Ullr and Skaði, Dread Protector’s of the Occidental Race’s Sacred Space

 

Excerpted from the excellent study: On Algiz, Alcis, Ullr, The Germanic Iteration Of Indo-European Sacred Space, And Its Dread Protector.

https://aryaakasha.com/2024/06/12/on-algiz-alcis-ullr-the-germanic-iteration-of-indo-european-sacred-space-and-its-dread-protector/

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“It would be interesting indeed, I think, to contemplate that verse’s reference to the ‘Ash-Trees’ of Ullr standing in the East (“austr”) in light of what we know as to archaic Indo-European precepts for the proper orientations of the sacred space.… the God, the “altar” being “built ad orientalem portam” – to resonate with our earlier point viz. the God installation at the East, the place of the Rising Sun , within both Vedic and Roman ritual-sacred space.”

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What we have here is the comment for something intimately bound up with the concept of ‘Protect’ – the Shield – being referred to in especial relation to Ullr.

 

per Brodeur’s translation:

“the shield is also called Ship of Ullr, or periphrased in terms of Hrungnir’s feet, since he stood upon his shield. On ancient shields it was customary to paint a circle, which was called the ‘ring,’ and shields are called in metaphors of that ring.”

Now, think about that for a second. What we have here is the comment for something intimately bound up with the concept of ‘Protect’ – the Shield – being referred to in especial relation to Ullr. It would seem too simplistic – to my mind, at any rate – to suggest that it’s merely because one might, perhaps, find a shield made of the wood with which Ullr is associated (notwithstanding the potential talismanic effect of protection which might, assumedly, be extended therefrom if one were to?). Instead, I think it’s something to be beheld in that dual suite of referency – for the Shield as Shipof Ullr, and also that notion of having upon it, this ‘Ship of Ullr’, a ritual demarcation of a border, a boundary through that encirclement, that enclosure of space upon it with the line thusly drawn. Just as, funnily enough, one would do for a ritual enclosure (quite directly – one divides it from the outside world and the threats of demonic adversaries through precisely such demarcation; it is through this that the space is both symbolically as well as literally made).

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The Shield – the ancient, magically empowered shield, that is – should seem to be drawing (literally drawing, as it happens) most directly from this concept for the metaphysically protected warding for the Sacred Space that is the Ritual Enclosure; a ‘resonance’ for said Ritual Enclosure being just exactly what is rendered upon its surface. That Ritual Enclosure being the Space Protected, the Protective Space – if we recall our linguistic contemplation from earlier viz. Proto-Germanic *Alh- relative to Proto-Indo-European *h₂elk- (viz. defence). And that Sacred Space thusly protected, as we have seen via Vedic evidence, being construable as a Ship … the Ritual Enclosure evidently as ‘Ship of Ullr’ helping to explain and anticipate why the Shield should so specifically be that of He. Because it’s what He is being called upon to be ‘within’ and to ‘protect’.

Hence, assumedly, the cryptic line of the Atlakviða (32):

“Svá gangi þér, Atli, sem þú við Gunnar áttir
eiða oft of svarða ok ár of nefnda,
at sól inni suðrhöllu ok at Sigtýs bergi,
hölkvi hvílbeðjar ok at hringi Ullar.”

Which, per Bellows’ translation:

“It shall go with thee, Atli, | as with Gunnar thou heldest
The oaths ofttimes sworn, | and of old made firm,
By the sun in the south, | by Sigtyr’s mountain,
By the horse of the rest-bed, | and the ring of Ull.”

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for shields making reference to, it would seem, the demarcation of an ‘enclosure’ via the painting of a ‘ring’ upon their surface … with this being mentioned immediately following the attestation for the shield as ‘Ship of Ullr’ – well, not least with ‘Ship’ as ‘Ritual Enclosure’ it should seem quite logical for the “hringi Ullar” to therefore be that boundary to the Sacred Space which is also painted upon His ‘Ships’, the Shields, as a ‘replication’ of the Empowered Defence for the Ritual Enclosure, the Sacred Grove, upon that shield wielded by the warrior.

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​You see, Ullr is not the only deific of the Nordic sphere that one finds referred to as being “öndur-“-deity, nor a hunter, nor an archer. There is another … that being the justly-terrific “öndurdís”, more frequently known as Skaði., I shall spare the reader a sustained further digression at this point, viz. the theology of Skaði Herself – and simply note that our work has repeatedly attested that She would resonate rather strongly with exactly Whom we might anticipate for the Wife of Óðinn...

 

One can also certainly observe that Skadi’s prominent role within the Sanctioning of Loki should seem to ‘align’ with the basic precepts for the ‘Kshetra-Pala’ style conceptry – insofar as a (would-be) Violator of the Divine Order is rendered ‘no longer a threat’, being attacked, hunted down, and even bound [we remind ourselves of what happens to the transgressors at the Precinct of Letoon – “me=pddẽ: mahãna sm̃ma-ti: ebette:”, that is they are bound “on the spot to these Gods” (I think I have some ideas how …), per Melchert’s translation; Vernet goes for the more figurative requirement of “tak[ing] responsibility before these Gods”], and with those familiar animalistic exemplars for Divine Justice and the Protection for the Sacred Space, the Serpent and the Wolf showing up party to proceedings, likewise.

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The Skáldskaparmál (21) names ULLR as öndurás, bogaás, veiðiás, and skjaldarás.

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These render, broadly speaking, as “ás” as in ‘Aesir’, ‘God’, and thus ‘Snowshoe/Ski-‘, ‘Bow-‘, ‘Hunter-‘, and ‘Shield-‘ God.

I’ve rather ‘given the game away’ via not reworking the order of various things in my rewrite of all of this from a twitter-thread earlier … but let me put it this way:

If my conjecture viz. Ullr as the Protector of the Ritual Space / Sacred Enclosure is correct … would we have any other prominent Archer / Hunter deity from another IE sphere with such a saliency & (tri)pointed responsibility to point to via way of comparative example?

Well yes … yes we would. That being Rudra.

And, more pointedly, via His ‘Vastospati’, ‘Kshetrapala’ (‘Protector of the Kṣetra’) & ‘Kshetrapati’ (‘Lord/Husband of the Kṣetra’) hailings for He.

‘Kṣetra’ being a defined / ‘enclosed’ physical space (indeed, “enclosed” is the direct term of characterization provided by Monier-Williams to several senses therein) – particularly a temple precinct or sacred space , but potentially up to even a country in scope.

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Well, as we have said – it should seem that the situation of the *Algiz … it is a ‘Space Protected’; and that quite naturally entails its *Protector*.

The point viz. Ullr having His Home at Ýdalir , the ‘Yew-Dale’ , in concert with the array of further elements for Ullr with relation to ‘Protection’ (and Ships, even!) should seem to posit Ullr as just such the ‘Protector’ Figure for this Germanic recension as to the Indo-European ‘Sacred Space’ / ‘Ritual Enclosure’.

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A matter in direct concordance with the role for Odin’s correlates elsewhere within the Indo-European spectra (great Archers, in particular) – and therefore, with the evident identification for Ullr as Odin via another Facing, bringing it all together further.

 

And thus aiding in our conceptual explication for the Elder Futhark ᛉ [*Algiz] in relation to the Younger Futhark ᛦ “Yr”, as further supported via the “-z” to “-r” thence “-y” as attested via the linguistics.

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