Hyndla

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Hyndla, the Nordic goddess of genealogy, bloodlines, and family trees. Watcher of the Ancestors, she lives in a faraway frozen cave and walks the red roads from parent to child to grandchild, and knows the secrets of genetics. Hail to the Blood-Hound Goddess!

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Deep in the northern mountains of Jotunheim lies the cave of the giantess-goddess Hyndla, the Hag (wisewoman) of the northern mountains, and the goddess of genealogy and bloodlines. Why do we have a goddess of genealogy? Who knows? But we do. Hyndla can see into every genetic line, and  knows everything there is to know about everyone’s kin and clan. She is a mistress of bloodlines; ancestry is her specialty, and it is rumored that she spends her astral-travel time walking up and down the bloodlines of many races. The Gods consult her when they want to know something about how someone is related to someone else, or for advice on their various human breeding experiments. Non-gods consult her about discovering unknown ancestors, tracing genetic disorders, dealing with blood-curses, asking about future children, or anything else that requires an ability to see into bloodlines far away.

Hyndla’s gifts include helping those who are adopted to get some idea of their parentage, and to help anyone who is interested in finding out about their ancestry. She knows a great deal about genetic diseases, and while she is not a healer, she can help with getting genetic illnesses diagnosed, and one could perhaps pray to her to help find conventional treatment. She knows whether any given trait will be passed down through the blood to any given child, so people who want to have children and are worried about passing along diseases might speak to her. She can tell you whether your bloodline is cursed, as well. She is especially good for consultations about humans with problems from nonhuman blood.

It is said that at one time she lived in Svartalfheim and guarded the mead of poetry for Ivaldi, king of the Duergar, but two Duergar brothers stole the mead (and later lost it to Suttung), and Hyndla retired to a cave in the northern mountains. She spends most of her time sleeping, or what looks like sleeping to some folk; actually, she is "faring forth", sending her mind out where her body cannot go. Her cave is guarded by a band of loyal etins, who will not see her disturbed when she is unconscious, so seeing her is only possible during the short periods when she wakes up to eat and walk about a little. Hyndla is small for a giantess - not more than human size - and wizened and old, with long silver-grey hair that drapes on the ground around her. She is pale from almost never leaving her cave, and walks with a stick. Her apparent frailty makes her guards all the more protective of her.

Hyndla is generally friendly, but can be cantankerous if she has just awoken. Flirting with her will usually soften her, but be prepared to go through with it if she decides to take you up on it; for all that she is old and wrinkled, she is also lusty. Her name means "hound" and she does indeed have a small pack of silver-colored greyhounds as pets, usually lolling about her and keeping her warm. She can shapeshift into a hound herself, or a dog-headed woman; it is in this form that she appears on a famous carved Icelandic stone. She has a stable of pet dogs and wolves; some of the latter are large enough to ride as steeds. In the lay Hyndlujod, Freyja comes in riding on a boar and suggests that Hyndla accompany her for a ride on one of her wolves while they discuss genealogy. This is another example of how powerful this little giantess is in her own specialty; for the Vanadis to consult her, she must be skilled indeed.

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

• Invocation to Hyndla by Raven Kaldera
• Bloodline Curse Aversion Rite for Hyndla by Raven Kaldera
• Hyndla's Lesson: Bloodwalking by Raven Kaldera
• Bloodlines by Raven Kaldera
• The Power Of Bloodlines by Lydia Helasdottir
• In Praise Of Hyndla by Elizabeth Vongvisith