Gymir (

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

: ) is a

jötunn A (also jotun; in the normalised scholarly spelling of Old Norse, ; ; plural / ) or, in Old English, (plural ) is a type of supernatural being in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, they are often contrasted with gods ( Æsir and Vani ...

in Norse mythology. He is the spouse of Aurboða, and the father of the beautiful jötunn

Gerðr In Norse mythology, Gerðr (Old Norse: ; "fenced-in"Orchard (1997:54).) is a jötunn, goddess, and the wife of the god Freyr. Gerðr is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources; the ''Prose Ed ...

, who married the god

Freyr Freyr (Old Norse: 'Lord'), sometimes anglicized as Frey, is a widely attested god in Norse mythology, associated with kingship, fertility, peace, and weather. Freyr, sometimes referred to as Yngvi-Freyr, was especially associated with Sweden an ...

. ''Gymir'' may be the same figure as

Ægir Ægir (anglicised as Aegir; Old Norse 'sea'), Hlér (Old Norse 'sea'), or Gymir (Old Norse less clearly 'sea, engulfer'), is a jötunn and a personification of the sea in Norse mythology. In the Old Norse record, Ægir hosts the gods in his halls ...

, a personification of the sea or ocean, or a separate figure who shares the same name.

Name

The meaning of the

name ''Gymir'' is unclear. Proposed translations include 'the earthly' (from Old Norse ''gumi''), 'the wintry one' (from ''gemla''), or 'the protector', the 'engulfer' (from ''geyma''). In ''

Lokasenna ''Lokasenna'' (Old Norse: 'The Flyting of Loki', or 'Loki's Verbal Duel') is one of the poems of the '' Poetic Edda''. The poem presents flyting between the gods and Loki. It is written in the ljóðaháttr metre, typical for wisdom verse. ''Lo ...

'' (Loki's Flyting) and ''

Skáldskaparmál ''Skáldskaparmál'' (Old Norse: 'The Language of Poetry'; c. 50,000 words; ; ) is the second part of the ''Prose Edda''. The section consists of a dialogue between Ægir, the divine personification of the sea, and Bragi, the god of poetry, ...

'' (The Language of Poetry), Gymir is given by Snorri Sturluson as an alternative name for the divine personification of the sea

Rudolf Simek Rudolf Simek (born 21 February 1954) is an Austrian philologist and religious studies scholar who is Professor and Chair of Ancient German and Nordic Studies at the University of Bonn. Simek specializes in Germanic studies, and is the author o ...

argues that it may be an erroneous interpretation of

kenning A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech in the type of circumlocution, a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English ...

s in which different giant-names are used interchangeably.

Attestations

''Poetic Edda''

In both '' Skírnismál'' (The Lay of

Skírnir In Norse mythology, Skírnir (Old Norse" ; "bright one"Orchard (1997:149).) is the god Freyr's messenger and vassal. In the ''Poetic Edda'' poem ''Skírnismál'', Skírnir is sent as a messenger to Jötunheimr to conduct lovesick Freyr's wooing o ...

) and ''

Gylfaginning ''Gylfaginning'' (Old Norse: 'The Beguiling of Gylfi' or 'The Deluding of Gylfi'; c. 20,000 words; 13th century Old Norse pronunciation ) is the first part of the 13th century ''Prose Edda'' after the Prologue. The ''Gylfaginning'' deals with t ...

'' (The Beguiling of

Gylfi In Norse mythology, Gylfi (Old Norse: ), ''Gylfe'', ''Gylvi'', or ''Gylve'' was the earliest recorded king in Scandinavia. He often uses the name Gangleri when appearing in disguise. The traditions on Gylfi deal with how he was tricked by the god ...

), Gymir is portrayed as the spouse of Aurboða; and from their union was born

''Prose Edda''

A verse from the 9th-century skald Ref Gestsson is quoted in the later ''

'' (The Language of Poetry). According to John Lindow, "the verse in question seems to say that the cold seeress of Gymir often transports the bear of twisted lines into the jaw of

; that is, that the wave ( Ægir’s daughters are the nine waves) often drives a ship deep into the water."

Scholarly reception and interpretation

The name ''Gymir'' may indicate that Ægir was understood as the father of the beautiful jötunn

or indicate that two figures by the same name. Both the prose introduction to ''

'' and ''

'' state that Ægir is also known as Gymir, the father of the jötunn

argues that, if understood to be two different entities, this may stemf rom an erroneous interpretation of kennings in which different jötunn-names are used interchangeably. Gymir has been seen as a chthonic deity, and Magnus Olsen argued that he was an earth giant from his interpretation of '' Skírnismál'' in light of the ''

hieros gamos ''Hieros gamos'', hieros (ἱερός) meaning "holy" or "sacred" and gamos (γάμος) meaning marriage, or Hierogamy (Greek , "holy marriage"), is a sacred marriage that plays out between a god and a goddess, especially when enacted in a symb ...

.''"Fra gammelnorsk myte og kultus", '' Maal og Minne'' 1 (1909) 17-36, p. 21 ; Jan de Vries, ''Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte'', volume 1, 2nd ed. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1956, repr. 1970
p. 251, note 1

References

Bibliography

* * * * * {{Norse paganism topics Jötnar Chthonic beings