Hár [ˈhɑːrː] , Jafnhár [ˈjɑvnˌhɑːrː] , and Þriði [ˈθriðe] (anglicized as Thridi ) are three men on thrones who appear in the Prose Edda in the Gylfaginning ("The Beguiling of Gylfi"), one of the oldest and most important sources on Norse mythology . Their names translate as High , Just-as-High , and Third in Old Norse , respectively. In the story, King Gylfi , calling himself Gangleri, engages in a test of wisdom with the three, asking them detailed questions about the Æsir , their deeds, and their future. The three respond until the final segment, in which the three men and the great hall suddenly disappear.
97-474: Fenrir ( Old Norse ' fen -dweller') or Fenrisúlfr (Old Norse "Fenrir's wolf ", often translated "Fenris-wolf"), also referred to as Hróðvitnir (Old Norse "fame-wolf") and Vánagandr (Old Norse 'monster of the [River] Ván'), is a monstrous wolf in Norse mythology . In Old Norse texts, Fenrir plays a key role during the events of Ragnarök , where he is foretold to assist in setting the world aflame, resulting in
194-696: A dialect continuum , with no clear geographical boundary between them. Old East Norse traits were found in eastern Norway , although Old Norwegian is classified as Old West Norse, and Old West Norse traits were found in western Sweden . In what is present-day Denmark and Sweden, most speakers spoke Old East Norse. Though Old Gutnish is sometimes included in the Old East Norse dialect due to geographical associations, it developed its own unique features and shared in changes to both other branches. The 12th-century Icelandic Gray Goose Laws state that Swedes , Norwegians , Icelanders , and Danes spoke
291-727: A change known as Holtzmann's law . An epenthetic vowel became popular by 1200 in Old Danish, 1250 in Old Swedish and Old Norwegian, and 1300 in Old Icelandic. An unstressed vowel was used which varied by dialect. Old Norwegian exhibited all three: /u/ was used in West Norwegian south of Bergen , as in aftur , aftor (older aptr ); North of Bergen, /i/ appeared in aftir , after ; and East Norwegian used /a/ , after , aftær . Old Norse
388-536: A combination of scenes from the Christian Judgement Day and the pagan Ragnarök. The cross features various figures depicted in Borre style , including a man with a spear facing a monstrous head, one of whose feet is thrust into the beast's forked tongue and on its lower jaw, while a hand is placed against its upper jaw, a scene interpreted as Víðarr fighting Fenrir. This depiction has been theorized as
485-631: A connection between the " Hell Mouth " that appears in medieval Christian iconography and Fenrir. According to Schapiro, "the Anglo-Saxon taste for the Hell Mouth was perhaps influenced by the northern pagan myth of the Crack of Doom and the battle with the wolf, who devoured Odin." Scholars propose that a variety of objects from the archaeological record depict Týr. For example, a Migration Period gold bracteate from Trollhättan , Sweden, features
582-453: A connection with wolves? Because Loki was Odin's blood brother?" Referring to the same chapter, Lindow comments that neither of the phrases that Fenrir's binding result in have left any other traces. Lindow compares Fenrir's role to his father Loki and Fenrir's sibling Jörmungandr, in that they all spend time with the gods, are bound or cast out by them, return "at the end of the current mythic order to destroy them, only to be destroyed himself as
679-456: A contest of wisdom; Gylfi asks detailed questions of the affairs of the Æsir, and the three respond with stories. At the very end, the three suddenly vanish along with the Hall. Gylfi returns to Sweden to tell tales of what he has learned. A common assumption is that the three men are intended to be manifestations, aspects, disguises, or illusions controlled by Odin . Odin is both the wisest of
776-417: A female raven or a male crow. All neuter words have identical nominative and accusative forms, and all feminine words have identical nominative and accusative plurals. The gender of some words' plurals does not agree with that of their singulars, such as lim and mund . Some words, such as hungr , have multiple genders, evidenced by their determiners being declined in different genders within
873-412: A front vowel to be split into a semivowel-vowel sequence before a back vowel in the following syllable. While West Norse only broke /e/ , East Norse also broke /i/ . The change was blocked by a /w/ , /l/ , or /ʀ/ preceding the potentially-broken vowel. Some /ja/ or /jɔ/ and /jaː/ or /jɔː/ result from breaking of /e/ and /eː/ respectively. When a noun, pronoun, adjective, or verb has
970-409: A given sentence. Nouns, adjectives, and pronouns were declined in four grammatical cases – nominative , accusative , genitive , and dative – in singular and plural numbers. Adjectives and pronouns were additionally declined in three grammatical genders. Some pronouns (first and second person) could have dual number in addition to singular and plural. The genitive
1067-482: A horse for thirty years. An elaboration of this allusion is found only in a late Parsi commentary. The ruler Taxmoruw (Taxma Urupi) managed to lasso Ahriman (Angra Mainyu) and keep him tied up while taking him for a ride three times a day. After thirty years, Ahriman outwitted and swallowed Taxmoruw. In a sexual encounter with Ahriman, Jamshid , Taxmoruw's brother, inserted his hand into Ahriman's anus and pulled out his brother's corpse. His hand withered from contact with
