That's an excellent point on "Your" versus "His" - that would indeed make it more immediate and personal, which is much of the point here.
I had to double check based on your comment, as I didn't intend to use "Fallfather," though I did consider it, though I did use "Fallhall" in place of Waelhall/Valhalla. Honestly, that might have been a misunderstanding of the etymology - I thought "fall(en)" was a more-or-less straightforward derivation from the same etymology as val, but I haven't studied Old Norse (or Old English) as closely as I should. It may have been a happy accident, though. I've come to think that Valhall as "only for those fallen in battle" might be a slight misunderstanding. For one, I've read indications that some earlier depictions of (at least parts of) Helheim were more pleasant than the only-gloomy, dreadful place that Snorri tells of. I think maybe I read that in Kvilhaug? I might have to review my notes. The other thing I read of this sort was in Kris Kershaw's One-Eyed God, which pointed out that the good part of the afterlife was likely for "all dead men of the tribe," but since all of those men would likely have been warriors, the sense of "hall for fallen warriors" became dominant. This might be a bit of wishful thinking, but when I read that, I was filled with a great sense of relief. Given my wider esoteric study than only the Germanish lore, I'm coming to think that there are more options in the afterlife than merely "dreary, unpleasant place" and "exclusive club for those who died bravely in battle in service of Odin," but thus far, it's a mostly intellectual suspicion, not based on much personal spiritual insight.
Once again, many thanks for the encouragement, and I'll keep plugging away! Jeff
Re: All-Father and Idunn poems
That's an excellent point on "Your" versus "His" - that would indeed make it more immediate and personal, which is much of the point here.
I had to double check based on your comment, as I didn't intend to use "Fallfather," though I did consider it, though I did use "Fallhall" in place of Waelhall/Valhalla. Honestly, that might have been a misunderstanding of the etymology - I thought "fall(en)" was a more-or-less straightforward derivation from the same etymology as val, but I haven't studied Old Norse (or Old English) as closely as I should. It may have been a happy accident, though. I've come to think that Valhall as "only for those fallen in battle" might be a slight misunderstanding. For one, I've read indications that some earlier depictions of (at least parts of) Helheim were more pleasant than the only-gloomy, dreadful place that Snorri tells of. I think maybe I read that in Kvilhaug? I might have to review my notes. The other thing I read of this sort was in Kris Kershaw's One-Eyed God, which pointed out that the good part of the afterlife was likely for "all dead men of the tribe," but since all of those men would likely have been warriors, the sense of "hall for fallen warriors" became dominant. This might be a bit of wishful thinking, but when I read that, I was filled with a great sense of relief. Given my wider esoteric study than only the Germanish lore, I'm coming to think that there are more options in the afterlife than merely "dreary, unpleasant place" and "exclusive club for those who died bravely in battle in service of Odin," but thus far, it's a mostly intellectual suspicion, not based on much personal spiritual insight.
Once again, many thanks for the encouragement, and I'll keep plugging away!
Jeff