Fjalar ( non, Fjalarr , "deceiver") is the mythical red

rooster The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

that is said to herald the onset of

Ragnarök In Norse mythology, (; non, Ragnarǫk) is a series of events, including a great battle, foretelling the death of numerous great figures (including the gods Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdallr, and Loki), natural disasters, and the submers ...

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 ...

Name

The

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 ...

name ''Fjalarr'' has been translated as 'deceiver' or 'hider'. It probably derives from an earlier

Proto-Norse Proto-Norse (also called Ancient Nordic, Ancient Scandinavian, Ancient Norse, Primitive Norse, Proto-Nordic, Proto-Scandinavian and Proto-North Germanic) was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved as a ...

form reconstructed as *''felaraʀ''. Three other unrelated figures bear the name Fjalar in Norse mythology. It is an alias of Suttungr in the ''

Hávamál ''Hávamál'' ( ; Old Norse: ,Unnormalised spelling in the :Title: Final stanza: ../ref> classical pron. , Modern Icelandic pron. , ‘Words of he High One��) is presented as a single poem in the Icelandic , a collection of Old Norse poems fr ...

'' ('Sayings of the High One') version of

Odin Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered Æsir, 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, v ...

's theft of the

mead of poetry In Norse mythology, the Poetic Mead or Mead of Poetry, also known as Mead of Suttungr, is a mythical beverage that whoever "drinks becomes a skald or scholar" able to recite any information and solve any question. This myth was reported by Snorri ...

. Fjalar is also the name of one of the dwarfs who made the mead of poetry from the blood of

Kvasir In Norse mythology, Kvasir (Old Norse: ) was a being born of the saliva of the Æsir and the Vanir, two groups of gods. Extremely wise, Kvasir traveled far and wide, teaching and spreading knowledge. This continued until the dwarfs Fjalar and Galar ...

in ''

Skáldskaparmál ''Skáldskaparmál'' (Old Norse: 'The Language of Poetry'; c. 50,000 words; ; ) is the second part of the ''Prose Edda''. The section consists of a dialogue between Ægir, the divine personification of the sea, and Bragi, the god of poetry, in ...

'' ('The Language of Poetry'). Finally, in ''

Hárbarðsljóð ''Hárbarðsljóð'' (Old Norse: 'The Lay of Hárbarðr') is one of the poems of the ''Poetic Edda'', found in the Codex Regius and AM 748 I 4to manuscripts. It is a flyting poem with figures from Norse Paganism. ''Hárbarðsljóð'' was first writ ...

'' ('The Lay of Hárbarðr'), the

jötunn A (also jotun; in the normalised scholarly spelling of Old Norse, ; ; plural / ) or, in Old English, (plural ) is a type of supernatural being in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, they are often contrasted with gods (Æsir and Vanir) ...

who succeeded in deceiving

Thor Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred groves ...

is also named Fjalar. In Snorri's version of the Thor's journey, however, the jötunn is named Skrymir.

Peter H. Salus Peter Henry Salus is a linguist, computer scientist, historian of technology, author in many fields, and an editor of books and journals. He has conducted research in germanistics, language acquisition, and computer languages. Education and c ...

and Paul B. Taylor argue that "of these four, probably only one (the dwarf) is actually named Fjalar, the cock and the two giants are called Fjalar because of their cunning."

Attestation

In ''

Völuspá ''Vǫluspá'' (also ''Völuspá'', ''Vǫlospá'' or ''Vǫluspǫ́''; Old Norse: 'Prophecy of the völva, a seeress'; reconstructed Old Norse: ) is the best known poem of the ''Poetic Edda''. It tells the story of the creation of the world and ...

'' (Prophecy of the

Völva In Germanic paganism, a seeress is a woman said to have the ability to foretell future events and perform sorcery. They are also referred to with many other names meaning "prophetess", "staff bearer", "wise woman" and "sorceress", and they are f ...

), Fjalar is portrayed as a beautiful red rooster who crows the onset of

, sitting near the herdsman

Eggþér Eggþér (also Eggthér, or Egdir; Old Norse: , 'Edge-Servant') is a jötunn in Norse mythology. He is the herder of the female jötunn (probably Angrboða) who lives in Járnviðr (Ironwood) and raises monstrous wolves. In the poem ''Völuspá'' ...

who is joyfully striking his harp.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{Norse mythology Birds in Norse mythology Individual chickens