Drinking the Eye in the Well

“Mimir drinks mead every morning from Valfather’s [Odin’s] pledge.
Poetic Edda, Voluspa 28 - Chisholm translation.

Ya ever wonder just how Mimir goes about doing this? How does a floating head drink an eye? There’s the no hands issue. And while there’s a mouth it kind of goes not much of anywhere without too much of a neck or anything else. Mostly though, how does an eye get drank again and again. And how does it get drank at all and yet stay in the well?

I had a vision. It was really quite lovely. What I saw was a ray of light glance through the water of Mimir’s well and hit the blue of Odin’s iris as His eye lay submerged there. The water reflected the blue, the essence of the eye and radiated that blue back into the water, infusing that area in front of the eye with Wishfather‘s pledge. I saw this brilliant blue and gold water scooped up in a flat sided antique travel glass with flaked gold leaf patterning and chips along one edge, as though it had been often used. Completely UPG and then some, of course. But interesting as it is a twizzler just how Mimir drinks the pledge laid in His well. The idea of infusing water with the essence of something is used with runes, stones, precious metals, and more. It’s a flexible and adaptable theory.

It’s actually been quite some time since this vision was shown to me. But I’m reading ‘The One Eyed God Odin and the (Indo)Germanic Mannerbunde’ and it posits quite early in the first chapter how very odd the eye in the well concept is and wonders how drinking the pledge could be done. This reminded me of what I’d seen of Runefather’s pledge and I was suddenly filled with inspiration to share what I’d seen in meter and rhyme. Hope you like it.

Blue Eye Shine

Allfather’s eye in Uncle’s well.
Brilliant blue - the Old Man’s pledging.
  Drinks the jotun of this ransom,
As dawning Sunna glancing glances.
Rays of brilliance bend through water.
Flashing fire golden glinting.
  To the depths, the hidden depths,
  Seeks reflection deep submerged.
Scooped the vision of His seeing,
Watery the line of sight.
Old god from younger’s pledge is drinking,
Reflected bright by Sunna light.
Ocular insert, wisdom’s seeming.
Seeming, gleaming, glint to know.
Swiftly flying Sunna shining,
Shining rays into below.
Iris blue regarding outward,
In reflection ray doth show.
Well for thinking.
Horn for drinking.
Eye reflecting, shine directing.
Mimir’s water Wisdom’s letting.
Inspiration, memories racing,
Deepest thoughts are chasing chasing.
In the well all things are altered.
Seeing seeming things sublime.
And in the well His eye is gleaming.
Gleaming, seeming, biding time.

© 1/3/2012 Jackie Rae Hannigan aka Crowfuzz