Norns in Old Norse Mythology

Karen Bek-Pedersen

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Folclore
• Northern Europe
• Scandinavia
• Scandinavie
• Folklore

Informations

• Publié par: Dunedin Academic Press
• Date de parution: 05 décembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781903544273
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The nornir or norns were a group of female supernatural beings closely related to ideas about fate in Old Norse tradition. Karen Bek-Pedersen provides a thorough understanding of the role played by norns and other beings like them in the relevant sources. Although they are well known, even to people who have only a superficial knowledge of Old Norse mythology, this is the first detailed discussion of the norns to be published amongst the literature dealing with Old Norse beliefs.
Surprisingly little has been written specifically about the norns. Although often mentioned in scholarship treating Old Norse culture, the norns are all too often dealt with in overly superficial ways. The research presented in this book goes much deeper in order to properly understand the nature and role of the norns in the Old Norse world view. The conclusions reached by the author overturn a number of stereotypical conceptions that have long dominated our understanding of these beings.
The book has a natural focus on Old Norse culture and is especially relevant to those interested in or studying Old Norse culture and tradition. However, comparative material from Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Classical traditions is also employed and the book is therefore of interest also to those with a broader interest in European mythologies.
Karen Bek-Pedersen lectured in Early Scandinavian Studies at the University of Aberdeen until recently where she worked at the Centre for Scandinavian Studies. She has an MA (hons) and PhD from the University of Edinburgh. From 2004–2007 she worked at Scandinavian Studies at the University of Edinburgh, teaching Danish language, Scandinavian Cultural History and Old Norse sagas and mythology. In 2008 she worked at Aarhus Universitet, in Denmark teaching Old Norse: Eddic poetry. She has participated in the Orkney International Science Festival a number of times, giving talks on Old Norse mythology.
The Norns in Old Norse Mythology
Karen Bek-Pedersen
For Derek — and a day spent at the Back of the Aisler.
Contents
List of Abbreviations
List of Manuscripts
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 Sources
1.1 Edda
1.2 Snorra-Edda
1.3 Skaldic Poetry
1.4 Sagas
1.5 Other Sources
1.6 Evaluation
2 What Is a Norn?
2.1 Nornir, Dísir and Valkyrjur
2.2 Other Supernatural Female Figures
2.3 Summary: Borderlines and Grey Areas
3 The Women in the Well
3.1 Urðr, Verðandi and Skuld
3.2 Dark and Humid Places
3.3 The Dyngja
3.4 Summary: Fate Comes from the Well
4 Fate and Threads
4.1 Fate and Textile
4.2 The First Merseburg Charm
4.3 Text and Textile
4.4 Summary: Tangled Threads
5 Fate, Honour and Speech
5.1 Fateful Terminology
5.2 Fate as Law and as Honour
5.3 The Power of the Spoken Word
5.4 Summary: An Impartial Balance
Conclusions
Bibliography
Index
List of Abbreviations ÁBM Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon, Íslensk Orðsifjabók AeW Jan de Vries, Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch ATU Hans-Jörg Uther, The Types of International Folktales CSI Viðar Hreinsson (ed.), The Complete Sagas of Icelanders , 5 vols C / V Richard Cleasby and Gudbrand Vigfusson, An Icelandic– English Dictionary Frtz Johan Fritzner, Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog , 3 vols FSN Guðni Jónsson, Fornaldar Sögur Norðurlanda , 4 vols IeW Alexander Jóhannesson, Isländisches etymologisches Wörterbuch ÍF Íslenzk Fornrit , 35 vols ÍS Guðni Jónsson, Íslendinga Sögur , 14 vols KLE Klaus von See (ed.), Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda , Vol. 2–5 LP Sveinbjörn Egilsson and Finnur Jónsson, Lexicon Poeticum MS / MSS manuscript / manuscripts OED J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner, The Oxford English Dictionary , 20 vols Skj Finnur Jónsson, Den Norsk-Islandske Skjaldedigtning AI+II and BI+II SP Skaldic Project website
List of Manuscripts
In cases where a manuscript is known by a name as well as a number, the name is the designation used in the text.
AM 45 fol., c .1300–25 / Codex Frisianus
AM 61 fol., c .1350–75
AM 122 a fol., c .1350–70 / Króksfjarðarbók
AM 122 b fol., c . 1375–1400 / Reykjarfjarðarbók
AM 132 fol., c .1330–70 / Möðruvallabók
AM 162 A δ fol., c .1300
AM 242 fol., c .1350
AM 285 4°, c .1600–1700
AM 291 4°, c .1275–1300
AM 448 4°, c .1686 (copy of the lost Vatnshyrna )
AM 468 4°, c .1300–25 / Reykjabók
AM 519 a 4°, c .1280
AM 544 4°, c .1300–25 / Hauksbók
AM 556 a 4°, c .1475–1500
AM 556 b 4°, c .1475–1500
AM 557 4°, c .1420–50
AM 559 4°, c .1686–8
AM 564 a 4°, c .1390–1425
AM 586 4°, c .1450–1500
AM 593 4°, c .1400–1500
AM 748 4°, c .1300–25
AM 748 Ib 4°, c .1300–25
AM 748 II 4°, c .1400
AM 757 a 4°, c .1400
AM 166 b 8°, c .1600–1700
Codex 136 fol. 84r (85r), tenth century
DG 11, c .1300–25 / Uppsalabók
Gks 1005 fol., c .1387–95 / Flateyjarbók
