In
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 ...
, Njörun (
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 ...
: ''Njǫrun'' , sometimes modernly anglicized as ''Niorun'') is a goddess attested in 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 ...
'', written in the 13th century by
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 ...
, and various
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 po ...
s (including once in the ''
Poetic Edda
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 me ...
''). Scholarly theories concerning her name and function in the pantheon include
etymological
Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words and ...
connections to the Norse god
Njörðr
In Norse mythology, Njörðr (Old Norse: ) is a god among the Vanir. Njörðr, father of the deities Freyr and Freyja by Sister-wife of Njörðr, his unnamed sister, was in an ill-fated marriage with the goddess Skaði, lives in Nóatún (myt ...
and the Roman goddess
Nerio In ancient Roman religion and myth, Nerio (or Neriene) was an ancient war goddess and the personification of valor. She was the partner of Mars in ancient cult practices, and was sometimes identified with the goddess Bellona, and occasionally with ...
, and suggestions that she may represent
the earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surface ...
or be the unnamed
sister-wife of Njörðr
In Norse mythology, the sister-wife of Njörðr is the unnamed wife and sister of the god Njörðr, with whom he is described as having had the (likewise incestuous) twin children Freyr and Freyja. This shadowy goddess is attested in the ''Poetic ...
.
Attestations
Njörun is listed (after
Bil
BIL or Bil may refer to: Mythology
* Bil, a Norse goddess
* Bil (Mandaeism), the Mandaean name for Jupiter
People
* Bil Baird (1904–1987), American puppeteer
* Bil Dwyer (1907-1987), American cartoonist and humorist
* Bil Dwyer (born 1962), A ...
) as an
ásynja within 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, in ...
''. No further information other than her name is provided there.
[Faulkes (1995:157).] In addition, the name occurs in
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 po ...
s for women in poetry by
Kormákr Ögmundarson
Kormákr Ögmundarson (Old Norse: ; Modern Icelandic: ) was a 10th-century Icelandic skald. He is the protagonist of ''Kormáks saga'' which preserves a significant amount of poetry attributed to him. According to ''Skáldatal'' he was also the c ...
,
Hrafn Önundarson
Hrafn (; ) is both a masculine byname, and personal name in Old Norse. The name translates into English as "raven". The Old English form of the name is ''*Hræfn''. The name is paralleled by the English masculine given name ''Raven'', which is der ...
and
Rögnvaldr Kali as well as in ''
Krákumál Krákumál or the Lay of Kraka is a skaldic poem, consisting of a monologue in which Ragnar Lodbrok is dying in Ælla's snake pit and looks back at a life full of heroic deeds. It was composed in the 12th century, almost certainly in the Scottis ...
'' and verses in ''
Íslendinga saga
''Íslendinga saga'' ''(Saga of Icelanders)'' makes up a large part of '' Sturlunga saga'', a compilation of secular contemporary sagas written in thirteenth-century Iceland. The ''terminus ante quem'' of the compilation is disputed (between the ...
'', ''
Njáls saga
''Njáls saga'' ( ), also ''Njála'' ( ), ''Brennu-Njáls saga'' ( ) or ''"The Story of Burnt Njáll"'', is a thirteenth-century sagas of Icelanders, Icelandic saga that describes events between 960 and 1020.
The saga deals with a process of ...
'' and ''
Harðar saga''.
[Finnur Jónsson (1931:429).] ''Eld-Njörun'' (meaning "fire-Njörun") occurs in women kennings in poetry by
Gísli Súrsson and
Björn Breiðvíkingakappi while ''hól-Njörun'' occurs in a somewhat dubious kenning in a stanza by
Björn hítdælakappi
Bjorn (English, Dutch), Björn (Swedish, Icelandic, Dutch, and German), Bjørn (Danish, Faroese and Norwegian), Beorn (Old English) or, rarely, Bjôrn, Biorn, or Latinized Biornus, Brum (Portuguese), is a Scandinavian male given name, or less oft ...
. ''Draum-Njörun'' (meaning "dream-Njörun") is cited in the ''Poetic Edda'' poem ''
Alvíssmál
Alvíssmál (Old Norse: 'The Song of All-wise' or 'The Words of All-wise') is a poem collected in the ''Poetic Edda'', probably dating to the 12th century, that describes how the god Thor outwits a dwarf called Alvíss ("All-Wise") who seeks to ...
