In a bid to make some of the content from last week’s Soma and the Mead of Poetry article more accessible, I’ve compiled a brief side-by-side comparative of the most important direct equivalencies we’ve identified between these, drawn from the Skaldskaparmal and various Vedic hymnals:

Eddic – Vedic – Meaning

E: Kvasir – V: Soma – M: ‘That Which Is Pressed’

E: Hnitbjorg (‘Clashing Rocks’) – V: Press Stones – M: where the Elixir is to be found/derived from … between the pressing-stones

E: Gunnlod – V: Saraswati (Vac) – M: Female Custodian of the Elixir, Empowerer & Granter of Wisdom

E: Gunnlod – V: Upasads – M: ‘Invitation To Advance [Clash/Approach]’, connotation of Wisdom

E: Three Nights – V: Three Nights – M: Time spent with the Above as Empowerment/Distillation/Investiture

E: Golden Throne from which Mead dispensed – V: Shining Liquid at Throne’s Symbol – M: Elixir held/dispensed from in the ritual of pressing/preparation’s (meta)physical arrangement

E: Odin/Bolverker – V: Rudra-Shiva-Agni-SomaDeva-Tvastr – M: The God Who Brings the Elixir, as well as being closely connected to the Elixir’s properties and their bestowal

E: Eagle – V: Hawk/Falcon (Shyena) – M: Form taken by the God Who Brings the Elixir in the course of its needful delivery

E: Three Vessels – V: Three Vessels – M: Three Vessels

E: Skald’s Mastery of Poetry, Knowledge, Wisdom, Odr [which has broader connotations, including fighting ability also] – V: the empowerment of the Rsi as Seer (Comprehender), and Composer of Verses, [‘Manyu’ as direct cognate for Odr], martial empowerment, preservation – M: the function and boon of the brew

Much of the supporting evidence, explanation, and surrounding context for these identifications can be found in “Soma Kvasir – The Eddic-Vedic Myth Of The Meath of Poetry”; however it should also be noted that the most surprising potential correlate to be found in the Eddic & Vedic accounts is also a speculative one. Namely, my own contention that what Sturluson was working from and seeking to immortalize via his text … was a ritualine formula which must have been passed down from considerable antiquity. How else to explain the close alignment of the narrative elements found within the Skaldskaparmal, with the functional alignments and their accompanying metaphoric conceptry in the Vedic Soma preparation hymnals. It’s just that at some point, the knowledge that that was what this was, had become obscurated – whether deliberately, or inadvertently; leaving us in a position wherein the Hnitbjorg, for instance, is often interpreted rather literally as a mountain which opens and closes and holds a treasure within it. Rather than, as we can see with the Vedic Press-Stones … two clashing rocks (occasionally referred to in Mountainous terms in the original Sanskrit) where the pressed juice integral to the elixir, for obvious reasons, to be obtained.