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#17327724818401164-579: A king as Haakon shall stand in his place: Unfettered will fare the Fenris Wolf and ravaged the realm of men, ere that cometh a kingly prince as good, to stand in his stead. Thorwald's Cross , a partially surviving runestone erected at Kirk Andreas on the Isle of Man , depicts a bearded human holding a spear downward at a wolf, his right foot in its mouth, while a large bird sits at his shoulder. Rundata dates it to 940, while Pluskowski dates it to
1261-467: A long time before I got any help from you. I am reluctant to have this band put on me. But rather than that you question my courage, let someone put his hand in my mouth as a pledge that this is done in good faith. With this statement, all of the Æsir look to one another, finding themselves in a dilemma. Everyone refused to place their hand in Fenrir's mouth until Týr put out his right hand and placed it into
1358-584: A long vowel or diphthong in the accented syllable and its stem ends in a single l , n , or s , the r (or the elder r - or z -variant ʀ ) in an ending is assimilated. When the accented vowel is short, the ending is dropped. The nominative of the strong masculine declension and some i-stem feminine nouns uses one such -r (ʀ). Óðin-r ( Óðin-ʀ ) becomes Óðinn instead of * Óðinr ( * Óðinʀ ). The verb blása ('to blow'), has third person present tense blæss ('[he] blows') rather than * blæsr ( * blæsʀ ). Similarly,
1455-466: A metaphor for Christ's defeat of Satan. The 11th century Ledberg stone in Sweden , similarly to Thorwald's Cross, features a figure with his foot at the mouth of a four-legged beast, and this may also be a depiction of Odin being devoured by Fenrir at Ragnarök. Below the beast and the man is a depiction of a legless, helmeted man, with his arms in a prostrate position. The Younger Futhark inscription on
1552-651: A name of Odin. According to the catalogue in the Völuspá ('Prophecy of the Völva '), Hár is the name of a dwarf, presumably unrelated to Odin. In the Skáldskaparmál , a quote from the Þórsdrápa (Thorsdrapa) appears to also refer to Thridi as a name of Odin, given that it would make sense for Thor to be departing from Asgard in the journey described to Jötunheimr that originates "from Third's": The sea-thread's [Midgard serpent's] father [Loki] set out to urge
1649-474: A noun must mirror the gender of that noun , so that one says, " heill maðr! " but, " heilt barn! ". As in other languages, the grammatical gender of an impersonal noun is generally unrelated to an expected natural gender of that noun. While indeed karl , "man" is masculine, kona , "woman", is feminine, and hús , "house", is neuter, so also are hrafn and kráka , for "raven" and "crow", masculine and feminine respectively, even in reference to
1746-531: A person receiving a bite on the hand from a beast, which may depict Týr and Fenrir. A Viking Age hogback in Sockburn , County Durham , North East England may depict Týr and Fenrir. In reference to Fenrir's presentation in the Prose Edda , Andy Orchard theorizes that "the hound (or wolf)" Garmr , Sköll , and Hati Hróðvitnisson were originally simply all Fenrir, stating that "Snorri, characteristically,
1843-489: A question to the wise jötunn Vafþrúðnir : Much I have travelled, much have I tried out, much have I tested the Powers; from where will a sun come into the smooth heaven when Fenrir has assailed this one? In the stanza that follows Vafþrúðnir responds that Sól (here referred to as Álfröðull ) will bear a daughter before Fenrir attacks her, and that this daughter shall continue the paths of her deceased mother through
1940-476: A similar development influenced by Middle Low German . Various languages unrelated to Old Norse and others not closely related have been heavily influenced by Norse, particularly the Norman language ; to a lesser extent, Finnish and Estonian . Russian, Ukrainian , Belarusian , Lithuanian and Latvian also have a few Norse loanwords. The words Rus and Russia , according to one theory, may be named after
2037-608: A voiced velar fricative [ɣ] in all cases, and others have that realisation only in the middle of words and between vowels (with it otherwise being realised [ɡ] ). The Old East Norse /ʀ/ was an apical consonant , with its precise position unknown; it is reconstructed as a palatal sibilant . It descended from Proto-Germanic /z/ and eventually developed into /r/ , as had already occurred in Old West Norse. The consonant digraphs ⟨hl⟩ , ⟨hr⟩ , and ⟨hn⟩ occurred word-initially. It
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#17327724818402134-467: A vowel or semivowel of a different vowel backness . In the case of i-umlaut and ʀ-umlaut , this entails a fronting of back vowels, with retention of lip rounding. In the case of u-umlaut , this entails labialization of unrounded vowels. Umlaut is phonemic and in many situations grammatically significant as a side effect of losing the Proto-Germanic morphological suffixes whose vowels created
2231-435: A woman named Angrboða located in the land of Jötunheimr ; Fenrisúlfr, the serpent Jörmungandr , and the female being Hel . High continues that, once the gods found that these three children were being brought up in the land of Jötunheimr , and when the gods "traced prophecies that from these siblings great mischief and disaster would arise for them" the gods expected a lot of trouble from the three children, partially due to
