Norse Mythology:
Legends of Gods and Heroes

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A Note — Translator's Preface — Introduction

A Note

The content of this Internet adapted, re-designed version of Peter A. Munch's Norse Mythology differs minimally from the translation of Sigurd Bernhard Hustvedt from 1926.
There are other books on Norse mythology on the market than this notable textbook for university students and other interested ones: Vilhelm Grönbeck's more popularised book exists in English translation too.
The changes of this internet version are for making the work more enjoyable: What are now rather old-fashioned words, like thou, whence, thence, hither, and thither, are replaced. Several errors of spelling are corrected. Also, to accommodate better to the Internet medium, text notes of 1922 by Magnus Olsen are put at the back of each section, and not, as in the book, at the bottom of each page. The book's extensive end notes are here placed at the rear of the sections in the text as well: this arrangement makes for easier reading, and corresponds to several later Norwegian editions of the work, but not the last one of 1996. Page numbers are put in these brackets [} in the running text to make the text run with less interruptions, and to separate page references from note references in the text. Thus, [13} marks the top of page 13 in the book from 1926, and [3] is the third text note of a section.
All the notes of the work have been kept, even though some of them contain material that is not included in later Norwegian editions. Most of the notes are OK anyway.
The present text stems from the edition that Gabriella at http://www.vaidilute.com has put online. I would like to thank her for the good work! At her address you find the 1926 English translation to compare with or look up, as you like. Amazon.co-uk sells a hardcover edition from 2008, most likely a reprint, and Amazon.com has the 2007 paperback edition. The latest Norwegian edition is Munch, P. A. Norrøne gude- og heltesagn. Revised edition by Jørgen Haavardsholm. (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget 1996). That edition too keeps Munch's main text intact.

Mythmaking

Myths border on tall tales and some kinds of folktales, but not all of them. And tall tales and myths from many countries and eras have elements in common for some reason or other.
In Norse literature we read that Gylfe was king of Sweden, and a celebrated magician. When a colony of Asiatics arrived in his country, he assumed the form of an old man, and journeyed to Asgard, an enchanted castle. Also, among the Norse, giants appear both in the mythology as well as in stories that border on seeming historical, such as the Orkneyingar Saga and Ynglinge Saga. At least one royal line claims it stems from a troll, another line claims to stem from gods.

It appears to be an inborn human drift that good tales get transmuted into more fantastic tales as the decades go by. Many religious legends of the East and West confirm it.

At any rate, Nordic mythology has plenty in common with mythologies of the east. Similar feats abound in the Arabian Nights and other Asian tales. Many stories of Homer contain such elements too. Thus, how Ulysses preserved himself from the charms of Circe is very similar to what happens in the story "Beder and Giauharê" in the Arabian Tales; and the fable of the Cyclops is found in the third voyage of Sinbad the Sailor Cf.

Myths are made. The craft of Norse mythmaking does not differ from that of making Greek myths and older myths too. First, the myth is a story, a narrative. Main characters tend to be deified (called gods and maybe kings too), and the action often contains fantastic parts - exaggerated, glorified persons and tools,, attractive women, and so on. Boasting is not much different, but tends to be far easier to see through.
Many neat parts of old myths may be interpreted figuratively. Freudianism has done that to some old Greek myths, to speak of problems that some contemporary men and women face too. The same may be done to Norse myths, they are suitable for some interpretation work, in part because they - just as their forerunners among Greek myths - tend to be obscure, tend to have many versions, and may blend several versions or texts or sources.
Old gods wane and newer ones wax - that is a typical side to old myths. The origins of some still kept gods may be retold and changed to suit the contemporary public and its living conditions better, and so on. Much simplified, the deeds and tools and other helpers of Norse gods show the desires of Norsemen, and much appears to be rooted in lacks too.
It says that mythmaking as a living tradition is not a finalised thing, but a process that incorporates new heroes and gods, and let older ones get more or less into the shadows of tale-telling.
Norse myths were written down about a thousand years ago, and gives a "snapshot" of how things were said to be "high up" back then. Much of the material is entertaining, at least to Scandinavians. Originally much of the material was in verse form, and stories were enacted too, for example stories of Thor.
- Tormod Kinnes

