Beyla the Goddess of Bees in Norse Mythology
People who have read the old Norse sagas will nod to the fact that the sagas are often written in code, which often leads people to interpret them in many ways. The spider web that we call the internet is filled with claims about this and that from Norse mythology, and one of these claims is that there is a bee Goddess named Beyla.
Beyla is the wife of Byggvir, and both of them are servants of the God Freyr. There is in fact, not much written about Beyla or her husband, but you are of course entitled to have your own opinion, just like I have my opinion. Some people have speculated that her name might mean either” little bean” or “bee”, something that I can neither confirm nor deny from my research on this. From what I can read in the Poetic Edda, she is nothing more than a servant that serves mead for the Gods and Goddesses in Asgard, and the small bits that are written of her can pretty much be read in Lokasenna.
Beyla said:
“The mountains shake, and surely, I think
From his home comes Hlorrithi now;
He will silence the man who is slandering here together both gods and men.”
Loki said:
“Be silent, Beyla! thou art Byggvir’s wife,
And deep art thou steeped in sin; A greater shame to the gods
came ne’er, Befouled thou art with thy filth.”
After this, Thor bursts in and threatens Loki, prompting him to flee.
***
There is not really anything written about bees in Norse mythology, and if anyone could be the bee queen in Norse mythology, it would make more sense if it was Freya who is the Goddess of love and fertility. If we want to read about bees from the Viking age, we need to look up the dusty old scrolls that were written by the Anglo-Saxons, but here, there is also no mention of a bee Goddess, but only of the use of honey and the warnings of the bees. An example of this poetry can be read in the Exeter Book.
The Exeter Book – Riddle 25
I am man’s treasure, taken from the woods,
Cliff-sides, hill-slopes, valleys, downs;
By day wings bear me in the buzzing air,
Slip me under a sheltering roof-sweet craft.
Soon a man bears me to a tub. Bathed,
I am binder and scourge of men, bring down
The young, ravage the old, sap strength.
Soon he discovers who wrestles with me
My fierce body-rush-I roll fools
Flush on the ground.
Robbed of strength, Reckless of speech,
a man knows no power Overhands, feet,
mind. Who am I who bind Men on Middle earth,
blinding with rage? Fools know my dark power by daylight.
***
Honeybees are dying at an alarming rate. Today, the honey bees are struggling, and many of them are disappearing at an alarming rate. We have lost the connection to nature. An increasing number of people move to bigger cities across the planet, and the effects of this urbanization, have many consequences on the environment. These concrete jungles leave little to no room for our wildlife, and the flowers that do fight their way through a crack in the ground will quickly end their fate under the shoes of a pedestrian.
Bees are very important pollinators, without which many of the crops that keep industries and families alive would suffer and die off. We need bees. We may take them and other pollinators like butterflies and hoverflies for granted, but they're vital to stable, healthy food supplies and key to the varied, colorful, and nutritious diets we need.
But bees are in trouble.
More than ever before, we need to recognize the importance of bees to nature and to our lives. And we need to turn that into action to ensure they don't just survive but thrive.
