The Edda, Vol. 일 1

The Edda, Vol. 일 1

The Edda, Vol. 1

The Divine Mythology of the North, Popular Studies in Mythology,

Romance, and Folklore, No. 12

: Winifred Faraday

 

Author's Note

 

Some explanation is needed of the form of spelling I have adopted

in transcribing Norse proper names. The spirants thorn and eth

are represented by _th_ and _d_, as being more familiar to readers

unacquainted with the original. Marks of vowel-length are in all cases

omitted. The inflexional _-r_ of the nominative singular masculine

is also omitted, whether it appears as _-r_ or is assimilated to a

preceding consonant (as in Odinn, Eysteinn, Heindall, Egill) in the

Norse form, with the single exception of the name Tyr, where I use

the form which has become conventional in English.

 

Manchester,

December 1901.

 

 

 

 

The Edda: I. The Divine Mythology of the North

 

 

The Icelandic Eddas are the only vernacular record of Germanic

heathendom as it developed during the four centuries which in England

saw the destruction of nearly all traces of the heathen system. The

so-called Elder Edda is a collection of some thirty poems, mythic and

heroic in substance, interspersed with short pieces of prose, which

survives in a thirteenth-century MS., known as the Codex Regius,

discovered in Iceland in 1642; to these are added other poems of

similar character from other sources. The Younger Edda is a prose

paraphrase of, and commentary on, these poems and others which are

lost, together with a treatise on metre, written by the historian

Snorri Sturluson about 1220.

 

This use of the word Edda is incorrect and unhistorical, though

convenient and sanctioned by the use of several centuries. It was early

used as a general term for the rules and materials for versemaking,

and applied in this sense to Snorri's work. When the poems on which

his paraphrase is founded were discovered, Icelandic scholars by a

misunderstanding applied the name to them also; and as they attributed

the collection quite arbitrarily to the historian Saemund (1056-1133),

it was long known as Saemundar Edda, a name now generally discarded in

favour of the less misleading titles of Elder or Poetic Edda. From its

application to this collection, the word derives a more extended use,

(1) as a general term for Norse mythology; (2) as a convenient name

to distinguish the simpler style of these anonymous narrative poems

from the elaborate formality of the Skalds.

 

The poems of the Edda are certainly older than the MS., although

the old opinion as to their high antiquity is untenable. The majority

probably date from the tenth century in their present form; this dating

does not necessitate the ascription of the shape in which the legends

are presented, still less of their substance, to that period. With

regard to the place of their composition opinions vary widely,

Norway, the British Isles and Greenland having all found champions;

but the evidence is rather questionable, and I incline to leave

them to the country which has preserved them. They are possibly of

popular origin; this, together with their epic or narrative character,

would account for the striking absence from them of some of the chief

characteristics of Skaldic poetry: the obscuring of the sense by the

elaborate interlacing of sentences and the extensive use of kennings

or mythological synonyms, and the complication of the metre by such

expedients as the conjunction of end-rhyme with alliteration. Eddie

verse is governed solely by the latter, and the strophic arrangement

is simple, only two forms occurring: (1) couplets of alliterative

short lines; (2) six-line strophes, consisting of a couplet followed

by a single short line, the whole repeated.

 

Roughly speaking, the first two-fifths of the MS. is mythological,

the rest heroic. I propose to observe this distinction, and to

deal in this study with the stories of the Gods. In this connexion,

Snorri's Edda and the mythical Ynglinga Saga may also be considered,

but as both were compiled a couple of centuries or more after the

introduction of Christianity into Iceland, it is uncertain how much in

them is literary explanation of tradition whose meaning was forgotten;

some also, especially in Snorri, is probably pure invention, fairy

tale rather than myth.

 

Many attempts have been made to prove that the material of the Edda

is largely borrowed. The strength and distinction of Icelandic poetry

rest rather on the fact that it is original and national and, like

that of Greece, owes little to foreign sources; and that it began in

the heathen age, before Christian or Romantic influences had touched

Iceland. Valuable as the early Christian poetry of England is, we look

in vain there for the humour, the large-minded simplicity of motive,

the suggestive character-drawing, the swift dramatic action, which

are as conspicuous in many poems in the Edda as in many of the Sagas.

