I am presently studying a book called "Gods of the Runes" by Frank Joseph. Besides containing information about Runes and the deities it also contains various stories which I would like to relate here. I will be rewriting them as the are written. I am also hoping to start a discussion about the stories and their possible meanings.
The first tale concerns Frija or Frigga, The Queen of the Gods.
There was once an obscure but virtuous tribe of peasants known as the Winniles. Their homeland lay in what has since become northern Italy, where they scratched out a meager existence from the flinty soil. Even so, they were content the purity of their simple lives.
One day however, they were threatened by a violent people that history remembers only to well, because they lived up to their name: the Vandals.
As the Winniles prepared to defend themselves against these dangerous barbarians, they prayed to Frija, the queen of heaven, for assistance. The the auspices of their holy man she told the Winniles that her husband, All-Father Odin, was encamped near the battlefield where the armies of the Winniles and the Vandals agreed to fight the next morning.
"Just after the sun rises," she counseled, "Have your women approach Odin's tent. Be certain that their long hair, for which they are famous, is combed over their faces."
The Winniles deemed this advice extremely peculiar but agreed to do as they were told, because they had faith in her goodness and believed she had their welfare at heart.
When Frija returned to Odin's tent, her husband was excited about the coming battle. He could hardly wait to see the action and was determined to grant victory to the Vandals, for whom he had big plans.
"But they have a bad reputation," Frija slyly told him. "Why not call them something else in the morning. Give them a new name by which they may be ever victorious."
He answered that her counsel was wise and promised that the first name he pronounced the next day would belong to an invincible people. Thus happily resolved, he set up his bed so that it faced westward, in the direction of the Vandals bivouac. Evening fell, Odin drifted into a deep sleep and was soon lost in dreams of his world conquering army.
Just then, Frija stealthy turned his bed, so that it now faced East, away from the Vandals encampment, while her husband snored away. She patiently waited through the night until dawn, then flung back the tent flaps and loudly disturbed her husband's rest. Odin, get up! See your victorious warriors are coming!"
The cobwebs of sleep still hung to his drowsy mind a he squinted into the rising sun. In the nearly blinding radiance he could barely make out a host of figures slowly approaching through the morning mists. It was the Winniles women, their long hair combed down over their faces, just as Frija had bade them.
"Who are those long beards?" he asked groggily.
She exclaimed, "Those are the victors of this day, because you have given them a new name, just as you promised!"
Henceforth, the Winniles were known as the Long Beards, better known as the Lombards. They handily defeated the Vandals and stripped the vanquished foe of so much war booty that their hitherto impoverished realm was forever transformed into one of the richest jewels in the Italian crown: Lombardy. The vandals disappeared from history, leaving behind only their name, still synonymous with willful brainless destruction. When Odin was fully awake, he laughed heartily at the witty deception practiced on him by his wife, and he commended her for her manipulative skill.
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