The Edda Volume I Part 1

The Edda.

by 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 a.s.similated 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 t.i.tles 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 G.o.ds. 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, _Voluspa, Vafthrudnismal, Grimnismal, Lokasenna, Harbardsljod_; (2) dealing with episodes, _Hymiskvida, Thrymskvida, Skirnisfor. 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 _Voluspa_; and one of the MSS. of Snorri's Edda gives us _Rigsthula_.

_Voluspa_, 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 _Voluspa_. This older poem describes Odin's visit to the Sibyl in h.e.l.l-gates to inquire into the future. He rides down to her tomb at the eastern door of Nifl-h.e.l.l 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 ident.i.ty and will say no more. In _Voluspa_ 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 G.o.ds 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 G.o.ddess 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 G.o.ds 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 G.o.ds, matters of common knowledge; and then puts a question as to the future: "What is the plain where Surt and the blessed G.o.ds 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 Njord 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 G.o.ds who shall rule in the new world after Ragnarok, 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 cla.s.s, _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 Geirrod; but Frigg, to justify her charge of inhospitality against Geirrod, 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. Geirrod'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 G.o.ds. 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 Geirrod:

"Thou art drunk, Geirrod, 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 Geirrod 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 Fjorgyn 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 pa.s.sage, 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 G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses, 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 _Voluspa_. 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 G.o.d who shall come after Ragnarok "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 G.o.ds, the Aesir, who live together in a citadel, Odin being the chief. Among them are several who are not Aesir by origin: Njord 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 G.o.ddesses of giant race. The giants are rivals and enemies to the G.o.ds; the dwarfs are also antagonistic, but in bondage. The meeting-place of the G.o.ds is by the World-Ash, Yggdrasil, on whose well-being the fate of G.o.ds and men depends; at its root lies the World-Snake. The G.o.ds have foreknowledge of their own doom, Ragnarok, 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 a.s.sume 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 G.o.ds (Odin, Thor, Baldr, Njord, Frey, Tyr, Bragi, Heimdal, Hod, Vidar, Vali, Ullr, Forseti, Loki), and adds Hoeni in another list, all the fifteen occurring in the poems; and sixteen G.o.ddesses (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 G.o.ddesses 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 Njord and Thor.

A striking difference from cla.s.sical mythology is that neither Tyr (who should etymologically be the Sky-G.o.d), nor Thor (the Thunder-G.o.d), 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 Ragnarok."

Otherwise, he only appears in connexion with two more popular G.o.ds: 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 G.o.ds and their champion against the giants, and his antagonist at Ragnarok is to be the World-Snake. Like Odin, he travels much, but while the chief G.o.d 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 Ragnarok are to come from the east: "Hrym comes driving from the east, he lifts his s.h.i.+eld before him.... A s.h.i.+p comes from the east, Muspell's sons will come sailing over the sea, and Loki steers" (_Voluspa_ 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 G.o.d 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, Mjollni, 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 G.o.ds, 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.ds has neither the might and unthinking valour of Thor, nor the self-sacrificing courage of Tyr. He is a G.o.d who practises magic, and it is as Father of Spells that he is powerful. He is the wisest of the G.o.ds 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 Gunnlod guarded it.

_Voluspa_ 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 Njord. The same three G.o.ds (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 G.o.ds, Bragi is a later development; his name means simply king or chief, and his attributes, as G.o.d 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 Bifrost, 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 Ragnarok, 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 G.o.d at Ragnarok. 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 G.o.ddess, daughter of Earth, is not very distinctly characterised, and is often confused with Freyja. Gefion should be the sea-G.o.ddess, since that seems to be the meaning of her name, but her functions are apparently usurped by the Wane Njord; 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 G.o.d; (3) that the legend is a solar myth with or without Christian colouring; (4) that it is entirely borrowed from Mediaeval 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: