"When Odin entered Asgard he spat the mead into the vats. It was such a close call, with Suttung almost catching him, that he blew some of the mead out of his rear. No one paid attention to this part, and whoever wanted it took it; we call this the bad poets' potion." -- from The Prose Edda (p. 86)
Just one of many, many WTF? moments from the slim collection of Scandinavian folklore from which much of our information is gleaned. And seriously, Penguin Classics, why is it "Sturlson" on the cover and spine, but consistently rendered as "Sturluson" within?
Yes, I thought about starting this after every viewing of Thor: Ragnarok, and after the third, finally settled in to read. I read a different, more narrative translation years ago, but I honestly didn't remember how messed up it was.
Just to start with, the Prose Edda (written somewhere around 1220) tells us that the Norse gods came from Asia, specifically Turkey, and even more specifically, Troy. Once their wanderings take them to Scandinavia, even "their language -- that of the men of Asia -- became the native language in all these lands" (8). Yes, sure, this is the result of the tendency to elevate oral legend by tying it in with "historical" facts, but it's still weird. Also intriguing, given the contentious but popular idea of the "Indo-European" language.
There's a related tendency to associate Odin with Jesus, as if the work is reflecting an "intimations of immortality," to quote Simone Weil on the pagans, creating a theoretical framework to fit Jesus into later. For example, "He created man and gave him a living spirit that will never die ... All men who are righteous shall live and be with him in that place ..." (12). Of course, that's followed right up with the question (still really unanswered in the Judeo-Christian world) "What did he do before heaven and earth were created?" and the straightforward reply, "Back then, he was with the frost giants" (ibid). As good an answer as any!
In short, mostly unconnected segments, the Edda tells us about Thor (who responds to every problem by hitting it with his hammer), Loki, the Yggdrasil, the Bifrost, the Valkyries, and, of course, Ragnarok, along with a mind-numbing amount of bit players and names of people's relatives for a book that's only 118 pages long, not counting Appendixes. It's hard to know whether it's intentional or not, but the total untrustworthiness of the gods is a running theme. The giant Fenriswolf is raised by the AEsir, and they seem to get along fine before they entrap him, because "all the prophecies foretold that it was destined to harm them" (40). The more sophisticated, literary Greek writers would have made the cause and effect of fate clearer, but here we're left to wonder if the wolf would cause the end of the world at all if the gods hadn't tricked and imprisoned him.
Similarly, when they gods need a fortress, they get a builder and make the kind of deal with him familiar to us from fairy tales like Rumpelstiltskin. They agree to reward him with the goddess Freyja and the sun and moon, if he can build it in an impossibly short time. When they realize he has the ability to meet their deadline, they "attacked Loki," who's "frightened" into a scheme to hold up the work and get the gods out of their obligation (51). The swindled builder "flew into a giant's rage," at which point they bring in Thor to do what he does best: "Thor paid the builder his wages ... he struck the first blow in such a way that the giant's skull broke into small pieces" (52).
It's because of this incident, by the way, that Loki gets impregnated while in horse form, and gives birth to a colt: "it was grey and had eight feet" (ibid).
Almost needless to say: recommended reading!
Snorri, Sturluson, and Jesse L. Byock. The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology. London: Penguin, 2005.
(Loki and Svaðilfari (1909) by Dorothy Hardy. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1923.)
Just one of many, many WTF? moments from the slim collection of Scandinavian folklore from which much of our information is gleaned. And seriously, Penguin Classics, why is it "Sturlson" on the cover and spine, but consistently rendered as "Sturluson" within?
Yes, I thought about starting this after every viewing of Thor: Ragnarok, and after the third, finally settled in to read. I read a different, more narrative translation years ago, but I honestly didn't remember how messed up it was.
Just to start with, the Prose Edda (written somewhere around 1220) tells us that the Norse gods came from Asia, specifically Turkey, and even more specifically, Troy. Once their wanderings take them to Scandinavia, even "their language -- that of the men of Asia -- became the native language in all these lands" (8). Yes, sure, this is the result of the tendency to elevate oral legend by tying it in with "historical" facts, but it's still weird. Also intriguing, given the contentious but popular idea of the "Indo-European" language.
There's a related tendency to associate Odin with Jesus, as if the work is reflecting an "intimations of immortality," to quote Simone Weil on the pagans, creating a theoretical framework to fit Jesus into later. For example, "He created man and gave him a living spirit that will never die ... All men who are righteous shall live and be with him in that place ..." (12). Of course, that's followed right up with the question (still really unanswered in the Judeo-Christian world) "What did he do before heaven and earth were created?" and the straightforward reply, "Back then, he was with the frost giants" (ibid). As good an answer as any!
In short, mostly unconnected segments, the Edda tells us about Thor (who responds to every problem by hitting it with his hammer), Loki, the Yggdrasil, the Bifrost, the Valkyries, and, of course, Ragnarok, along with a mind-numbing amount of bit players and names of people's relatives for a book that's only 118 pages long, not counting Appendixes. It's hard to know whether it's intentional or not, but the total untrustworthiness of the gods is a running theme. The giant Fenriswolf is raised by the AEsir, and they seem to get along fine before they entrap him, because "all the prophecies foretold that it was destined to harm them" (40). The more sophisticated, literary Greek writers would have made the cause and effect of fate clearer, but here we're left to wonder if the wolf would cause the end of the world at all if the gods hadn't tricked and imprisoned him.
Similarly, when they gods need a fortress, they get a builder and make the kind of deal with him familiar to us from fairy tales like Rumpelstiltskin. They agree to reward him with the goddess Freyja and the sun and moon, if he can build it in an impossibly short time. When they realize he has the ability to meet their deadline, they "attacked Loki," who's "frightened" into a scheme to hold up the work and get the gods out of their obligation (51). The swindled builder "flew into a giant's rage," at which point they bring in Thor to do what he does best: "Thor paid the builder his wages ... he struck the first blow in such a way that the giant's skull broke into small pieces" (52).
It's because of this incident, by the way, that Loki gets impregnated while in horse form, and gives birth to a colt: "it was grey and had eight feet" (ibid).
Almost needless to say: recommended reading!
Snorri, Sturluson, and Jesse L. Byock. The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology. London: Penguin, 2005.
(Loki and Svaðilfari (1909) by Dorothy Hardy. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1923.)
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