Stories of the Aesir and great Kings; The Edda - Skaldskaparmal, Snorri

 

Why you might read The Edda -Skaldskaparmal

The Edda is the first work in which we see the Aesir or the Gods of the Norse pantheon. As such it is an important beginning in the myths and legends of the Norse people. Given the raiding of the Norse, it is part of the history of large parts of European peoples. Whether they acknowledge that or not is another thing entirely. The Skaldskaparmal continues these stories in its first section. In its second section, it gives us insight into how to understand the poetry of the same time period.

For my Self Education, it is important for me to gain a wide range of cultural and spiritual backgrounds. Even if those are widely now regarded as mythology. The insights into the ancient Norse religion is a great addition to the collection. It is also interesting to see the ways in which poetry is playing with words. This does not seem to change around the world. How exactly you play with words though does change from culture to culture.

The Story

Aegir goes to Asgard and Bragi tells him stories of the Aesir and kings:

Odin, Loki and Hoenir we travelling in the woods and had found no food until they found an Ox. When they tried to cook it would not cook. So an Eagle said to them if they let it eat what it wanted it would make sure it cooked. The eagle ate the choicest parts. Loki got angry and hit it with a stick. The stick get stuck and the Eagle dragged Loki around. Until he made an oath to get Idunn and her apples of youth out of Asgard. Loki does as he had pledged and Idunn is taken away by the giant that was the eagle. Without Idunn's apples the Aesir age. After a while, they realise the last place Idunn was seen was with Loki. They threaten to torture Loki but he tells them where she is. He says he will go and get her if Freyja would lend him her falcon shape. He heads out to giant land as a falcon and gets to where Idunn is being held. Luck has it that the giant is out fishing. So Loki turns Idunn into an acorn and flies her back to Asgard, but the giant notices and chases after him. As they approach Asgard the Aesir set up large piles of wood. Once Loki and Idunn are safe they light the wood. The eagle is going so fast he ends up in the fires and dies. 

The giant's daughter comes to seek vengeance. The Aesir convince her to take compensation instead. This compensation is in the form of marriage to one of the Aesir chosen by only his feet and if they can make her laugh. The first she chooses Njord to marry. She chooses Loki to make her laugh. Loki ties a rope between his privates and a goatsbeard and they have a tug of war, which in the end makes her laugh.

The gods were at war with the Vanir. A peace was procured by them all spitting in a bowl, the Aesir kept this and from it made a man Kvasir. He was a man of great knowledge and travelled the world. He travelled until some dwarves killed him and collected his blood. They then mixed the blood with honey and made a mead that makes everyone who drinks it a poet and a scholar. The dwarves then kill some giants. When the son of the giants comes for vengeance they buy the peace with their mead. Odin wants to get his hands on the mead. So he goes and sees the current owners brother and gets an oath out of him to help him try and get some from the brother. The brother refuses but Odin drills through a mountain. Then turns into a snake. Once inside he sleeps with a woman of the house who gives him a drink of mead for each of the three nights. He consumes it all then flies off back to Asgard and spits it out into the vats the Aesir have produced.

Odin rode into the giant lands. He wagered with a giant about who has the better horse. He then outran the giant's horse but the giant followed him all the way to Asgard. Odin then invited him in to eat and drink, from Thor's bowls, who was away. When the Aesir tire of his boasting they call on Thor who comes and threatens the giant. The giant challenges him to a duel once he is armed. Thor agrees and the day of the duel arrives. Thor kills him but is injured and trapped in under the giant as it falls dead. No one can move in until one of Thor's sons, very young about 3 or 4, comes and moves the giant and lo and behold Thor is not dead. Thor gives his son the dead giants mount in thanks.

Thor heads to Geirrods court. He does so without Mjollnir(his hammer), his belt of strength and iron gloves. He does so because Loki has convinced him to leave them behind. But on the way, he stops the night at Gird's house. She tells him that the giant is tricky and trying to kill him. So she lends him her belt of strength, iron gloves and her weapon, a staff. Thor arrives at Geirrods and is put up in a goat stable with one chair. So he sits on it. He soon realises it is getting closer and closer to the roof so he uses the staff to push on the roof and hears a great crack. The crack was the backs of the trolls two daughters who were under the chair breaking. Then Gerriod called Thor into the hall for a contest. Gerriod grabbed a red hot piece of iron and threw it a Thor. Thor who caught it in his iron gloves and threw it back at Gerriod. Gerriod tried to hide behind a pillar but the rod went right through it and him.

