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 peri ...

, Hlín () is a

goddess A goddess is a female deity. In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave. This includes themes of s ...

associated with the goddess

Frigg Frigg (; Old Norse: ) is a goddess, one of the Æsir, in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about her, she is associated with marriage, prophecy, clairvoyance and motherhood, and dwells in the wet ...

. Hlín appears 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 me ...

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

, and in kennings found in

skald 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 traditionall ...

ic poetry. Scholars have debated whether the stanza referring to her in the ''Prose Edda'' refers to Frigg. ''Hlín'' serves as a given name in Iceland, and Hlín receives veneration in the modern era in Germanic paganism's modern extension, Heathenry.

Etymology

Scholars frequently explain the meaning behind the goddess's name as 'protector'.See, for example, Orchard (1997:86) and Lindow (2001:177). The ''Prose Edda'' section ''Gylfaginning'' derives the name from a verb found in a

proverb A proverb (from la, proverbium) is a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic language. A proverbial phrase or a proverbial ...

in an obscure and otherwise unattested Old Norse proverb: ''Þiaðan af er þat orðtak at sá er forðask hleinir''. Scholars generally accept that the theonym ''Hlín'' derives from the verb ''hleina''. However, the verb ''hleina'' in which the section claims a derivation is obscure (a ''

hapax legomenon In corpus linguistics, a ''hapax legomenon'' ( also or ; ''hapax legomena''; sometimes abbreviated to ''hapax'', plural ''hapaxes'') is a word or an expression that occurs only once within a context: either in the written record of an entir ...

''), and translators have attempted to work around it in a variety of manners, in some cases leaving the verb untranslated. Examples include the translations of Anthony Faulkes ("From this comes the saying that someone who escapes finds refuge (''hleinir'')", 1995

987 Year 987 ( CMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * February 7 – Bardas Phokas (the Younger) and Bardas Skleros, two membe ...

and Jesse Byock ("From her name comes the expression that he who escapes finds ''hleinir'' eace and quiet, 2005).Hopkins (2017:31, 32–33). Scholars have proposed a variety of derivations for the verb. The verb is most commonly linked to Old English ''hlinian'' and ''hlænan'', ancestors to the modern English verb ''lean''. 19th century scholars, including Jacob Grimm, linked ''hleina'' to the rare Old Norse noun ''hlynr'', meaning '

maple tree ''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since htt ...

'. Grimm links this derivation to a variety of tree figures found in folklore from the modern era in northwest Europe. Joseph Hopkins (2017) comments that this derivation may deserve further investigation in light of the potential connection between the Old Norse goddess name '' Ilmr'' and the Old Norse common noun ''almr'' (

Elm tree 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 ...

), and says that "the potential of a protective tree goddess brings to mind a mysterious passage in the ''Prose Edda'' involving the

rowan The rowans ( or ) or mountain-ashes are shrubs or trees in the genus ''Sorbus'' of the rose family, Rosaceae. They are native throughout the cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in the Himalaya ...

, in which the tree is referred to as hor's''bjǫrg'' aid, help, salvation, rescue'.Hopkins (2017:31, 32–33, 35).

Attestations

In the ''Poetic Edda'' poem ''

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 an ...

'', Hlín receives a mention regarding the foretold death of the god Odin during the immense battle waged at

Ragnarök In Norse mythology, (; non, Ragnarǫk) is a series of events, including a great battle, foretelling the death of numerous great figures (including the gods Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdallr, and Loki), natural disasters, and the submers ...

:Then is fulfilled Hlín's :second sorrow, :when Óðinn goes :to fight with the wolf, :and Beli's slayer, :bright, against
Surtr In Norse mythology, Surtr (Old Norse "black"Orchard (1997:154). "the swarthy one",Simek (2007:303–304) Surtur in modern Icelandic), also sometimes written Surt in English, is a jötunn. Surtr is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the ...
. :Then shall Frigg's :sweet friend fall.Dronke (1997:21).