2328-448: A word. Strong verbs ablaut the lemma 's nucleus to derive the past forms of the verb. This parallels English conjugation, where, e.g., the nucleus of sing becomes sang in the past tense and sung in the past participle. Some verbs are derived by ablaut, as the present-in-past verbs do by consequence of being derived from the past tense forms of strong verbs. Umlaut or mutation is an assimilatory process acting on vowels preceding
2425-483: A younger generation of gods, one of them his slayer, survives into the new world order." He also points to Fenrir's binding as part of a recurring theme of the bound monster , where an enemy of the gods is bound, but destined to break free at Ragnarok. Indo-European parallels have been proposed between myths of Fenrir and the Persian demon Ahriman . The Yashts refer to a story where Taxma Urupi rode Angra Mainyu as
2522-495: Is also called God of the Hanged, God of Gods, God of Cargoes; and he has also been named in many more ways, after he had come to King Geirrödr: Conversely, John Lindow argues that the three were probably not Odin, at least not in the view of Snorri Sturluson , compiler of the work. Lindow notes that "Gangleri" is also a name of Odin, but that neither side of the conversation or events quite matches another story of Odin. If Snorri
2619-595: Is also suggested by the Latin caecus ('blind') and the Old Irish caech ('one-eyed'), with regular Germanic sound shift *k- > *h -. Alternatively, Hárr has been interpreted as meaning 'the hoary one', 'with grey hair and beard', or else as an adjectival form of the lexeme Hár ('High One'). A variant of Hár, Hávi ('the High One'), appears in the poem Hávamál ('Words of Hávi' / Songs of Hávi) as
2716-483: Is careful to make distinctions, naming the wolves who devour the sun and moon as Sköll and Hati, and describing an encounter between Garm and Týr (who, one would have thought, might like to get his hand on Fenrir) at Ragnarök." John Lindow says that it is unclear why the gods decide to raise Fenrir as opposed to his siblings Hel and Jörmungandr in Gylfaginning chapter 35, theorizing that it may be "because Odin had
2813-465: Is expected to exist, such as in the male names Ragnarr , Steinarr (supposedly * Ragnarʀ , * Steinarʀ ), the result is apparently always /rː/ rather than */rʀ/ or */ʀː/ . This is observable in the Runic corpus. In Old Norse, i/j adjacent to i , e , their u-umlauts, and æ was not possible, nor u/v adjacent to u , o , their i-umlauts, and ǫ . At
2910-584: Is more common in Old West Norse in both phonemic and allophonic positions, while it only occurs sparsely in post-runic Old East Norse and even in runic Old East Norse. This is still a major difference between Swedish and Faroese and Icelandic today. Plurals of neuters do not have u-umlaut at all in Swedish, but in Faroese and Icelandic they do, for example the Faroese and Icelandic plurals of the word land , lond and lönd respectively, in contrast to
3007-427: Is not going on my legs. The Æsir said Fenrir would quickly tear apart a thin silken strip, noting that Fenrir earlier broke great iron binds, and added that if Fenrir wasn't able to break slender Gleipnir then Fenrir is nothing for the gods to fear, and as a result would be freed. Fenrir responded: If you bind me so that I am unable to release myself, then you will be standing by in such a way that I should have to wait
Fenrir - Misplaced Pages Continue
3104-437: Is quoted that refers to Hel , the being, as "the monstrous wolf's sister". In chapter 75, names for wargs and wolves are listed, including both "Hróðvitnir" and "Fenrir". "Fenrir" appears twice in verse as a common noun for a "wolf" or "warg" in chapter 58 of Skáldskaparmál , and in chapter 56 of the book Háttatal . Additionally, the name "Fenrir" can be found among a list of jötnar in chapter 75 of Skáldskaparmál . At
3201-459: Is that the nonphonemic difference between the voiced and the voiceless dental fricative is marked. The oldest texts and runic inscriptions use þ exclusively. Long vowels are denoted with acutes . Most other letters are written with the same glyph as the IPA phoneme, except as shown in the table below. Ablaut patterns are groups of vowels which are swapped, or ablauted, in the nucleus of
3298-557: Is unclear whether they were sequences of two consonants (with the first element realised as /h/ or perhaps /x/ ) or as single voiceless sonorants /l̥/ , /r̥/ and /n̥/ respectively. In Old Norwegian, Old Danish and later Old Swedish, the groups ⟨hl⟩ , ⟨hr⟩ , and ⟨hn⟩ were reduced to plain ⟨l⟩ , ⟨r⟩ , ⟨n⟩ , which suggests that they had most likely already been pronounced as voiceless sonorants by Old Norse times. The pronunciation of ⟨hv⟩
3395-620: Is unclear, but it may have been /xʷ/ (the Proto-Germanic pronunciation), /hʷ/ or the similar phoneme /ʍ/ . Unlike the three other digraphs, it was retained much longer in all dialects. Without ever developing into a voiceless sonorant in Icelandic, it instead underwent fortition to a plosive /kv/ , which suggests that instead of being a voiceless sonorant, it retained a stronger frication. Primary stress in Old Norse falls on
3492-484: The Latin alphabet , there was no standardized orthography in use in the Middle Ages. A modified version of the letter wynn called vend was used briefly for the sounds /u/ , /v/ , and /w/ . Long vowels were sometimes marked with acutes but also sometimes left unmarked or geminated. The standardized Old Norse spelling was created in the 19th century and is, for the most part, phonemic. The most notable deviation
