Lóðurr
Encyclopedia
Ass
Ass may refer to:* The mammal Equus africanus asinus better known as the Donkey** Asinus subgenus* North American English informal term for buttocks* áss, one of the Æsir in Norse mythology* Ass , by Badfinger...
in Norse mythology
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...
. In the Poetic Edda
Poetic Edda
The Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse poems primarily preserved in the Icelandic mediaeval manuscript Codex Regius. Along with Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda is the most important extant source on Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends, and from the early 19th century...
poem Völuspá
Völuspá
Völuspá is the first and best known poem of the Poetic Edda. It tells the story of the creation of the world and its coming end related by a völva addressing Odin...
he is assigned a role in animating the first humans, but apart from that he is hardly ever mentioned, and remains obscure. Scholars have variously identified him with Loki
Loki
In Norse mythology, Loki or Loke is a god or jötunn . Loki is the son of Fárbauti and Laufey, and the brother of Helblindi and Býleistr. By the jötunn Angrboða, Loki is the father of Hel, the wolf Fenrir, and the world serpent Jörmungandr. By his wife Sigyn, Loki is the father of Nari or Narfi...
, Vé
VE
VE, Ve or ve may refer to:* Vili and Vé, gods in Norse mythology* Vé , a shrine in Germanic paganism and modern place name element* Ve , a character from the Cyrillic alphabet* Ve , a character of the Arabic alphabet...
, Vili and Freyr
Freyr
Freyr is one of the most important gods of Norse paganism. Freyr was highly associated with farming, weather and, as a phallic fertility god, Freyr "bestows peace and pleasure on mortals"...
, but consensus has not been reached on any one theory.
Name and etymology
The name's meaning is unknown. It has been speculatively linked to various Old NorseOld 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....
words, such as lóð, "fruit, land", ljóðar, "people" and laða, "to attract". The Gothic
Gothic language
Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
words liudan, "to grow" and laudi, "shape", as well as the German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
word lodern, "to blaze", have also been mentioned in this context.
The metrical position of Lóðurr's name in the skaldic poem Íslendingadrápa
Íslendingadrápa
Íslendingadrápa is a skaldic poem composed in Iceland in the 12th or 13th centuries. It is preserved only in AM 748 Ib 4to, one of the manuscripts of the Prose Edda. The manuscript identifies the author as one Haukr Valdísarson, a man otherwise unknown. The poem consists of 26 dróttkvætt stanzas...
, composed in the strict dróttkvætt metre, indicates that it contains the sound value /ó/ rather than /o/. This evidence, while strong, is not incontrovertible and some scholars have held out for a Loðurr reading.
Lóðurr's name can be represented or anglicized
Old Norse orthography
The orthography of the Old Norse language was diverse, being written in both Runic and Latin alphabets, with many spelling conventions, variant letterforms, and unique letters and signs. In modern times, scholars established a standardized spelling for the language. When Old Norse names are used in...
as Lóður, Lódurr, Lódur, Lóthurr, Lóthur, Lódhurr, Lódhur, Lodurr, Lodur, Lothurr, Lothur, Lodhurr, Loðurr, Loður or Lodhur.
Völuspá
In the Poetic EddaPoetic Edda
The Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse poems primarily preserved in the Icelandic mediaeval manuscript Codex Regius. Along with Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda is the most important extant source on Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends, and from the early 19th century...
the name Lóðurr occurs only once; in Völuspá
Völuspá
Völuspá is the first and best known poem of the Poetic Edda. It tells the story of the creation of the world and its coming end related by a völva addressing Odin...
where the gods animate the first humans.
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Ask and Embla In Norse mythology, Ask and Embla —male and female respectively—were the first two humans, created by the gods. The pair are attested in both the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson... ,
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The precise meaning of these strophes and their context in Völuspá is debated. Most relevant for the present discussion are Lóðurr's gifts of lá and litu góða. The word lá is obscure and the translations "film of flesh" and "blood" are just two of the many possibilities that have been suggested. The phrase "litu góða" is somewhat less difficult and traditionally interpreted as "good colours", "good shape" or even "good looks".
The 19th century Swedish scholar Viktor Rydberg
Viktor Rydberg
Abraham Viktor Rydberg was a Swedish writer and a member of the Swedish Academy, 1877-1895...
proposed a reading of litu goða, meaning "shape of gods", and saw the line as indication that the gods created human beings in their own image. While the manuscripts do not distinguish between the phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s /o/ and /ó/ most other scholars have preferred the /ó/ reading for metrical
Meter (poetry)
In poetry, metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study of metres and forms of versification is known as prosody...
reasons. The metrical structure of Völuspás fornyrðislag is, however, not very rigid and in 1983 Rydberg's theory was championed again by Gro Steinsland
Gro Steinsland
Gro Steinsland is a Norwegian scholar of medieval studies and history of religion and since August 2009 has been the Scientific Director of the Centre for Advanced Study of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters....
. It remains debated.
