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 ...

, Gullinkambi (

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 ...

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

comb A comb is a tool consisting of a shaft that holds a row of teeth for pulling through the hair to clean, untangle, or style it. Combs have been used since prehistoric times, having been discovered in very refined forms from settlements dating ba ...

"Simek (2007:122).), also known as Salgofnir, is a

rooster The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

who lives in

Valhalla In Norse mythology, Valhalla ( , ; , )Orchard (1997:171–172) is described as a majestic hall located in Asgard and presided over by the god Odin. There were five possible realms the soul could travel to after death. The first was Fólkvang ...

. In the ''

Poetic Edda The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems in alliterative verse. It is distinct from the closely related ''Prose Edda'', although both works are seminal to the study of Old Norse ...

'' poem ''

Völuspá ''Völuspá'' (also ''Vǫluspá'', ''Vǫlospá'', or ''Vǫluspǫ́''; Old Norse: 'Prophecy of the völva, a seeress') is the best known poem of the ''Poetic Edda''. It dates back to the tenth century and tells the story from Norse Mythology of ...

'', Gullinkambi is one of the three roosters whose crowing is foretold to signify the beginning of the events of

Ragnarök In Norse mythology, (also Ragnarok; or ; ) is a foretold series of impending events, including a great battle in which numerous great Norse mythological figures will perish (including the Æsir, gods Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdall, a ...

. The other two roosters are Fjalar in the wood

Gálgviðr In Norse mythology, Gálgviðr (Old Norse "gallows-wood") is a forest in Jotunheim, land of the jötnar, from which the rooster Fjalar is foretold to begin crowing during the onset of Ragnarok. According to stanza 42 of the poem ''Völuspá'' ...

, and an unnamed soot-red rooster in Hel:

It has been suggested that the central tree depicted in the

Överhogdal tapestries The Överhogdal tapestries () are a group of extraordinarily well-preserved textiles dating from the late Viking Age or the Early Middle Ages that were discovered in the village of Överhogdal in Härjedalen, Sweden. Discovery and dating The ...

is the world tree

Yggdrasil Yggdrasil () is an immense and central sacred tree in Norse cosmology. Around it exists all else, including the Nine Worlds. Yggdrasil is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'' compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and in t ...

and that the bird at the top is Gullinkambi.Schön (2004:50).

Notes

References

* Bellows, Henry Adams (Trans.) (1936). ''The Poetic Edda''.

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

. New York:

The American-Scandinavian Foundation The American-Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) is an American non-profit foundation dedicated to promoting international understanding through educational and cultural exchange between the United States and Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Swe ...

. * Schön, Ebbe (2004). ''Asa-Tors Hammare, Gudar och Jättar i tro och Tradition''. Fält & Hässler, Värnamo. * Simek, Rudolf (2007) translated by Angela Hall. ''Dictionary of Northern Mythology''. D.S. Brewer. * Thorpe, Benjamin (Trans.) (1866). ''Edda Sæmundar Hinns Frôða: The Edda of Sæmund the Learned''. Part I. London: Trübner & Co. Birds in Norse mythology Mythological galliforms Yggdrasil {{norse-myth-stub