Hjúki and Bil
Encyclopedia
In Norse mythology
, Hjúki (Old Norse
, possibly meaning "the one returning to health") and Bil (Old Norse) are a brother and sister pair of children who follow the personified moon
, Máni
, across the heavens. Both Hjúki and Bil are solely attested in the Prose Edda
, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson
. Scholarly theories that surround the two concern their nature, their role as potential personifications of the craters on the moon or its phases
, and their relation to later folklore in Germanic Europe
. Bil has been identified with the Bilwis, an agriculture-associated figure that is frequently attested in the folklore of German-speaking areas of Europe.
, the enthroned figure of High states that two children by the names of Hjúki and Bil were fathered by Viðfinnr. Once while the two were walking from the well Byrgir (Old Norse "Hider of Something") — both of them carrying on their shoulders the pole Simul (Old Norse, possibly meaning "eternal") that held the pail
Sæg between them — Máni took them from the earth, and they now follow Máni in the heavens, "as can be seen from the earth".
Hjúki is otherwise unattested, but Bil receives other mentions. In chapter 35 of Gylfaginning, at the end of a listing of numerous other goddesses in Norse mythology, both Sól (the personified sun) and Bil are listed together as goddesses
"whose nature has already been described". Bil appears twice more in the Prose Edda book Skáldskaparmál
. In chapter 75, Bil appears within another list of goddesses, and her name appears in chapter 47 in a kenning
for "woman".
(1945) posits that Snorri may have known or had access to a now lost verse source wherein Hjúki and Bil personified the waxing and waning moon. Holtsmark further theorizes that Bil may have been a dís
(a type of female deity).
Scholars have theorized that Hjúki and Bil may represent lunar activity, including that they may represent the phases of the moon
or may represent the craters of the moon. 19th century scholar Jacob Grimm
rejects the suggestion that Hjúki and Bil represent the phases of the moon, and states that Hjúki and Bil rather represent the craters on the moon seen from the earth. Grimm says that the evidence for this "is plain from the figure itself. No change of the moon could suggest the image of two children with a pail slung over their shoulders. Moreover, to this day the Swedish people see in the spots of the moon two persons carrying a big bucket on a pole." Grimm adds that:
Grimm gives further examples from Germanic folklore up until the time of his writing (the 19th century) and notes a potential connection between the German word wadel (meaning the full moon) and the dialectal employment of the word for "brushwood, twigs tied up in a bundle, esp[ecially] fir-twigs, wadeln to tie up brushwood", and the practice of cutting wood out in the full moon. Benjamin Thorpe
agrees with the theory of Hjúki and Bil as the personified shapes of moon craters.
Rudolf Simek
states that the obscurity of the names of the objects in the tale of Hjúki and Bil may indicate that Snorri derived them from a folktale, and that the form of the tale of the Man in the Moon
(featuring a man with a pole and a woman with a bushel) is also found in modern folklore in Scandinavia, England, and Northern Germany.
In both the story Hjúki and Bil found in the Icelandic Prose Edda and the English nursery rhyme "Jack and Jill
", two children, one male and one female, fetch a pail of water, and the pairs have names that have been perceived as phonetically similar. These elements have resulted in theories connecting the two, and the notion has had some influence, appearing in school books for children from the 19th century and into the 20th century. A traditional form of the rhyme reads:
in, dwarfish aspect and the ability to to cripple people or cattle with the shot of an arrow" (such as in Wolfram von Eschenbach
's 13th century poem "Willehalm"). Petzoldt further surveys the development of the figure:
in Lincolnshire
, England
(from which the English surname Billing derives) has been proposed as having been named after Bil.
Norse mythology
Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...
, Hjúki (Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
, possibly meaning "the one returning to health") and Bil (Old Norse) are a brother and sister pair of children who follow the personified moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
, Máni
Mani
Mani is a name or word occurring in several etymologically unrelated languages and cultures, including:* Maní - a legend of the indigenous tribe Tupi in Brazil.* Mani , the founder of Manichaeism....
, across the heavens. Both Hjúki and Bil are solely attested in the Prose Edda
Prose Edda
The Prose Edda, also known as the Younger Edda, Snorri's Edda or simply Edda, is an Icelandic collection of four sections interspersed with excerpts from earlier skaldic and Eddic poetry containing tales from Nordic mythology...
, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...
. Scholarly theories that surround the two concern their nature, their role as potential personifications of the craters on the moon or its phases
Lunar phase
A lunar phase or phase of the moon is the appearance of the illuminated portion of the Moon as seen by an observer, usually on Earth. The lunar phases change cyclically as the Moon orbits the Earth, according to the changing relative positions of the Earth, Moon, and Sun...