 

Omitting the heroic poems, there are in Codex Regius the following: (1)

Of a more or less comprehensive character, _Völuspa, Vafthrudnismal,

Grimnismal, Lokasenna, Harbardsljod_; (2) dealing with episodes,

_Hymiskvida, Thrymskvida, Skirnisför. Havamal_ is a collection

of proverbs, but contains two interpolations from mythical

poems; _Alvissmal_, which, in the form of a dialogue between

Thor and a dwarf Alviss, gives a list of synonyms, is a kind of

mythologico-poetical glossary. Several of these poems are found

in another thirteenth-century vellum fragment, with an additional

one, variously styled _Vegtamskvida_ or _Baldr's Dreams_; the great

fourteenth-century codex Flateybook contains _Hyndluljod_, partly

genealogical, partly an imitation of _Völuspa_; and one of the MSS. of

Snorri's Edda gives us _Rigsthula_.

 

_Völuspa_, though not one of the earliest poems, forms an appropriate

opening. Metrical considerations forbid an earlier date than the

first quarter of the eleventh century, and the last few lines are

still later. The material is, however, older: the poem is an outline,

in allusions often obscure to us, of traditions and beliefs familiar to

its first hearers. The very bareness of the outline is sufficient proof

that the material is not new. The framework is apparently imitated from

that of the poem known as _Baldr's Dreams_, some lines from which are

inserted in _Völuspa_. This older poem describes Odin's visit to the

Sibyl in hell-gates to inquire into the future. He rides down to her

tomb at the eastern door of Nifl-hell and chants spells, until she

awakes and asks: "What man unknown to me is that, who has troubled me

with this weary journey? Snow has snowed on me, rain has beaten me,

dew has drenched me, I have long been dead." He gives the name Wegtam,

or Way-wise, and then follow question and answer until she discovers

his identity and will say no more. In _Völuspa_ there is no descriptive

introduction, and no dialogue; the whole is spoken by the Sibyl,

who plunges at once into her story, with only the explanatory words:

"Thou, Valfather, wouldst have me tell the ancient histories of men as

far as I remember." She describes the creation of the world and sky

by Bor's sons; the building by the Gods of a citadel in Ida-plain,

and their age of innocence till three giant-maids brought greed of

gold; the creation of the dwarfs; the creation of the first man and

woman out of two trees by Odin, Hoeni and Lodur; the world-ash and

the spring beside it where dwell the three Norns who order the fates

of men. Then follows an allusion to the war between the Aesir and the

Vanir, the battle with the giants who had got possession of the goddess

Freyja, and the breaking of bargains; an obscure reference to Mimi's

spring where Odin left his eye as a pledge; and an enumeration of his

war-maids or Valkyries. Turning to the future, the Sibyl prophesies

the death of Baldr, the vengeance on his slayer, and the chaining of

Loki, the doom of the Gods and the destruction of the world at the

coming of the fire-giants and the release of Loki's children from

captivity. The rest of the poem seems to be later; it tells how the

earth shall rise again from the deep, and the Aesir dwell once more

in Odin's halls, and there is a suggestion of Christian influence in

it which is absent from the earlier part.

 

Of the other general poems, the next four were probably composed before

950; in each the setting is different. _Vafthrudnismal_, a riddle-poem,

shows Odin in a favourite position, seeking in disguise for knowledge

of the future. Under the name of Gangrad (Wanderer), he visits the

wise giant Vafthrudni, and the two agree to test their wisdom: the one

who fails to answer a question is to forfeit his head. In each case

the questions deal first with the past. Vafthrudni asks about Day and

Night, and the river which divides the Giants from the Gods, matters of

common knowledge; and then puts a question as to the future: "What is

the plain where Surt and the blessed Gods shall meet in battle?" Odin

replies, and proceeds to question in his turn; first about the creation

of Earth and Sky, the origin of Sun and Moon, Winter and Summer, the

Giants and the Winds; the coming of Njörd the Wane to the Aesir as

a hostage; the Einherjar, or chosen warriors of Valhalla. Then come

prophetic questions on the destruction of the Sun by the wolf Fenri,

the Gods who shall rule in the new world after Ragnarök, the end of

Odin. The poem is brought to a close by Odin's putting the question

which only himself can answer: "What did Odin say in his son's ear

before he mounted the pyre?" and the giant's head is forfeit.

