Ilmr (

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

: ) is a figure in Norse mythology who is listed as a goddess and who occurs in skaldic

kenning A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech in the type of circumlocution, a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English ...

s. Her associations and original nature are unknown. Ilmr is attested at two points in the so-called '' Nafnaþulur'' appended to the ''

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 ''

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, ...

'': between

Iðunn In Norse mythology, Iðunn is a goddess associated with apples and youth. Iðunn is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the ''Prose Edda'', written in the 13th century by Snorri St ...

and Bil in a list of ásynjur, and in a list of words that can be used in kennings for "woman". No further information other than her name is provided.Faulkes (1995:157). She is not mentioned in

Eddic poetry The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems, which is distinct from the ''Prose Edda'' written by Snorri Sturluson. Several versions exist, all primarily of text from the Icelandic med ...

, but her name does occur several times in

skaldic poetry A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: , later ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry, the other being Eddic poetry, which is anonymous. Skaldic poems were traditional ...

of the 10th and 11th centuries, particularly in verses by Kormákr Ǫgmundarson.Hopkins (2014:32). It is impossible to determine the associations of the goddess Ilmr. Jacob Grimm pointed out that while the goddess name ''Ilmr'' is feminine, the masculine word ''ilmr'' means "pleasant scent" (''suavis odor'');Grimm (1888:1374). an association with scent would be unique among Norse deities. Kormákr, at least, used

valkyrie In Norse mythology, a valkyrie ("chooser of the slain") is one of a host of female figures who guide souls of the dead to the god Odin's hall Valhalla. There, the deceased warriors become (Old Norse "single (or once) fighters"Orchard (1997: ...

-names as well as goddess-names in forming kennings referring to women, and it is possible that he thought of Ilmr as a valkyrie; one other kenning using her name, in a verse preserved in '' Landnamabók'' and attributed to Hrómundr halti, is of a type (kennings for battle formed with a female name) that is only attested with names of valkyries. In his 1989 etymological dictionary of Icelandic, Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon suggested that this might indicate the name ''Ilmr'' was related to the noun ''jalmr'' (noise) with which it is coupled in the kenning; this is a known type of valkyrie-name.

Eir In Norse mythology, Eir (Old Norse: , "protection, help, mercy"Orchard (1997:36).) is a goddess or valkyrie associated with medical skill. Eir is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources; th ...

Þrúðr (Old Norse: , "strength"),Lindow (2001:291). sometimes anglicized as Thrúd or Thrud, is a daughter of the major god Thor and the goddess Sif in Norse mythology. Þrúðr is also the name of one of the valkyries who serve ale to the einherjar ...

, and the

norn Norn may refer to: *Norn language, an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken in Northern Isles of Scotland *Norns, beings from Norse mythology *Norn Iron, the local pronunciation of Northern Ireland * Norn iron works, an old industrial c ...

Skuld Skuld (the name possibly means "debt" and is related to the English word "should") is a Norn in Norse mythology. Along with Urðr (Old Norse "fate"Orchard (1997:169).) and Verðandi (possibly "happening" or "present"Orchard (1997:174).), Skuld mak ...

are other female figures variously identified as valkyries and goddesses within the Old Norse corpus. Alternatively, Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon suggests Ilmr is a tree

dís In Norse mythology, a dís (Old Norse: , "lady", plural dísir ) is a female deity, ghost, or spirit associated with Fate who can be either benevolent or antagonistic toward mortals. Dísir may act as protective spirits of Norse clans. It ...

, with a name etymologically related to ''almr'',

elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North ...

. The elm is associated in folklore in many nations with death, which might have led to her being classed as a valkyrie.Hopkins (2014:36–37).

Notes

References

* 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 ...

. * Grimm, Jacob (James Steven Stallybrass Trans.) (1888). ''

Teutonic Mythology Germanic paganism or Germanic religion refers to the traditional, culturally significant religion of the Germanic peoples. With a chronological range of at least one thousand years in an area covering Scandinavia, the British Isles, modern Germ ...

''. Translated from the Fourth Edition with Notes and Appendix by James Stallybrass. Volume IV. London: George Bell and Sons. * Hopkins, Joseph S. (2014).
Goddesses Unknown II: On the Apparent Old Norse Goddess Ilmr
. '' RMN Newsletter'' 8 (May 2014). 32–38. ISSN 1799-4497. {{Norse mythology Ásynjur

See also

Notes

References