time, there was no element of personal love involved. Only gradually did personal caprice develop in love; for this was the kind of love that had descended entirely to the physical plane, and the groundwork for this was only being laid at that time. The further back in time you go, the more you will find that eroticism plays a minor role. Even in the early period of Greek poetry, it plays almost no role at all. But it plays a special role in German poetry of the Middle Ages. There you see love depicted in two forms: you see it portrayed as courtly love and as desire. The fates that Siegfried had to endure were the consequence of the introduction of the personal element. Go back to Rome, and you will find that marriage there was contracted according to entirely different principles. In Greece, too, personal love was unknown in the beginning; it arose only later.

[ 8 ] Then Christianity came to Central Europe. We have seen that in Central Europe, Christianity was initially introduced while preserving the old ways. Gradually, the image of Baldur was transformed into that of Christ. This process spanned several generations; Boniface therefore found the ground already prepared.

[ 9 ] The legend of King Arthur and his Round Table gradually became intertwined with the legend of the Holy Grail. This connection was established by a true initiate of the 13th century, Wolfram von Eschenbach. The Siegfried Initiation was still the old initiation. In it, secular knighthood still played a role, as did the danger of being betrayed by the elements of desire and self-love. Only after one had overcome these elements—only after one had completely cast them aside and ascended from the principle of secular knighthood to the principle of spiritual knighthood—could one attain spiritual initiation. Wolfram von Eschenbach depicts this in *Parzival*. At first, Parzival belongs to the world of secular knighthood. His father lost his life through betrayal during the campaign to the Orient. Underlying this is the fact that the father had already sought a higher initiation; but because he still possessed the element of the old initiation, he was betrayed. Through his mother, Herzeleide, Parzival was to be estranged from the physical plane; she placed a jester’s cap on his head. Nevertheless, Parzival is swept up by the current of secular knighthood and thus arrives at the court of King Arthur. The fact that Parzival is destined for the Christian current is hinted at by his journey to the castle of the Holy Grail. He has been given an important lesson: not to ask too many questions. This means nothing other than finding a point of stillness within himself, having found inner peace and tranquility, and no longer wandering through the outer world out of curiosity. Parzival does not ask questions even when he seeks entry into the castle. He is therefore initially turned away. But then he does reach the ailing Amfortas. He is led to a higher level through Christian initiation.

[ 10 ] Wherever you open a book by Wolfram von Eschenbach, you will find evidence that he was an initiate. He combined these two cycles of legends because he knew that what we call the union of the Arthurian Lodge with the Grail Lodge had already taken place. The Arthurian Lodge has been completely absorbed into the Grail Lodge.