3589-419: The Prose Edda book Gylfaginning , Fenrir is first mentioned in a stanza quoted from Völuspá . Fenrir is first mentioned in prose in chapter 25, where the enthroned figure of High tells Gangleri (described as King Gylfi in disguise) about the god Týr . High says that one example of Týr's bravery is that when the Æsir were luring Fenrir (referred to here as Fenrisúlfr ) to place the fetter Gleipnir on
3686-667: The Rus' people , a Norse tribe, probably from present-day east-central Sweden. The current Finnish and Estonian words for Sweden are Ruotsi and Rootsi , respectively. A number of loanwords have been introduced into Irish , many associated with fishing and sailing. A similar influence is found in Scottish Gaelic , with over one hundred loanwords estimated to be in the language, many of which are related to fishing and sailing. Old Norse vowel phonemes mostly come in pairs of long and short. The standardized orthography marks
3783-436: The sun and his other son Hati Hróðvitnisson has swallowed the moon , the stars will disappear from the sky. The earth will shake violently, trees will be uprooted, mountains will fall, and all binds will snap – Fenrisúlfr will be free. Fenrisúlfr will go forth with his mouth opened wide, his upper jaw touching the sky and his lower jaw the earth, and flames will burn from his eyes and nostrils. Later, Fenrisúlfr will arrive at
3880-668: The word stem , so that hyrjar would be pronounced /ˈhyr.jar/ . In compound words, secondary stress falls on the second stem (e.g. lærisveinn , /ˈlɛːɾ.iˌswɛinː/ ). Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark , runic Old Norse was originally written with the Younger Futhark , which had only 16 letters. Because of the limited number of runes, several runes were used for different sounds, and long and short vowels were not distinguished in writing. Medieval runes came into use some time later. As for
3977-557: The 11th century in most of Old East Norse. However, the distinction still holds in Dalecarlian dialects . The dots in the following vowel table separate the oral from nasal phonemes. Note: The open or open-mid vowels may be transcribed differently: Sometime around the 13th century, /ɔ/ (spelled ⟨ǫ⟩ ) merged with /ø/ or /o/ in most dialects except Old Danish , and Icelandic where /ɔ/ ( ǫ ) merged with /ø/ . This can be determined by their distinction within
Fenrir - Misplaced Pages Continue
4074-547: The 11th century. This depiction has been interpreted as Odin, with a raven or eagle at his shoulder, being consumed by Fenrir at Ragnarök. On the reverse of the stone is another image parallel to it that has been described as Christ triumphing over Satan. These combined elements have led to the cross as being described as " syncretic art "; a mixture of pagan and Christian beliefs. The mid-11th century Gosforth Cross , located in Cumbria , England, has been described as depicting
4171-979: The 12th-century First Grammatical Treatise but not within the early 13th-century Prose Edda . The nasal vowels, also noted in the First Grammatical Treatise, are assumed to have been lost in most dialects by this time (but notably they are retained in Elfdalian and other dialects of Ovansiljan ). See Old Icelandic for the mergers of /øː/ (spelled ⟨œ⟩ ) with /ɛː/ (spelled ⟨æ⟩ ) and /ɛ/ (spelled ⟨ę⟩ ) with /e/ (spelled ⟨e⟩ ). Old Norse had three diphthong phonemes: /ɛi/ , /ɔu/ , /øy ~ ɛy/ (spelled ⟨ei⟩ , ⟨au⟩ , ⟨ey⟩ respectively). In East Norse these would monophthongize and merge with /eː/ and /øː/ , whereas in West Norse and its descendants
4268-668: The 13th century there. The age of the Swedish-speaking population of Finland is strongly contested, but Swedish settlement had spread the language into the region by the time of the Second Swedish Crusade in the 13th century at the latest. The modern descendants of the Old West Norse dialect are the West Scandinavian languages of Icelandic , Faroese , Norwegian , and the extinct Norn language of Orkney and Shetland , although Norwegian
4365-487: The 8th century, and Old Norse began to develop into the modern North Germanic languages in the mid- to late 14th century, ending the language phase known as Old Norse. These dates, however, are not absolute, since written Old Norse is found well into the 15th century. Old Norse was divided into three dialects : Old West Norse (Old West Nordic, often referred to as Old Norse ), Old East Norse (Old East Nordic), and Old Gutnish . Old West Norse and Old East Norse formed
4462-572: The Faroe Islands, Faroese has also been influenced by Danish. Both Middle English (especially northern English dialects within the area of the Danelaw ) and Early Scots (including Lowland Scots ) were strongly influenced by Norse and contained many Old Norse loanwords . Consequently, Modern English (including Scottish English ), inherited a significant proportion of its vocabulary directly from Norse. The development of Norman French
4559-473: The Swedish plural land and numerous other examples. That also applies to almost all feminine nouns, for example the largest feminine noun group, the o-stem nouns (except the Swedish noun jord mentioned above), and even i-stem nouns and root nouns , such as Old West Norse mǫrk ( mörk in Icelandic) in comparison with Modern and Old Swedish mark . Vowel breaking, or fracture, caused
