Mnemosyne and Muninn

Mnemosyne, Mother Goddess of the Muses fair,

Sat beside the Lake Lethe in Hades-Dis below,

Her body limp and her eyes sad and worn with care,

Dead men came to drink the waters, so their past they won’t know.

“Oh great contradiction!” She cried arms flung out, distraught,

Mnemosyne-Memory, yet this pool Forgetting is in my care,

Would that I Memory might forget; Oh strange thought!”

Brooding thus, she gazed into the pools depths, of Death’s lair.

Meanwhile in the North Kingdom of Asgard, Aesir gods here dwell,

Odin sat upon his gilded throne, as in came Huginn and Muninn,

Thought and Memory whispering to All-Father, what on Earth had befell,

“Mnemosyne Goddess, drinks of contradiction.” The Ravens spoke in unison.

“Ah!” All-Father declared “that Memory should forget? Strange indeed.”

Muninn bowed low and spoke thus, “recalling the past, at times it ‘tis hard.

Sorrow is welled up, bitter hate overflows and passions leads desires only to heed.”

“This I must see” All-Father spoke resolved, and disguised himself into strange garb.

Past Styx and Cerberus, traveled the god Odin as a peddler dressed,

Until finding the pool Lethe and the Goddess Mnemosyne sitting beside its shore,

Her hands cupped with the forgetting water within, her face downcast and distressed.

“Relief here I shall find” she thought aloud “to recall the past and the pains I shall no more!”

Odin at this time, a compromise discovered, stopping the goddess in her rash deed.

“Memory indeed is both good and evil” consoled the All-knowing one,

“To bear it all alone is too much to ask of any immortal; bitterness is sown a seed,

In the hearts fertile field. To lighten your load, is why I have now come.”

In the art of Incantation and magic the All-Father is well versed,

Weaving a spell which caused a great Oak to grow up beside the Lake.

“This oak, all sorrows shall bear. For you it is the duty to recall, yet the curse!

The pain recalling does bring, this Oak carries from this day on, for thy sake.”

Mnemosyne now is not alone in carrying about the past in her heart,

Just as Munnin has Huginn, now each together may play their part.

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Thank you so much for checking out my poem. The meter is a little different from my typical flow, but I hope you liked it. I tried to echo the flow of the great Jomsviking saga.

You can checkout more about Mnemosyne here: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mnemosyne

Here is Hugin and Munin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huginn_and_Muninn

I can't help but think of the Titans Prometheus and Epimetheus when I think of Odin's two Ravens! Let me know if you agree!

Here's a brief Wikipedia page about the epic Jomsvikinga:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3msv%C3%ADkinga_saga

Thank you again! :)