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Laufey (mythology)
Laufey or Nál is a figure in Norse mythology and the mother of Loki. The latter is frequently mentioned by the matronymic ''Loki Laufeyjarson'' (Old Norse 'Loki Laufey's son') in the ''Poetic Edda'', rather than the expected traditional patronymic Loki ''Fárbautason'' ('son of Fárbauti'), in a mythology where kinship is usually reckoned through male ancestry. Name The meaning of the Old Norse name ''Laufey'' is not clear, but it is generally taken to be related to ''lauf'' ('leaves, foliage'), perhaps attached to the suffix -''ey'' (found in female Personal name, personal names like ''Bjargey'', ''Þórey)'', or deriving from an hypothetical tree-goddess named ''*lauf-awiaz'' ('the leafy'). Since the name of her spouse ''Fárbauti'' means "dangerous hitter", a possible natural mythological interpretation has been proposed by some scholars, with lightning hitting the leaves, or needles of a tree to give rise to fire. Attestations In ''Gylfaginning'' ('The Beguiling of Gylfi') ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 North Germanic languages, northernmost extension of Germanic mythology and stemming from Proto-Germanic folklore, Norse mythology consists of tales of various deities, beings, and heroes derived from numerous sources from both before and after the pagan period, including medieval manuscripts, archaeological representations, and folk tradition. The source texts mention numerous gods such as the thunder-god Thor, the Huginn and Muninn, raven-flanked god Odin, the goddess Freyja, and List of Germanic deities, numerous other deities. Most of the surviving mythology centers on the plights of the gods and their interaction with several other beings, such as humanity and the jötnar, beings who may be friends, lovers, foes, or family members of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gylfi
In Norse mythology, Gylfi (Old Norse: ), ''Gylfe'', ''Gylvi'', or ''Gylve'' was the earliest recorded king of Sviþjoð, Sweden, in Scandinavia. He is known by the name Gangleri when appearing in disguise. The Danish tradition on Gylfi tells how he was tricked by Gefjon and her sons from Jötunheim, who were able to shapeshift into tremendous oxen. The creation of Zealand The ''Ynglinga saga'' section of Snorri's '' Heimskringla'' and the Eddic poem '' Ragnarsdrápa'' tell a legend of how Gylfi was seduced by the goddess Gefjon to give her as much land as she could plow in one night. Gefjon transformed her four sons into oxen and took enough land to create the Danish island of Zealand, leaving the Swedish lake Vänern. Meeting the Æsir '' Gylfaginning'' in the ''Prose Edda'' and the ''Ynglinga saga'' tell how the supposedly historic (non-deified version) Odin and his people the Æsir and Vanir, who later became the Swedes, obtained new land where they built the settleme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Female Supernatural Figures In Norse Mythology
An organism's sex is female (symbol: ♀) if it produces the ovum (egg cell), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete (sperm cell) during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females and males are results of the anisogamous reproduction system, wherein gametes are of different sizes (unlike isogamy where they are the same size). The exact mechanism of female gamete evolution remains unknown. In species that have males and females, sex-determination may be based on either sex chromosomes, or environmental conditions. Most female mammals, including female humans, have two X chromosomes. Characteristics of organisms with a female sex vary between different species, having different female reproductive systems, with some species showing characteristics secondary to the reproductive system, as with mammary glands in mammals. In humans, the word ''female'' can also be used to refer to gender in the social sense of gender role or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pohjola
Pohjola (; from 'base, bottom', but used in derived forms like ''pohjois-'' to mean 'north' + ''-'' 'place'), sometimes just Pohja (), is a location in Finnish mythology. It is one of the two main polarities in the Finnish national epic, the ''Kalevala'', along with Kalevala or Väinölä. Finnish runic songs include multiple different concepts of Pohjola. Many depictions line with Pohjola being the realm of the dead, synonymous with Tuonela. On the other hand, mythic stories of heroes include a Pohjola which is more akin to a distant, wealthy kingdom to be raided. Anna-Leena Siikala drew a connection to Norwegians' raiding trips across ''Pohjanmaa'' ( Ostrobothnia) in the 9th century. Mythical parallel names for Pohjola include Tuonela, Hiitola, Vuojola and Päivölä, while geographic equivalents include Lappi ( Lapland), Turja (Kola Peninsula) and Rutja (Finnmark). Pohjola and the ''Kalevala'' storytellers C. Ganander (1789), characterised Pohjola as : 'the most extreme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louhi