4656-541: The beginning of words, this manifested as a dropping of the initial /j/ (which was general, independent of the following vowel) or /v/ . Compare ON orð , úlfr , ár with English word, wolf, year . In inflections, this manifested as the dropping of the inflectional vowels. Thus, klæði + dat -i remains klæði , and sjáum in Icelandic progressed to sjǫ́um > sjǫ́m > sjám . The * jj and * ww of Proto-Germanic became ggj and ggv respectively in Old Norse,
4753-411: The cluster */Crʀ/ cannot be realized as /Crː/ , nor as */Crʀ/ , nor as */Cʀː/ . The same shortening as in vetr also occurs in lax = laks ('salmon') (as opposed to * lakss , * laksʀ ), botn ('bottom') (as opposed to * botnn , * botnʀ ), and jarl (as opposed to * jarll , * jarlʀ ). Furthermore, wherever the cluster */rʀ/
4850-581: The collapse of humanity and society, and kill the god Odin . Fenrir, along with Hel and Jörmungandr , is a child of Loki and female jötunn Angrboða . He is attested in the Poetic Edda , compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda and Heimskringla , composed in the 13th century. In both the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda , Fenrir is the father of
4947-407: The courage to approach Fenrir, and give Fenrir food. The gods noticed that Fenrir was growing rapidly every day, and since all prophecies foretold that Fenrir was destined to cause them harm, the gods formed a plan. The gods prepared three fetters : The first, greatly strong, was called Leyding. They brought Leyding to Fenrir and suggested that the wolf try his strength with it. Fenrir judged that it
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#17327724818405044-448: The diabolic innards. The suggested parallels with Fenrir myths are the binding of an evil being by a ruler figure and the subsequent swallowing of the ruler figure by the evil being (Odin and Fenrir), trickery involving the thrusting of a hand into a monster's orifice and the affliction of the inserted limb (Týr and Fenrir). Ethologist Valerius Geist wrote that Fenrir's maiming and ultimate killing of Odin, who had previously nurtured him,
5141-449: The diphthongs remained. Old Norse has six plosive phonemes, /p/ being rare word-initially and /d/ and /b/ pronounced as voiced fricative allophones between vowels except in compound words (e.g. veðrabati ), already in the Proto-Germanic language (e.g. * b *[β] > [v] between vowels). The /ɡ/ phoneme was pronounced as [ɡ] after an /n/ or another /ɡ/ and as [k] before /s/ and /t/ . Some accounts have it
5238-511: The distance. High says that, as a result, to "loose from Leyding" or to "strike out of Dromi" have become sayings for when something is achieved with great effort. The Æsir started to fear that they would not be able to bind Fenrir, and so Odin sent Freyr 's messenger Skírnir down into the land of Svartálfaheimr to "some dwarfs " and had them make a fetter called Gleipnir. The dwarves constructed Gleipnir from six mythical ingredients. After an exchange between Gangleri and High, High continues that
5335-537: The end of the Heimskringla saga Hákonar saga góða , the poem Hákonarmál by the 10th century skald Eyvindr skáldaspillir is presented. The poem is about the fall of King Haakon I of Norway ; although he is Christian, he is taken by two valkyries to Valhalla , and is there received as one of the Einherjar. Towards the end of the poem, a stanza relates sooner will the bonds of Fenrir snap than as good
5432-471: The eventual fate of the Æsir. In the Gylfaginning , King Gylfi is travelling to Asgard, but the Æsir realize he is coming and prepare illusions ( sjónhverfing ) for him. Gylfi finds a great hall and inquires as to its owner; he is told that the king owns the hall, and is offered a chance to meet him. Upon entering the throne room, he finds the three men: He saw three thrones, each one higher than
5529-524: The feller [Thor] of flight-ledge-gods' [giants'] life-net from home. Lopt was proficient at lying. The not very trustworthy trier [Loki] of the mind of war-thunder-Gaut [Thor] said that green paths led to Geirrod's wall-steed [house]. The mind-tough Thor let vulture-way [air = lopt ; Lopt is a name for Loki] urge him only a little time to go—they were eager to crush Thorn's kin [giants]—when Idi's yard-visitor [Thor], mightier than White Sea Scots [giants], set out once from Third's [Odin's, Asgard] to
5626-425: The fetter was smooth and soft as a silken ribbon, yet strong and firm. The messenger brought the ribbon to the Æsir, and they thanked him heartily for completing the task. The Æsir went out on to the lake Amsvartnir sent for Fenrir to accompany them, and continued to the island Lyngvi (Old Norse "a place overgrown with heather "). The gods showed Fenrir the silken fetter Gleipnir, told him to tear it, stated that it
5723-401: The fetter was very strong, his strength had grown since he broke Leyding; and also that he would have to take some risks if he were to become famous. Fenrir allowed them to place the fetter. When the Æsir exclaimed that they were ready, Fenrir shook himself, knocked the fetter to the ground, strained hard, and kicking with his feet, snapped the fetter – breaking it into pieces that flew far into
5820-473: The field Vígríðr with his sibling Jörmungandr. With the forces assembled there, an immense battle will take place. During this, Odin will ride to fight Fenrisúlfr. During the battle, Fenrisúlfr will eventually swallow Odin, killing him, and Odin's son Víðarr will move forward and kick one foot into the lower jaw of the wolf. This foot will bear a legendary shoe "for which the material has been collected throughout all time". With one hand, Víðarr will take hold of