, and their relation to later folklore in Germanic Europe
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
. Bil has been identified with the Bilwis, an agriculture-associated figure that is frequently attested in the folklore of German-speaking areas of Europe.
Attestations
In chapter 11 of the Prose Edda book GylfaginningGylfaginning
Gylfaginning, or the Tricking of Gylfi , is the first part of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda after Prologue. The Gylfaginning deals with the creation and destruction of the world of the Norse gods, and many other aspects of Norse mythology...
, the enthroned figure of High states that two children by the names of Hjúki and Bil were fathered by Viðfinnr. Once while the two were walking from the well Byrgir (Old Norse "Hider of Something") — both of them carrying on their shoulders the pole Simul (Old Norse, possibly meaning "eternal") that held the pail
Bucket
A bucket, also called a pail, is typically a watertight, vertical cylinder or truncated cone, with an open top and a flat bottom, usually attached to a semicircular carrying handle called the bail. A pail can have an open top or can have a lid....
Sæg between them — Máni took them from the earth, and they now follow Máni in the heavens, "as can be seen from the earth".
Hjúki is otherwise unattested, but Bil receives other mentions. In chapter 35 of Gylfaginning, at the end of a listing of numerous other goddesses in Norse mythology, both Sól (the personified sun) and Bil are listed together as goddesses
Æsir
In Old Norse, áss is the term denoting a member of the principal pantheon in Norse paganism. This pantheon includes Odin, Frigg, Thor, Baldr and Tyr. The second pantheon comprises the Vanir...
"whose nature has already been described". Bil appears twice more in the Prose Edda book Skáldskaparmál
Skáldskaparmál
The second part of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda the Skáldskaparmál or "language of poetry" is effectively a dialogue between the Norse god of the sea, Ægir and Bragi, the god of poetry, in which both Norse mythology and discourse on the nature of poetry are intertwined...
. In chapter 75, Bil appears within another list of goddesses, and her name appears in chapter 47 in a kenning
Kenning
A kenning is a type of literary trope, specifically circumlocution, in the form of a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse and later Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon poetry...
for "woman".
Theories
Identification and representation
As the two are otherwise unattested outside of Snorri's Prose Edda, suggestions have been made that Hjúki and Bil may have been of minor mythic significance, or that they were made up outright by Snorri, while Anne HoltsmarkAnne Holtsmark
Anne Elisabeth Holtsmark was a Norwegian philologist.-Personal life:She was born in Kristiania, the second of five children of Gabriel Gabrielsen Holtsmark and Margrete Weisse , and grew up in Kristiania and Ås...
(1945) posits that Snorri may have known or had access to a now lost verse source wherein Hjúki and Bil personified the waxing and waning moon. Holtsmark further theorizes that Bil may have been a dís
Dis
- Academic institutions :* DIS – Danish Institute for Study Abroad, an English language study abroad program located in Copenhagen, Denmark* Dili International School, DIS an International School in Dili, Timor Leste - Companies :...
(a type of female deity).
Scholars have theorized that Hjúki and Bil may represent lunar activity, including that they may represent the phases of the moon
Lunar phase
A lunar phase or phase of the moon is the appearance of the illuminated portion of the Moon as seen by an observer, usually on Earth. The lunar phases change cyclically as the Moon orbits the Earth, according to the changing relative positions of the Earth, Moon, and Sun...
or may represent the craters of the moon. 19th century scholar Jacob Grimm
Jacob Grimm
Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm was a German philologist, jurist and mythologist. He is best known as the discoverer of Grimm's Law, the author of the monumental Deutsches Wörterbuch, the author of Deutsche Mythologie and, more popularly, as one of the Brothers Grimm, as the editor of Grimm's Fairy...
rejects the suggestion that Hjúki and Bil represent the phases of the moon, and states that Hjúki and Bil rather represent the craters on the moon seen from the earth. Grimm says that the evidence for this "is plain from the figure itself. No change of the moon could suggest the image of two children with a pail slung over their shoulders. Moreover, to this day the Swedish people see in the spots of the moon two persons carrying a big bucket on a pole." Grimm adds that:
- What is most important for us, out of the heathen fancy of a kidnapping man of the moon, which, apart from Scandinavia, was doubtless in vogue all over Teutondom
Germanic EuropeGermanic Europe may refer to:*Historically,**The parts of Europe settled by Germanic peoples during the Migration period*In a modern context,**Germanic-speaking Europe...
, if not farther, there has evolved itself since a Christian adaptation. They say the man in the moon is a wood-stealer, who during church time on the holy sabbath committed a trespass in the wood, and was then transported to the moon as a punishment; there he may be seen with the axe on his back and the bundle of brushwood (dornwelle) in his hand. Plainly enough the water-pole of the heathen story has been transformed into the axe's shaft, and the carried pail into the thornbrush; the general idea of theft was retained, but special stress laid on the keeping of the christian holiday; the man suffers punishment not so much for cutting firewood, as because he did it on Sunday.