 

In the third poem of this class, _Grimnismal_, a prose introduction

relates that Odin and Frigg quarrelled over the merits of their

respective foster-children. To settle the question, Odin goes

disguised as Grimni, "the Hooded One," to visit his foster-son Geirröd;

but Frigg, to justify her charge of inhospitality against Geirröd,

sends her maiden Fulla to warn him against the coming stranger. Odin

therefore meets with a harsh reception, and is bound between two fires

in the hall. Geirröd's young son, Agnar, protests against this rude

treatment, and gives wine to the guest, who then begins to instruct

him in matters concerning the Gods. He names the halls of the Aesir,

describes Valhalla and the ash Yggdrasil, the Valkyries, the creation

of the world (two stanzas in common with _Vafthrudnismal_), and

enumerates his own names. The poem ends with impressive abruptness

by his turning to Geirröd:

 

"Thou art drunk, Geirröd, thou hast drunk too deep; thou art bereft

of much since thou hast lost my favour, the favour of Odin and all

the Einherjar. I have told thee much, but thou hast minded little. Thy

friends betray thee: I see my friend's sword lie drenched in blood. Now

shall Odin have the sword-weary slain; I know thy life is ended,

the Fates are ungracious. Now thou canst see Odin: come near me,

if thou canst."

 

[Prose.] "King Geirröd sat with his sword on his knee, half drawn. When

he heard that Odin was there, he stood up and would have led Odin

from the fires. The sword slipt from his hand; the hilt turned

downwards. The king caught his foot and fell forwards, the sword

standing towards him, and so he met his death. Then Odin went away,

and Agnar was king there long afterwards."

 

_Harbardsljod_ is a dialogue, and humorous. Thor on his return from

the east comes to a channel, at the farther side of which stands Odin,

disguised as a ferryman, Greybeard. He refuses to ferry Thor across,

and they question each other as to their past feats, with occasional

threats from Thor and taunts from Odin, until the former goes off

vowing vengeance on the ferryman:

 

_Thor_. "Thy skill in words would serve thee ill if I waded across

the water; I think thou wouldst cry louder than the wolf, if thou

shouldst get a blow from the hammer."

 

_Odin_. "Sif has a lover at home, thou shouldst seek him. That is a

task for thee to try, it is more proper for thee."

 

_Thor_. "Thou speakest what thou knowest most displeasing to me;

thou cowardly fellow, I think that thou liest."

 

_Odin_. "I think I speak true; thou art slow on the road. Thou wouldst

have got far, if thou hadst started at dawn."

 

_Thor_. "Harbard, scoundrel, it is rather thou who hast delayed me."

 

_Odin_. "I never thought a shepherd could so delay Asa-Thor's journey."

 

_Thor_. "I will counsel thee: row thy boat hither. Let us cease

quarrelling; come and meet Magni's father."

 

_Odin_. "Leave thou the river; crossing shall be refused thee."

 

_Thor_. "Show me the way, since thou wilt not ferry me."

 

_Odin_. "That is a small thing to refuse. It is a long way to go: a

while to the stock, and another to the stone, then keep to the left

hand till thou reach Verland. There will Fjörgyn meet her son Thor,

and she will tell him the highway to Odin's land."

 

_Thor_. "Shall I get there to-day?"

 

_Odin_. "With toil and trouble thou wilt get there about sunrise,

as I think."

 

_Thor_. "Our talk shall be short, since thou answerest with mockery. I

will reward thee for refusing passage, if we two meet again."

 

_Odin_. "Go thy way, where all the fiends may take thee."

 

_Lokasenna_ also is in dialogue form. A prose introduction tells

how the giant Oegi, or Gymi, gave a feast to the Aesir. Loki was

turned out for killing a servant, but presently returned and began to

revile the Gods and Goddesses, each one in turn trying to interfere,

only to provoke a taunt from Loki. At last Thor, who had been absent

on a journey, came in and threatened the slanderer with his hammer,

whereupon Loki said, "I spoke to the Aesir and the sons of the Aesir

what my mind told me; but for thee alone I will go away, for I know

thou wilt strike." Some of the poem is rather pointless abuse, but

much touches points already suggested in the other poems.

 

_Hyndluljod_ is much later than the others, probably not before

1200. The style is late, and the form imitated from _Völuspa_. It

describes a visit paid by Freyja to the Sibyl to learn the genealogy of

her favourite Ottar. The larger part deals with heroic genealogies, but

there are scanty allusions to Baldr, Frey, Heimdal, Loki's children,

and Thor, and a Christian reference to a God who shall come after

Ragnarök "when Odin shall meet the wolf." It tells nothing new.

 

We have here then, omitting _Hyndluljod_, five poems (four of them

belonging to the first half of the tenth century) which suggest a

general outline of Norse mythology: there is a hierarchy of Gods, the

Aesir, who live together in a citadel, Odin being the chief. Among

them are several who are not Aesir by origin: Njörd and his son and

daughter, Frey and Freyja, are Vanir; Loki is really an enemy and

an agent in their fall; and there are one or two Goddesses of giant

race. The giants are rivals and enemies to the Gods; the dwarfs are

also antagonistic, but in bondage. The meeting-place of the Gods is

by the World-Ash, Yggdrasil, on whose well-being the fate of Gods

and men depends; at its root lies the World-Snake. The Gods have

foreknowledge of their own doom, Ragnarök, the great fight when they

shall meet Loki's children, the Wolf and the Snake; both sides will

fall and the world be destroyed. An episode in the story is the death

of Baldr. This we may assume to be the religion of the Viking age

(800-1000 A.D.), a compound of the beliefs of various ages and tribes.

 

_The Aesir._--The number of the Aesir is not fixed. _Hyndluljod_

says there were twelve ("there were eleven Aesir when Baldr went

down into the howe"). Snorri gives a list of fourteen Aesir or Gods

(Odin, Thor, Baldr, Njörd, Frey, Tyr, Bragi, Heimdal, Höd, Vidar, Vali,

Ullr, Forseti, Loki), and adds Hoeni in another list, all the fifteen

occurring in the poems; and sixteen Goddesses (Asynjor), the majority

of whom are merely personified epithets, occurring nowhere else. Of

the sixteen, Frigg, Gefion, Freyja and Saga (really an epithet only)

are Goddesses in the poems, and Fulla is Frigg's handmaid. In another

chapter, Snorri adds Idunn, Gerd, Sigyn and Nanna, of whom the latter

does not appear in the Elder Edda, where Idunn, Gerd (a giantess)

and Sigyn are the wives of Bragi, Frey and Loki; and two others,

the giantess Skadi and Sif, are the wives of Njörd and Thor.

 

A striking difference from classical mythology is that neither Tyr

(who should etymologically be the Sky-god), nor Thor (the Thunder-god),

takes the highest place. Tyr is the hero of one important episode,

the chaining of the Wolf, through which he loses his right hand. This

is told in full by Snorri and alluded to in _Lokasenna_, both in the

prose preface ("Tyr also was there, with only one hand; the Fenris-wolf

had bitten off the other, when he was bound") and in the poem itself:

 

_Loki_. "I must remember that right hand which Fenri bit off thee."

 

_Tyr_. "I am short of a hand, but thou of the famous wolf; to each

the loss is ill-luck. Nor is the wolf in better plight, for he must

wait in bonds till Ragnarök."

 

Otherwise, he only appears in connexion with two more popular Gods:

he speaks in Frey's defence in _Lokasenna_, and in _Hymiskvida_ he

is Thor's companion in the search for a cauldron; the latter poem

represents him as a giant's son.

 

Thor, on the other hand, is second only to his father Odin; he is

the strongest of the Gods and their champion against the giants,

and his antagonist at Ragnarök is to be the World-Snake. Like Odin,

he travels much, but while the chief God generally goes craftily and

in disguise, to gain knowledge or test his wisdom, Thor's errands are

warlike; in _Lokasenna_ he is absent on a journey, in _Harbardsljod_

and _Alvissmal_ he is returning from one. His journeys are always

to the east; so in _Harbardsljod_: "I was in the east, fighting

the malevolent giant-brides.... I was in the east and guarding the

river, when Svarang's sons attacked me." The Giants live in the

east (_Hymiskvida_ 5); Thor threatened Loki: "I will fling thee up

into the east, and no one shall see thee more" (_Lokasenna_ 59);

the fire-giants at Ragnarök are to come from the east: "Hrym comes

driving from the east, he lifts his shield before him.... A ship

comes from the east, Muspell's sons will come sailing over the

sea, and Loki steers" (_Völuspa_ 50, 51). It would not, perhaps,

be overstraining the point to suggest that this is a reminiscence of

early warfare between the Scandinavians and eastern nations, either

Lapps and Finns or Slavonic tribes.

 

Thor is the God of natural force, the son of Earth. Two of the

episodical poems deal with his contests with the giants. _Thrymskvida_,

the story of how Thor won back his hammer, Mjöllni, from the giant

Thrym, is the finest and one of the oldest of the mythological poems;

a translation is given in the appendix, as an example of Eddic poetry

at its best. Loki appears as the willing helper of the Gods, and Thor's

companion. The Thunderer's journey with Tyr in quest of a cauldron

is related with much humour in _Hymiskvida_: Hymi's beautiful wife,

who helps her guests to outwit her husband, is a figure familiar in

fairy-tales as the Ogre's wife.