5917-402: The gods fastened the stone slab deep into the ground. After, the gods took a great rock called Thviti (Old Norse "hitter, batterer"), and thrust it even further into the ground as an anchoring peg. Fenrir reacted violently; he opened his jaws very wide, and tried to bite the gods. Then the gods thrust a sword into his mouth. Its hilt touched the lower jaw and its point the upper one; by means of it
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#17327724818406014-502: The gods respect their holy places and places of sanctuary that they did not want to defile them with the wolf's blood even though the prophecies say that he will be the death of Odin." In chapter 38, High says that there are many men in Valhalla , and many more who will arrive, yet they will "seem too few when the wolf comes". In chapter 51, High foretells that as part of the events of Ragnarök, after Fenrir's son Sköll has swallowed
6111-491: The heavens. In the flyting poem Lokasenna verse 38, Loki insults Týr by saying he cannot deal fairly with men because "it was your right hand/ that Fenrir tore away" referring to the association between left hands and dishonesty. Týr responds in stanza 39 with references to the incident of Fenrir's binding, "I lost my hand, you the famous wolf." In the Prose Edda , Fenrir is mentioned in three books: Gylfaginning , Skáldskaparmál and Háttatal . In chapter 13 of
6208-418: The jaws of the wolf were spread apart and the wolf gagged. Fenrir "howled horribly", saliva ran from his mouth, and this saliva formed the river Ván (Old Norse "hope"). There Fenrir will lie until Ragnarök. Gangleri comments that Loki created a "pretty terrible family" though important, and asks why the Æsir did not just kill Fenrir there since they expected great malice from him. High replies that "so greatly did
6305-405: The king in the temple in front of Thor 's altar." In chapter 2, "wolf's enemy" is cited as a kenning for Odin as used by the 10th century skald Egill Skallagrímsson . In chapter 9, "feeder of the wolf" is given as a kenning for Týr and, in chapter 11, "slayer of Fenrisúlfr" is presented as a kenning for Víðarr. In chapter 50, a section of Ragnarsdrápa by the 9th century skald Bragi Boddason
6402-399: The long vowels with an acute accent. In medieval manuscripts, it is often unmarked but sometimes marked with an accent or through gemination . Old Norse had nasalized versions of all ten vowel places. These occurred as allophones of the vowels before nasal consonants and in places where a nasal had followed it in an older form of the word, before it was absorbed into a neighboring sound. If
6499-629: The most conservative language, such that in present-day Iceland, schoolchildren are able to read the 12th-century Icelandic sagas in the original language (in editions with normalised spelling). Old Icelandic was very close to Old Norwegian , and together they formed Old West Norse , which was also spoken in Norse settlements in Greenland , the Faroes , Ireland , Scotland , the Isle of Man , northwest England, and in Normandy . Old East Norse
6596-485: The name Hárr remains unclear. A number of scholars, including Jan de Vries , E. O. G. Turville-Petre and Vladimir Orel , have proposed to translate it as 'One-eyed'. The word may derive from a Proto-Norse form reconstructed as *Haiha-hariz ('the One-eyed Hero'), itself a compound formed with the Proto-Germanic word *haihaz ('one-eyed'; cf. Gothic haihs 'one-eyed'). A Proto-Indo-European origin
6693-514: The nasal was absorbed by a stressed vowel, it would also lengthen the vowel. This nasalization also occurred in the other Germanic languages, but were not retained long. They were noted in the First Grammatical Treatise , and otherwise might have remained unknown. The First Grammarian marked these with a dot above the letter. This notation did not catch on, and would soon be obsolete. Nasal and oral vowels probably merged around
6790-416: The nature of the mother of the children, yet worse so due to the nature of their father. High says that Odin sent the gods to gather the children and bring them to him. Upon their arrival, Odin threw Jörmungandr into "that deep sea that lies round all lands", and then threw Hel into Niflheim , and bestowed upon her authority over nine worlds . However, the Æsir brought up the wolf "at home", and only Týr had
6887-641: The other North Germanic languages. Faroese retains many similarities but is influenced by Danish, Norwegian, and Gaelic ( Scottish and/or Irish ). Although Swedish, Danish and Norwegian have diverged the most, they still retain considerable mutual intelligibility . Speakers of modern Swedish, Norwegian and Danish can mostly understand each other without studying their neighboring languages, particularly if speaking slowly. The languages are also sufficiently similar in writing that they can mostly be understood across borders. This could be because these languages have been mutually affected by each other, as well as having
6984-430: The other. Three men sat there, one in each seat. He asked the name of their ruler. The man guiding him replied that the king was in the lowest of the high seats; he was called High. Next came the one called Just-as-High, while the one highest up is called Third. The rest of the Gylfaginning then proceeds as a dialogue between Gangleri (Gylfi's pseudonym he has chosen) and the three men as they engage in something of
