Lay of Thund

The Lay of Thund was carved in his mound after his burial by Dain, Dvalin and Odin.

Synopsis

1. In the South lived Humnir and Asvid, the brothers.
2. They had the knowledge of an Old World, beyond the stars. They knew its ways and its tales, for they were sons of Ad’ar, the Devourer of Worlds.
3. In the South Humnir created the Nithar, the people of the Winter and Asvid the Chokwe the people of the Summer, to rule over the intelligent apes that dominated the the world.
4. Humnir and Asvid taught the Nithar and the Chokwe all they knew of the Old World, except for the Runes, the language of their father, Ad’ar, the Doom from Beyond.
5. Three days of the world passed in this way and rumour spread for the first time of the Freezing Moon, the Deceiver, the Lord of Storms and Frost, the last child and the Scourge of Ad’ar. In the form of a great dragon it had awaken in the North, freezing the world, along with his thousand children.
6. Humnir, who was the Winter, loathed the beast and Asvid forged for him two swords of the Black Iron, and Humnir marched North to slay the Freezing Moon.
7. For centuries he went North and for centuries the Nithar followed in his footsteps through the Ice and Storms of Hungargap, the dragon’s breath, in the primeval mist that covered the land.
8. The Freezing perceived their coming and send its storm and frost against them, yet Humnir and the Nithar walked on.
9. The Dragon rose from its bed and saw Humnir and his swords and was afraid its doom was near. From among the Nithar he snatched Idun the Fair to bear his children and flew north.
10. In the middle of Hungargap, in the Northern Sea, Humnir found the Freezing Moon resting, only it’s tail protruding, burning a steaming passage into the seas of the World. It’s head rested upon a rocky island, the Dragon’s Pillow.
11. Humnir charged the Serpent as the Nithar watched, but steam and mist rose to hide the fight from their eyes. Nobody saw the fight between Humnir and the Freezing Moon, except for Thund the Impatient of the Nithar, who had climbed and lived in Humnir’s beard.
12. And he was the one who sung it to the others, long after Humnir was dead. He was the one who told them how Humnir was slain by the Freezing Moon, breaking the coast into thousands of deep fjords as he fell, and how the dragon, wounded, sunk into the northern sea. Since then it is believed that when a great warrior reaches old age, and no battle can offer him his noble death, Idun the Fair, will breed a Dragon in the North, a child of the Freeing Moon, to slay him honourably in a great fight.
13. Yet Thund had lied. Humnir had never reached the sleeping Dragon, for Thund, who had long been weary of Humnir’s rule, looked at the broken coast and at the northern sea and thought he should slay Humnir and from his mind steal the Runes.
14. Thund tied Humnir’s beard around his neck and strangled him, while the Freezing Moon still slept, never stiring.
15. Humnir fell to the earth and cracked his skull and the Nithar, who did not know of Thund’s mischief, thought it was a sign. They climbed to Humnir’s forehead, that sprouted like an island out of the mist, and there built the great hall of Valhalla to be their Hall.
16. From Humnir’s spilled brains a tree grew that the Nithar say is rooted in unknown thoughts and holds the darkest knowledge of the Old World, that none of the Nithar knew, because they only knew things of this world.
17. Thund found that Humnir’s body still lived and, dreading his return, he started to cut it up from the neck down and cut it into men, he named the Norsemen. He went on, but as he got to his belly the meat of Humnir became less boney and stockier. With that meat he made the Orcs.
18. The rest of the meat was rotting and oozing by the time he got to it and could not be shaped, so he threw it away. But legend says it grew into a shapeless, formless race That worshipped Humnir and Asvid and brought to him word of his brother’s death.
19. To the Norsemen, Thund taught everything he knew and to the Orcs he sent Dvalin, of the Nithar, to teach them.
20. Meanwhile a part of Humnir’s spirit survived in his head, though the body was dead. This memory of Humnir, named Dain, decided to create a new race to do his bidding and from Humnir’s dying spirit he made the Elves.
21. Other things sprung out of Humnir’s mind: the Fir Bolg and the Fomorians and more races.
22. But Humnir’s spirit without his body had no seed to propagate and the children of the elves were frail and weak and faceless.
23. Thus the elves had to go to the world of the humans and exchange their children with the children of the intelligent apes and that is how it has ever has been. These children of men are inspired by the spirit of Humnir and become as elves, but their children too are born faceless and spiritless and have to be exchanged.
24. Thus the worlds lived on for many days, until the earth and skies shook with the footsteps of Asvid, Humnir’s brother, who came to look for him from the South. Asvid was like Humnir in size but he was black-skinned and dark-spirited, and had none of his brother’s knowledge.
25. He learned of his brother’s death and of the use of his body by Thund. He became angered and said that Humnir held in his mind all the knowledge of the Old World, that was now lost.
26. He shook his spear and threatened to crush the world and the Norsemen, Orcs and Elves formed great armies and hordes to face the giant Asvid.
27. As the armies gathered Thund, Dvalin and Dain went and stood before Asvid and they tried to convince him to make peace and give forgiveness. Finally Asvid accepted but asked for a wergeld. Thund, the slayer of Humnir, would have to be hanged from the tree that grew from Humnir’s brain and fed on his knowledge of the Old World, and be pierced by Asvid’s poisonous spear to water the Tree with his blood. There he would deliver himself and try to receive part of the knowledge that was lost.
28. Thund concented and after nine nights, deeply wounded by the spear, he fell from the Tree and came back to the others and spoke:

