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 ...

, Borr or BurrThe ''Konungsbók'' or ''

Codex Regius Codex Regius ( la, Cōdex Rēgius, "Royal Book" or "King's Book"; is, Konungsbók) or GKS 2365 4º is an Icelandic codex in which many Old Norse poems from the ''Poetic Edda'' are preserved. Thought to have been written during the 1270s, it ...

'' MS of the ''

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 ...

'' reads ''Búrr''; the Hauksbók MS reads ''Borr''. Cf. Nordal (1980:31). The latter form alone was used by 13th-century historian and poet

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 th ...

. Cf. Simek (1988:54). (Old Norse: 'son', born;Lindow (2001:90). Thorpe interprets the names ''Buri'' and ''Bör'' to signify 'the producing' or 'the bringer forth' and 'the produced' or 'the brought forth' respectively, linking both to Sanskrit ''bâras'', Gothic ''baurs'', Latin ''por'', ''puer''. Cf. Thorpe (1851:4; 141-2). sometimes

anglicized Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influenc ...

Bor, Bör or Bur) was the son of

Búri In Norse mythology, Búri ( Old Norse: ), is a divinity god 'producer, father' of all other gods,Simek (Simek 2007:47). and an early ancestor of the Æsir gods of the principal pantheon in Norse religion. Búri was licked free from salty rime sto ...

. Borr was the husband of

Bestla Bestla ( Old Norse: ) is a jötunn in Norse mythology, and the mother of the gods Odin, Vili and Vé (by way of Borr). She is also the sister of an unnamed man who assisted Odin, and the daughter (or granddaughter depending on the source) of ...

and the father of

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, ...

Vili and Vé In Norse mythology, Vili ( ; Old Norse: ) and Vé ( ; O.N.: ) are the brothers of the god Odin (from Old Norse ''Óðinn''), sons of Bestla, daughter of Bölþorn; and Borr, son of Búri Name The Old Norse theonym ''Vé'' (or ''Véi'') is cogn ...

. Borr receives mention in a poem 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 med ...

'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional material, and 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 ...

'', composed in the 13th century by Icelander

. Scholars have proposed a variety of theories about the figure.

Attestation

Borr is mentioned in the fourth verse of the ''

'', a poem contained in the ''

'', and in the sixth chapter of ''

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 second section of the ''

''.

''Völuspá''

''Gylfaginning''

Borr is not mentioned again in the ''Prose Edda''. In skaldic and eddaic poetry, Odin is occasionally referred to as ''Borr's son''.

Scholarly reception and interpretation

The role of Borr in Norse mythology is unclear. Nineteenth-century German scholar

Jacob Grimm Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863), also known as Ludwig Karl, was a German author, linguist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist. He is known as the discoverer of Grimm's law of linguistics, the co-author of t ...

proposed to equate Borr with

Mannus Mannus, according to the Roman writer Tacitus, was a figure in the creation myths of the Germanic tribes. Tacitus is the only source of these myths. Tacitus wrote that Mannus was the son of Tuisto and the progenitor of the three Germanic tribe ...

as related 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 historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...

' ''

Germania Germania ( ; ), also called Magna Germania (English: ''Great Germania''), Germania Libera (English: ''Free Germania''), or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman province of the same name, was a large historical region in north-c ...

'' on the basis of the similarity in their functions in Germanic theogeny."Must not ''Buri'', ''Börr'', ''Oðinn'' be parallel, though under other names, to ''Tvisco'', ''Mannus'', ''Inguio''? Inguio has two brothers at his side, Iscio and Hermino, as Oðinn has Vili and Ve; we should then see the reason why the names Týski (Tvisco, i.e.

Tuisto According to Tacitus's '' Germania'' (AD 98), Tuisto (or Tuisco) is the legendary divine ancestor of the Germanic peoples. The figure remains the subject of some scholarly discussion, largely focused upon etymological connections and compariso ...

) and Maðr (

) are absent from the Edda, because Buri and Börr are their substitutes," Grimm (1883:349). The 19th century Icelandic scholar and archaeologist

Finnur Magnússon Finnur Magnússon, sometimes referred to by the Danish version of his name under which he published, Finno Magnusun, Finn Magnussen or Magnusen, (27 August 1781 – 24 December 1847) was an Icelandic scholar and archaeologist who worked in Den ...

hypothesized that Borr was "intended to signify ..the first mountain or mountain-chain, which it was deemed by the forefathers of our race had emerged from the waters in the same region where the first land made its appearance. This mountain chain is probably the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historica ...

, called by the Persians ''Borz'' (the genitive of the Old Norse ''Borr''). Bör's wife, Belsta or

, a daughter of the giant Bölthorn (''spina calamitosa''), is possibly the mass of ice formed on the alpine summits."Finnur Magnússon (1824). ''Eddalaeren og dens oprindelse'', Vol. I. (1824:42). Quoted in Millet (1847:486-7). In his ''Lexicon Mythologicum'', published four years later, he modified his theory to claim that Borr symbolized the earth, and Bestla the ocean, which gave birth to

as the "world spirit" or "great soul of the earth" (''spiritus mundi nostri; terrae magna anima, aëris et aurae numen''), Vili or Hoenir as the "heavenly light" (''lux, imprimis coelestis'') and Vé or Lódur as "fire" (''ignis, vel elementalis vel proprie sic dictus'').Millet (1847:487). Highlighting that no source provides information about Borr's mother (Borr's father was licked free from the earth by the primeval cow

Auðumbla In Norse mythology, Auðumbla �ɔuðˌumblɑ(also Auðhumla �ɔuðˌhumlɑ and Auðumla �ɔuðˌumlɑ ) is a primeval cow. The primordial frost jötunn Ymir fed from her milk, and over the course of three days she licked away the salty ri ...

Rudolf Simek Rudolf Simek (born 21 February 1954) is an Austrian philologist and religious studies scholar who is Professor and Chair of Ancient German and Nordic Studies at the University of Bonn. Simek specializes in Germanic studies, and is the author o ...

observes that "It is not clear how Burr came to be".Simek (2007:50).

Notes and citations

References

* Brodeur, Arthur Gilchrist (transl.) (1916). ''The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson''. New York:

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 ...

. * Bellows, Henry Adams (1927). ''The Poetic Edda''. New York:

. * Finnur Magnússon (1824). ''Eddalaeren og dens oprindelse'', Vol. I. * Grimm, Jacob (1883). ''Teutonic Mythology'', Vol. I. London: G. Bell and Sons. * Lindow, John (2001). ''Handbook of Norse Mythology''. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. * Lorenz, Gottfried (1984). ''Gylfaginning''. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft. * Mallet, M. (1847). ''Northern Antiquities''. London: Henry G. Bohn. * Nordal, Sigurd (1980). ''Völuspá''. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft. * Simek, Rudolf (1988). ''Lexikon der germanischen Mythologie''. Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner. * Simek, Rudolf (2007) translated by Angela Hall. ''Dictionary of Northern Mythology''. D.S. Brewer. * Thorpe, Benjamin (1851). ''Northern Mythology''. London: Edward Lumley. {{Norse mythology Æsir Norse gods