 

The chief God of the Scandinavians is, it must be confessed, an

unsympathetic character. He is the head of the Valhalla system;

he is Val-father (Father of the Slain), and the Valkyries are his

"Wishmaidens," as the Einherjar are his "Wishsons." He naturally takes

a special interest in mortal heroes, from whom come the chosen hosts

of Valhalla. But, in spite of the splendour of his surroundings, he

is wanting in dignity. The chief of the Gods has neither the might and

unthinking valour of Thor, nor the self-sacrificing courage of Tyr. He

is a God who practises magic, and it is as Father of Spells that he is

powerful. He is the wisest of the Gods in the sense that he remembers

most about the past and foresees most about the future; yet he is

powerless in difficulty without the craft of Loki and the hammer of

Thor. He always wanders in disguise, and the stories told of him are

chiefly love-adventures; this is true of all the deeds he mentions

in _Harbardsljod_, and also of the two interpolations in _Havamal_,

though one of the two had an object, the stealing of the mead of

inspiration from the giant Suptung, whose daughter Gunnlöd guarded it.

 

_Völuspa_ makes him one of three creative deities, the other two being

Lodur (probably Loki) and Hoeni, of whom nothing else is known except

the story that he was given as hostage to the Vanir in exchange for

Njörd. The same three Gods (Odin, Loki and Hoeni) are connected with

the legend of the Nibelung treasure; and it was another adventure of

theirs, according to Snorri, which led to the loss of Idunn.

 

Of the other Gods, Bragi is a later development; his name means

simply king or chief, and his attributes, as God of eloquence and

poetry, are apparently borrowed from Odin. Heimdal, the watchman and

"far-seeing like the Vanir," who keeps guard on the rainbow bridge

Bifröst, is represented in the curious poem _Rigsthula_ as founder of

the different social orders. He wandered over the world under the name

of Rig, and from his first journey sprang the race of thralls, swarthy,

crooked and broad-backed, who busied themselves with fencing land and

tending goats and swine; from his second, the churls, fine and ruddy,

who broke oxen, built houses and ploughed the land; from his third,

the earls, yellow-haired, rosy, and keen-eyed, who broke horses and

strung bows, rode, swam, and hurled spears; and the youngest of the

earls' race was Konung the king, who knew all mysteries, understood

the speech of birds, could quench fire and heal wounds. Heimdal is

said to be the son of nine mothers, and to have fought with Loki for

Freyja's Brising-necklace. His horn is hidden under Yggdrasil, to be

brought out at Ragnarök, when he will blow a warning blast. His origin

is obscure. Still less is known of Vidar and Vali, two sons of Odin,

one of whom is to avenge Baldr's death, the other to slay the wolf

after it has swallowed up the chief God at Ragnarök. Thor's stepson

Ullr (Glory) is probably, like his sons Modi and Magni (Wrath and

Strength), a mere epithet.

 

Frigg, Odin's wife and the chief Goddess, daughter of Earth,

is not very distinctly characterised, and is often confused with

Freyja. Gefion should be the sea-goddess, since that seems to be

the meaning of her name, but her functions are apparently usurped by

the Wane Njörd; according to Snorri, she is the patron of those who

die unwedded.

 

_Baldr_.--The story of Baldr is the most debated point in the Edda. The

chief theories advanced are: (1) That it is the oldest part of Norse

mythology, and of ritual origin; (2) that Baldr is really a hero

transformed into a God; (3) that the legend is a solar myth with

or without Christian colouring; (4) that it is entirely borrowed

from Mediæval Greek and Christian sources. This last theory is too

ingenious to be credible; and with regard to the third, there is

nothing essentially Christian in the chief features of the legend,

while the solar idea leaves too much unexplained. The references to

the myth in the Elder Edda are:

 

(1) _Vegtamskvida_ (about 900 A.D.). Odin questions the Sibyl as to

the meaning of Baldr's dreams:

 

_Odin_. "For whom are the benches (in hell) strewn with rings, the

halls fairly adorned with gold?"

 

_Sibyl_. "Here the mead, clear drink, stands brewed for Baldr; the

shields are spread. The sons of the Aesir are too merry."

 

_Odin_. "Who will be Baldr's slayer and rob Odin's son of life?"

 

_Sibyl_. "Höd bears thither the high branch of fame: he will be

Baldr's slayer and rob Odin's son of life."

 

_Odin_. "Who will avenge the deed on Höd and bring Baldr's slayer to the funeral pyre?"