Part 4

Before the skaldic mead came into the possession of Suttung-Fjalar, it had passed through various adventures. In one of these enters Máni, the god of the moon, who by the names Nökkvi (variation Nökkver), Nefur (variation Nepur), and Gevarr (Gævarr) occupies a very conspicuons position in our mythology, not least in the capacity of Nanna's father.

I shall here present the proofs which lie near at hand, and can be furnished without entering into too elaborate investigations, that the moon-god and Nanna's father are identical, and this will give me an opportunity of referring to that episode of the mead-myth, in which he appears as one of the actors.

The identity of Nökkvi, Nefur, and Gevarr appears from the following passages:

(1) Hyndluljóð 20: "Nanna was, in the next place, Nökkvi's daughter" (Nanna var næst þar, Nökkva dóttir).

(2) Gylfaginning 32: "The son of Baldur and of Nanna, daughter of Nef, was called Forseti" (Forseti heitir sonur Baldurs og Nönnu Nefsdóttur). Gylfaginning 49: "His (Baldur's) wife Nanna, daughter of Nep" (kona hans Nanna Nepsdóttir).

(3) Saxo, Hist. Dan., Book III: "Gevarr's daughter Nanna" (Gevari filia Nanna). That Saxo means the mythological Nanna follows from the fact that Baldur appears in the story as her wooer. That the Norse form of the name, which Saxo Latinised into Gevarus, was Gevarr, not Gefr, as a prominent linguist has assumed, follows from the rules adopted by Saxo in Latinising Norse names.

NOTE. - Names of the class to which Gefr would belong, providing such a name existed, would be Latinised in the following manner:

(a) Askr Ascerus, Baldr Balderus, Geldr Gelderus, Glaumr Glomerus, Hödr, Haðr, Óðr, Hotherus, Hatherus, Hotherus, Svipdagr Svipdagerus, Ullr Ollerus, Yggr Uggerus, Vigr Vigerus.

(b) Ásmundr Asmundus, Ámundr Amundus, Arngrímr Arngrimus, Bíldr Bildus, Knútr Canutus, Friðleifr Fridlevus, Gautrekr Gotricus, Goðmundr Guthmundus, Haddingr Hadingus, Haraldr Haraldus.

Names ending in -arr are Latinised in the following manner:

(a) Borgarr Borcarus, Einarr Enarus, Gunnarr Gunnarus, Hjörvarr Hjartvarus, Ingimarr Ingimarus, Ingvarr Ingvarus, Ísmarr Ismarus, Ívarr Ivarus, Óttarr Otharus, Róstarr Rostarus, Sigarr Sigarus, Sívarr Sivarus, Valdimarr Valdemarus.

(b) Agnarr Agnerus, Ragnarr Regnerus.

With the ending -arus occurs also in a single instance a Norse name in -i, namely, Eylimi Olimarus. Herewith we might perhaps include Liotarus, the Norse form of which Saxo may have had in Ljóti from Ljótr. Otherwise Ljótr is a single exception from the rules followed by Saxo, and methodology forbids our building anything on a single exception, which moreover is uncertain.

Some monosyllabic names ending in -r are sometimes unlatinised, as Alf, Ulf, Sten, Ring, Rolf, and sometimes Latinised with -o, as Alvo, Ulvo, Steno, Ringo, Rolvo. Álfr is also found Latinised as Alverus.

From the above lists of names it follows that Saxo's rules for Latinising Norse names ending with the nominative -r after a consonant were these:

(1) Monosyllabic names (seldom a dissyllabic one, as Svipdagr) are Latinised with the ending -erus or the ending -o.

(2) Names of two or more syllables which do not end in -arr (rarely a name of one syllable, as Bíldr) are Latinised with the ending -us.

(3) Names ending in -arr are Latinised with -arus; in a few cases (and then on account of the Danish pronunciation) with -erus.

From the above rules it follows (1) that Gefr, if such a name existed, would have been Latinised by Saxo either into Geverus, Geferus, or into Gevo, Gefo; (2) that Gevarr is the regular Norse for Gevarus.

The only possible meaning of the name Gevarr, considered as a common noun is "the ward of the atmosphere" from ge (gæ; see Nafnaþulur (veðra heiti), and Egilsson, 227) and -varr. I cite this definition not for the purpose of drawing any conclusions therefrom, but simply because it agrees with the result reached in another way.

The other name of Nanna's father is, as we have seen, Nökkvi, Nökkver. This word means the ship-owner, ship-captain. If we compare these two names, Gevarr and Nökkver, with each other, then it follows from the comparison that Nanna's father was a mythic person who operated in the atmosphere or had some connection with certain phenomena in the air, and particularly in connection with a phenomenon there of such a kind that the mythic fancy could imagine a ship. The result of the comparison should be examined in connection with a strophe by Thorbjorn Hornklofi, which I shall now consider.