Translator's Preface

The Norwegian original on which the present translation is based was written by Peter Andreas Munch, the founder of the Norwegian school of history. Munch's scholarly interests embraced also many related subjects, such as general history, archaeology, geography, ethnography, linguistics, and jurisprudence. His varied labors have in large part stood the test of time. His most important work, the "History of the Norwegian People" (Det norske folks historie, 8 vols. 1851-63) covering the period of Norway's ancient independence ending with the Kalmar Union of 1397, still remains a source book and a point of departure for historians. The great significance of Munch's scholarship lies in its influence upon the modern renascence of Norwegian culture. In the middle of the nineteenth century he was the most conspicuous intellectual force in the country, as Wergeland had been before him and as Bjørnson came to be after him. The national spirit in Norway, which has steadily gained strength, owes a heavy debt to the gifted leaders of an earlier generation, not least among whom was Munch. As an historian, as an editor of Old Norse poetry and saga, as a recorder of the venerable myths and legends of the race, he did yeoman service in establishing a sense of historical continuity between the Norway of the past and the Norway of the present. Since his day, Norwegians have labored in the fields of history, folklore, and related subjects, deepening and strengthening that fruitful sense of national consciousness which he did so much to awaken. [xii}
Munch's handbook of Norse Mythology, which first appeared in 1840, was originally written as a supplementary volume to a school text on the history of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. As a book for students and as a work of general reference it has maintained its popularity. The third edition (1922) from which the translation is made, was prepared by Professor Magnus Olsen of the University of Oslo, in response to the demand for an up-to-date treatment of the entire subject. He found it advisable, however, to revise Munch's work rather than to attempt a wholly original book, since he was thus able to incorporate the results of later research in a volume which had long enjoyed both popular and scholarly approval. The value of Munch's work has been greatly increased through Professor Olsen's revision.
The English translation is intended as a companion volume to two other books published in the SCANDINAVIAN CLASSICS series, The Prose Edda, translated by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur, and The Poetic Edda, translated by Henry Adams Bellows. Norse Mythology will serve alike the student of Old Norse literature, and the general reader who seeks an authoritative guide through the world of Northern myth and legend.
My thanks are due to Professor Magnus Olsen for permission to translate the work, and to Professor William Witherle Lawrence, of Columbia University, Chairman of the Publications Committee of the American-Scandinavian Foundation, for many valuable suggestions.

S. B. H.

Translator's note
The title page of the Norwegian work here presented in translation reads as follows: "Norrøne Gude- og Heltesagn. Ordnet og fremstillet av P A. Munch. Tredje utgave, efter A. Kjær's bearbeidelse, ved Magnus Olsen, Professor. Kristiania, P F. Steensballes Boghandels Eftg. (H. Reenskaug) 1922." Munch's original volume was published in 1840; the second edition, revised by Kjær, appeared in 1880; the third edition, from which the translation is made, was revised by Professor Magnus Olsen and published in 1922.
According to the Norwegian preface to the second edition, Kjær made few changes in the body of the text; his most important alterations affected the sections entitled in English "Corruption," "Ragnarok — The Twilight of the Gods ", and "On the Mythology of the Eddas." He added the following new sections: "German Legends Dealing with Siegfried and the Nibelungs," "The Development of the Legendary Cycle of the Volsungs," "Orvar-Odd," "Norna-Gest," "Asmund Kempibane," "Romund Greipsson," "Ragnar Lodbrok and His Sons," "Hjorleif and Half," and "Fridthjof." The first edition contained only brief discussions of Orvar-Odd and of Ragnar Lodbrok. Kjær also revised the original notes.
Professor Olsen, according to his own statement in the preface to the third edition, made use of newer readings of the ancient texts, harmonized the narrative style throughout, rewrote the sections entitled "On the Mythology of the Eddas, "Introductory Remarks" (to the Heroic Legends), and "Of Temples, of Sacrifices, and of Divination," added an appendix dealing with the reminiscences of the ancient mythology in Norwegian place names, and made a thorough revision of the critical notes.
The English translation includes the whole of the third edition of the original, text and notes, with the exception of the Appendix on Norwegian place names. The critical commentaries appended to the various sections of the Norwegian text have in the translation been grouped below. The numbered footnotes, on the other hand, have been retained as such. A few translator's notes have been added; these are in all cases clearly identified.
No attempt has been made in the punctuation of the English text to distinguish between the first Norwegian edition and its successive revisions. Certain marks of punctuation in the original [282} have therefore been changed or omitted in the translation, and some of the parentheses have been relegated to the foot of the page.
In the body of the English text, proper names are given without the old Norse accents. For the most part the names are spelled as in Old Norse, with the following principal exceptions: initial h has been omitted before consonants other than j, and final r has been omitted after another consonant; thus Rimfaxi, not Hrímfaxi, and Hermod, not Hermóðr. The Old Norse ð has been rendered as d; þ as th. Orthographical deviations from the above rules affect cases where an English spelling has become conventional or where considerations of euphony have suggested themselves. The Norwegian word Norrøn, both in the title and in the text, is translated as "Norse"; Nordisk as "Northern."
The bibliography from the preface to the Norwegian third edition will be found in full; to it have been added some titles of particular use to English and American readers.
S. B. H. [283}