Gks 2365 4°, c .1270 / Konungsbók
Gks 2367 4°, c .1300–50
Gks 2845 4°, c .1450
Gks 2870 4°, c .1300 / Gráskinna (now only in a seventeenth-century transcript)
Holm perg 6 fol., c .1275
Holm papp 15 8°, c .1650–1700
ÍB 226 4°, c .1680–1700
Nks 1824 b 4°, c .1400–25
Nowell Codex (part of the Cotton Vitellius A.xv compilation), c .1000
Upps UB R 715, c .1650
Tréktarbók / Codex Trajectinus , c .1600
Acknowledgements
I owe my gratitude to many people for helping me in various ways during the process of writing this book. Some have directly influenced my research and my thinking and for this I am deeply grateful as the finished result far exceeds what I would have been able to produce in isolation. Others have been a wonderful help to me when it came to escaping from work and for this I am equally grateful as it means that I am still capable of holding conversations about relatively ordinary topics.
First and foremost I am grateful to John McKinnell for constructive criticism, to Patricia Boulhosa for commentary, to Clare Downham for making a crucial suggestion and to Stephen Mitchell for inspiring enthusiasm. I am likewise indebted to colleagues and friends who have helped me, each in their own way, while I was working on my PhD thesis, which forms the basis of the present book — especially Terry Gunnell, the late Jón Hnefill Aðalsteinsson, Henning Kure, John Lindow, Judy Quinn, Rory McTurk, Jens Peter Schjødt, Rósa Þorsteinsdóttir, Eldar Heide, Howie Firth and the late Bel Rankin. Without you, I fear the nornir might have got the better of me long since.
Moreover, I would like to express my gratitude to my publisher, Dunedin Academic Press, for always having the time to respond sensibly to my emails and for having faith in the project. A certain amount of steering was needed; it was also given.
I would also like to thank Richard for inspiration, thoughtfulness and optimism, Henriette for walking slowly with open eyes, Rikke for breathing space (and ice cream!), Kristján for always having time, Ingunn for the exquisite tours and the unfailingly good company, Phil for the music (and the gloves, which I still use), Sean, Steve and Chris for not forgetting me completely and Randi for always being on call.
Lastly, but importantly, special thanks are due to Tam and Sheena for getting me all of those books, to Hamish and Frida for letting me sleep on their windowsill, to Tarrin, Lisa, Irene and Triin for being more than just colleagues - and to Ian for being a co-respondent.
Introduction
Old Norse mythology portrays a group of three female supernatural beings called the norns, who act as representatives of the past, present and future, and who spin and weave fate for mankind. That, at least, is what you have probably always thought. Nothing as mundane as the facts of the matter is likely to quash the stereotypes, I suppose, but I have set myself the task of attempting to quash them nonetheless. This book is here to change your mind.
The book aims to provide an understanding of the role played by the norns in the world view current in the Scandinavian cultural area during the Viking Age and early medieval period. Although the norns are well known to most people who take an interest in Old Norse mythology, there is as yet no in-depth study of them among the literature dealing with Old Norse beliefs. This book sets out to redress that situation.
The first point to note is that the beings concerned are called nornir in Old Norse (sg. norn ) and that the policy here will be to use the Old Norse terms rather than English approximations. The rationale is that, although some Old Norse terms have English renditions or approximations (norns, valkyries and fetches for nornir , valkyrjur and fylgjur ), this is not the case for all beings that will be discussed below (for example dísir , vanir , ásynjur ). I have therefore decided to employ the Old Norse terms across the board because the consistency of doing that greatly appeals to me. Where English words exist, these will be given in square brackets on the first usage of the term, for instance valkyrja [valkyrie]; thereafter, the Old Norse term will be the one employed.
The nornir are intriguing figures in the mythology. Playing predominantly cameo parts, they remain shadowy background figures and most of their appearances consist of brief references to their dealings behind the backs of human beings. We rarely get clear representations of who and what the nornir really are, but we do hear enough about them to understand that they fulfilled a role in people’s conceptual world during the period and area in question — the Scandinavian cultural area roughly between ad 800 and ad 1200, with ‘Scandinavian’ indicating the geographical areas where Old Norse language was dominant during that time. The nornir are rarely visible in person but remain present nonetheless, usually intangible, mostly out of focus and always complex.
The discussions that follow make reference to a range of other supernatural beings and characters, which overlap to a greater or lesser extent with the nornir . This book, however, focuses on the nornir , which means that other beings are discussed mainly in relation