Wounded I hung on a wind-swept gallows For nine long nights, Pierced by a spear, pledged to Humnir, Offered, myself to myself The wisest know not from whence spring The roots of that ancient tree.

They gave me no bread, They gave me no mead, I looked down; With a loud cry I took up runes; From that tree I fell.

Nine lays of power I learned from the famous Bolthor, Bestla' s father

upon the star Ad’ar: He poured me a draught of precious mead, Mixed with magic Odrerir.

Waxed and throve well; Word from word gave words to me, Deed from deed gave deeds to me.

Runes you will find, and readable staves, Very strong staves, Very stout staves, Staves that Bolthor stained, Made by mighty powers, Graven by the prophetic Star.

For the Nithar by Odin, for the Elves by Dain, By Dvalin, too, for the Orcs, and for Asvid, the hateful Giant, And some I carved myself: Thund, before man was made, scratched them, Who rose first, fell thereafter.

Know how to cut them, know how to read them, Know how to stain them, know how to prove them, Know how to evoke them, know how to score them, know how to send them.

1. Odin, Dain, Dvalin and Asvid learned to cut, read, stain, prove, evoke, score and send the runes and went to the races they commanded to tell them peace was made.
2. The armies got dismissed, except for the Orcs, for Dvalin was of the Nithar, and Orcs did not respect him.
3. Licurzepka, mother of the Orcs, who had learned to stain the Runes, spoke:

The Orc has come here to fight and clean the world of the Old Gods

All this speaking and waiting has made him weary. We will not wait anymore. We came to cut the tongue of the Black God, and so we will.

1. The Orcs abandoned the north and Dvalin, from whom they could have learned much more and chased Asvid to the South to fight him, even on their own.
2. They followed Asvid and, through the help of the Runes, managed to find him, where he lay asleep, and cut off his long, poisonous tongue.
3. Asvid then rose to the sky screaming in pain. On the border of the Svaldbard they burned the gigantic tongue to ash and decided to bury the knowledge of the Old World.
4. Licurzepka knew that even if she died, the Runes and their secrets could be stolen from her dead head. She took the runes and the ashes of the tongue, and went into the forest. There she threw the ash into the wind, and the ash twisted the forest, so none could find his way inside it, unless she let him.
5. Now Thund looked at the spear wound on his side and saw that it would not heal.
6. In his mind the knowledge of the Old World he had seen upon the tree was driving him mad.
7. He fled from the North and spent his last days roaming the world of the southern apes, who had evolved into the races of men, screaming in agony and pain, dripping blood across the lands.
8. The humans saw his great size and had him for a God and saw him covered in blood, but did not see his wound, and thought him brutal and bloodthirsty.
9. His blood though was thick with the Knowledge of the Old World and when it fell it did not dry. It flowed heavy upon the land, and the Ways and Tales of the Old World gave life to it.
10. He died though, soon after, and was lost and forgotten.
11. The Nithar travelled to the South and found the body of Thund the Impatient of the Nithar. They returned to the North. Dvalin and Odin of the Nithar and Dain of the Elves raised a mound and carved this words to his memory.
12. This is the lay of Thund the Impatient of the Nithar, slayer of Humnir, maker and sage of the Norsemen and Orcs and this is his tomb, raised by Dvalin, sage of the Orcs and Ring-giver among the Nithar, Dain, father of the Elves, speaker of tales of the Old World and Odin of the Nithar, Ringgiver and Guardian of the North.