Other attestations
Apart from the strophe in Völuspá, Lóðurr's name occurs only twice in the original sources. The name is found in the skaldic poems HáleygjatalHáleygjatal
Háleygjatal is a skaldic poem by Eyvindr skáldaspillir made in honour of Haakon Sigurdsson and his ancestors, in the end of the 10th century.The poem is only partially preserved in disjoint parts quoted in Skáldskaparmál, Heimskringla and two other manuscripts of kings' sagas. It appears to be a...
and Íslendingadrápa
Íslendingadrápa
Íslendingadrápa is a skaldic poem composed in Iceland in the 12th or 13th centuries. It is preserved only in AM 748 Ib 4to, one of the manuscripts of the Prose Edda. The manuscript identifies the author as one Haukr Valdísarson, a man otherwise unknown. The poem consists of 26 dróttkvætt stanzas...
where "Lóðurr's friend" is used as 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 Odin. This seems consistent with Lóðurr's role in Völuspá.
In Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...
's 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...
, Lóðurr is conspicuously absent. Here the creation of humans is attributed to the sons of Borr
Borr
Borr or Burr was the son of Búri and the father of Odin in Norse mythology. He is mentioned in the Gylfaginning, part of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda....
, which Snorri names elsewhere as Odin, Vili and Vé
VE
VE, Ve or ve may refer to:* Vili and Vé, gods in Norse mythology* Vé , a shrine in Germanic paganism and modern place name element* Ve , a character from the Cyrillic alphabet* Ve , a character of the Arabic alphabet...
.
| Normalized text of the R manuscript | Brodeur's translation | |
|---|---|---|
Þá er þeir Bors synir gengu með sævarströndu, fundu þeir tré tvau, ok tóku upp tréin ok sköpuðu af menn. Gaf hinn fyrsti [ö]nd ok líf, annarr vit ok hrœring, þriði ásjónu, málit ok heyrn ok sjón; gáfu þeim klæði [ok] nöfn. Hét karlmaðrinn Askr en konan Embla, ok ólusk þaðan af mannkindin, þeim er bygðin var gefin undir Miðgarði. |
When the sons of Borr were walking along the sea-strand, they found two trees, and took up the trees and shaped men of them: the first gave them spirit and life; the second, wit and feeling; the third, form, speech, hearing, and sight. They gave them clothing and names: the male was called Askr, and the female Embla, and of them was mankind begotten, which received a dwelling-place under Midgard. |
Snorri often quotes Völuspá in his work but in this case he does not. We cannot know whether he knew the strophes above or whether he was working entirely from other sources.
Nordendorf fibula
Another source sometimes brought into the discussion is the Nordendorf fibulaNordendorf fibula
thumb|300px|right|The Nordendorf II fibulaThe Nordendorf fibulae are two mid 6th to early 7th century Alamannic fibulae found in Nordendorf near Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany....
. This artifact, dating from about 600 CE
Common Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
, contains the runic inscription logaþorewodanwigiþonar. This is usually interpreted as Logaþore Wodan Wigiþonar where Wodan is Odin
Odin
Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....
and Wigiþonar probably is Thor
Thor
In Norse mythology, Thor is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also hallowing, healing, and fertility...
. It would be natural for logaþore to be the name of a third god, but there is no obvious identification in Norse mythology as we know it. Both Lóðurr and Loki have been proposed, but the etymological reasoning is tenuous, and firm conclusions can not be reached.
Theories
Since the Prose Edda mentions the sons of Borr in the same context as Völuspá does Hœnir and Lóðurr some scholars have reasoned that Lóðurr might be another name for either Vili or Vé. Viktor RydbergViktor Rydberg
Abraham Viktor Rydberg was a Swedish writer and a member of the Swedish Academy, 1877-1895...
was an early proponent of this theory but recently it has received little attention.
A more popular theory proposed by the scholar Ursula Dronke
Ursula Dronke
Ursula Dronke is a medievalist and former Reader in Old Norse at the University of Oxford. She is the Emeritus Vigfússon Reader in Ancient Icelandic Literature and Antiquities and an Emeritus Fellow of Linacre College. She also formerly taught in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages at...
is that Lóðurr is "a third name of Loki/Loptr
Loki
In Norse mythology, Loki or Loke is a god or jötunn . Loki is the son of Fárbauti and Laufey, and the brother of Helblindi and Býleistr. By the jötunn Angrboða, Loki is the father of Hel, the wolf Fenrir, and the world serpent Jörmungandr. By his wife Sigyn, Loki is the father of Nari or Narfi...
". The main argument for this is that the gods Odin, Hœnir and Loki occur as a trio in Haustlöng
Haustlöng
Haustlöng is a skaldic poem composed around the beginning of the 10th century. The poem is preserved in the 13th century Prose Edda, which quotes two groups of stanzas from it, and is attributed to the Norwegian skald Þjóðólfr of Hvinir. The poem describes mythological scenes painted on a shield...
and the prose prologue to Reginsmál
Reginsmál
Reginsmál or Sigurðarkviða Fáfnisbana II is an Eddic poem, found in the Codex Regius manuscript...
. The Odin-kenning "Lóðurr's friend" furthermore appears to parallel the kenning "Loptr's friend" and Loki is similarly referred to as "Hœnir's friend" in Haustlöng, strengthening the trio connection. While many scholars agree with this identification, it is not universally accepted. One argument against it is that Loki appears as a malevolent being later in Völuspá, seemingly conflicting with the image of Lóðurr as a "mighty and loving" figure.
An identification with Freyr
Freyr
Freyr is one of the most important gods of Norse paganism. Freyr was highly associated with farming, weather and, as a phallic fertility god, Freyr "bestows peace and pleasure on mortals"...
has also been proposed. This theory emphasizes the possible fertility related meanings of Lóðurr's name but otherwise has little direct evidence to support it.