Loki gets one dwarf to make him great things. Then he takes a wager that his brother can't make better things. The price of the bet is Loki's head. The brother makes three items to rival the first brothers three. They then take them to Asgard for the gods to judge and the pronouncement is that the second brother did better. The dwarves then try to take Loki's head. After a while, Loki says you don't have the right to my neck so rather than kill him the sew his mouth shut.

Aegir, a man, holds a feast in the gods at his house, his flours are burnished gold and give light to the whole hall.

Odin, Loki and Hoenir are travelling when they see an otter eating a salmon. Loki kills the otter and retrieves both the otter and the salmon. That night they approach a mans house and give him the otter and the salmon for food for the night. The man called his son and then they set on the Aesir as the otter was their brother. The man makes the otter into a bag and says once it is full of gold and covered in it that will be the ransom paid. Loki leaves to a dwarven hall and takes his gold as a ransom for not killing him. so the Aesir pay the ransom for the otter. the father takes the gold but will give none to his sons, so the sons kill him. Then one brother will not give the other brother any of the gold. So he turns himself into a snake and finds a cave to go and sleep on it in. The other brother travels and goes to Sigurd son of Sigmund. Sigurd's foster father was Volsung, he tells him about the treasure and they travel to go and claim it. Sigurd digs a pit and lays wait in it for the first brother, with his extremely sharp sword, and kills him. Sigurd is to roast the heard of the serpent and give it to the brother. He burns himself while cooking it and sucking on the juices on his hand. He starts to hear the talk of the birds that the living brother is going to betray him so he kills him first. 

Sigurd meets a king names Gjuki. Sigurd marries his daughter Gudrun and swears brotherhood to her brothers. One of the brothers wants to marry. To do so he must ride through flames, which he can't do. He and Sigurd switch bodies and Sigurd does the feat as the brother then switch back. The brother gets to marry the woman. The brother tells his wife about the swap and she was speechless. From then on she urges another brother to kill Sigurd. They wouldn't because of the brotherhood. But a third would and split Sigurd with a sword and they killed his son. Their father then marries Gudrun Sigrurds wife. He kills her brothers, one by cutting out his heart and the other by a snake bite all the way to the liver. But he did not manage to claim their treasure which they had hidden. His wife made the brothers skulls into goblets and gave their roasted heads to her husband to eat. One of the brothers he had killed sons came and killed him while he slept. 

Gudrun throws herself into the sea hoping to drown. She is carried to land and seen by the local king who takes her as his wife. She has three sons. There is a daughter of Sigurd in the land. Another king heard of her beauty and send his son to the first king to get her for himself. The king's advisor though suggests, to the son and the girl, that his son marries the daughter of Sigurd. He also tells the king what happened. The king puts his son to death and thus puts himself in a bad position of being old with no sons. He and his men kill the daughter of Sigurd by trampling her with horses. When Sigurd's wife heard she sent her three sons to avenge her. The sons quibbled on the way. Two killed the third. Then when they killed the king not having the third was their undoing and they died in the process.

Frodi bought peace to the northern countries, where there was no murder or theft. he visited Sweden with a couple of slave women. There was in Sweden a millstone to large to be moved and yet it did what the miller commanded. Frodi sent the slave women to the mill to grind gold, peace and prosperity. They ground out an army to oppose Frodi instead. Mysing arrived by night and killed Frodi and his peace ended. He took the millstones and the women. While on his ship ordered them to grind salt but the sea became salty and they came upon a whirlpool and sank.

Kraki was king in Denmark a young boy gives him that name and he gives him a gold ring as a gift. He went to war with the king of Sweden and send his berserkers to fight. They were victorious but he refused to pay them. He met them in Sweden and the local king gave them false hospitality. He tried to burn them alive but they leapt over the fire and slew those trying to burn them. He was given a horn of gold and told to ride back to his army. He was chased by the king and his men. So he threw out the coins and the army stopped to collect it. The opposing king kept on coming so he threw a gold ring and got the king to grovel like a pig.

One king, Hogni, has his daughter stolen by another king. So Hogni set out with his army but the other king fled by sea so he chased him. they eventually stopped and fought on an island. Every night his daughter would raise the fallen men. So each day they would fight with full armies again. This is the endless fight.

There is a subdivision here in the text as it moves from stories to instructions on how to write poetry:

First is the explanation of the Kenning Structure. How that if one God is named but with the title or description of another. Then it is actually the second god that is being referenced.

Following the gods are listed with their appropriate titles and descriptions. With a slight aside for the story of Heimdall being struck in the head and how now Heimdall's head can refer to a sword. The same list and descriptions are repeated with the Goddesses, Sun, Moon and Sea. Then we move on to the references for men and women. These are a lot more general as there are many people they could refer to. The one I find most interesting is that men can be referred to by masculine trees and women by feminine trees. Gold has its own section but they are mainly the names for gold we have seen in the preceding stories. Battle, weapons and armour have a lot of references to Odin and his Valkyries. Ships is the smallest section with them just being referenced as animals or the ski of the sea kings. References to Christ goes through the traditional Christian title for him. They also add a few place names.

