
In
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 ...
, Night,
Old West Norse
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was 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 ...
: (),
Old East Norse
Old East Norse was a dialect of Old Norse which evolved into the languages of Old Danish and Old Swedish from the 9th century to the 12th century.
Between 800 and 1100, East Norse is in Sweden called '' Runic Swedish'' and in Denmark ''Runic ...
: (),
[Orchard (1997:120).] is a
goddess
A goddess is a female deity. In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship. For example, Shaktism (one of the three major Hinduism, Hindu sects), holds that the ultimate deity, the source of all re ...
and personification of the
night
Night, or nighttime, is the period of darkness when the Sun is below the horizon. Sunlight illuminates one side of the Earth, leaving the other in darkness. The opposite of nighttime is daytime. Earth's rotation causes the appearance of ...
. In both 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, and the ''
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 ...
'', composed in the 13th century, Nótt is listed as the daughter of a figure by the name of
Nörvi (with variant spellings) and is associated with the horse
Hrímfaxi, while the ''Prose Edda'' features information about Nótt's ancestry, including her
three
3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cultural significance in many societies ...
marriages. Nótt's third marriage was to the god
Dellingr and this resulted in their son
Dagr
Dagr (Old Norse 'day')Lindow (2001:91). is the divine personification of the day in Norse mythology. He appears in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the ''Prose Edda'', written in the 13th cen ...
, the personified day (although some manuscript variations list
Jörð
Jörð (), also named Fjorgyn or Hlodyn, is the personification of earth and a goddess in Norse mythology. She is the mother of the thunder god Thor and a sexual partner of Odin. Jörð is attested in Danish history , composed in the 12th century ...
as Dellingr's wife and Dagr's mother instead). As a
proper noun
A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity ('' Africa''; ''Jupiter''; '' Sarah''; ''Walmart'') as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, ...
, the word ''nótt'' appears throughout Old Norse literature.
Attestations
''Poetic Edda''
In stanza 24 of the poem ''
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 Vafþrú ...
'', the god
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 ...
(disguised as "
Gagnráðr") asks the
jötunn
A (also jotun; plural ; in the normalised scholarly spelling of Old Norse, ; or, in Old English, , plural ) is a type of being in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, are often contrasted with gods (the Æsir and Vanir) and with other no ...
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 in rid ...
from where the day comes, and the night and its tides. In stanza 25, Vafþrúðnir responds:
:Delling hight he who the day's father is,
:but night was of Nörvi born;
:the new and waning moons the beneficent powers created,
:to count the years for men.[Thorpe (1907:13).]
In stanza 14 of the ''Vafþrúðnismál'', Odin states that the horse
Hrímfaxi "draws every night to the beneficent gods" and that he lets foam from his bit fall every morning, from which dew comes to the valleys.
[Larrington (1996:42).] In stanza 30 of the poem ''
Alvíssmál
Alvíssmál (Old Norse: 'The Song of All-wise' or 'The Words of All-wise') is a poem collected in the ''Poetic Edda'', probably dating to the 12th century, that describes how the god Thor outwits a dwarf called Alvíss ("All-Wise") who seeks to ...
'', the god
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 ...
asks the dwarf
Alvíss to tell him what night is called in each of the nine worlds, whom "
Nórr" birthed. Alvíss responds that night is referred as "night" by mankind, "darkness" by the gods, "the masker" by the mighty Powers, "unlight" by the jötunn, "joy-of-sleep" by the
elves
An elf (: elves) is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology, being mentioned in the Icelandic ''Poetic Edda'' and the ''Prose Edda''.
In medieval Germanic-speakin ...
, while dwarves call her "dream-
Njörun
In Norse mythology, Njörun (Old Norse: ''Njǫrun'' , sometimes modernly anglicized as ''Niorun'') is a goddess attested in the ''Prose Edda'', written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and various kennings (including once in the ''Poetic Ed ...
" (meaning "dream-goddess").
[Translation of all of this section minus "dream-Njörun" from Larrington (1996:113). Larrington glosses ''draum-Njörun'' (Jónsson (1931:84, Old Norse "dream-Njörun") as "dream-goddess".]
In ''
Sigrdrífumál
(also known as ) is the conventional title given to a section of the ''Poetic Edda'' text in .
It follows without interruption, and it relates the meeting of Sigurðr with the valkyrie Brynhildr, here identified as ("driver to victory").
...
'', after the
valkyrie
In Norse mythology, a valkyrie ( or ; from ) is one of a host of female figures who guide souls of the dead to the god Odin's hall Valhalla. There, the deceased warriors become ('single fighters' or 'once fighters').Orchard (1997:36) and Li ...
Sigrdrífa is woken from her sleep curse by the hero
Sigurd
Sigurd ( ) or Siegfried (Middle High German: ''Sîvrit'') is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend, who killed a dragon — known in Nordic tradition as Fafnir () — and who was later murdered. In the Nordic countries, he is referred t ...
, Sigurd asks her name, and she gives him a "memory-drink" of a
drinking horn
A drinking horn is the horn (anatomy), horn of a bovid used as a cup. Drinking horns are known from Classical Antiquity, especially the Balkans. They remained in use for ceremonial purposes throughout the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period ...
full of
mead
Mead (), also called honey wine, and hydromel (particularly when low in alcohol content), is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey mixed with water, and sometimes with added ingredients such as fruits, spices, grains, or hops. The alco ...
