was guarded by a maiden to whom he had to declare his name and family
(Gylf. 49).
In the Latvian songs it is a muddy marsh that has to be crossed, with no
bridge or ferry. In one song (LD 34264 = Jonval no. 1169) the soul of a dead
girl addresses the Mother of the Velaniesˇi, the spirits of the dead, and asks
how she is to get across. The answer comes, ‘lift up your skirts, girl, and cross
barefoot’. In another we read:
Be ready, be ready, Mother of the Spirits,
here comes the one you are expecting,
her skirts black with the muddy water. (LD 27530 = Jonval no. 1182)Gates, border control‘Then Hermóðr rode on till he came to Hel’s gates.’ Hel’s walls, we are
advised in another passage of Gylfaginning (34), are extremely high, and her
gates strong. The Indian funeral text quoted above mentioned the gates
of Yama. There are several references in Homer and Hesiod to the gates of
Hades. Hades’ house is ‘wide-gated’,ε1ρυπυλ, and he himself is the gate-
fastener, πυλα ́ ρτη. Baltic mythology too knows of gates or doors forming
the entrance to the other world.^46
It is natural that a dwelling should have a gate to go in by, and equally
natural that this gate should be guarded, to ensure that the right people go in,
and in the case of the underworld to ensure that they do not get out again. In
Aristophanes’Frogs (464) Dionysus knocks on Hades’ door and it is answered
by the doorkeeper, who demands to know his name. In other Greek sources
this doorkeeper was identified as Aiakos. In the traditional tales of the Ossetes
the kingdom of the dead is entered by iron gates guarded by a doorkeeper
called Aminon. The hero Soslan goes there because he needs to obtain leaves
from a certain tree that only grows in the land of the dead. Aminon refuses to
open the door for him because he has not died, but he breaks in by force.^47 In
a Latvian song a girl asks her mother to bake her a loaf when she buries her so
that she can give it to the Mother (or the children) of the Spirits for the
opening of the door.^48
(^46) Mannhardt (1936), 59 (nine gates, thirteenth century), 62 f.
(^47) Sikojev (1985), 45, 53, 116. For Near Eastern parallels see West (1997), 157 f.
(^48) LD 27434 = Jonval no. 1156, cf. 27435, 27527, 27531 = J. 1157, 1163 f.; Mannhardt
(1936), 62.
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