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A thyle (
OE ''þyle'',
ON ''þulr'') was a member of the court associated with
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...
n and
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...
royalty
Royalty may refer to:
* the mystique/prestige bestowed upon monarchs
** one or more monarchs, such as kings, queens, emperors, empresses, princes, princesses, etc.
*** royal family, the immediate family of a king or queen-regnant, and sometimes h ...
and
chieftains in the
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages (historiography), Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start o ...
, whose precise role is uncertain but probably had to do with the
preservation of knowledge of the past and the judging of present statements against it.
Most literary references are found in
Icelandic and
Old English literature
Old English literature refers to poetry (alliterative verse) and prose written in Old English in early medieval England, from the 7th century to the decades after the Norman Conquest of 1066, a period often termed Anglo-Saxon England. The 7th- ...
like the ''
Hávamál
''Hávamál'' ( ; Old Norse: ''Hávamál'',Unnormalised spelling in the Codex Regius:''Title'': hava mal''Final stanza'': Nv ero Hava mál q''ve''ðin Háva hꜹ''l''lo i ..classical pron. , Modern Icelandic pron. , ‘Words of Hávi he H ...
'', where the term ''Fimbulþulr'', "the great thyle", presumably refers to Odin himself, and ''Beowulf">Odin">he H ...
'', where the term ''Fimbulþulr'', "the great thyle", presumably refers to Odin himself, and ''Beowulf''. In ''Gautreks saga'', Starkad is referred to as a þulr after he sacrifices a king.
[Michael J. Enright, "The Warband Context of the Unferth Episode", ''Speculum'' 73.2 (1998) 297–337, , .] The word also appears on the runic inscription of the
Snoldelev Stone
The Snoldelev Stone, listed as DR 248 in the Rundata catalog, is a 9th-century runestone that was originally located at Snoldelev, Ramsø, Denmark.
Description
The Snoldelev Stone was first noted in 1810 and was turned over to the national Antiq ...
.
Frederiksberg
Frederiksberg () is a part of the Capital Region of Denmark. It is an independent municipality, Frederiksberg Municipality, separate from Copenhagen Municipality, but both are a part of the region of Copenhagen. It occupies an area of less tha ...
's original name was ''Tulehøj'' ("Thyle Hill").
The Old English term is glossed as Latin ''histrio'' "orator" and ''curra'' "jester"; ''þylcræft'' means "
elocution
Elocution is the study of formal speaking in pronunciation, grammar, style, and tone as well as the idea and practice of effective speech and its forms. It stems from the idea that while communication is symbolic, sounds are final and compel ...
". ''Zoëga's Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic'' defines ''þulr'' as "wise-man, sage," cognate to Old Norse ''þula'' (verb) "to speak" and ''þula'' (noun) "list in poetic form". The
Rundata
The Scandinavian Runic-text Database () is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of transliterated runic inscriptions. The project's goal is to comprehensively catalog runestones in a machine-readable way for future resea ...
project translates ''þulr'' as "reciter". From this it appears that the office of thyle was connected to the keeping and reproducing of orally transmitted lore like the ''
Rígsþula
''Rígsþula'' or ''Rígsmál'' (Old Norse: 'The Lay of Ríg') is an Eddic poem, preserved in the Codex Wormianus (AM 242 fol), in which a Norse god named Ríg or Rígr, described as "old and wise, mighty and strong", fathers the social class ...
'', "Lay of Rígr".
Unferð
In the Old English epic poem ''Beowulf'', Unferth or Hunferth is a thegn (a retainer, servant) of the Danish lord Hrothgar. He appears five times in the poem — four times by the name 'Hunferð' (at lines 499, 530, 1165 and 1488) and once by ...
holds the role of thyle in the poem ''Beowulf''; it has been suggested that he was also the ''
scop
A ( or ) was a poet as represented in Old English poetry. The scop is the Old English counterpart of the Old Norse ', with the important difference that "skald" was applied to historical persons, and scop is used, for the most part, to designat ...
'' who is mentioned reciting poetry at the feast. It might be seen as a legitimate function of a guardian of the knowledge of the past to challenge boasts, judging them against the heroic past.
[Paul C. Bauschatz, ''The Well and the Tree: World and Times in Early Germanic Culture'', Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1982, {{ISBN, 0-87023-352-1, note 22, pp. 215–16.] This may have played a role in preserving the luck of the group. Alternatively the thyle's role, including Unferth's, has also been envisaged as part of the ''
comitatus
Comitatus may refer to:
*Comitatus (warband), a Germanic warband who follow a leader
* ''Comitatus'', the office of a Roman or Frankish comes, translated as count.
* ''Comitatus'', translated as county, a territory such as governed by medieval cou ...
'' (war-band), channeling rage into concerted action.
[
Some modern scholars view the role of the thyle as being usurped by ]monk
A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...
s after Christianization
Christianization (or Christianisation) is a term for the specific type of change that occurs when someone or something has been or is being converted to Christianity. Christianization has, for the most part, spread through missions by individu ...
, and being reduced to the modern caricature of the jester
A jester, also known as joker, court jester, or fool, was a member of the household of a nobleman or a monarch kept to entertain guests at the royal court. Jesters were also travelling performers who entertained common folk at fairs and town ma ...
(hence the Latin gloss of ''curra'').
See also
* 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 ...
* Symbel
Symbel ( OE) and sumbl ( ON) are Germanic terms for "feast, banquet".
Accounts of the ''symbel'' are preserved in the Anglo-Saxon ''Beowulf'' (lines 489–675 and 1491–1500), '' Dream of the Rood'' (line 141) and '' Judith'' (line 15), Old Sa ...
References
Anglo-Saxon paganism
Medieval literature
Germanic paganism