Heimdall
Heimdall (Old Norse Heimðallr, later Heimdallr) is one of the æsir (gods) in Norse mythology, in the Edda called the "white god" (hvítastr ása "whitest of the aesir Sæm 72ª; hvíta ás "white as" Sn. 104).
Heimdall is the guardian of the Bifrost Bridge, and thereby the link between Midgard and Asgard. Legends foretell that he will sound the Gjallarhorn, alerting the Æsir to the onset of Ragnarök where the world ends and is reborn.
Heimdall, as guardian, is described as being able to hear grass growing and single leaves falling, able to see to the end of the world, and so alert that he requires no sleep at all. Heimdall is described as a son of Odin, perhaps a foster son. Heimdall was destined to be the last of the gods to perish at Ragnarök when he and Loki would slay one another.
Contents |
Name
The etymology of the name Heimðallr is unclear. Grimm in his Teutonic Mythology (12.1) compares the heim element to himinn' "sky, heavens" and the þallr element to þöll (genitive þallar) "pine-tree".[1] The same noun þöll appears also in the sense of "river" in Sn. 43, and Freyja bears the epithet Mardöll (genitive Mardallar, Sn. 37, 154). The original motivation for the name remains unknown, and there is no parallel material from other Germanic languages.
The name of Heimdall's abode, Himinbiörg, on the other hand, clearly translates to "heavenly mountain" or "sky mountain". Comparable is the common noun himinfiöll for especially high mountains.[2] and further the Old High German Himilînberg "heavenly mountain", a place haunted by spirits in the vita S. Gali, a Himelberc in Liechtenstein and a Himilesberg near Fulda besides more examples from Hesse, a Himmelsberg in Västergötland, and one, allegedly Heimdall's own, in Halland. Grimm further compares Himinvângar (Sæm. 150ª), cognate to Old Saxon hebanwang, hebeneswang, a term for "paradise" and the Anglo-Saxon Heofenfeld "heavenly field" mentioned by Bede.
Characteristics and interpretation
Heimdall is described as the son of nine different mothers (possibly the nine daughters of Ægir, called billow maidens) and was called the White God. His hall was called Himinbjörg (Sky Mountain) and his horse was Gulltoppr (Gold-top). Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda relates that a kenning for sword is head of Heimdall because Heimdall was struck by a man's head and that this is treated in the poem Heimdalargaldr, a poem unfortunately lost. Similarly, a kenning for head is sword of Heimdall. The meaning may lie in Heimdall also being called "ram", the weapon of a ram being its head, including the horns. Georges Dumézil (1959) suggested that this might also be why Heimdall is called White-god.
In legend he enjoyed wandering through the earthly realms and was the progenitor of three classes of human beings: serfs, peasants and members of the rulling classes. Each was the result of Heimdall's dalliance with a different mortal woman. Serf's were the descendants of the god's son Trall, a strong and willing worker. Peasants were the children of Karl, a farmer and warrrior and rulers including the first king of Denmark were descended from the god's son, Jarl
Heimdall's nickname Hallinskíði ("Bent Stick") also appears as a kenning for "ram", perhaps referring to the bent horns on a ram's head. Heimdall's nickname Gullintanni ("Golden-Toothed") would refer to the yellow coloring found in the teeth of old rams. A third name for Heimdall is Vindhlér ("Wind Shelter"). Dumézil cites Welsh folklore sources which tell how ocean waves come in sets of nine with the ninth one being the ram:
We understand that whatever his mythical value and functions were, the scene of his birth made him, in the sea's white frothing, the ram produced by the ninth wave. If this is the case, then it is correct to say that he has nine mothers, since one alone does not suffice, nor two, nor three.
Georges Dumézil considered Heimdall an old Indo-European god, a type of god he calls first god, which he also sees reflected in Roman Janus. But Dumézil sees Heimdall also as a frame god, one who appears at the beginning and remains until the end.[3] Dumézil suggested that the Hindu counterpart was the god Dyaus, one of the eight Vasus, who reincarnated as the frame hero Bhishma in the epic Mahabharata.
Branston (1980) considers Heimdall to correspond to the Vedic Agni god of fire.
H. R. Ellis Davidson proposes a link between Heimdall and the Vanir [4] as do some others, partly based on stanza 15 of the Poetic Edda poem Þrymskviða:
Then Heimdall spoke, whitest of the Æsir,
Like the other Vanir he knew the future well.
Davidson also notes a connection with Freyja, taking up Grimm's comparison with her epithet Mardoll , interpreting mar as meaning "sea" and heim as meaning "earth".[4]
Eddaic references
Poetic Edda
_by_J._T._Lundbye.jpg)
The first stanza of the Poetic Edda poem Völuspá proclaims:
I ask for a hearing of all the holy races
Greater and lesser, kinsman of Heimdall.
The Eddic poem Rígsthula explains how these races are kinsmen of Heimdall; the god Ríg, identified with Heimdall in a short prose introduction, apparently fathered the progenitors of the three classes of humankind, the youngest of which fathered in turn Kon the Young (Old Norse Kon ungr), the first immortal king (Old Norse konungr).
Prose Edda
The lost Heimdallargaldr may have contained the following adventure which was also referenced in Úlfr Uggason's skaldic poem Húsdrápa of which only fragments are preserved:
Once, Freyja woke up and found that someone had stolen Brisingamen. Heimdall helped her search for it and eventually found the thief, who turned out to be Loki and they fought in the form of seals at Vágasker 'Wave-skerry' and Singasteinn, wherever they may be. Heimdall won and returned Brisingamen to Freyja.
Historical depictions
It has been suggested that a figure holding a horn and a sword that is depicted on a damaged Manx cross from Jurby, Isle of Man, represents Heimdall.[5] There is general agreement that Heimdall holding his horn is also shown on a panel of the Gosforth Cross in England.[6]
See also
- Mothers of Heimdall
- Ríg
References
- ↑ cognate to English deal "plank", in origin a loan from Middle Low German dele "plank, board".
- ↑ Sæm. 148ª Yngl. 39; Grimm, TM 22[1]
- ↑ Dumézil, Georges (1959) "Comparative Remarks on the Scandinavian God Heimdall", Gods of the Ancient Northmen. Ed. Einar Haugen, trans. Francis Charat (1973) Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-03507-0.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Davidson, H.R. Ellis (1990) [1964]. "The Enigmatic Gods". Gods and Myths of Northern Europe. Penguin. pp. 175. ISBN 0-14-013627-4. ""It is true that this connexion with the Vanir is implied rather than clearly obvious, but it is implied at several different points.""
- ↑ Kermode, Philip Moore (2005 reprint of 1907 Bemrose ed.)). Manx Crosses or The Inscribed and Sculptured Monuments of the Isle of Man From About the End of the Fifth to the Beginning of the Thirteenth Century. Elibron Classics. pp. 188. ISBN 1-4021-19278-9. http://books.google.com/books?id=WirasDmT2C8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false.
- ↑ Wilson, D. M. (1998). "Gosforth Cross". In Hoops, Johannes; Beck, Heinrich. Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. 12. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 400. ISBN 3-11-016227-X. http://books.google.com/books?id=bcwfZW_soyMC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false.
External links
- [2] William Sayers, "Irish Perspectives on Heimdallr," Alvíssmál 2 (1993): 3–30.
- [3] Karl G. Johansson, "Rígsþula och Codex Wormianus: Textens funktion ur ett kompilationsperspektiv," Alvíssmál 8 (1998): 67–84 (English summary, p. 84).
- [4] Frederic Amory, "The Historical Worth of Rígsþula," Alvíssmál 10 (2001): 3–20.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
