Lóðurr (

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was 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 ...

: ; also Lodurr) is a

god In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

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 ...

. In the poem , he is assigned a role in animating the first humans, but apart from that he is hardly ever mentioned, and remains obscure. Scholars have variously identified him with

Loki Loki is a Æsir, god in Norse mythology. He is the son of Fárbauti (a jötunn) and Laufey (mythology), Laufey (a goddess), and the brother of Helblindi and Býleistr. Loki is married to the goddess Sigyn and they have two sons, Narfi (son of Lo ...

, Vé, Vili, and

Freyr Freyr (Old Norse: 'Lord'), sometimes anglicized as Frey, is a widely attested Æsir, god in Norse mythology, associated with kingship, fertility, peace, prosperity, fair weather, and good harvest. Freyr, sometimes referred to as Yngvi-Freyr, was ...

, but consensus has not been reached on any one theory.

Name and etymology

The name's meaning is unknown. It has been speculatively linked to various

words, such as , "fruit, land", , "people" and , "to attract". The Gothic words , "to grow" and , "shape", as well as the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

word , "to blaze", have also been mentioned in this context. The metrical position of Lóðurr's name in the

skaldic poem A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry in alliterative verse, the other being Eddic poetry. Skaldic poems were traditionally compo ...

, composed in the strict

dróttkvætt Old Norse poetry encompasses a range of verse forms written in the Old Norse language, during the period from the 8th century to as late as the far end of the 13th century. Old Norse poetry is associated with the area now referred to as Scandinav ...

metre, indicates that it contains the sound value /ó/ rather than /o/. This evidence, while strong, is not incontrovertible and some scholars have held out for a reading. (Lóðurr's name can also be represented or anglicized as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , or .) Danish and Norwegian , Swedish , as well as Finnish , meaning "Saturday", may possibly derive from although more typically the etymology is proposed to originate from "washing day".

Attestations

Völuspá

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 ...

, the name occurs only once; in , where the gods animate the first humans. The precise meaning of these strophes and their context in ''Völuspá'' is debated. Most relevant for the present discussion are Lóðurr's gifts of and . The word is obscure and the translations "film of flesh" and "blood" are just two of the many possibilities that have been suggested. The phrase "litu góða" is somewhat less difficult and traditionally interpreted as "good colours", "good shape", or even "good looks". The 19th-century Swedish scholar

Viktor Rydberg Abraham Viktor Rydberg (; 18 December 182821 September 1895) was a Swedish writer and a member of the Swedish Academy, 1877–1895. "Primarily a classical idealist", Viktor Rydberg has been described as "Sweden's last Romantic" and by 1859 wa ...

proposed a reading of , meaning "shape of gods", and saw the line as indication that the gods created human beings in their own image. While the manuscripts do not distinguish between the

phoneme A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...

s /o/ and /ó/, most other scholars have preferred the /ó/ reading for metrical reasons. The metrical structure of 's

fornyrðislag Old Norse poetry encompasses a range of verse forms written in the Old Norse language, during the period from the 8th century to as late as the far end of the 13th century. Old Norse poetry is associated with the area now referred to as Scandinav ...

is, however, not very rigid and in 1983 Rydberg's theory was championed again by

Gro Steinsland Gro Steinsland (born 1945) is a Norwegian scholar of medieval studies and history of religion and since August 2009 has been the Scientific Director of the Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Steinsland has mo ...

. It remains debated.

Other attestations

Apart from the strophe in , Lóðurr's name occurs only twice in the original sources. The name is found in the

skaldic poems A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry in alliterative verse, the other being Eddic poetry. Skaldic poems were traditionally compo ...

and where "Lóðurr's friend" is used as a

kenning A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech, a figuratively-phrased compound term that is used in place of a simple single-word noun. For instance, the Old English kenning () means , as does (). A kenning has two parts: a base-word (a ...

for

Odin Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Em ...

. This seems consistent with Lóðurr's role in . In

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 ...

