"Heimdalargaldr" (

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 ...

: ' Heimdallr's

Galdr A (plural ') or (plural ) refers to a spell or incantation in Old Norse and Old English respectively; these were usually performed in combination with certain rites.The article ''Galder'' in ''Nationalencyklopedin'' (1992) Etymology non, g ...

') is an Old Norse poem about the god Heimdallr of

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 poem is mentioned in two books of the 13th century ''

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 ...

'' book—''

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 t ...

'' and ''

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 ...

''—but outside of a single, two-lined fragment that appears in ''Gylfaginning'', the poem is considered to be lost. In the surviving fragment, Heimdallr comments that he is the son of nine sisters (the

Nine Mothers of Heimdallr In Norse mythology, the Nine Mothers of Heimdallr are nine sisters who gave birth to the god Heimdallr. The Nine Mothers of Heimdallr are attested in the ''Prose Edda'', written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson; in the poetry of skalds; ...

). Scholars have commented on the information the surviving lines presents and have speculated about what the poem may have contained.

Fragment

The poem is mentioned in two books of the ''Prose Edda''; ''

'' and ''

''. The sole surviving fragment of ''Heimdalargaldr'' appears in chapter 25 of ''Gylfaginning''. In the chapter, the enthroned figure of

High High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift ...

tells the disguised mythical king Gangleri about the god Heimdallr, including that he is the son of nine sisters. After quoting a stanza about the Heimdallr's dwelling

Himinbjörg In Norse mythology, Himinbjörg (Old Norse: ''Himinbjǫrg'' "heaven's castle"Simek (2007:147). or "heaven mountain"Lindow (2002:174).) is the home of the god Heimdallr. Himinbjörg is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled from earlier traditi ...

from the poem ''

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 ...

'', High comments that Heimdallr says the following lines in a work by the name of ''Heimdalargaldr'':

In chapter 8 of ''Skáldskaparmál'', various ways to refer to Heimdallr are provided. The section notes that Heimdallr is the subject of a work known as ''Heimdalargaldr'', and that, since the poem, "the head has been called Heimdall's doom: man's doom is an expression for sword."Faulkes (1995:76).

Commentary

Scholar

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 Lin ...

comments that ''Heimdalargaldr'' must have provided information about the deeds and feats of Heimdallr, and that having the poem preserved would have helped with the difficulties that what survives about it presents, such as Heimdallr's birth by way of nine sisters and why a head would be known as "Heimdallr's sword".Lindow (1998:168).

Notes

References

* Brodeur, Anthony Gilchrist (Trans.) (1916). ''The Prose Edda''.

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 Swede ...

. * Faulkes, Anthony (Trans.) (1995). ''Edda''.

Everyman The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them. Origin The term ''everyman'' was used as early as ...

. * Lindow, John (2002). ''Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs''.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. {{Prose Edda Old Norse poetry Sources of Norse mythology