, and then Sigrdrifa says a
prayer
File:Prayers-collage.png, 300px, alt=Collage of various religionists praying – Clickable Image, Collage of various religionists praying ''(Clickable image – use cursor to identify.)''
rect 0 0 1000 1000 Shinto festivalgoer praying in front ...
. The first verse of this prayer features a reference to the "sons of Dagr" and the "daughter of Nótt":
:Hail to the Day! Hail to the sons of Day!
:To Night and her daughter hail!
:With placid eyes behold us here,
:and here sitting give us victory.
:Hail to the Æsir
Æsir (Old Norse; singular: ) or ēse (Old English; singular: ) are deities, gods in Germanic paganism. In Old Nordic religion and Nordic mythology, mythology, the precise meaning of the term "" is debated, as it can refer either to the gods i ...
! Hail to the Asyniur!
:Hail to the bounteous earth!
:Words and wisdom give to us noble twain,
:and healing hands while we live![Thorpe (1907:181).]
''Prose Edda''
In the ''Prose Edda'' book ''
Gylfaginning
''Gylfaginning'' (Old Norse: 'The Beguiling of Gylfi' or 'The Deluding of Gylfi'; 13th century Old Norse pronunciation ) is the first main part of the 13th century ''Prose Edda'', after the initial Prologue. The ''Gylfaginning'' takes the form of ...
'', Nótt is again personified. In chapter 10, the enthroned figure of High states that Nótt is the daughter of a jötunn from
Jötunheimr
The terms Jötunheimr (in Old Norse orthography: Jǫtunheimr ; often Old Norse orthography#Anglicized spelling, anglicised as Jotunheim) or Jötunheimar refer to either a land or multiple lands respectively in Nordic mythology inhabited by the j ...
by the name of "
Norfi or Narfi". Nótt is described as "black and swarthy", and has had three marriages. Her first marriage was with
Naglfari, and the two produced a son by the name of
Auðr. Nótt's second marriage was to
Annar, resulting in their daughter
Jörð
Jörð (), also named Fjorgyn or Hlodyn, is the personification of earth and a goddess in Norse mythology. She is the mother of the thunder god Thor and a sexual partner of Odin. Jörð is attested in Danish history , composed in the 12th century ...
, the personified earth. Finally, Nótt marries the god Dellingr, and the couple have
Dagr
Dagr (Old Norse 'day')Lindow (2001:91). is the divine personification of the day in Norse mythology. He appears in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the ''Prose Edda'', written in the 13th cen ...
, who takes after his "father's people" in brightness and fairness. Odin took Nótt and her son Dagr, placed them into the sky with a chariot and a horse each, and they ride around the Earth every 24 hours. Nótt rides before Dagr, and foam from her horse Hrímfaxi's
bit
The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communication. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented as ...
sprinkles the Earth.
[Byock (2005:19).]
However, scholar Haukur Thorgeirsson points out that the four manuscripts of ''Gylfaginning'' vary in their descriptions of the family relations between Nótt, Jörð, Dagr, and Dellingr. In other words, depending on the manuscript, either Jörð or Nátt is the mother of Dagr and partner of Dellingr. Haukur details that "the oldest manuscript, U, offers a version where Jǫrð is married to Dellingr and the mother of Dagr while the other manuscripts, R, W and T, cast Nótt in the role of Dellingr's wife and Dagr's mother", and argues that "the version in U came about accidentally when the writer of U or its antecedent shortened a text similar to that in RWT. The results of this accident made their way into the Icelandic poetic tradition".
[Haukur (2008:159—168).]
In the ''Prose Edda'' book ''
Skáldskaparmál
''Skáldskaparmál'' (Old Norse: 'Poetic Diction' or 'The Language of Poetry'; ; ) is the second part of the ''Prose Edda'', compiled by Snorri Sturluson. It consists of a dialogue between Ægir, the divine personification of the sea, and Bra ...
'', means of referring to Jörð are provided, including "daughter of Nótt".
[Faulkes (1995:90).] Chapter 58 states that "Hrimfaxi or Fiorsvartnir draw the night",
[Faulkes (1995:137).] and in chapter 64, "nótt" is stated as one of various words for time and a version of the ''Alvíssmál'' passage is cited.
[Faulkes (1995:144).]
See also
*
List of night deities
Notes
References
* Byock, Jesse (Trans.) (2006). ''The Prose Edda''.
Penguin Classics
Penguin Classics is an imprint (trade name), imprint of Penguin Books under which classic works of literature are published in English language, English, Spanish language, Spanish, Portuguese language, Portuguese, and Korean language, Korean amon ...
.
* 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 and history
The term ''everyman'' was used ...
.
*
Jónsson, Finnur (1931). ''Lexicon poeticum''. S. L. Møllers bogtrykkeri.
* Haukur Thorgeirsson (2008). "Hinn fagri foldar son" as published in ''Gripla XIX'', pages 159–168.
Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies.
* Larrington, Carolyne (Trans.) (1999). ''The Poetic Edda''.
Oxford World's Classics.
* Orchard, Andy (1997). ''Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend''.
Cassell.
*
Thorpe, Benjamin (Trans.) (1907). ''The Elder Edda of Saemund Sigfusson''.
Norrœna Society.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nott
Gýgjar
Night goddesses
Personifications in Norse mythology