Grimm gives further examples from Germanic folklore up until the time of his writing (the 19th century) and notes a potential connection between the German word wadel (meaning the full moon) and the dialectal employment of the word for "brushwood, twigs tied up in a bundle, esp[ecially] fir-twigs, wadeln to tie up brushwood", and the practice of cutting wood out in the full moon. Benjamin Thorpe
Benjamin Thorpe
Benjamin Thorpe was an English scholar of Anglo-Saxon.-Biography:After studying for four years at Copenhagen University, under the Danish philologist Rasmus Christian Rask, he returned to England in 1830, and in 1832 published an English version of Caedmon's metrical paraphrase of portions of the...
agrees with the theory of Hjúki and Bil as the personified shapes of moon craters.
Rudolf Simek
Rudolf Simek
Rudolf Simek is an Austrian Germanist and Philologian.Simek studied German literature, philosophy and Catholic theology in the University of Vienna, before becoming a librarian and a docent at the institution. He taught among others in the universities of Edinburgh, Tromsø and Sydney...
states that the obscurity of the names of the objects in the tale of Hjúki and Bil may indicate that Snorri derived them from a folktale, and that the form of the tale of the Man in the Moon
Man in the Moon
The Man in the Moon is an imaginary figure resembling a human face, head or body, that observers from some cultural backgrounds typically perceive in the bright disc of the full moon...
(featuring a man with a pole and a woman with a bushel) is also found in modern folklore in Scandinavia, England, and Northern Germany.
Jack and Jill (song)
"Jack and Jill" is a classic nursery rhyme in the English speaking world. The origin of the rhyme is obscure and there are several theories that attempt to interpret the lyrics. The rhyme is known to date back to at least the 18th century. The song is sometimes titled "Jack and Gill", particularly...
", two children, one male and one female, fetch a pail of water, and the pairs have names that have been perceived as phonetically similar. These elements have resulted in theories connecting the two, and the notion has had some influence, appearing in school books for children from the 19th century and into the 20th century. A traditional form of the rhyme reads:
- Jack and Jill went up the hill
- to fetch a pail of water
- Jack fell down and broke his crown
- and Jill came tumbling after.
- Up Jack got and home did trot
- as fast as he could caper.
- He went to bed to mind his head
- with vinegar and brown paper.
Bilwis
A figure by the name of Bilwis is attested in various parts of German-speaking Europe starting in the 13th century. Scholar Leander Petzoldt writes that the figure seems to stem from the goddess and over time saw many changes, later developing "an elfElf
An elf is a being of Germanic mythology. The elves were originally thought of as a race of divine beings endowed with magical powers, which they use both for the benefit and the injury of mankind...
in, dwarfish aspect and the ability to to cripple people or cattle with the shot of an arrow" (such as in Wolfram von Eschenbach
Wolfram von Eschenbach
Wolfram von Eschenbach was a German knight and poet, regarded as one of the greatest epic poets of his time. As a Minnesinger, he also wrote lyric poetry.-Life:...
's 13th century poem "Willehalm"). Petzoldt further surveys the development of the figure:
During the course of the thirteenth century, the Bilwis is less and less frequently treated as the personification of a supernatural power but becomes increasingly identified as a malevolent human being, a witch. Still later, with the rise of the witch persecutionWitch-huntA witch-hunt is a search for witches or evidence of witchcraft, often involving moral panic, mass hysteria and lynching, but in historical instances also legally sanctioned and involving official witchcraft trials...
at the end of the Middle AgesMiddle AgesThe Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, the Bilwis was demonized; she becomes an incarnation of the devil for the witch and sorcerer. A final development has taken place since the sixteenth century, especially in northeast Germany, the Bilwis has been conceived of as a grain spirit bringing wealth; yet this latest manifestation of the Bilwis has its harmful side, the Bilwis-cutter, who is blamed for the unexplained patters that are formed among the rows of standing grain. The cutter is a sorcerer or witch that cuts down the corn with sickles that are fastened to its feet. He is classified as an essentially malevolent Corn Spirit. Thus, the Bilwis is exceedingly polymorphous, taking on many appearances and meaning in all German-speaking areas throughout the Middle Ages. The Bilwis is one of the strangest and most mysterious beings in all folklore; its varying forms reflect the concerns of a farm culture, and it serves to explain the eerie appearance of turned-down rows of plants in cornfields.
Toponyms
The village of BilsbyBilsby
Bilsby is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England, just east of the town of Alford. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 415. It was mentioned in Domesday Book of 1086 when it consisted of eighteen households. Asserby and Thurlby are hamlets...
in Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
(from which the English surname Billing derives) has been proposed as having been named after Bil.