Introduction

The mythology of our forefathers, as we know it from Norse mythical poems and from the records of ancient writers, has not come down to us in its genuine pagan form. It is extant only in a later form, dating from a period when its devotees had begun to lose their absolute faith in the older divinities, had begun to harbor doubts and to catch intimations of a consolation nobler and better than that which the ancient divinities had been able to give them. We learn to know it, furthermore, in the sources designated, as it manifested itself in Norway during the centuries just preceding the introduction of Christianity and as it appeared, something more than a hundred years earlier, upon its transference into Iceland by the Norwegian emigrants. In its main outlines it was at that time common to all the so-called Germanic tribes: on the one hand, to Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes; and on the other hand, to Goths, Franks, Saxons, Swabians, Frisians, Anglo-Saxons, and other peoples. Yet in the nature of the case, as the Germanic tribes gradually diverged with respect to language, customs, and modes of living, and each thus entered upon a separate development, it followed of necessity that mythology and cult took on a distinct character in each of these tribes; even in early prehistoric times, moreover, external influences proceeding from the more cultivated of neighboring non-Germanic peoples must have been at work, and also mutually operative influences [xiv} as between the Germanic tribes themselves. The ancient Norse religion was thus far from being identical with the mythology and worship of the other Northern or Germanic peoples. Evidence to this effect is to be discovered even in a cursory comparison with the few available accounts of religious conditions among the various German tribes during the pagan era. The pagan beliefs of the Swedes and the Danes, of which little is known through direct tradition, must also have differed in many particulars from those prevailing in Norway and Iceland as paganism drew toward its end. According to the plan of the present work, the Norwegian-Icelandic myths will have the most prominent place; it is these which particularly concern us, and only by means of these is it possible to reconstruct anything like a complete mythology. So far as it is practicable, nevertheless, reference will be made to the religious survivals of the other Germanic peoples.
Among the various Germanic tribes the pagan mythology was gradually driven back as Christianity spread abroad: first of all in France, about five centuries after the birth of Christ; thereafter in England, a century or two later; and still later in Germany, where the Saxons, who received the new faith at the hands of Charlemagne about the year 800, stood last of the pagan tribes. In the North paganism held its ground more stubbornly; in Iceland it did not loose its hold before the beginning of the eleventh century, in Norway and Denmark thirty years later, and in Sweden probably not before the year 1150. [xv}
Farther to the south the ancient faith was so thoroughly uprooted that scarcely a reminiscence survived. Only a small number of the early writers have set down so much as an occasional comment on the pagan divinities; their references lack fullness and exactitude and bear the clear stamp of prejudice and contempt. In more southerly lands, even those occupied by German tribes, there existed no such deep need and desire for the preservation of ancestral traditions as marked the North; or, if these tendencies had once prevailed, they had been smothered by the growing influence of the Catholic clergy. Furthermore, such writers as took any interest in recording the memories of the past were almost without exception ecclesiastics, who held it sinful to mention the ancient gods more than was strictly necessary. The situation was different in the North; there the pagan faith maintained a firmer footing, the general interest in searching out old traditions and listening to tales of ancestral prowess had struck deeper roots, and, what is more important, the clergy had never gained so complete an ascendancy as in the South. The chief reason for these conditions, at any rate in Norway and Iceland, was that the people held fast both in writing and in speech to the mother tongue, so that Latin, the language of the church, never became well established. The Norse historian would have found little profit in using Latin after the manner of the southern clergy, since few would have been able to read what he might write. Historical composition thus came to be the province of the laity rather than of the clergy. Moreover, our [xvi} forefathers were inordinately fond of skaldic poetry and song. The skalds made their verses in the vernacular; and since they drew most of their figures and similes from the old mythology, study of the myths was necessary both for the poets and for those who listened to their lays. The skald Hallfred, for example, upon his baptism made the unequivocal statement to king Olaf Tryggvason that he would neither deride the ancient gods nor refrain from naming them in his verse.
Through these various means a knowledge of the older mythology was maintained in Norway and Iceland; and for a long time nothing more than a visit to the neighboring kingdom of Sweden was required to discover a land still wholly pagan. In Iceland the common interest in poetry and history remained so vigorous that, even after medieval Christianity had run a good part of its course, two comprehensive and otherwise remarkable source books of Norse mythology made their appearance, namely Snorri's Edda and the so-called Sæmund's Edda. Snorri's Edda is a veritable handbook for skaldic poets, written about the year 1220 by the illustrious Snorri Sturluson; the first part of the work contains a full account of the ancient system of divinity, and in addition a number of separate stories about the gods and their deeds. The designation of Edda, which doubtless means "great-grandmother," probably became attached to the book because its contents were drawn from ancient narratives and songs that had come down from the "days of great-grandmother" herself. Sæmund's Edda is a [xvii} collection of poems celebrating the gods and heroes of olden times. Just when the collection originated is uncertain; evidences tend to make it contemporaneous with Snorri's Edda; yet the individual poems are much older and had lived long in popular tradition before they came to be written down. Sæmund's Edda is also called the Elder Edda; Snorri's, the Younger Edda. [1] Further information about the primitive mythology is to be gathered from numerous early poems, still extant, and bits here and there from the saga narratives; but these sources are as nothing in comparison with the two Eddas. In fine, it is only through Norwegian-Icelandic sources, that satisfactory knowledge of the ancient mythology is to be obtained.

