{"id":2819,"date":"2013-11-30T12:46:36","date_gmt":"2013-11-30T12:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/?p=2819"},"modified":"2014-07-01T09:23:23","modified_gmt":"2014-07-01T09:23:23","slug":"thor-son-of-odin-wears-it-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/2013\/11\/30\/thor-son-of-odin-wears-it-best\/","title":{"rendered":"Thor son of Odin wears it best."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\u00ferThor_and_Hymir\"<\/a>

Thor and Hymir, Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

“What’s the most typical syllable that names begin in Medieval, Norwegian sagas?” our professor asked on our this week’s Medieval literature lesson. People guessed immediately \u00de\u00f3r\/\u00deor, which was actually not correct for Norway but rather Iceland. If you’ve ever read Icelandic sagas you’ll totally understand this one… it’s almost comical to try to follow the story when everyone in it is called \u00deor-something.<\/p>\n

Things still haven’t changed much in this regard. A quick look at the N\u00f6fn \u00cdslendinga shows 129 names in total that begin with either \u00deor- or \u00de\u00f3r-, of which 69 are women’s names. That’s more than 50% folks! What makes this even more interesting is that it bears the meaning “strong” or “Thor”, which is obviously seen as an equally wonderful beginning of a name for both men and women. Or perhaps \u00de\u00f3r simply was the most popular god of the \u00e6sir<\/em> here in Iceland and that it sort of stuck in the culture of naming people and places, who knows.<\/p>\n

\"\u00ferthor\"<\/a>

Gosforth fishing from Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00de\u00f3r goes fishing with the j\u00f6tunn Hymir. The planned catch is none other than the Mi\u00f0gar\u00f0sormur himself, and the bait is a head of Hymir’s ox.<\/em><\/p>\n

What was the real \u00de\u00f3r like, then? One thing is for certain, he was very much unlike the Marvel comics Thor or the Thor of the recent movies. To begin with Loki was not his adoptive brother, not even an uncle although some people like to make the connection from Loki and \u00d3\u00f0inn, \u00de\u00f3r’s father, being blood brothers. The vows did not extend the relationship, however, being a bloodbrother to someone meant a bond only between those who tied it and it had zero effect on their families. This is why \u00d3\u00f0inn could not avenge the death of his other son Baldur to Loki but the other gods could: \u00d3\u00f0inn was the only one of them who had made a promise of eternal brotherhood with him. \u00de\u00f3r played a large part in both catching and punishing Loki, in fact.<\/p>\n

\u00de\u00f3r owned a dwarf-made hammer, Mj\u00f6lnir<\/em> (= A smashing item, thing for smashing), that was otherwise quite an amazing weapon but it came with a huge flaw as well. Loki had bothered the dwarf-smiths while they were making it so that it ended up having a too short shaft. Because of this \u00de\u00f3r needed iron gloves called J\u00e1rngreipr<\/em> (= iron grips) to be able to wield it; the hammer always returned to his hand but due to the short shaft it had to be used single-handedly, which seems to have been potentially damaging to even godly hands. Aside of this \u00de\u00f3r also wore megingj\u00f6r\u00f0\/-gjar\u00f0ir<\/em> (= might-belt\/s) around his waist that doubled his natural power. Besides all these things he’s also known for once dressing up as a woman.<\/p>\n

\"\u00ferm006\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sif: “And is Freyja planning to get married?”<\/em>
\n Loki: “What do you think? She didn’t want to!”<\/em>
\n \u00de\u00f3r: “That girlie listens to no reason, she just threw us down the stairs!!” (st\u00falkukind = a way of saying girl\/lass, possibly a stubborn one, does not have a derogatory meaning)<\/em><\/p>\n

As far as looks go the real \u00de\u00f3r had red hair and a beard, which was mentioned specifically in \u00derymskvi\u00f0a, the famous story of that one time Mj\u00f6lnir was stolen. The \u00e6sir sent Loki in a bird coat to ask the thief, \u00derymr, on what conditions would he return it. \u00derymr demanded Freyja’s hand in marriage, which posed quite a problem because when Freyja was told of it she became formidably angry, shaking the very ground with her rage, and the \u00e6sir could not force her (or simply didn’t dare to try to).<\/p>\n

“\u00de<\/span>\u00e1 kva\u00f0 \u00fea\u00f0 Heimdallur,<\/em>
\n hv\u00edtastur \u00e1sa:<\/em>
\n Bindum v\u00e9r \u00de\u00f3r \u00fe\u00e1<\/em>
\n br\u00fa\u00f0ar l\u00edni,<\/em>
\n hafi hann i\u00f0 mikla<\/em>
\n men Br\u00edsinga.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“Then said Heimdallur,
\nthe whitest \u00e1s:*
\nWe shall dress \u00de\u00f3r, then
\nin a wedding dress,
\ngive him the mighty
\nBrisingamen.”**<\/p>\n

*White here most likely refers to either the colour of his clothes or his hair, as was typical in Old Norse texts. A man called “black” for example simply had black hair.<\/em><\/p>\n

**Freyja’s necklace that she bought from four dwarf smiths by spending a night with each one of them. It was said to be the most beautiful necklace in the world.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\u00ferym2\"<\/a>

