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, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern per ...

, Auðumbla �ɔuðˌumblɑ(also Auðhumla �ɔuðˌhumlɑ and Auðumla �ɔuðˌumlɑ ) is a primeval cow. The primordial frost jötunn Ymir fed from her milk, and over the course of three days she licked away the salty rime rocks and revealed

Búri In Norse mythology, Búri ( Old Norse: ), is a divinity god 'producer, father' of all other gods,Simek (Simek 2007:47). and an early ancestor of the Æsir gods of the principal pantheon in Norse religion. Búri was licked free from salty rime sto ...

, grandfather of the gods and brothers

Odin Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, victory, ...

, Vili and Vé. The creature is solely attested in the ''

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

'', composed in the 13th century by Icelander

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 ...

. Scholars identify her as stemming from a very early stratum of

Germanic mythology Germanic mythology consists of the body of myths native to the Germanic peoples, including Norse mythology, Anglo-Saxon mythology, and Continental Germanic mythology. It was a key element of Germanic paganism. Origins As the Germanic lang ...

, and ultimately belonging to larger complex of primordial bovines or cow-associated goddesses.

Name

The cow's name variously appears in ''Prose Edda'' manuscripts as ''Auðumbla'' , ''Auðhumla'' , and ''Auðumla'' , and is generally accepted as meaning 'hornless cow rich in milk' (from Old Norse ''auðr'' 'riches' and *''humala'' 'hornless').See discussion in both Lindow 2001:63 and Simek 2007:22. The compound presents some level of semantic ambiguity. A parallel occurs in

Scottish English Scottish English ( gd, Beurla Albannach) is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standa ...

''humble-cow'' 'hornless cow', and Northern Europeans have bred hornless cows since prehistoric times. As highlighted above, ''Auð-'' may mean 'rich' and in turn 'rich hornless cow' remains generally accepted among scholars as a gloss of the Old Icelandic animal name. However, ''auðr'' can also mean 'fate' and 'desolate; desert,' and so ''Auðhum(b)la'' may also have been understood as the 'destroyer of the desert'. This semantic ambiguity may have been intentional.Liberman (2016:347–352).

Attestations

Auðumbla's sole attested narrative occurs in the '' Gylfaginning'' section of the ''Prose Edda'', and her name appears among ways to refer to cows later in the ''

Nafnaþulur ''Nafnaþulur'' (Old Norse: ) is a subsection of the ''Prose Edda The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' ( is, Snorra Edda) or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland d ...

'' section of the book. In ''Gylfaginning'', Gangleri (described earlier in ''Gylfaginning'' as king Gylfi in disguise) asks where, in the distant past, Ymir lived and what he ate.

High High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift t ...

says that the cow Auðumbla's teats produced four rivers of milk, from which Ymir fed. Gylfi asks what Auðumbla ate, and High says that she licked salty rime stones for sustenance. He recounts that Auðumbla once licked salts for three days, revealing

: The first day she licked free his hair, the second day his head, and the third day his entire body.Faulkes (1995 98711). The second and final mention of Auðumbla occurs in the ''Nafnaþulur'', wherein the author provides a variety of ways to refer to cows. Auðumbla is the only cow mentioned by name, and the author adds that "she is the noblest of cows".Faulkes (1995 987163).

Scholarly reception and interpretation

On the topic of Auðumbla,

John Lindow John Frederick Lindow (born July 23, 1946) is an American philologist who is Professor Emeritus of Old Norse and Folklore at University of California, Berkeley. He is a well known authority on Old Norse religion and literature. Biography John ...

says that cows appear commonly in creation narratives around the world, yet "what is most striking about Audhumla is that she unites the two warring groups in the mythology, by nourishing Ymir, ancestor of all the giants, and bringing into the light Búri, progenitor of the æsir."Lindow (2001:63). Rudolf Simek highlights that Roman senator

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...

's first century CE work ethnography of the

Germanic peoples The Germanic peoples were historical groups of people that once occupied Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages. Since the 19th century, they have traditionally been defined by the use of ancient and ear ...

Germania Germania ( ; ), also called Magna Germania (English: ''Great Germania''), Germania Libera (English: ''Free Germania''), or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman province of the same name, was a large historical region in north-c ...

'' mentions that they maintained hornless cattle (see ''name'' section above), and notes that the ''Germania'' describes that an image of the Germanic goddess Nerthus was led through the countryside by way of a cattle-driven wagon. Simek compares the deity to a variety of cow-associated deities among non-Germanic peoples, such as the Egyptian goddess

Hathor Hathor ( egy, ḥwt-ḥr, lit=House of Horus, grc, Ἁθώρ , cop, ϩⲁⲑⲱⲣ, Meroitic: ) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sky ...

(depicted as cow-headed) and

Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

(whose iconography contains references to cows), and the Ancient Greek

Hera In ancient Greek religion, Hera (; grc-gre, Ἥρα, Hḗrā; grc, Ἥρη, Hḗrē, label=none in Ionic and Homeric Greek) is the goddess of marriage, women and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. In Greek mythology, she ...

(described as 'the cow-eyed').Simek (2007: 22).

Notes and citations

References

* Faulkes, Anthony (1995 985. Trans. ''Edda''. Everyman. * Lindow, John (2001). ''Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs''.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

. * Liberman, Anatoly (2016). ''In Prayer and Laughter. Essays on Medieval Scandinavian and Germanic Mythology, Literature, and Culture''. Paleograph Press. * Simek, Rudolf (2007) translated by Angela Hall. ''Dictionary of Northern Mythology''. D.S. Brewer.

External links