The Elder Edda will be designated in this book as the Poetic Edda; the Younger Edda as the Prose Edda.
—Translator's note.

Notes to the Introduction

Page xv, line 10 — An instance may be cited here of the apprehensiveness with which the Catholic clergy regarded survivals of the pagan past. The zealous Icelandic bishop, Jón Ogmundsson (about the year 1110), would not even permit the days of the week to be designated, as was the old custom, according to the names of the gods (Wednesday, Thursday, etc.), but instead introduced the designations "Second Day," "Third Day," etc. These names are still used in Iceland (þriðjudagr, Tuesday; fimtudagr, Thursday, and the like); among us, as is well known, the earlier names are still in vogue.
The pagan myths afforded substance not only for poetry but for the pictorial arts. Thus the powerful Icelandic chieftain, Olaf Pá (about the year 970) employed scenes from the mythical stories in the interior decoration of his own house. With these pictures as a subject the skald Ulf Uggason composed a long poem, the Húsdrápa, fragments of which still exist. We may read strophes of the poem which deal with the struggle between Loki and Heimdal for the necklace of the Brisings, with the fishing of Thor and Hymir, and with Balder's funeral pyre. Besides, we find representations of myths and heroic legends on runic stones and, at a somewhat later date, on the portals of churches and on church appurtenances; see note to p. 203.
Page xviii, line 14 — The collection of early poems has been erroneously named Sæmund's Edda and the Poetic Edda because Icelandic traditions of long standing pointed to the learned Sæmund Sigfusson as the author of the poems or at any rate as the person who had collected them and put them in writing. Sæmund (born in 1056, died in 1133) traced his descent in the direct line to the Scylding, Harold Hilditonn; in his youth he traveled abroad and pursued his studies in France; according to a tradition current in Iceland, he even studied the mystic sciences. He lived at Oddi in the south of Iceland, and was one of the leaders in the land. He revised Ari Frodi's celebrated Íslendingabók, and through the school established on his own estate he exerted a great influence on the development of letters; for these reasons the authorship of various [284} literary works has in recent times been ascribed to him. His son Lopt married Thora, daughter of king Magnus Barefoot; one of their sons was the learned Jón Loptsson, foster father of Snorri Sturluson.
The poems contained in this collection are the following: Voluspá, or the Sibyl's Prophecy; Hávamál, or the Sayings of the High One (a gnomic poem, combined from sundry sayings ascribed to Odin); Vafþrúðnismál, or the Duel of Questions between Odin and Vafthrudnir (see above, p. 100); Grímnismál, or the Tale of Grimnir (see p. 102); Skírnismál, or Skirnir's Journey (p. 15); Hárbarðsljóð , or Harbard's Abuse of Thor (p. 105); Hymiskviða, or Thor's Visit to Hymir (p. 65); Lokasenna, or Loki's Flyting (p. 86); Þrymskviða, on Thor's recovery of his hammer from Thrym, king of the Giants (p. 76); Alvíssmál, a poem containing interpretations of various words; Vegtamskviða or Baldrs Draumar (p. 80); Rigspula, an allegorical poem dealing with the origin of the various estates or classes of society; Hyndluljóð, an historico-genealogical poem; thereafter come the historical lays, of which the greater number have to do with the Volsung cycle: Volundarkviða, Helgakvða Hjorvarðssonar, Helgakviða Hundingsbana I and II, Grípisspá, Reginsmál, Fáfnismál, Sigrdrifumál, a fragment [1] of a Sigurðarkviða, Guðrúnarkviða I, Sigurðarkviða in Skamma, Helreið Brynhildar, Guðrúnarkviða II and III, Oddrúnargrátr, Atlakviða, Atlamál, Guðrúnarhvot, and Hamðismál. [2] [285}
The ascription of the so-called Younger or Prose Edda, or at any rate great parts of it, to Snorri, rests on traditional testimony and also on definite evidences in the ancient work itself. Its contents are as follows: (1) Gylfaginning (i.e., the Hoodwinking of Gylfi), a survey of mythology, in the form of questions and answers; the questioner is king Gylfi, who visits Asgard in disguise; and those who answer are the three supreme gods, here called Hár, Jafnhár, and þriði. (2) Bragarœður, Bragi's explanations to Ægir of the origins of the art of poetry. (3) Skáldskaparmál, a list of the most important poetic paraphrases and of the ancient legends which provide a means of understanding the paraphrases. (4) Háttatal, a set of poetic principles, with appropriate examples. This work alone properly bears the name of Edda; the common designation of the old collection of poems by the same title was originally due to a confusion of the two works. [3]

