Odainsakr, Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring and Elysium
KalinThroughout European and Indo-European-inspired cultures, we can observe a recurring theme of sacred realms or Heaven. In Celtic beliefs there is the land of Tír na nÓg, a land possibly ruled by Manannan, a land of eternal youth. The Elysian Fields in Greek lore are a land where heroes would stay in a paradise separate from the Underworld. This is also the case in Germanic or rather Norse literature, with Valhall. We find the same concept within Tibetan Buddhism and some Vedic beliefs, often accompanied by much more literature on the subject. The Tibetans specifically have a special knowledge and reverence of the subject, as well as Bon religious beliefs.
Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring
Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring, also known as the Nine-Story Swastika Mountain, is a realm or place known to the Tibetans as a paradise where no-one dies or feels hardship. It is also associated with Shiva/Rudra and his abode Mount Kailash. This bears strange parallels to the Germanic story of Odainsakr, located in Glæsisvellir, which is found in Jotunheim and attested in Hervarar Saga and Eiriks Saga. A King named Godmund, who is known as "Wolf-Headed", rules this place and supports the worship of a God named Jomali, attested in Bosa Saga ok Herrauds.
The Zhanzhung were possibly an Indo-European people established in Central and Western Tibet near Mount Kailash, around 500 BC, lasting until their conquest around 600 AD. They are largely associated with the Bon ethnic religion and are credited as its originators. The Bon religion, as well as Tibetan Buddhism, have direct ties to Indo-European culture. This can be traced to one man of the Zhangzhung known as Shenrab Miwo, who has many similarities to Gautama Buddha himself. According to Bon tradition, he learned their doctrine in a place called Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring, ending in his pledging himself to the Bon God of Compassion, Shenlha Okar. The Zhangzhung got their traditions — the Bon traditions — from this place as well. Tibetans pray to be reborn there after death. Shenrab Miwo also is said to have inspired much of Vedic religion and they also see Mount Kailash as a holy place, along with the Bon and Buddhists of Tibet. Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring is said to be located in or near Mount Kailash and is a kingdom full of incarnated deities and beings who have achieved a state of Non-Dualism. The sky is shaped like an eight-spoked Dharmachakra and full of beautiful plants and mound like temples. Bonpo people claim that Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring is not a physical place that people can access in dualistic and unrealized states, so then it is not the physical Mount Kailash, but the mountain itself is matching in description as a pyramidal mountain aligned with the cardinal directions. In Hinduism it is the abode of Shiva and Parvati, as well their children Ganesha and Kartikeya. It is seen as an Axis Mundi in both Tibetan Bon traditions and Hinduism, akin to Mount Olympus. Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring is also related to the myth of Shambhala, which is talked about in the Kalachakra Tantra, which was started when King Manjuśrīkīrti exiled 20,000 of his people for Sun worship. After realizing his need for them, he welcomed some back, but the rest of the exiles founded the city of Shambhala. This place is also where Kalki will be born according to the Puranaic texts, as well as the Kalachakra Tantra, where he and his knights will destroy the impure and evil, and usher in a new Golden Age.
Odainsakr
Odainsakr is another myth of a sacred realm ruled by the Jotun-King Godmund Úlfhéðinn who may be an early version of Odin, and Odainsakr an early version of Valhall. This land is known as the "Deathless Acre" located in Glæsisvellir, the "Glittering Plains", in the eastern land of Jotunheim. This is described in multiple sagas, but Eirik's saga is an interesting version as it claims that it's located east of India, which might be close to where modern day Tibet stands. In Eiriks saga, Eirik ventures to Byzantium and meets the King of Byzantium who implores him to convert to Christianity and after three years of study, as well as a baptism, he and the King travel to Odainsakr. The King also says there is a wall (pillar?) of fire guarding the way into Odainsakr. This wall of fire also resembles Shiva's Aum Pillar, which stems from Shiva's abode, Mount Kailash.
"Brahma and Vishnu were very surprised to see the pillar of fire, which was so enormous in size that it reached the sky and penetrated down below the earth. Vishnu transformed himself into a boar and went to the 'Patal' (nether world) to find the base of that 'pillar of fire'. But he was unsuccessful in his attempt and came back." —Shiva Mahapurana, p. 5
This is a very odd similarity to Mount Kailash, which is also a stairway to Svarga Loka, a Heaven comparable to Valhall, but there are many differences due to the changes in cosmology from Vedic to Puranic. As stated before, Odainsakr may have influenced the idea of Valhalla or may have been an earlier version of the Norse afterlife, being a land of undying and happiness as well as a warrior’s paradise. Valhalla of course is the abode of Odin, who is most cognate to Shiva, or rather Rudra, another odd similarity. Godmund is speculated by multiple scholars to be a deity in of himself, that was possibly absorbed into Odin's mythos. Possibly a death-demon associated with Sleipnir and the wild hunt, his role in later Sagas is that of a spiritual helping hand that continues the worship of a long extinct or unknown-to-us cult of the god Jomali, who is related to the Sami god Waralden Olmai, or Jumala to the Finns. Another myth in the Eyrbyggja saga tells of a mountain, Helgafell, in which the dead go and is so sacred that nothing should be killed on the mountain. This ties very well into the theme of a "Deathless Acre" and coincides with the belief of an axis mundi being its home.
Elysian Fields
The Elysian Fields, governed by Cronus in some myths, who is a good cognate for Odin and Shiva or rather Rudra, are much the same as the other views on afterlife. Heroes and honorable men who kept their vows would experience eternal life and no hardship in the Fields of Elysium, and spend their days with the Gods themselves, much like Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring, where there are said to be many incarnated deities waiting. The legendary poet and musician Orpheus once made his way into the Otherworld as a mortal, to retrieve his wife who had died in an untimely manner, and was under specific rules to retrieve her: he could not look back at her on his way back to this world. Though some say he was tricked from the beginning, he was not able to follow these stipulations and at the last moment looked back at his wife, and she was gone forever. The interesting part of this story is the implication that a man could enter the Otherworld physically as opposed to after he had died. Like it is claimed for the Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring, being in a Non-Dualist state is required to enter as a living mortal, it must have been similar to the Greek Elysium; but instead of a Non-Dualist state, a pact with the Gods must be made to enter and complete a goal.
And they live untouched by sorrow in the islands of the blessed along the shore of deep-swirling Ocean, happy heroes for whom the grain-giving earth bears honey-sweet fruit flourishing thrice a year, far from the deathless gods, and Cronos rules over them. — Hesiod, Works and Days
Final Thoughts
The focus of this article was to bring lesser known or obscure aspects of these mythologies to light such as Odainsakr and even some aspects of the Elysian Fields. Also to show the odd similarity between these places and the Tibetan belief of Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring or Nine-Story Swastika Mountain, as well as their possible Indo-European origins. The origins or localized version of Valhall has interesting implications, as well as the Death Daimon Godmund who is seen as a "fertility" deity by some and a Rudraic deity by most accounts. The Rudraic deities seem to be the most common rulers of this Otherworld, being Odin, Shiva and Cronus. The comparison has been further elucidated on with posts by the eminent researcher of the Sun Riders known as O'Gravy. I hope you enjoyed this post on some of the lesser known aspects of Indo-European-inspired mythology.