The death of Odin (the stanza's "second sorrow") implies a first death. Scholars all but universally view this as a reference to the death of the god Baldr, Frigg and Odin's son.Hopkins (2017:30). Some translators replace the reference of Hlín to a mention of Frigg due to their interpretations of the stanza (see discussion in ''Scholarly reception and interpretation'' section below).Examples include translations by Olive Bray (1908),

Carolyne Larrington Carolyne Larrington (born 1959) is a Professor of Medieval European Literature and Official Fellow of St John's College at the University of Oxford. Her research has primarily been on Old Norse and medieval Arthurian literature. Her areas of f ...

(1999),

Jeramy Dodds Jeramy Dodds (born 4 December 1974 in Ajax, Ontario) is a Canadian poet. Born in Ajax, Ontario, Dodds grew up in Orono, Ontario. He studied English literature and anthropology at Trent University, medieval Icelandic studies at The University of ...

(2014), and

Jackson Crawford Jackson W. Crawford (born August 28, 1985) is an American scholar, translator and poet who specializes in Old Norse. He previously taught at University of Colorado, Boulder (2017-2020), University of California, Berkeley (2014-17) and University ...

(2015). For discussion, see Hopkins (2017:31–32). In chapter 35 of the ''Prose Edda'' book ''

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 wi ...

'', Hlín is listed twelfth among a series of sixteen goddesses. High tells Gangleri (earlier in the book described as King

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 go ...

in disguise) that Hlín "is given the function of protecting people whom Frigg wishes to save from some danger." High continues that, from this, comes the saying that "someone who escapes finds refuge (''hleinar'')."Faulkes (1995:30). The verb ''hleina'' in this passage is obscure and has yielded a variety of translations (see ''etymology'' section above). In chapter 51, the above-mentioned ''Völuspá'' stanza is quoted.Faulkes (1995:55). In chapter 75 of the 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, ...

'' Hlín appears within a list of 27 ásynjur names.Faulkes (1995:157). 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 traditionall ...

, the name Hlín is frequent 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 ...

s for women. Examples include ''Hlín hringa'' ('Hlín of rings'), ''Hlín goðvefjar'' ('Hlín of velvet') and ''arm-Hlín'' ('arm-Hlín'). The name is already used frequently in this way by the 10th-century poet Kormákr Ögmundarson and remains current in skaldic poetry through the following centuries, employed by poets such as Þórðr Kolbeinsson, Gizurr Þorvaldsson and

Einarr Gilsson Einarr Gilsson was an Icelandic poet and official. He was the lögmaður of northern and western Iceland from 1367 to 1369. He is mentioned already in letters dating from 1339 and 1340 but his years of birth and death are unknown. He appears to ha ...

. The name remained frequently used in woman kennings in

rímur In Icelandic literature, a ''ríma'' (, literally "a rhyme", pl. ''rímur'', ) is an epic poem written in any of the so-called ''rímnahættir'' (, "rímur meters"). They are rhymed, they alliterate and consist of two to four lines per stanza. Th ...

poetry, sometimes as Lín. In a verse in '' Hávarðar saga Ísfirðings'', the phrase ''á Hlín fallinn'' ("fallen on Hlín") occurs. Some editors have emended the line while others have accepted the reading and taken Hlín to refer to the earth.Björn Karel Þórólfsson and Guðni Jónsson (1943:341).

Modern influence

In line with a cultural practice to use Old Norse theonyms as

personal name A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is know ...

s, ''Hlín'' appears as a given name for females in

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

. Like other goddesses from the North Germanic corpus, Hlín receives veneration in Heathenry.Hopkins (2017:31).

Scholarly reception and interpretation

Although the ''Prose Edda'' identifies Hlín as a separate goddess than Frigg, many scholars identify Hlín as another name for Frigg. For example, Andy Orchard says that in ''Völuspá'', Hlín appears to be just another name for Frigg, and adds that "the numerous occurrences of the name in skaldic poetry in poetic periphrases or kennings for women do nothing to dispel the confusion."Orchard (1997:86).

