Hahahaha! Whuz up yourself.
Yllmar: Done fishing for the time being. Must say, you planted a seed...
As to where Freya got her power, Susan suggest you check the Sigrdrifumal. You should anyway, it's a good read and contains many things that I think are integral parts of undrstanding the faith. Available on line for free. Anyhow: "He (Odin) says she has knowledge of the "nine worlds" and wants to be taught."
I love asking Susan things like this, because I tend to look at things only in regards to the faith, because "I am already Swedish". I forget that the cultural context is given to me "for free", whereas you guys often have to have it explained to you. I don't mean that in a condescending way!!!! It's just like when you speak English as a first language, nobody has to explain to you why you sometimes say "a" and sometimes say "an", you just do it naturally - I do that with the cultural context - whereas those of us that learn English as a second language from scratch need to have it explained. I want to be good at that, but one has to have vast knowledge about the faith and the litterature and society as a whole, beyond what I have. I can pull that off with bronze age faith, but not with Iron age, which may seem weird, since I am asatru myself. Again, I've had to learn bronze age from scratch, with nothing for free, which is why. Sometimes I just can't explain why something is that way, "it just is", but Susan can put it into a context. On the runes, she says "He sacrificed, a near death experience (shaman initiation) and took up something that was already there, and if he's in the world of the dead he is getting it from there. In cultural terms, isn't that the picking up of somehting that's held in memory or that is already in the well? I think it's significant, for personal reasons, that "none gave him water or bread." As part of a shamanic initiation, "they" not giving him bread and water, may have been his *teachers* that were bringing about the initiation. Take a look at any book on the training of shamans and the very severe means involved. I like to suggest that to people who go on about mushrooms on the shaman list. :> (Me too!/T) Try starvation and bleeding...
The connection to shamanism has to do with the singing and the calling of spirits. But one "does seid" along with other things."