's ''

Prose Edda The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' () or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often considered to have been to some exten ...

'', Lóðurr is conspicuously absent. Here the creation of humans is attributed to the sons of

Borr In Norse mythology, Borr or Burr (Old Norse: 'borer' sometimes anglicized Bor, Bör or Bur) was the son of Búri. Borr was the husband of Bestla and the father of Odin, Vili and Vé. Borr receives mention in a poem in the ''Poetic Edda'', comp ...

, whom Snorri names elsewhere as Odin, Vili and Vé. Snorri often quotes in his work, but in this case he does not. We cannot know whether he knew the strophes above or whether he was working entirely from other sources.

Nordendorf fibula

Another source sometimes brought into the discussion is the Nordendorf fibula. This artifact, dating from about 600 CE, contains the

runic Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets, known as runic rows, runic alphabets or futharks (also, see '' futhark'' vs ''runic alphabet''), native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were primarily used to represent a sound value (a ...

inscription logaþorewodanwigiþonar. This is usually interpreted as ''Logaþore Wodan Wigiþonar'', where ''Wodan'' is

and ''Wigiþonar'' probably is

Thor Thor (from ) is a prominent list of thunder gods, god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred g ...

. It would be natural for ''logaþore'' to be the name of a third god, but there is no obvious identification in Norse mythology as we know it. Both Lóðurr and Loki have been proposed, but the etymological reasoning is tenuous, and firm conclusions cannot be reached.

Theories

Since the ''Prose Edda'' mentions the sons of Borr in the same context as ''Völuspá'' does Hœnir and Lóðurr, some scholars have reasoned that Lóðurr might be another name for either Vili or Vé.

was an early proponent of this theory, but recently it has received little attention. A more popular theory proposed by the scholar

Ursula Dronke Ursula Miriam Dronke (née Brown, 3 November 1920 – 8 March 2012Heather O'Donoghue"Ursula Dronke obituary: Inspirational teacher of Old Norse literature specialising in the sagas and poetry of medieval Iceland" ''The Guardian'' 25 March 201 ...

is that ''Lóðurr'' is "a third name of Loki/Loptr". The main argument for this is that the gods Odin, Hœnir, and Loki occur as a trio in ''

Haustlöng ''Haustlǫng'' (Old Norse: 'Autumn-long'; anglicized as ''Haustlöng'') is a skaldic poem composed around the beginning of the 10th century by the Norwegian skald Þjóðólfr of Hvinir. The poem has been preserved in the 13th-century '' Prose ...

'', in the prose prologue to ''

Reginsmál ''Reginsmál'' (Old Norse: 'The Lay of Reginn') is an Eddic poem interspersed with prose found in the Codex Regius manuscript. It is closely associated with ''Fáfnismál'', the poem that immediately follows it in the Codex, and it is likely th ...

'', and also in the ''

Loka Táttur ''Loka Táttur'' or ''Lokka Táttur'' (tale, or ''þáttr'' of Loki) is a Faroese ballad (Corpus Carminum Færoensium 13D) which is an example of the occurrence of Norse gods in folklore. The ballad probably dates back to the late Middle Ages. Th ...

'', a Faroese ballad which is a rare example of the occurrence of Norse gods in folklore. The Odin-kenning "Lóðurr's friend" furthermore appears to parallel the kenning "Loptr's friend" and Loki is similarly referred to as "Hœnir's friend" in Haustlöng, strengthening the trio connection. While many scholars agree with this identification, it is not universally accepted. One argument against it is that Loki appears as a malevolent being later in , seemingly conflicting with the image of Lóðurr as a "mighty and loving" figure. Many scholars, including Jan de Vries and

Georges Dumézil Georges Edmond Raoul Dumézil (4 March 189811 October 1986) was a French Philology, philologist, Linguistics, linguist, and religious studies scholar who specialized in comparative linguistics and comparative mythology, mythology. He was a prof ...

