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 as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...

, Ýdalir ("

yew Yew is a common name given to various species of trees. It is most prominently given to any of various coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus '' Taxus'': * European yew or common yew (''Taxus baccata'') * Pacific yew or western yew ('' Taxus ...

- dales".) is a location containing a dwelling owned by the god

Ullr In Norse mythology, Ullr (Old Norse: ) is a Æsir, god associated with skiing. Although literary attestations of Ullr are sparse, evidence including relatively ancient place-name evidence from Scandinavia suggests that he was a major god in ear ...

. Ýdalir is solely attested in the ''

Poetic Edda The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems in alliterative verse. It is distinct from the closely related ''Prose Edda'', although both works are seminal to the study of Old Norse ...

'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources. Scholarly theories have been proposed about the implications of the location.

Attestations

Ýdalir is solely attested in stanza 5 of 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 ...

'' (collected in the ''Poetic Edda''), where Odin (disguised as '' Grímnir'') tells the young Agnar that Ullr owns a dwelling in Ýdalir. The stanza reads (''Ýdalir'' is here translated as ''Ydalir''):

:Ydalir it is called, where Ullr :has himself a dwelling made. : Alfheim the gods
Frey Freyr (Old Norse: 'Lord'), sometimes anglicized as Frey, is a widely attested god in Norse mythology, associated with kingship, fertility, peace, prosperity, fair weather, and good harvest. Freyr, sometimes referred to as Yngvi-Freyr, was especi ...
gave :in days of yore for a tooth-gift..

Theories

Discussing Ýdalir, Henry Adams Bellows comments that "the wood of the yew-tree was used for bows in the North just as it was long afterwards for England.".

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 ...

says that "this connexion of the god with the yew-tree, of whose wood bows were made (cf. ON ''ýbogi'' 'yew bow'), has led to Ullr being seen as a bow-god.". Andy Orchard comments that Ýdalir is an "aptly named dwelling-place

or the Or or OR may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * "O.R.", a 1974 episode of '' M*A*S*H'' * '' Or (My Treasure)'', a 2004 movie from Israel (''Or'' means "light" in Hebrew) Music * ''Or'' (album), a 2002 album by Gold ...

archer Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In modern ...

-god, Ull." According to

Hilda Ellis Davidson Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson (born Hilda Roderick Ellis; 1 October 1914 – 12 January 2006) was an English folklorist. She was a scholar at the University of Cambridge and The Folklore Society, and specialized in the study of Celtic and G ...

, while Valhalla "is well known because it plays so large a part in images of warfare and death," the significance of other halls in Norse mythology such as Ýdalir, and the goddess

Freyja In Norse mythology, Freyja (Old Norse "(the) Lady") is a goddess associated with love, beauty, fertility, sex, war, gold, and seiðr (magic for seeing and influencing the future). Freyja is the owner of the necklace Brísingamen, rides a char ...

's afterlife location

Fólkvangr In Norse mythology, Fólkvangr (Old Norse "field of the host"Orchard (1997:45). or "people-field" or "army-field"Lindow (2001:118).) is a meadow or Field (agriculture), field ruled over by the goddess Freyja where half of those that die in comba ...

has been lost.. Udale, located in

Cromarty Cromarty (; , ) is a town, civil parishes in Scotland, civil parish and former royal burgh in Ross and Cromarty, in the Highland (council area), Highland area of Scotland. Situated at the tip of the Black Isle on the southern shore of the mout ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, is first recorded in 1578, and is thought to derive from Old Norse ''y-dalr''. Robert Bevan-Jones proposes a connection between veneration of Ullr and Ýdalir among the settling pagan Norse in Scotland and their bestowment of the name ''ydalr'' to the location..

In popular culture

Ýdalir was probably the inspiration for the name of a bow in the 1996 Super Famicom game '' Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War''. A legendary bow wielded by the crusader Ullr (named after the Norse God) is called , with " Ichii" the Japanese term for "Yew", and "baru" perhaps a loose Japanese syllabification of the English word "

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

." The same term was used in the 2012 anime ''

Symphogear , also known as simply ''Symphogear'', is a Japanese anime television series produced by Satelight. The original season aired on Tokyo MX between January and March 2012. The second season entitled ''Symphogear G'' aired between July and ...

''. In 2013, "Ichaival" was added to an

English Wikipedia The English Wikipedia is the primary English-language edition of Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia. It was created by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger on 15 January 2001, as Wikipedia's first edition. English Wikipedia is hosted alongside o ...

list, but incorrectly presented as a Norse term for a bow of Odin, rather than a Japanese phrase translating Ýdalir's meaning of "Yew Dales". This confusion resulted in the inclusion of "Ichaival" elsewhere as a bow of Odin originating in Norse mythology, notably in the 2014 video game ''

Smite ''Smite'' is a 2014 free-to-play third-person multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game developed and published by Hi-Rez Studios for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Amazon Luna.. The Icelandic heavy metal band

Skálmöld Skálmöld () is a Viking / folk metal band from Reykjavík, Iceland, formed in August 2009. The band's name is literally translated as ''Age of Swords'' and also means "lawlessness", referring to the Age of the Sturlungs of Icelandic history, w ...

released an album titled '' Ýdalir'' in 2023. The album is inspired by ''Grímnismál'' and features a title track about the location..

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ydalir Places in Norse mythology