Time is reckoned in months from Harvest to Corn-reaping and there are 15 in total.|

We have a genealogy of the Kings of the northlands in a story-based form.

 Finally, we have alternate names for positions and actions. These include poets being called greppar. Also, the young men who haven't taken possession of a farm being called drengir. 

Reflections on The Edda - Skaldskaparmal

From what I had read about the Edda I had expected this section to be shorter so its length was a nice surprise. The storied start with stories of the gods, mainly Odin and company. They are on various trips out of Asgard before moving on to stories of men. Nearly all the stories include some turn of phrase that the story is the origin for. It is quite interesting that there are so few stories of Thor and so many more of Odin.

I know Loki is a trickster, but tying a rope to his nethers for a laugh is a bit over the top. I guess it did have the desired effect of laughter. It seems like a story that is an affront to the dignity of the gods. But then Loki isn't truly an Aesir so maybe the dignified portrayals do not extend to him. Also, it is fitting that the laugh is at his expense. Since it was his foolishness that created the situation in the first place.

I find the creation method for the mead of poets rather gross. I have definitely heard in other contexts of using spit to seal a deal. Even if today it is mostly a thing kids do, keeping it to make a man is just an odd concept. but brewing mead mixed with that mans blood and then to be spat out by Odin. I wouldn't care how much of a poet it would make me I would not care to drink it.

Thor's son having the strength to move the giant that has fallen on Thor. The giant fell on Thor as he killed it. All other Aesir had failed to move the giant but Thors son succeeds. This shows that his house and hammer is in good hands. We do not know if this is one of the sons of Thor that will survive Ragnarok. But one of them will take up the hammer, as we see in the previous section.

The transition from the stories of the gods to the stories of man happens mid-story. We follow the gold used for the payment for Otter. This leads to Sigurd of the Volsung's killing the serpent who guards the same gold. Which also leads to the brothers of Sigurd's wife hiding the gold in the river where it is lost. It is very smooth and at first, you think it is just where that story leads. The next few stories are also of men, mainly kings, doing great things.

The final three stories are all about kings but they are more compact and singular in nature. The continual battle is the most interesting. Why would the daughter of one king kidnapped by the other want the battle to go on indefinitely? Surely she would want to go home with her father, which would require him to be able to win. It is also interesting that her name means battle as it is what she has made continual by her actions. 

What Others have to say about the Edda - Skaldskaparmal

"But now one thing must be said to young skalds, to such as yearn to attain to the craft of poesy and to increase their store of figures with traditional metaphors;" Says the Honest Modern Heathen

From Function and Relevance of the Kennings "The role that these "higher" or "proper" kennings play within individual poems can be illustrated by looking at the Völuspá of the Poetic Edda."

Comparisons with other texts

The obvious comparison here is of the story of Sigurd seen in the Nibelungenlied. Which relates closely to this part of the Edda. Here we see the origins of the gold and of the serpent that Sigurd kills as well as his untimely end. In the Nibelungenlied, we see a lot more about Sigurd's family. Also their interaction with the world with Sigurd being more of a side story. Whereas here in the Edda, his wife is the main focus. That is once the focus is off the gold. Her life after Sigurd becomes central. The main contents of the Sigurd story are the same between the two works. Though some of the more minor characters names are different the main ones are the same or very similar.

To compare this section with the second section of the Edda. As I previously noted we see a lot more of stories featuring Odin that we did in the second section. Also, we see a lot less of Thor. Though in both cases they travel with Loki and that is the beginning of all the troubles that follow. The characterisation between the two sections is consistent. Even as the style of the story changes slightly. In both sections, we see Thor called back from the giant lands to deal with something in a physical manner. It seems the other gods are perfectly happy to get Thor to do the fighting and killing. 

Conclusion

The third section of the Edda covers some more stories of the Aesir. It also covers Kenning, a poetic device used by the Icelandics and other Norse at the time. Those stories covered more about Odin and less about Thor than we saw in the section before. Some of the stories seemed a bit gross or vulgar to me as a modern reader but that does not diminish their worth. We compared the stories of Sigurd from the Nibelungenlied and found that the Edda gave us more context. 

Have you read the Edda? If so what did you think of it? 

 
Want to read the Edda but haven't? Please leave me a comment and let me know why you want to read it.

Hopefully, this post inspires you to take the time to look into it on your own journey of Self Education.

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