, have also identified Lóðurr as being the same deity as

. Recently, Haukur Þorgeirsson of the

University of Iceland The University of Iceland ( ) is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland, and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servants' school to a modern co ...

has suggested that Loki and Lóðurr are in fact different names for the same deity, basing his contention on the observation that Loki is referred to as Lóður in the rimur . Haukur argues that, regardless of whether the rimur is based on Snorri's or a folksource, the writer must have derived the information about the identification either from a tradition or drawn the conclusion from a reading of the Eddic poems, since Snorri himself does not mention Lóðurr in his Edda. Since the contents of the Poetic Edda are assumed to have been forgotten around 1400, when the rimur was written, Haukur argues for a traditional identification. Haukur also points to where the same identification is made with Loki and Lóðurr. Haukur Þorgeirsson says that unless the possible but unlikely idea that the 14th and 15th century poets possessed lost written sources unknown to us, the idea must have come from either an unlikely amount of sources from where the poets could have drawn a similar conclusion that Loki and Lóðurr are identical like some recent scholars or that there still were remnants of an oral tradition. Haukur concludes that if Lóðurr was historically considered an independent deity from Loki, then a discussion of when and why he became identified with Loki is appropriate. An identification with

has also been proposed. This theory emphasizes the possible fertility-related meanings of Lóðurr's name but otherwise has little direct evidence to support it.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989). ''Íslensk orðsifjabók''. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans. * 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 Swe ...

. Available onlin
at Google Books
* Bugge, Sophus (1867). ''Norræn fornkvæði''. Christiania: Malling. Available online a
Sæmundar Edda
In particula
Völuspá
* Bæksted, Anders (1986). ''Goð og hetjur í heiðnum sið'', Eysteinn Þorvaldsson translated to Icelandic. Reykjavík: Örn og Örlygur. Pages 74 and 184. * Dronke, Ursula (1997). ''The Poetic Edda : Volume II : Mythological Poems''. Oxford: Clarendon Press. In particular p. 18 and pp. 124–5. * Eysteinn Björnsson (2001). ''Lexicon of Kennings : The Domain of Battle''
KENNINGS
* Eysteinn Björnsson (ed.). ''Snorra-Edda: Formáli & Gylfaginning : Textar fjögurra meginhandrita''. 2005
GYLFAGINNING
* Eysteinn Björnsson (ed.).

This editor prefers the reading. *

Finnur Jónsson Finnur Jónsson (May 29, 1858 – March 30, 1934) was an Icelandic 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 born a ...

(1913). ''Goðafræði Norðmanna og Íslendinga eftir heimildum''. Reykjavík: Hið íslenska bókmentafjelag. * Finnur Jónsson (1931). ''Lexicon Poeticum''. København: S. L. Møllers Bogtrykkeri. * Jón Helgason (1971). ''Eddadigte : Völuspá Hávamál'', 2. ændrede udg. København: Munksgaard. * Lindow, John (2001). Handbook of Norse mythology. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio. . * Rydberg, Viktor (1886-1889). . Stockholm: Bonnier. * Simek, Rudolf. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. 1993. Trans. Angela Hall. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer. . New edition 2000, . *

Sigurður Nordal Sigurður Nordal (14 September 1886 – 21 September 1974) was an Icelandic scholar, writer, and ambassador. He was influential in forming the theory of the Icelandic sagas as works of literature composed by individual authors. Education Nor ...

(1952). . Reykjavík: Helgafell. * Steinsland, Gro (1983). "Antropogonimyten i Völuspá. En tekst- og tradisjonskritisk analyse." in , 1983, pp. 80 – 107. Lund. * Thorpe, Benjamin (tr.) (1866). ''Edda Sæmundar Hinns Froða : The Edda Of Sæmund The Learned''. (2 vols.) London: Trübner & Co. Norroena Society edition (1905) available onlin
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* Turville-Petre, E. O. G. (1964). ''Myth and Religion of the North : The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia''. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. In particular pages 143-4. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lodurr Æsir Creator gods Norse gods Loki Freyr