Louhi (; alternate names include Loviatar (), Loveatar, Lovetar, Lovehetar, Louhetar and Louhiatar) is the ruler of Pohjola in Finnish mythology.Frog; Siikala; Stepanova (2012:179). She is regarded as a goddess of death and disease. She is also the mother of wolves. Her original role was likely as the ruler of the underworld. In ''Kalevala'', Elias Lönnrot split Louhi into two different characters, Louhi and Loviatar, describing Louhi as a wicked queen of Pohjola and Loviatar as a blind daughter of Tuoni. In Runo 45 of the ''Kalevala'', Loviatar is impregnated by a great wind and gives birth to nine sons, the Nine diseases. Name The many variations of her name are connected to the word ''lovi'' (notch, crack). In Finnish, the term ''langeta loveen'' (to fall into ''lovi'') means "to fall into a trance". According to Christfried Ganander, falling into ''lovi'' means a state of ecstasy and a journey to the underworld, which he compared with Sámi shamanism.Siikala (2012:29029 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 Lindow was born in Washington, D.C., on July 23, 1946, the son of Wesley Lindow and Eleanor Niemetta. His father was a banker and his mother was a teacher. John Lindow received his undergraduate degree at Harvard University, where he gained an A.B., ''magna cum laude'', in 1968, and a PhD in 1972, both in Germanic Languages and Literatures. After gaining his Ph.D, Lindow joined the faculty at University of California, Berkeley, serving as Acting Assistant Professor (1972–1974), Assistant Professor (1974–1977), Associate Professor (1977–1983), and Professor of Scandinavian (1983-?). He was since retired as Professor Emeritus of Old Norse and Folklore. In 1977, Lindow was elected as a corresponding member of the Royal Gustavus Ado ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sörla þáttr
''Sörla þáttr eða Heðins saga ok Högna'' is a short narrative from the extended version ''Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta'' found in the ''Flateyjarbók'' manuscript,Lindow (2002:280-281). which was written and compiled by two Christian priests, Jon Thordson and Magnus Thorhalson, Rasmus B. Anderson, Introduction to the '' Flatey Book''. Norræna Society, London (1908). ''"The priest Jon Thordson wrote the story of Erik Vidforle and both the Olaf Sagas; but the priest Magnus Thorhalson wrote what follows and also what goes before, and revised the whole, thus dedicating the work: "May God Almighty and the Virgin Mary bless both the one that wrote and the one that dictated!"'' in the late 14th century. The narrative begins 24 years after the death of Fróði, and takes place in the 9th and the 10th centuries. It is a composite tale containing a story of how Freyja acquired a necklace from the Dwarves, how that led to a bloody war, and how Olaf Tryggvason brought peace to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 extent written, or at least compiled, by the Icelandic scholar, lawspeaker, and historian Snorri Sturluson 1220. It is considered the fullest and most detailed source for modern knowledge of Norse mythology, the body of myths of the North Germanic peoples, and draws from a wide variety of sources, including versions of poems that survive into today in a collection known as the ''Poetic Edda''. The ''Prose Edda'' consists of four sections: The Prologue (Prose Edda), Prologue, a euhemerism, euhemerized account of the Norse gods; ''Gylfaginning'', which provides a question and answer format that details aspects of Norse mythology (consisting of approximately 20,000 words), ''Skáldskaparmál'', which continues this format before providing lists o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 the ''Prose Edda'', which is a major source for what is today known about Norse mythology and alliterative verse, and , a history of the Norsemen, Norse kings that begins with legendary material in ''Ynglinga saga'' and moves through to early medieval History of Scandinavia, Scandinavian history. For stylistic and methodological reasons, Snorri is often taken to be the author of ''Egil's Saga''. He was assassinated in 1241 by men claiming to be agents of the King of Norway. Biography Early life Snorri Sturluson was born in (commonly transliterated as Hvamm or Hvammr) as a member of the wealthy and powerful Sturlungar family clan, Sturlungar clan of the Icelandic Commonwealth, in AD 1179. His parents were Sturla Þórðarson the Elder o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Æsir
Æsir (Old Norse; singular: ) or ēse (Old English; singular: ) are deities, gods in Germanic paganism. In Old Nordic religion and Nordic mythology, mythology, the precise meaning of the term "" is debated, as it can refer either to the gods in general or specifically to one of the main families of gods, in contrast to the Vanir, with whom the Æsir Æsir–Vanir War, waged war, ultimately leading to a joining of the families. The term can further be applied to local gods that were believed to live in specific features in the landscape - such as fells. The Old English medical text Wið færstice refers to the Ēse, along with elves, as harmful beings that could cause a stabbing pain, although exactly how they were conceived of by the author of the text is unclear. and its cognate forms feature in many Germanic names, such as Oswald (given name), Oswald and , and in some place-names in Norway and Sweden. The Æsir further likely give their name to the Ansuz (rune), A-rune, atte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 Bragi, the god of poetry, in which both stories of the Æsir and discourse on the nature of poetry are intertwined. The work additionally includes tales of human heroes and kings. The overarching mythological setup gradually fades and the work becomes more of an early form of a poetic thesaurus of Old Norse, presumably intended for usage by skalds (Norse poets and bards of the era). Much of the work is focused on poetic phrases and descriptors. The origin of these '' kennings'' is given; Bragi delivers a systematic list of ''kennings'' for various Æsir, people, places, and things. He then goes on to discuss poetic language in some detail, in particular '' heiti'', essentially poetic synonyms or alternate words. For example, the simple ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
