We are pleased to return to Winter-Light with the latest Gydja album, Þjóðáar Fnæstu Eitri. This new album continues the journey that began in Ar var Alda with its depiction of cosmic creation within the vast primordial void of Ginnungagap. Now the focus turns to Élivágar, the great eleven-fold river whose venomous waters flowed into the void in that moment of cosmological nascency, and would continue to make their way through the underworld after the establishment of the universe.
These eleven Þjóðáar Fnæstu Eitri (‘mighty streams, spewing venom’) act as markers of liminality and initiation, dividing zones of both geography and experience, and bearing names that define their transformative characteristics: Leiptr (lightning), Fimbulþul (mighty mumbler), Gjöll (resounding), Fjörm (hurrying), Sliðr (terrible), Ylgr (she-wolf), Gunnþrá (battle-trough), Svöl (cool), Við (wide), Hrið (storm) and Sylgr (swallower).