7081-410: The poem Völuspá , a völva divulges to Odin that, in the east, an old woman sat in the forest Járnviðr "and bred there the broods of Fenrir. There will come from them all one of that number to be a moon-snatcher in troll 's skin." Further into the poem the völva foretells that Odin will be consumed by Fenrir at Ragnarök: Then is fulfilled Hlín 's second sorrow, when Óðinn goes to fight with
7178-469: The right hand of the god Týr . Depictions of Fenrir have been identified on various objects and scholarly theories have been proposed regarding Fenrir's relation to other canine beings in Norse mythology. Fenrir has been the subject of artistic depictions and he appears in literature. Fenrir is mentioned in three stanzas of the poem Völuspá and in two stanzas of the poem Vafþrúðnismál . In stanza 40 of
7275-536: The root vowel, ǫ , is short. The clusters */Clʀ, Csʀ, Cnʀ, Crʀ/ cannot yield */Clː, Csː, Cnː, Crː/ respectively, instead /Cl, Cs, Cn, Cr/ . The effect of this shortening can result in the lack of distinction between some forms of the noun. In the case of vetr ('winter'), the nominative and accusative singular and plural forms are identical. The nominative singular and nominative and accusative plural would otherwise have been OWN * vetrr , OEN * wintrʀ . These forms are impossible because
7372-441: The same language, dǫnsk tunga ("Danish tongue"; speakers of Old East Norse would have said dansk tunga ). Another term was norrœnt mál ("northern speech"). Today Old Norse has developed into the modern North Germanic languages Icelandic , Faroese , Norwegian , Danish , Swedish , and other North Germanic varieties of which Norwegian, Danish and Swedish retain considerable mutual intelligibility . Icelandic remains
7469-491: The seat of Ymsi's kind [Giantland]. Another short quote in the Skáldskaparmál refers to a "barley locked" or "pine-haired" wife of Thridi which seems to be a reference to the land itself, covered with plants: Hallfrod said this: The keen wind-steed-[ship-]taker [sea-farer, Earl Hakon] lures under himself [wins] with the true language of swords [battle] the pine-haired deserted wife of Third [Odin; his deserted wife
7566-470: The stone bears a commonly seen memorial dedication, but is followed by an encoded runic sequence that has been described as "mysterious", and "an interesting magic formula which is known from all over the ancient Norse world". If the images on the Tullstorp Runestone are correctly identified as depicting Ragnarök , then Fenrir is shown above the ship Naglfar . Meyer Schapiro theorizes
7663-497: The umlaut allophones . Some /y/ , /yː/ , /ø/ , /øː/ , /ɛ/ , /ɛː/ , /øy/ , and all /ɛi/ were obtained by i-umlaut from /u/ , /uː/ , /o/ , /oː/ , /a/ , /aː/ , /au/ , and /ai/ respectively. Others were formed via ʀ-umlaut from /u/ , /uː/ , /a/ , /aː/ , and /au/ . Some /y/ , /yː/ , /ø/ , /øː/ , and all /ɔ/ , /ɔː/ were obtained by u-umlaut from /i/ , /iː/ , /e/ , /eː/ , and /a/ , /aː/ respectively. See Old Icelandic for information on /ɔː/ . /œ/
7760-482: The verb skína ('to shine') had present tense third person skínn (rather than * skínr , * skínʀ ); while kala ('to cool down') had present tense third person kell (rather than * kelr , * kelʀ ). The rule is not absolute, with certain counter-examples such as vinr ('friend'), which has the synonym vin , yet retains the unabsorbed version, and jǫtunn (' giant '), where assimilation takes place even though
7857-399: The wolf's jaws. When Fenrir kicked, Gleipnir caught tightly, and the more Fenrir struggled, the stronger the band grew. At this, everyone laughed, except Týr, who there lost his right hand. When the gods knew that Fenrir was fully bound, they took a cord called Gelgja (Old Norse "fetter") hanging from Gleipnir, inserted the cord through a large stone slab called Gjöll (Old Norse "scream"), and
7954-547: The wolf's upper jaw and tear apart his mouth, killing Fenrisúlfr. High follows this prose description by citing various quotes from Völuspá in support, some of which mention Fenrir. In the Epilogue section of the Prose Edda book Skáldskaparmál , a euhemerized monologue equates Fenrisúlfr to Pyrrhus , attempting to rationalize that "it killed Odin, and Pyrrhus could be said to be a wolf according to their religion, for he paid no respect to places of sanctuary when he killed
8051-529: The wolf, and Beli's slayer , bright, against Surtr . Then shall Frigg 's sweet friend fall. In the stanza that follows the völva describes that Odin's "tall child of Triumph's Sire" (Odin's son Víðarr) will then come to "strike at the beast of slaughter" and with his hands he will drive a sword into the heart of " Hveðrungr 's son", avenging the death of his father. In the first of two stanzas mentioning Fenrir in Vafþrúðnismál Odin poses
8148-470: The wolf, Týr placed his hand within the wolf's mouth as a pledge. This was done at Fenrir's own request because he did not trust that the Æsir would let him go. As a result, when the Æsir refused to release him, he bit off Týr's hand at a location "now called the wolf-joint" (the wrist ), causing Týr to be one-handed and "not considered to be a promoter of settlements between people." In chapter 34, High describes Loki, and says that Loki had three children with