Just before this fragment several leaves are missing in the principal manuscript, the Codex Regius; to this lacuna is due the loss of several of the poems. Their contents, however, are known through the Volsunga Saga, the writer of which had access to a complete manuscript of the Edda.
The later and most useful editions of Sæmund's Edda are the following: Norrœn Fornkvœði. Islandsk Samling av folkelige Oldtidsdigte orn Nordens Guder og Heroer, almindelig kaldet Sœmundar Edda hins fróða. Udg. of Sophus Bugge. Christiania 1867. — Die Lieder der älteren Edda (Sœmundar Edda) herausgeg. von K. Hildebrand. Paderborn 1876 (Bibliothek der ältesten deutsehen Literatur-Denkmäler. Bd. 7). — The same. Völlig umgearbeitet von H. Gering. 3 Aufi. 1912. (Among the critical apparatus is to be found an exhaustive account of the treatment of the text by earlier editors.) — Eddalieder. Altnordische gedichte mythologischen and heroischen inhalts herausgeg. von Finnur Jónsson. I. Halle 1888. II. 1890 (Altnordische Textbibliothek. No. 2.3.). — Die Lieder der Edda herausgeg. von B. Sijmons and H. Gering. I. Text. Halle 1888-1906. 11. Wörterbuch. 1903 (Germanistische Handbibliothek. VII). — Sœmundar-edda. Eddu-kvœði. Finnur Jónsson bjó til prentunar. Reykjavik 1905. — Edda. Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern herausgeg. von G. Neckel. Text. Heidelberg 1914 (Germanische Bibliothek. 2 Abteil. Bd. 9).
Of more recent translations the following may be noted: Den œldre Edda. Norrøne oldkvad fra vikingetiden 9-11 aarh. e. Chr. oversatte av G. A. Gjessing. Christiania 1899. - Edda-kvœde. Norrøne fornsongar. Paa nynorsk ved Ivar Mortensson. I. Oslo 1905. II. 1908. — Den œldre Edda. Ny Oversættelse ved Olaf Hansen. Copenhagen 1911. — Sämunds Edda översatt från isländskan av Erik Brate. Stockholm 1913. [Translator's note. — Vigfusson and Powell's Corpus Poeticum Boreale contains translations into English prose. For an English metrical translation, see H. A. Bellows, The Poetic Edda, The American-Scandinavian Foundation, second printing, New York 1926.]
Snorri's Edda was edited in Copenhagen in the 17th century by Resenius. The most important later editions are the following: Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Tom. I-III. Hafniae 1848, 1852, 1880-87 (with a Latin translation). Snorri Sturluson: Edda. Udg. av Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen 1900. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Finnur Jónsson bjó til prentunar. Reykjavik 1907. (Translation): Snorre Sturluson: Gylfaginning. Den gamle nordiske Gudelære (første Del of Snorres Edda) oversatt av Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen 1902. [Translator's note. — Selections from the Edda of Snorri have been published in English translation by A. G. Brodeur. The Prose Edda. The American-Scandinavian Foundation, second printing, New York 1923.] [286}

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