"Indeed, it shall not, because I am relieving you, at least temporarily,
of your duties as Head Valkyrie," he announced.
"You…uh…what? Because of one indiscretion? You are overreacting,
Sire. You, of all the gods, should know better," I stammered, still
stunned by the blow of his pronouncement.
Odin looked thoughtful for a moment. "It is time, Brynhild. I
have known for awhile now that the time was near. I just didn't know
how to tell you."
I felt my heart sinking. "Time for what?" I asked. Odin turned
around, walked over to me, and put his hands upon my shoulders.
"Brynhild, you are due to return for another lifetime on planet
Earth," he said simply.
"Good heavens!" I gasped. "Have you gone mad, Sire?
That is not possible!"
"There is no choice in the matter," Odin said smiling at
me like a benign parent. "You have to go."
"But why?" I asked, now getting visibly upset. "I can't
do it. I absolutely cannot do it. I can't go through that again."
"You can, and you must," Odin said sadly. "You will
be incarnated whole in your present form and will appear on Earth at
the human age of about 35 years. To be quite honest, I need a break.
Frigg is going insane with jealousy, and she is starting to obsess with
this issue. I cannot hide from her the true nature of my feelings for
you. This will give us both some breathing time."
"And the amnesia?" I asked, knowing that no one was allowed
to return to earth with their memories of Asgard intact.
"I can compromise with partial amnesia." Odin replied. I
breathed a sigh of relief.
"When do I have to go?" I asked.
"Report to my chambers tomorrow morning," he said simply.
And then I knew that I had been dismissed.
Needless to say, I did not get much sleep that night. I was being exiled
back to planet Earth, a primitive and dangerous cauldron of dense energies.
The next morning I rose and made my way through the labyrinth of hallways,
back to Odin's chambers, where he awaited me with bleary eyes, for he
had not slept well either. Once again he placed both hands on my shoulders.
"Are you ready?" he asked.
"Yes, Sire, I'm as ready as is both humanly and divinely possible,"
I replied.
"Then listen carefully. You will incarnate in your goddess form,
which will emerge from nothingness, on the top of a remote mountain
called Hindarfiall. It will be a dramatic event, and there can be no
human witnesses. Anyone witnessing this event will take it as a revelation
of myself, something that I would rather not deal with right now. You
will find yourself lying on a slab of stone in a white gown surrounded
by a circle of fire and dressed in a suit of armour. No one but Sigurd,
the greatest warrior of his time, will be able to penetrate that circle
of fire. He will awaken you. Do you understand?"
"Yes, I understand, Sire," I replied.
"Good. Are you quite ready?" he asked again.
"Quite," I answered, knowing full well that no one is ever
completely ready to be evicted from the heavens.
"Then raise your right arm," Odin instructed me. I did so
and the fingers of my raised right hand gently rested against the fingers
of Odin's right hand, raised high over my head. He closed his eyes and
muttered words that were magical incantations. A tornado formed itself
around us and began to wildly kick up my hair and the skirts of my white
diaphanous gown.
At that point Odin stepped back outside the circle of the tornado and
then, concentrating fiercely, he pointed at me with his right hand.
His index finger, which we often referred to as Odin's "stun gun,"
sent out waves of energy that were designed to propel me earthwards
and make me forget my life as a goddess. "You are on your way,
Brynhild," he yelled over the deafening roar of the tornado. "Be
brave, and remember me!"
And with those words, I screamed as the tornado swept me away from
Odin's chambers. I felt myself plunging, plunging, plunging into an
infinite abyss that terrified me beyond anything that mere mortals can
devise in their wildest dreams. I dropped through every one of the seven
heavens, finally leaving them behind me to enter the physical universe.
And with a crash that sounded like the impact of a thousand boulders,
I landed on the flat slab on the top of Mt. Hindarfiall. The sky had
turned black, there were a thousand lightning bolts all over the mountain,
deafening claps of thunder, and high winds that no mortal could withstand.
I was exhausted. As I drifted into unconsciousness, one thought was
forming itself. "You must remember, Brynhild, you must remember."
And then I succumbed to the overwhelming blackness of a deep, dreamless
sleep.