Thorbjorn was the court-skald of Harald Fairfax, and he described many of the king's deeds and adventures. Harald had at one time caused to be built for himself and his body-guard a large and stately ship, with a beautiful figure-head in the form of a serpent. On board this ship he was overtaken by a severe gale, which Hornklofi (Haralds saga Hárfagra, ch. 9) describes in the following words:

... út á mar mætir
mannskæðr lagar tanna
ræsinaðr til rausnar
rak vébrautar Nökkva.

In prose order: Lagar tanna mannskæðr mætir út á mar rak rausnar ræsinaðr til Nökkva vébrautar. ("The assailants of the skerry (the teeth of the sea), dangerous to man, flung out upon the sea the splendid serpent of the vessel's stem to the holy path of Nokkvi").

All interpreters agree that by "the skerry's assailants, dangerous to man," is meant the waves which are produced by the storm and rush against the skerries in breakers dangerous to seamen. It is also evident that Hornklofi wanted to depict the violence of the sea when be says that the billows which rise to assail thie skerry toss the ship, so that the figure-head of the stem reaches "the holy path of Nokkvi". Poems of different literatures resemble each other in their descriptions of a storm raging at sea. They make the billows rise to "the clouds," to "the stars," or to "the moon". Quanti montes volvuntur aquarum! Jam, jam tacturos sidera summa putes, Ovid sings (Trist., i. 18, 19) and Virgil has it: Procella fluctus ad sidera tollit (Æn., i. 107). One of their brother skalds in the North, quoted in Skáldskaparmál 76, depicts a storm with the following words:

Hrauð í himin upp glóðum
hafs, gekk sær af afli,
börð hygg-k að ský skerðu,
skaut Ránar vegr mána.

The skald makes the phosphorescence of the sea splash against heaven; he makes the ship split the clouds, and the way of Rán, the giantess of the sea, cut the path of the moon.

The question now is, whether Hornklofi by "Nokkvi's holy path" did not mean the path of the moon in space, and whether it is not to this path the figure-head of the ship seems to pitch when it is lifted on high by the towering billows. It is certain that this holy way toward which the heaven-high billows lift the ship is situated in the atmosphere above the sea, and that Nokkvi has been conceived as travelling this way in a ship, since Nokkvi means the ship-captain. From this it follows that Nokkvi's craft must have been a phenomenon in space resembling a ship which was supposed to have its course marked out there. We must therefore choose between the sun, the moon, and the stars; and as it is the moon which, when it is not full, has the form of a ship sailing in space, it is more probable that by Nokkvi's ship is meant the moon than that any other celestial body is referred to.

This probability becomes a certainty by the following proofs. In Sonatorrek (str. 2, 3) Egil Skallagrimsson sings that when heavy sorrow oppresses him (who has lost his favourite son) then the song does not easily well forth from his breast:

Þagna fundur
Þriggja niðja
ár borinn
úr Jötunheimum
lastalauss
er lifnaði
á Nökkvers
nökkva Bragi.

The skaldic song is here compared with a fountain which does not easily gush forth from a sorrowful heart, and the liquid of the fountain is compared with the "Thriggi's kinsmen's find, the one kept secret, which in times past was carried from Jotunheim into Nokkvi's ship, where Bragi, unharmed, refreshed himself (secured the vigour of life)".

It is plain that Egil here refers to a mythic event that formed an episode in the myth concerning the skaldic mead. Somewhere in Jotunheim a fountain containing the same precious liquid as that in Mimir's well has burst forth. The vein of the fountain was discovered by kinsmen of Thriggi, but the precious find eagerly desired by all powers is kept secret, presumably in order that they who made the discovery might enjoy it undivided and in safety. But something happens which causes the treasure which the fountain gave its discoverers to be carried from Jotunheim to Nokkvi's ship, and there the drink is accessible to the gods. It is especially mentioned that Bragi, the god of poetry, is there permitted to partake of it and thus refresh his powers.

Thus the ship of Nanna's father here reappears, and we learn that on its holy way in space in bygone times it bore a supply of skaldic mead, of which Bragi in the days of his innocence drank the strength of life.

With this we must compare a mythic fragment preserved in Gylfaginning 11. There a fountain called Byrgir is mentioned. Two children, a lass by name Bil and a lad by name Hjuki, whose father was named Viðfinnur, had come with a pail to this fountain to fetch water. The allegory in which the tradition is incorporated calls the pail Sægur, "the one seething over its brinks," and calls the pole on which the pail is carried Simul (according to one manuscript Sumul; cp. Suml, brewing ale, mead). Bil, one of the two children is put in connection with the drink of poetry. The skalds pray that she may be gracious to them. Ef unna ítr vildi Bil skáldi, "if the noble Bil will favour the skald," is a wish expressed in a strophe in the Younger Edda, ii. 363. Byrgir is manifestly a fountain of the same kind as the one referred to by Egil, and containing the skaldic mead. Byrgir's fountain must have been kept secret, it must have been a "concealed find," for it is in the night, while the moon is up, that Vidfinn's children are engaged in filling their pail from it. This is evident from the fact that Máni sees the children. When they have filled the pail, they are about to depart, presumably to their home, and to their father Vidfinn. But they do not get home. While they carry the pail with the pole on their shoulders Máni takes them unto himself, and they remain with him, together with their precious burden. From other mythic traditions which I shall consider later (see the treatise on the Ivaldi race), we learn that the moon-god adopts them as his children, and Bil afterwards appears as an ásynja (Gylfaginning 35).

