The strength travelling in or across her (Hel's) river, through strong currents, is Baldr, who died and was sent to the underworld in a boat.
Then came the sorcerer/Váli (the chosen, who had become a god), born from the grave (the bear's lair in the land of the gods), the realm of the dead.
The swimming fish were the berserks, known from the myth about Valhöll as Þjóðvitnir's fish, standing guard, to prevent unworthy men from entering. The sorcerers/Váli lead a procession of initiates, riding from farm to farm, across the land, screaming, shouting, hunting and wielding torches, to kill the winter spirits. They were the disguised men, the Trojan horse, who fought in the dangerous battle of Ragnarök; the dangerous feast.
We don't know why this rune stone was made, nor do we know why it was found with the runes pointing down to the ground. Perhaps it was done to prevent unworthy ones from reading the runes. Perhaps it was shown only to those who were to learn these secrets.
6.2 Ívarr Ellison
Archaeology supports my theories, but also folk songs, and I want to provide you with an example; a song about Ívarr Ellison (younger name of the song is Ivar Elison). This is a medieval Norwegian song about a young man who was sent to school and who read books. His father had been killed with weapons, and no one had yet demanded vengeance. Someone then asked for vengeance. Ívarr was at school, because the priests wanted him to study. He then went to the playing field and played ball with his friends, until they were both blue and yellow (i. e. bruised badly). This was no game for women. They then sat down and the boys were angry at him for not having avenged his father's murder. Ívarr went into the stone room where he met his mother, and asked for the truth about where his father had gone. She picked up a silver ball and was very pale, before she said that his father had planned to give him this as a weapon. A horse waited for him in the stable, with grey fax, that had never been ridden before, according to his father. His father's bloodied shirt was hanging outside on the stone wall, she said, and she could tell that it had not been used since his father had been killed. Ívarr wondered if he had to go to church the next day and see his father's murderer, but he did not. He had to take two of his relatives, Pétr (the Greek name Peter, "rock", "cut") and Jon (the Hebrew name Johanan, "god is gracious"). You have to remember that this is a song recorded in Christian times. The three mounted their horses and rode away, and by the castle gate Ívarr turned toward his mother and said to her that she had to live well. The mother turned away in tears, and failed to answer her son.
When Ívarr and his entourage came to the murderer's farm he was told by the murderer that he knew Ívarr's horse, but not the rider. Was it perhaps Ívarr Ellison who came home from school? They dismounted their horses and went inside. Ívarr smiled and said to his father's murderer:
Heill sitir þú, Hermóðr illi, Glad you are sitting, Hermóðr the bad,
alls undir þitt gúla hár. under your yellow hair.
Munt þú nökkut kunnigr vera Do you know (anything about)
hverr minn föður vá? who killed my father?
Sure, maybe he knew who had killed his father, and he thought it was late to come for vengeance. Ívarr was a capable man, but said he would ride with his company to church and not talk about it. Hermóðr wanted no peace for Ívarr and told his men that they should ride with him after Ívarr and kill him and his company. Ívarr saw them coming and asked his men if they wanted to run away. They did not want to run and instead charged their assailants. Pétr cut two of them from their horses and they fell dead to the ground. Ívarr drew his sword from its sheath and attacked with all strength. He split the shield and mail and Hermóðr was cut in two halves by the navel. Ívarr and his relatives rode home happy from the desolate woods, where six men were left wounded and seven dead.
Back home Ívarr's mother Elli (“old age”, “old days”) saw that he was bleeding, and thought that it would be better if he had stayed home and healed his wounds. Good health was important, she said. He had received the wounds in combat, and was happy he had. Elli went to the stone room, mixed mead and wine and brought it to the three waiting on the hayloft.
This song was not a song of vengeance in medieval Norway, but about Ívarr ("archer") Ellison; the archer was a son of the past. Ívarr was a capable man, who won the bride race, the dangerous ball game that was not for women. He was thus a chosen, a king/sorcerer. His father, Óðinn, was killed during Ragnarök and this Ívarr had to avenge. He got his weapons from the goddess of death, who in the song was his mother, waiting in the stone room (the grave). His father's belongings had been buried with him, and now Ívarr went in to the grave to collect them. He rode disguised as his father, with uncut hair and a bloodied shirt on – to prove to the guardians of the grave that he was dead and should be let in. Ívarr challenged Hermóðr and his men, who sat with the hair covering their faces, and rode out into the desolate woods, to Víðarr ( "forest"), where the battle was to take place. They cut down Hermóðr and the other berserks, who had their hair (bear hides and wolf furs) hanging down over their faces and therefore were blinded, like Höðr. They drank mead and wine, on The Day of Eldbjørg (“fire-rescue”), to celebrate that Ragnarök was over and that Óðinn's death had been avenged. The Sun would again get its strength back.
6.3 The Love of the Grave
The fairy tales are the longest surviving Pagan stories in Europe. In Christian times they were seen as “unchristian” and were therefore told in secret. Maids and servants often told these tales to children as bedtime stories, without their parents knowing about it. The most widely-known fairy tale is the one about Cinderella ("old ash"), that we know in various forms from almost all cultures across Eurasia.
Cinderella was marked from birth; her mother died when Cinderella was born. She was a sweet and hard-working girl who was badly treated by her step sisters and her stepmother. She slept in the ash (ashes?), and was therefore called Cinderella. When her father went away one day she asked if he could not bring back the first branch that fell down on his hat. He came back and gave her a branch from the hazel tree. She took it to her mother's grave, placed it on the grave and cried, watering the branch with her tears. It grew up and became a mighty bush. A pigeon sat down in the bush and told her that she could have three wishes granted.
When a ball was held in the king's palace everyone was invited, but Cinderella was not allowed by her stepmother to go. She begged and begged her for permission to go, and eventually the mother took a shovel with grain and poured it into the ash(es), and said that if Cinderella was able to pick up every grain in the course of two hours she would be allowed to go to the ball. Cinderella asked the pigeons for help and within an hour all the grains were back on the shovel. She was however still not allowed to go. She went to the pigeons again and asked them for a beautiful white dress with a veil for the face, and she went to the ball anyway. The prince at the ball did not pay any attention to Cinderella's sisters, and instead he danced with Cinderella all evening. The same thing happened the second day, and the third. The first two days the prince wanted to take her back home, but did not find her, but the third day she lost one of her shoes. The prince picked it up and went looking for her. When the prince came to the farm where Cinderella lived her step sisters cut their heals off, in an attempt to fit into the shoe, but they did not. Pigeons landed on the prince's shoulder and whispered to him that it was not them he was looking for. Finally the Prince found Cinderella and he kissed her.