Eikþyrnir (

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is 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 of Scandinavia and t ...

: , "oak-thorny")Orchard (1997:36). or Eikthyrnir, is a stag which stands upon

Valhalla In Norse mythology Valhalla (;) is the anglicised name for non, Valhǫll ("hall of the slain").Orchard (1997:171–172) It is described as a majestic hall located in Asgard and presided over by the god Odin. Half of those who die in combat e ...

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 period ...

. The following is related in the

Gylfaginning ''Gylfaginning'' (Old Norse: 'The Beguiling of Gylfi' or 'The Deluding of Gylfi'; c. 20,000 words; 13th century Old Norse pronunciation ) is the first part of the 13th century ''Prose Edda'' after the Prologue. The ''Gylfaginning'' deals with th ...

section of

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 ...

's ''

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 t ...

'' after the description of

Heiðrún Heiðrún or Heidrun is a goat in Norse mythology, who consumes the foliage of the tree Læraðr and produces mead for the einherjar. She is described in the ''Poetic Edda'' and ''Prose Edda''. ''Prose Edda'' ''Poetic Edda'' In the ''Poetic ...

. Brodeur follows the text of the T manuscript of the ''Prose Edda'' in putting the stag ''í Valhöll'', "in Valhall", rather than ''á Valhöll'', "upon Valhall", as the other manuscripts do. The more recent translation by Anthony Faulkes puts the stag on top of the building, which seems much more natural from the context and weight of the evidence. Snorri's source for this information was almost certainly

Grímnismál ''Grímnismál'' (Old Norse: ; 'The Lay of Grímnir') is one of the mythological poems of the ''Poetic Edda''. It is preserved in the Codex Regius manuscript and the AM 748 I 4to fragment. It is spoken through the voice of ''Grímnir'', one of ...

, where the following strophes are found.

Etymology

The etymology of ''Eikþyrnir'' remains debatable.

Anatoly Liberman Anatoly Liberman (russian: Анато́лий Си́монович Либерма́н; born 10 March 1937) is a linguist, medievalist, etymologist, poet, translator of poetry (mainly from and into Russian), and literary critic. Liberman is a pro ...

suggests that ''Heiðþyrnir'', the name of the lowest heaven in Scandinavian mythology (from ''heið'' "bright sky"), was cut into two, and on the basis of those halves the names of the heavenly stag ''Eikþyrnir'' and the heavenly goat

were formed. The origin of ''-þyrnir'' is not entirely clear, but the associations with ''thorns'' is, most probably, due to

folk etymology Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...

.Liberman (2016:345–346).

Notes

References

* Brodeur, Arthur Gilchrist (transl.) (1916). ''The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson''. 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 ...

. Available onlin
at Google Books
* Eysteinn Björnsson (ed.). ''Snorra-Edda: Formáli & Gylfaginning : Textar fjögurra meginhandrita''. 2005. https://web.archive.org/web/20080611212105/http://www.hi.is/~eybjorn/gg/ * Faulkes' translation of the Prose Edda. * Helgason, Jón. (ed.) (1955). ''Eddadigte'' (3 vols). København: Munksgaard. Text of Grímnismál available online at: http://www.snerpa.is/net/kvaedi/grimnir.htm * Liberman, Anatoly (2016). ''In Prayer and Laughter. Essays on Medieval Scandinavian and Germanic Mythology, Literature, and Culture''. Paleograph Press. . * Orchard, Andy (1997). ''Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend''. Cassell. * Thorpe, Benjamin (tr.) (1866).
Edda Sæmundar Hinns Froða : The Edda Of Sæmund The Learned
'. (2 vols.) London: Trübner & Co. {{DEFAULTSORT:Eikthyrnir Creatures in Norse mythology Mythological deer