Njord and Skadi

by Sheena McGrath

  (We will be looking at Ynglingatal later, since it traces Ragnvald’s ancestry back to the Vanir god Frey, and by extension to Njord.) It is assumed that Ragnvald was a patron of Þjóðólfr's, which seems likely, as he was Haraldr's cousin.[6]

  Haustlöng was composed around the beginning of the tenth century, and like several other famous skaldic poems, it describes artworks with mythological scenes, in this case a shield. Þjóðólfr was probably following the pattern laid down by Bragi Boddason 'the old' - his most famous poem is Ragnarsdrapa, which describes the images painted on shields hung around an aristocrat's hall. That poem survives as fragments again, but Abrams says it's easy to put them back together if you know the story of Thor and the Serpent[7]. Like Þjóðólfr's poem, it describes several scenes, four in Bragi's poem, while Haustlöng juxtaposes two narratives. (Husdrapa is usually included in this group, although it describes painted wall panels rather than shields.[8])

  Haustlöng means "Autumn-Long", and it is thought that this is a reference to the length of time it took to compose the poem, with its elaborate kennings and double structure. (Heather O'Donoghue thinks it may be a reference to how long it takes to understand its meaning.[9]) As mentioned, Hst is a shield-poem, although in this case the shield was a gift from Thorlief (see below), rather than just a description of shields in a hall.

  This seems to have been a popular form for poetry in medieval Scandinavia, perhaps inspired by the shield-poems attributed to Homer and Hesiod.[10] Þjóðólfr is careful to mention the gift in the first verse of his poem, no doubt wishing both to repay Thorlief by vaunting his generosity, and to brag about his high-status gift. (Although Heslop, among others, doubts whether there were ever actual shields, on various grounds.[11]) The two halves of the poem end with a comment about the images painted on the shield, once again crediting Thorlief for giving the gift.

  Thorlief is usually assumed to be Thorlief the Wise, who was the organizer of the Gula-Thing, and one of the consultants in forming Iceland's constitution, which was based on the laws of the Gula-Thing. He was also an adviser to Haakon the Good, and related to the later Orkney earls. (The poem Hyndluljod was created for one of his relatives, so the interest in the arts ran in the family.)[12]

  The poem itself is composed in dróttkvætt, a verse form that was heavy with multi-layered kennings, and complicated to follow. You will see as you read the translation below that some of the kennings are quite involved, and not at all obvious to a modern reader. (Maybe not to Snorri Sturluson's audience either, since one purpose of Skld was to teach readers the way to write skaldic poetry and the myths behind the kennings it used.) Snorri gives the poem in two pieces, although oddly enough he tells the story of Thiazi in prose at the beginning of Skld, then gives the verse version much later, when listing kennings for Idunn.

  The oddity of this is underlined by the fact that poem and prose go together in the Thor story that is the basis of Ragnarsdrapa; Snorri quotes the poem right after he relates the myth. It may be something as simple as him not having a copy of Þjóðólfr's poem when he was writing the earlier portion of his book, or it may have been a deliberate decision. At any rate, thanks to Snorri, we have the poem to puzzle over:

  1. How shall I make repayment

  For the war-wall-bridge [shield]

  ....

  For the voice-cliff [shield]

  Which I received from Thorlief.

  I can see the unsafe journey

  Of three gold-bold deities and Thiazi

  On the finely-wrought cheek of Hildr's drum [shield].

  2. The lady-wolf flew long ago

  To meet the commanders [Aesir]

  In an old old-one's [eagle] form.

  The eagle perched

  Where the Aesir bore

  The harvest-Gefn-horse [ox]

  The rock-Gefn [giantess] -refuge [cave] god [giant]

  was not guilty of cowardice.

  3. Not free from malice

  the giant was slow to serve the gods.

  Who causes this, said

  The helmeted wisdom-teacher [Odin] of the fetters [gods]

  The much-wise-worded giant-eagle

  Began to speak from the fir-tree.

  The friend of Hoenir [Loki] was not friendly to him.

  4. The mountain-wolf [giant] to Step-Meili [Hoenir]

  Asked for his fill

  From the holy trencher/table.

  The raven-god's friend [Loki] had to blow the fire

  The battle-bold Rognir [Odin/chief] of land-whales [giants]

  let himself sink down

  Where the trick-sparing defenders of the gods

  Were sitting.

  5. The fair lord of the earth [Odin]

  bade Farbauti's son [Loki]

  To share quickly

  the bow-string-Var's [Skadi's] whale [ox] among them.

  But the cunning foe of the Aesir

  Snatched up four parts

  From the broad table.

  6. Morn's hungry father [the giant]

  Then greedily ate

  The ox at the tree-root.

  That was long ago,

  Until the deep-minded war-booty-withholding god [Loki]

  Struck the very bold foe

  Down between the shoulders

  With a pole.

  7. Then set fast was

  the burden of Sigyn's arms [Loki]

  whom all the gods eye in his bonds

  to the foster-father-of -the-ski-goddess [father of Skadi: Thiazi].

