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HRAFNAGALDUR ÓÐINS
21 Ómi is yet another of Óðinn's names: the noisy one.
In the first half-stanza, the complex kenning can be understood as follows: the tired hay-lard of Fenrir (i.e., the sun since a wolf chases the sun in order to eat it, and hay-lard evokes some juicy food) of the meadows of Rindr (the western meadows) (the sun of the western meadows = the setting down sun) flew with eddies. Rindr is a Goddess loved by Óðinn. She begot him a son, Váli. She is sometimes linked to the West. As complex as it is already, this kenning contains even more allusions. Recall that Fenrir is a 'he' and that the sun is a 'she' in Old Norse. This wolf running after a girl recalls strongly Grimm's tale Little Red-Ridinghood (Rotkäppchen). More than one century earlier, in 1697, Perrault reported a similar tale (Le Petit Chaperon Rouge) where Red-cap is eaten, and he provides a moral into which he underlines already the sexual innuendos of this tale. It happens here that the word fóðr means, besides 'hay', 'sheath, vagina' in such a way that the 'she-sun' is also called here a 'greasy vagina'. The double meaning of the two kinds of body appetites is thus found here. Note how much 'greasy hay' sounds awkward, while the sexual meaning is much easier to understand. In passing, note that least one kenning for the pelvic area is known (Meissner : Schlecht ist die Kenning hjarta sals höll für Unterleib). Hroptr, the airy one, is Loki, Frigg Óðinn's wife, and Hrímfaxi is one of the horses of Night. The Gods go back home while night sets up, and they say farewell to their hostess, Frigg, and their guest, Loki. The word larðr in fóðurlarður of this stanza needs some more explanation. It exists in none of the Old Norse dictionaries. Cleasby only gives it, with the meaning of 'lard, fat' from the French lard. Cleasby comments and cites the poem that we are studying : This poem however cannot be ancient, for this French word probably came to Iceland through the English trade of the 15th century.
Delling is Sun's father. Manheim is the dwelling of the humans. Dvalin is the name of a dwarf, the first of a long line of dwarves. The sun is 'the dwarves' game' (actually, we must understand the contrary, that the sun fools the dwarves) because its rays turns them into stone. This stanza provides more details on the way the mythic universe is organized. Under the furthest and the most northern root of Yggdrasil lies Hel, the dwelling of those who are not dead in combat. Here, Jotunheim, the Giants' dwelling is thus placed with Hel, the dwelling of the dwarves and the dark Elves. These last are the Elves who do not live in Ásgarðr since the Elves are usually beings of divine nature who live together with the Aesir in Ásgarðr. You will find more detailed versions of this universe in Rydberg, as given by Björnsson and Reaves, or to the scholarly version of Jan de Vries (cited below, pp. 372-392, Das Weltbild) that you will find soon on this site. This stanza rings gloomy and it announces the forthcoming disaster.
Úlfrún is a giantess, Heimdall's mother. Árgjöll, is the one which rings strongly (gjöll) and early (ár). Himinbjörg. is Heimdall's dwelling. Niflheimr is either the world (our world), or another realm of the dead, different from Niflhell, the underground world of the dead. The etymology of the root nifl- is disputed: it could be dark, or fog, or deep. In this stanza, the day begins and Heimdall will ring his horn (the poem says that Heimdall raises his horn) in order to announce the Gods' judgment day, Ragnarök, during which even the structure of the universe will be modified. Many see here a Christian influence, certainly because of the Christian myth of Doomsday. Ragnarök is indeed a day of doom, but the Gods are judged, not the humans. We already know that the Gods will be doomed, as rendered by the more classical translations of Ragnarök, as twilight (Wagner) or the bitter fate ( Boyer) of the Gods, or Genzmer's Schlachtgötter Sturz, the fight of the God's collapse. This myth is thus very different from the Christian one. This text is certainly not a 'forgery' since it does not hide its age nor its geographical origin. The references to the Völuspa : vitið enn, eða hvað? in stanza 5, would be completely stupid if the author tried to claim a similar antiquity as Völuspa . This poem also constantly uses Swedish words or acceptations of the words, a fact I did not always point out in my comments. A few words are obviously more recent, such as larðr and sveifla, and maybe jamt. It is thus certainly a production of the 15th 17th century. As long as the author's genuineness seems to be acceptable, this myth where Íðunn shows no naivety, and is a key to the start of Ragnarök, looks like a rectification to the classical story. The surface contradictions in this text originate from quite understandable double meanings, and from a wavering from respect to irony relative to the Nordic Gods. One side of this wavering is feminist, this should not have been so much puzzling to the scholars who found this poem incomprehensible. On the one hand, it is impossible to classify this poem among the Scandinavian Middle Age poetry. On the other hand, and as long as no deception is noticeable, it seems to me that it is not less valuable as the earlier productions, as a witness of the Scandinavian myths. My feeling is rather that the author of this poem, observing that an essential face of the myths was on the verge of disappearing in his/her time, wanted to put it in writing before it would become completely forgotten.
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