If we now compare Egil's statements with the mythic fragment about Bil and Hjuki, we find in both a fountain mentioned which contains the liquid of inspiration found in Mimir's fountain, without being Mimir's well-guarded or unapproachable "well". In Egil the find is "kept secret". In Gylfaginning the children visit it in the night. Egil says the liquid was carried from Jotunheim; Gylfaginning says that Bil and Hjuki carried it in a pail. Egil makes the liquid transferred from Jotunheim to Nokkvi's ship; Gylfaginning makes the liquid and its bearer's be taken aloft by the moon-god to the moon, where we still, says Gylfaginning, can see Bil and Hjuki (in the moon-spots).

There can therefore be no doubt that Nokkvi's ship is the silvery craft of the moon, sailing in space over sea and land on a course marked out for it, and that Nokkvi is the moon-god. As in Rigveda, so in the Teutonic mythology, the ship of the moon was for a time the place where the liquid of inspiration, the life- and strength-giving mead, was concealed. The myth has ancient Aryan roots.

On the myth concerning the mead-carrying ship, to which the Asas come to drink, rests the paraphrase for composing, for making a song, which Einar Skalaglamm once used (Skáldskaparmál 9). To make songs he calls "to dip liquid out of Her-Tyr's wind-ship" (ausa Hertýs víngnóðar austur; see further No. 121, about Odin's visit in Nokkvi's ship).

The name Nefr (variation Nepr), the third name of Nanna's father mentioned above, occurs nowhere in the Norse sources excepting in the Younger Edda. It is, however, undoubtedly correct that Nokkvi-Gevar was also called Nef.

Among all the Teutonic myths there is scarcely one other with which so many heroic songs composed in heathen times have been connected as with the myth concerning the moon-god and his descendants. As shall be shown further on, the Niflungs are descendants of Nef's adopted son Hjuki, and they are originally named after their adopted race-progenitor Nefr. A more correct and an older form is perhaps Hnefr and Hniflungar, and the latter form is also found in the Icelandic literature. In Old English the moon-god appears changed into a prehistoric king, Hnäf, also called Hoce (see Beowulf, 2142, and Gleeman's Tale). Hoce is the same name as the Norse Hjúki. Thus while Hnäf and Hoce are identical in the Old English poem "Beowulf," we find in the Norse source that the lad taken aloft by Mani is called by one of the names of his foster-father. In the Norse account the moon-god (Nefr) captures, as we have seen, the children of one Viðfinnur, and at the same time he robs Viðfinnur of the priceless mead of inspiration found in the fountain Byrgir. In the Old English saga Hnäf has a son-in-law and vassal, whose name is Finn (Fin Folcvalding), who becomes his bitterest foe, contends with him, is conquered and pardoned, but attacks him again, and, in company with one Gudere (Gunnr), burns him. According to Saxo, Nanna's father Gevarr has the same fate. He is attacked by a vassal and burnt. The vassal is called Gunno (Gunnr, Gudere). Thus we have in the Old English tradition the names Hnäf, Hoce, Fin, and Gudere; and in the Norse tradition the corresponding names Nefr, Hjuki, Viðfinnur, and Gunnr (Gunnar). The relation of the moon-god (Nefr) to Viðfinnur is the mythological basis of Fin's enmity to Hnäf. The burning is common to both the Old English and the Norse sources. Later in this work I shall consider these circumstances more minutely. What I have stated is sufficient to show that the Old English tradition is in this point connected with the Norse in a manner, which confirms Nefr-Gevarr's identity with Máni, who takes aloft Hjuki and robs Viðfinnur of the skaldic mead.

The tradition of Gevarr-Nefr's identity with Máni reappears in Iceland once more as late as in Hromund Greipson's saga. There a person called Máni Karl shows where the hero of the saga is to find the sword Mistilteinn. In Saxo, Nanna's father Gevarr shows the before-mentioned Hotherus where he is to find the weapon which is to slay Baldur. Thus Máni in Hromund's saga assumes the same position as Gevarr, Nanna's father, occupies in Saxo's narrative.

All these circumstances form together a positive proof of the moon-god's identity with Nanna's father. Further on, when the investigation has progressed to the proper point, we shall give reasons for assuming that Viðfinnur of the Edda, the Fin of the English heroic poem, is the same person whom we have heretofore mentioned by the name Sumbli Finnakonungr and Svigðir, and that the myth concerning the taking of the mead aloft to the moon accordingly has an epic connection with the myth concerning Odin's visit to the giant Fjalar, and concerning the fate which then befell Nokkvi's slayer.