Hnoss (

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

: , "jewel" or "treasure") is one of the daughters of

Freyja In Norse mythology, Freyja (Old Norse "(the) Lady") is a goddess associated with love, beauty, fertility, sex, war, gold, and seiðr (magic for seeing and influencing the future). Freyja is the owner of the necklace Brísingamen, rides a char ...

and Óðr in

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...

Name

The

term ''Hnoss'' has been translated in a variety of ways by scholars and folklorists. David Leeming and Christopher Fee in their joint book ''The Goddess: Myths of the Great Mother'' claim that Hnoss' name was drawn from the word for "gem," in which she is described as sparkling like a diamond. Given Hnoss is the daughter of the most beautiful goddess Freyja, it should come as no surprise that jewels bear her name. Hilda Ellis Davidson in her ''Roles of the Northern Goddess'' similarly claims that Hnoss' name derives from a great beauty whose name may be "used for treasure in poetry" or simply "treasure." This translation shares semantic and etymological similarities with the Icelandic word ''hnoss'' (meaning "nipper") as well as the Old Danish words ''noss'' (meaning "sweetheart") and ''nusse'' (meaning "infant"). In the

Prose Edda The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' () or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often considered to have been to some exten ...

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of th ...

states that beautiful things were called ''hnossir'' (Old Norse: 'treasures') after her name. Despite various interpretations, ''The Concept of The Goddess'', states that Hnoss "bears her mother's eyelash-rain," which translates to "there is gold on the precious object."

Attestations

In '' Gylfaginning'' (The Beguiling of Gylfi), Hnoss is portrayed as the beautiful daughter of

and Óð: In ''

Skáldskaparmál ''Skáldskaparmál'' (Old Norse: 'Poetic Diction' or 'The Language of Poetry'; ; ) is the second part of the ''Prose Edda'', compiled by Snorri Sturluson. It consists of a dialogue between Ægir, the divine personification of the sea, and Bra ...

'' (The Language of Poetry), a ''þulur'' (18–22) mentions Hnoss as the daughter of

("How shall Freyia be referred to? By calling her (...) mother of Hnoss"), and in

Ynglinga saga ''Ynglinga saga'' ( ) is a Kings' sagas, Kings' saga, originally written in Old Norse by the Icelanders, Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson about 1225. It is the first section of his ''Heimskringla''. It was first translated into Engl ...

a passage (Chapter Ten) describes "Hnoss and Gersimi" as her daughters. Gersemi (whose name also means 'treasure' and only appears in this passage of the

) could be the same figure as Hnoss. The 12th-century

skald A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry in alliterative verse, the other being Eddic poetry. Skaldic poems were traditionally compo ...

Einarr Skúlason, cited by Snorri in ''Skáldskaparmál'', refers to Hnoss in a kenning as Freyia's "glorious child" and Freyr’s niece:

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{Norse mythology Vanir Norse goddesses Freyja