'' as a word from the language of the
dwarfs for
the night. The same word occurs in ''
Nafnaþulur''.
Theories
Njörun is a "mysterious ... figure" of whom nothing else is known; Andy Orchard suggests that she may be fictitious.
[Orchard (1997:119).] Several scholars have suggested that the stem syllable in her name, ''Njǫr-'', may represent the element
*''ner-'' as in
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historiography, Roman historians by modern scholars.
The surviving portions of his t ...
' earth-goddess
Nerthus
In Germanic paganism, Nerthus is a goddess associated with a ceremonial wagon procession. Nerthus is attested by first century AD Roman historian Tacitus in his ethnographic work ''Germania''.
In ''Germania'', Tacitus records that a group of Germ ...
(*''Ner-þuz''), whose name is etymologically identical with that of the Norse god
Njǫrðr, and that Njörun may therefore be a name for
the earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surface ...
.
Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon additionally suggests a connection with the Roman goddess
Nerio In ancient Roman religion and myth, Nerio (or Neriene) was an ancient war goddess and the personification of valor. She was the partner of Mars in ancient cult practices, and was sometimes identified with the goddess Bellona, and occasionally with ...
.
The possible etymological connection with ''Njǫrðr'' and ''Nerthus'' suggests that Njörun may be a preserved name for the
sister-wife of Njörðr
In Norse mythology, the sister-wife of Njörðr is the unnamed wife and sister of the god Njörðr, with whom he is described as having had the (likewise incestuous) twin children Freyr and Freyja. This shadowy goddess is attested in the ''Poetic ...
, who is highly unusual in the Old Norse context in being unnamed. As was noted by Albert Morey Sturtevant, ''Njǫrun'' and ''
Gefjon
In Norse mythology, Gefjon (Old Norse: ; alternatively spelled Gefion, or Gefjun , pronounced without secondary syllable stress) is a goddess associated with ploughing, the Danish island of Zealand, the legendary Swedish king Gylfi, the legendary ...
'' are the only female names recorded in Old Norse texts that have the
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
''-un''.
[Sturtevant (1952:167).] Two other god-goddess pairs distinguished by suffix are preserved in the Old Norse corpus,
Ullr
In Norse mythology, Ullr (Old Norse: ) is a god associated with archery. Although literary attestations of Ullr are sparse, evidence including relatively ancient place-name evidence from Scandinavia suggests that he was a major god in earlier G ...
and
Ullin and
Fjörgyn and
Fjörgynn, and there is a possible third example in
Old High German
Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050.
There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...
Phol and
Volla.
[Hopkins (2012:42; 43 note 5).]
Notes
References
* Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989). ''Íslensk orðsifjabók''. Orðabók Háskólans.
* 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 ...
.
*
Finnur Jónsson
Finnur Jónsson (May 29, 1858 – March 30, 1934) was an Icelandic-Danish philologist and Professor of Nordic Philology at the University of Copenhagen. He made extensive contributions to the study of Old Norse literature.
Finnur Jónsson was b ...
(1913). ''Goðafræði Norðmanna og Íslendinga eftir heimildum''. Hið íslenska bókmentafjelag.
* Finnur Jónsson (1931). ''Lexicon poeticum''. S. L. Møllers bogtrykkeri.
* Hopkins, Joseph (2012)
"Goddesses Unknown I: Njǫrun and the Sister-Wife of Njǫrðr" ''
RMN Newsletter
''RMN Newsletter'' is a peer-reviewed and open access academic journal published on a bi-annual basis by the University of Helsinki’s Department of Folklore Studies."About". ''RMN Newsletter''. University of Helsinki website. Online/ref> Publis ...
''; volume 5. pp. 39–44.
* Orchard, Andy (1997). ''Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend''.
Cassell.
* Sturtevant, Albert Morey (1952). "Regarding the Old Norse name Gefjon" as published in ''Scandinavian Studies''; volume 24 (number 4, November). ISSN 0036-5637
{{DEFAULTSORT:Njorun
Ásynjur
Earth goddesses