Bergelmir ( ;

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 settlement ...

: ) is a

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 Vani ...

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 per ...

Name

The

name ''Bergelmir'' has been variously translated as 'bear-yeller', 'mountain-yeller', or 'bare-yeller'. According to linguist Jan de Vries, the name should be read as ''ber-gelmir'' ('who roars like a bear') rather than ''berg-gelmir'' ('who roars in the mountains').

Attestations

In ''

Vafþrúðnismál ''Vafþrúðnismál'' ( Old Norse: "The Lay of Vafþrúðnir") is the third poem in the '' Poetic Edda''. It is a conversation in verse form conducted initially between the Æsir Odin and Frigg, and subsequently between Odin and the jötunn Vaf ...

'' (The Lay of

Vafþrúðnir Vafþrúðnir ( Old Norse: ; "mighty weaver"Orchard (1997:170).) is a wise jötunn in Norse mythology. His name comes from ''Vaf'', which means weave or entangle, and ''thrudnir'', which means strong or mighty. Some interpret it to mean "mighty i ...

), Bergelmir is portrayed as the son of

Þrúðgelmir In Norse mythology, Þrúðgelmir (; Old Norse "Strength Yeller") is a frost giant, the son of the primordial giant Aurgelmir (who Snorri Sturluson in ''Gylfaginning'' identifies with Ymir), and the father of Bergelmir. Þrúðgelmir had one broth ...

and the grandson of the first

Aurgelmir In Norse mythology, Ymir (, ), also called Aurgelmir, Brimir, or Bláinn, is the ancestor of all jötnar. Ymir is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional material, in the ''Prose Edda'', writt ...

(Ymir). When

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

asks Vafthrúdnir who is the oldest among the

æsir The Æsir (Old Norse: ) are the gods of the principal pantheon in Norse religion. They include Odin, Frigg, Höðr, Thor, and Baldr. The second Norse pantheon is the Vanir. In Norse mythology, the two pantheons wage war against each other, resu ...

and the jötnar, the wise responds that: In the same poem, Odin then asks Vafthrúdnir about the monstrous birth of the offspring of Aurgelmir, and Vafthrúdnir responds: In ''

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 ...

'' (The Beguiling of

Gylfi In Norse mythology, Gylfi (Old Norse: ), ''Gylfe'', ''Gylvi'', or ''Gylve'' was the earliest recorded king in Scandinavia. He often uses the name Gangleri when appearing in disguise. The traditions on Gylfi deal with how he was tricked by the god ...

), while the blood of

Ymir In Norse mythology, Ymir (, ), also called Aurgelmir, Brimir, or Bláinn, is the ancestor of all jötnar. Ymir is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional material, in the ''Prose Edda'', writ ...

(Aurgelmir) is flooding the earth after the sons of

Borr In Norse mythology, Borr or BurrThe ''Konungsbók'' or ''Codex Regius'' MS of the ''Völuspá'' reads ''Búrr''; the Hauksbók MS reads ''Borr''. Cf. Nordal (1980:31). The latter form alone was used by 13th-century historian and poet Snorri Sturlu ...

(Odin, Vili, and Vé) have killed him, Bergelmir is likewise pictured as escaping on a lúðr with his wife to re-found the frost- race. Based upon Snorri's account, the

word ''lúðr'' might have referred to a 'coffin', a 'cradle', a 'chest', or some wooden part of a mill.

Theories

Robert D. Fulk notes that Snorri's ''Prose Edda'' account "conflicts with the poetic version, as the 'Prose Edda''presents a

Noah Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5� ...

-like figure, while the latter has Bergelmir laid (''lagiðr'') in the ''lúðr'', implying he is an infant, as in the Scyld story. But Snorri does add the crucial element not made in the explicit verses, that the ''lúðr'' is to serve as a floating vessel." Fulk continues that "the key word here is ''lúðr'', which ought to refer to a flour-bin. To be precise, the object is a box or wooden trough, perhaps on legs, in which the stones of a hand-mill sit .. It is true that most glossators assume some meaning other than 'flour-bin' in ''Vafþrúðnismál'' and ''Snorra edda''

n alternate name for the ''Prose Edda'' N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

suggesting instead something in the range of 'coffin (or cradle), chest, ark (i.e. boat)'." Fulk details that "the interpretation of 'ark' derives solely from the passage in ''Snorra Edda'', because of Bergelmir's resemblance to

, and the fact that ld Icelandic''ǫrk'' ..can refer to both

Noah's ark Noah's Ark ( he, תיבת נח; Biblical Hebrew: ''Tevat Noaḥ'')The word "ark" in modern English comes from Old English ''aerca'', meaning a chest or box. (See Cresswell 2010, p.22) The Hebrew word for the vessel, ''teva'', occurs twice in ...

and a chest or a

sarcophagus A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Gre ...

Notes

References

* * * * * * {{Norse mythology Jötnar Flood myths Ymir