8245-420: The wolves Sköll and Hati Hróðvitnisson , is a son of Loki and is foretold to kill the god Odin during the events of Ragnarök , but will in turn be killed by Odin's son Víðarr . In the Prose Edda , additional information is given about Fenrir, including that, due to the gods' knowledge of prophecies foretelling great trouble from Fenrir and his rapid growth, the gods bound him and as a result Fenrir bit off
8342-561: The Æsir, and the king of the Æsir if the initial meeting at the illusory Great Hall saying Gangleri will be taken to the king is taken at face value. More directly, as Jesse Byock writes, all three names are mentioned in a list of names of Odin : Odin is called Allfather because he is father of all the gods. He is also called Father of the Slain, because all those that fall in battle are the sons of his adoption; for them he appoints Valhall and Vingólf , and they are then called Champions. He
8439-404: Was a moderately inflected language with high levels of nominal and verbal inflection. Most of the fused morphemes are retained in modern Icelandic, especially in regard to noun case declensions, whereas modern Norwegian in comparison has moved towards more analytical word structures. Old Norse had three grammatical genders – masculine, feminine, and neuter. Adjectives or pronouns referring to
8536-566: 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 overseas settlements and chronologically coincides with the Viking Age , the Christianization of Scandinavia , and the consolidation of Scandinavian kingdoms from about the 8th to the 15th centuries. The Proto-Norse language developed into Old Norse by
8633-400: Was also influenced by Norse. Through Norman, to a smaller extent, so was modern French. Written modern Icelandic derives from the Old Norse phonemic writing system. Contemporary Icelandic-speakers can read Old Norse, which varies slightly in spelling as well as semantics and word order. However, pronunciation, particularly of the vowel phonemes, has changed at least as much in Icelandic as in
8730-479: Was either responsible for or approved of the euhemerization account in the Prologue of the Prose Edda that conflates the Norse Æsir with Greco-Asian refugees from the fall of Troy, then the three may have merely been descendants of such a claimed migration in-setting. The name Hár means 'High' or 'High One' in Old Norse and Icelandic ; it may stem from an earlier Proto-Norse form *hauhaz . The origin of
8827-583: Was heavily influenced by the East dialect, and is today more similar to East Scandinavian (Danish and Swedish) than to Icelandic and Faroese. The descendants of the Old East Norse dialect are the East Scandinavian languages of Danish and Swedish . Among these, the grammar of Icelandic and Faroese have changed the least from Old Norse in the last thousand years, though their pronunciations both have changed considerably from Old Norse. With Danish rule of
8924-423: Was likely based on true experiences of wolf-behaviour, seeing as wolves are genetically encoded to rise up in the pack hierarchy and have, on occasion, been recorded to rebel against, and kill, their parents. Geist states that "apparently, even the ancients knew that wolves may turn on their parents and siblings and kill them." Old Norse Old Norse , also referred to as Old Nordic , or Old Scandinavian ,
9021-399: Was much stronger than it appeared, passed it among themselves, used their hands to pull it, and yet it did not tear. However, they said that Fenrir would be able to tear it, to which Fenrir replied: It looks to me that with this ribbon as though I will gain no fame from it if I do tear apart such a slender band, but if it is made with art and trickery, then even if it does look thin, this band
9118-404: Was not beyond his strength, and so let the gods do what they wanted with it. At Fenrir's first kick the bind snapped, and Fenrir loosened himself from Leyding. The gods made a second fetter, twice as strong, and named it Dromi. The gods asked Fenrir to try the new fetter, and that should he break this feat of engineering, Fenrir would achieve great fame for his strength. Fenrir considered that, while
9215-535: Was obtained through a simultaneous u- and i-umlaut of /a/ . It appears in words like gøra ( gjǫra , geyra ), from Proto-Germanic *garwijaną , and commonly in verbs with a velar consonant before the suffix like søkkva < *sankwijaną . OEN often preserves the original value of the vowel directly preceding runic ʀ while OWN receives ʀ-umlaut. Compare runic OEN glaʀ, haʀi, hrauʀ with OWN gler, heri (later héri ), hrøyrr/hreyrr ("glass", "hare", "pile of rocks"). U-umlaut
9312-766: Was spoken in Denmark, Sweden, Kievan Rus' , eastern England, and Danish settlements in Normandy. The Old Gutnish dialect was spoken in Gotland and in various settlements in the East. In the 11th century, Old Norse was the most widely spoken European language , ranging from Vinland in the West to the Volga River in the East. In Kievan Rus' , it survived the longest in Veliky Novgorod , probably lasting into
9409-527: Was used partitively and in compounds and kennings (e.g., Urðarbrunnr , the well of Urðr; Lokasenna , the gibing of Loki). There were several classes of nouns within each gender. The following is an example of the "strong" inflectional paradigms : High, Just-As-High, and Third While the Gylfaginning never says so directly, some scholars believe the intent is that all three are manifestations of Odin , and thus would be able to answer Gangleri's questions in such detail, including ones on
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