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 ...

agrees that Hlín seems to appear as another name for Frigg in ''Völuspá'', and that in skaldic poetry Hlín was a well-known mythological figure by the 10th century. Simek states that Hlín is likely simply another name for Frigg, and that Snorri "misunderstood her to be a goddess in her own right in his reading of the ''Völuspá'' stanza."Simek (2007:153). However, in the same work, Simek also says that the goddesses Sága, Hlín, Sjöfn,

Snotra In Norse mythology, Snotra (Old Norse: , "clever")Orchard (1997:152). is a goddess associated with wisdom. Snotra is attested in the ''Prose Edda'', written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and in the Gautreks Saga, where she is the mother ...

, Vár, and Vör should be considered vaguely defined figures who "should be seen as female protective goddesses" that are all responsible for "specific areas of the private sphere, and yet clear differences were made between them so that they are in many ways similar to

matrons Matron is the job title of a very senior or the chief nurse in several countries, including the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and other Commonwealth countries and former colonies. Etymology The chief nurse, in other words the person ...

."Simek (2007:274). Some scholars express uncertainty at identifying Hlín as another name for Frigg, and others reject the identification altogether. In a 2017 paper on the topic, Hopkins agrees with Simek's comparison to the matrons and compares the scholarly reception of the goddess Fulla, another goddess closely associated with Frigg, to that of Hlín:

:"Like Hlín, the name ''Fulla'' full, bountiful'may be tempting to dismiss as a reading error on the part of a ''Prose Edda'' author or as a poetic invention ... Were it not for the preservation of the cognate theonym Volla in the
Second Merseburg Charm The Merseburg charms or Merseburg incantations (german: die Merseburger Zaubersprüche) are two Middle Ages, medieval magic spells, charms or incantations, written in Old High German. They are the only known examples of Germanic paganism, Germanic ...
, Fulla would remain in a similarly ambiguous position like that of Hlín, easily overlooked, dismissed, or deconstructed ... the correlations between the ''Prose Edda'' and the Second Merseburg Incantation provide something of a cautionary tale: namely, by dismissing information found solely in the ''Prose Edda'', one risks violating the foundational maxim of ''absence of evidence is not evidence of absence''. There is no reason to doubt that Hlín was an independent entity in Old Norse mythology and no positive evidence to suggest that Hlín was merely a by-name of Frigg."Hopkins (2017:34–35).

Referencing the iconography of the early Germanic matrons, Hopkins proposes an alternate reading of the ''Völuspá'' stanza in line with the ''Gylfaginning'' description of the goddess. In Hopkins's reading of the stanza, Hlín's sorrows are her inability to protect figures close to Frigg: the first sorrow would therefore be the death of Baldr, and the second sorrow the foretold death of Odin.Hopkins (2017:35).

Notes

References

* Björn Karel Þórólfsson and Guðni Jónsson (1943). ''Vestfirðinga sǫgur''. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag. * Dronke, Ursula (Trans.) (1997). ''The Poetic Edda: Volume II: Mythological Poems''.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

. * 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 ...

(1931). ''Lexicon Poeticum''. København: S. L. Møllers Bogtrykkeri. * Finnur Jónsson (1926–28). ''Ordbog til de af samfund til udg. af gml. nord. litteratur udgivne rímur samt til de af Dr. O. Jiriczek udgivne bósarimur''. København: J. Jørgensen & Co. * Finnur Jónsson (1912–1915). ''Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning'' A: ''Tekst efter håndskrifterne'', 2 vols. B: ''Rettet tekst'', 2 vols. København: Gyldendal. * Gísli Brynjúlfsson (1860). ''Hávarðar saga Ísfirðings''. Kjøbenhavn. * Hopkins, Joseph (2017). "Goddesses Unknown III: On the Identity of the Old Norse Goddess Hlín". ''

RMN Newsletter ''RMN Newsletter'' is a peer review, 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/ ...

'', No. 12-13, pp. 30–36.

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

. Online

* John Lindow, Lindow, John (2001).
Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs
'.

. * Orchard, Andy (1997). ''Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend''. Cassell. * Simek, Rudolf (2007) translated by Angela Hall. ''Dictionary of Northern Mythology''.

D.S. Brewer Boydell & Brewer is an academic press based in Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, that specializes in publishing historical and critical works. In addition to British and general history, the company publishes three series devoted to studies, edition ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hlin Ásynjur Frigg