Ah, what a lovely maid it is! Elmer Boyd Smith, from Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00de\u00f3r being dressed up for the wedding. The woman on the left is handing him Brisingamen, the necklace of the Brisingas, Freyja’s greatest treasure and her most typical symbol. The woman on the right is hanging a bunch of keys at his waist, a sign of a mighty Nordic woman. Freyja’s two cats look on and Loki in the back seems to be a little too amused…<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00de\u00f3r was not happy about this, of course.<\/p>\n

“\u00de\u00e1 kva\u00f0 \u00fea\u00f0 \u00de\u00f3r,<\/em>
\n \u00fer\u00fa\u00f0ugur \u00e1s:<\/em>
\n Mig munu \u00e6sir<\/em>
\n argan*** kalla<\/em>
\n ef eg bindast l\u00e6t<\/em>
\n br\u00fa\u00f0ar l\u00edni.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“Then said \u00de\u00f3r,
\nthe strong \u00e1s:
\n\u00c6sir will
\ncall me gay
\nif I let dress myself
\nin a wedding dress.”<\/p>\n

***Ergi<\/em>, as a word, translates in multiple ways that all mean unmanly. In this context it seems to have a very specific meaning since it’s tied to wearing a woman’s clothes, which in some sagas has been linked to homosexual behaviour. In Nj\u00e1ll’s saga, to mention one, Skarph\u00e9\u00f0inn throws a pair of ladies’ underwear at Fl\u00f3si and tells him they’ll make his real pretty for the troll that he sleeps with “and who you let make a woman out of you”.<\/em><\/p>\n

The situation was dire, though, since Mj\u00f6lnir was the main weapon the \u00e6sir had against their enemies. In the very next sentence Loki says: “Aw shut up \u00de\u00f3r, we’ll have the j\u00f6tunns here in \u00c1sgar\u00f0 in no time if you don’t get your hammer back” (\u00deegi \u00fe\u00fa, \u00de\u00f3r, \u00feeirra or\u00f0a. \u00deegar munu j\u00f6tnar \u00c1sgar\u00f0 b\u00faa nema \u00fe\u00fa \u00feinn hamar \u00fe\u00e9r um heimtir<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Once \u00de\u00f3r was dressed up Loki suggested that he should dress up as a female slave and follow along! This was actually the smartest idea of the whole story, because you can put \u00de\u00f3r in a pretty dress and a veil but he’ll still be \u00de\u00f3r-ish in behaviour. At the wedding feast he ate a whole oxen, eight salmons and drank everything that was put within his reach. \u00derymr got suspicious but Loki, who in this part of the \u00derymskvi\u00f0a is referred to as “alsnotra amb\u00e1tt<\/em>” (wise slave-girl), hurried to explain that “Freyja” had been awaiting the wedding so eagerly that she hadn’t eaten for eight days.<\/p>\n

Well, that’s just endearing.<\/p>\n

“Laut und l\u00ednu,<\/em>
\n lysti a\u00f0 kyssa,<\/em>
\n en hann utan st\u00f6kk<\/em>
\n endlangan sal:<\/em>
\n Hv\u00ed eru \u00f6nd\u00f3tt<\/em>
\n augu Freyju?<\/em>
\n \u00deykir m\u00e9r \u00far augum<\/em>
\n eldur um brenna.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“(\u00derymr) Bowed under veil,
\nwished to kiss (\u00de\u00f3r),
\nbut he sprung out****
\nand along the room:
\nWhy so fierce are
\nFreyja’s eyes?
\nI thought out of the eyes
\nfire was flaming.”<\/p>\n

****This seems to hint that the bridal veil covered the whole face, and that \u00derymr got his first glimpse of his bride-to-be’s eyes by lifting the veil. This shocked him so much that he literally bolted away from his bride.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thankfully “the wise slave-girl” was again quick to point out that Freyja was so eager to be married to \u00derymr that she also couldn’t sleep for eight nights, that’s why her eyes were blood-shot.<\/p>\n

\"\u00ferm011\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Next was time to tie the knot! This was when it came out that \u00derymr never had any plan of ever letting the \u00e6sir have Mj\u00f6lnir back: his logic was that once he’s married to one of them (though Freyja is actually one of vanir<\/em>, another race, sent to live in \u00c1sgar\u00f0 as a hostage after a long war between the \u00e6sir and the vanir) he would keep his word by giving the hammer to Freyja instead. Brilliant plan, might have worked except that it would have needed Freyja to be the real Freyja and not \u00de\u00f3r himself. What follows the moment he gets the hammer back is a bloodpath that spares no one in the room, least of all \u00derymr whom he makes sure to kill first. Feels a bit like he had an axe to grind.<\/p>\n

“Svo kom \u00d3\u00f0ins sonur
\nendur a\u00f0 hamri.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“And that is how \u00d3\u00f0inn’s son
\ngot his hammer back.”<\/p>\n

The end!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

“What’s the most typical syllable that names begin in Medieval, Norwegian sagas?” our professor asked on our this week’s Medieval literature lesson. People guessed immediately \u00de\u00f3r\/\u00deor, which was actually not correct for Norway but rather Iceland. If you’ve ever read Icelandic sagas you’ll totally understand this one… it’s almost comical to try to follow the…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":2831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[90791,91060],"tags":[91405,91401,10208,3,178,10341,2401,91396,6977,91400],"class_list":["post-2819","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-icelandic-culture","category-icelandic-history","tag-advanced","tag-asatru","tag-beginner","tag-culture","tag-history","tag-intermediate","tag-poetry","tag-so-icelandic","tag-supernatural","tag-viking-era"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2819"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3421,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2819\/revisions\/3421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}