  The pole stuck fast

  To Jotunheim's mighty spectre

  and the hands of Hoenir's friend [Loki]

  to the end of the pole.

  8. With a wise deity now

  The voracious bird of prey flew

  Over a long way; the wolf's father [Loki]

  must be torn in pieces.

  Odin's friend [Loki] grew exhausted,

  Lopt [Lofty = Loki] grew heavy

  Odin's companion

  Begged the giant's meal-companion for peace.

  9. Hymir's kin-branch [giant] demanded

  that the rouser of tales,

  mad with pain,

  to bring him the maid

  who knew the Aesir's old-age cure.

  Brisingamen's thief [Loki]

  Got the gods' lady {Idunn].

  to the rock-Nidud's [giant's] courts to Brunnakr's Bench.

  9. The bright-shield-dwellers [giants] were not sorry

  After this had taken place,

  Since from the south

  Idunn was now among the giants.

  All Invgi-Frey's kin,

  At the Thing, were old and gray -

  ugly-looking in their form.

  10. - Until they found the hound of the falling sea of corpses [bloodhound: Loki]

  of the ale-Gefn [Idunn]

  and bound the thief, that tree of deceit

  "You shall be tricked out of your mind with trickery",

  spake the angry one [Thor]

  "unless, also with trickery, Loki,

  you lead the glorious joy-increasing girl of the gods [Idunn]

  back here."

  11. I heard this, afterward,

  the trier of Hoenir's mind [Loki]

  In a falcon's flying-fur flew;

  And with deceitful mind

  Betrayed the playmate of the Aesir [Idunn] back,

  And Morn's father's, with the wings of an eagle,

  Sped after the hawk's offspring [Loki].

  12. The shafts soon began to burn -

  The powers had shaved kindlings -

  And the son of Greip's wooer [giant] was scorched.

  This is said in memory

  of the mountain-Finn's [giant's: Hrungnir's] sole-bridge [pedestal: shield]

  A shield painted with tales

  I received from Thorlief.

  13. And yet one may see on the ring of fire [shield]

  Where the giant's dread [Thor]

  To Grjottunggard, to the gi
ant Hrungnir,

  In the midst of encircling flames. (grave-mound of stone-enclosures [sea-bed's gold: of rings, Hringa-giant: Hrungnir])

  The son of Jord drove to the game of iron [battle]

  and the moon's way [sky] clattered beneath him.

  Wrath swelled in Meili's kinsman [Thor].

  14. All the sanctuaries of hawks/falcons [skies] did burn

  while down below,

  thanks to Ullr's step-father

  the ground was battered with hail,

  when the goats drew the easy-riding-chariot of the temple-deity forward

  to the encounter with Hrungnir

  (Svolnir's widow [Odin's widow: Earth] split asunder.

  15. Baldr's brother did not spare then

  the greedy enemy of men.

  (mountains shook and cliffs shattered;

  heaven burned above.)

  I have heard that the watcher [Hrungnir]

  of the dark-bone of Haki's land [witness for the rock-whales, for the giants, Hrungnir]

  saw his warlike bane ready to kill him.

  16. Swiftly flew the battle-pale [gleaming] ring-ice [shield]

  beneath the soles of the rock-guarder [giant]

  (the bonds [gods] wanted it so,

  the ladies of the fray [valkyries] wished it.)

  The eager rock-gentleman

  did not have to wait long

  for a swift blow from the

  valiant friend of the hammer-face-troll [Mjollnir].

  17. The life-spoiler of Beli's bale-troop [Thor]

  made the bear [giant] of the hide-out of the high sea-swells

  on the island of his shield [shield-boss];

  The gully-land [mountain] prince [giant] sank

  Before the sharp hammer

  and the rock-Dane-breaker [Thor] (or: Agdir-men of mountains: North)

  Forced the defiant one back.

  18. And the hard flint-stone

  of the visitor to the woman of Vingnir's people [giants]

  whizzed at Ground's boy [Thor],

  into his brain-ridge,

  so that the steel-pumice

  still stuck in Odin's boy's skull,

  spattered with Eindridi's [Thor's] blood.

  19. Until ale-Gefiun of the wounds [Groa]

  began to enchant the red boaster of being rust's bale [whetstone]

  from the sloping hillsides

  of the wound-god's hair.

  I see these deeds in Geitir's fence (or fortress) [shield].

  A shield painted with tales

  I received from Thorlief.

  (My own translation, following Faulkes, North and Adams)

  As you can see, Haustlöng incorporates two myths: how Thiazi stole Idunn, and how Thor killed Hrungir. The two myths have their similarities, as shown below:

  Thiazi steals Idunn, and Hrungnir threatens to steal Freya and Sif (he may also have had designs on Thor’s daughter Thrud, see below).

  Both giants threaten the Æsir through over-consumption, in one case of food, in the other of drink. (Abuse of hospitality.) Hrungnir takes beer from Thor’s large cups, threatening to drink Asgard dry, and Thiazi eats three-quarters of the ox.

  Also, they take all the Æsir’s goods; in one case Thiazi stops them cooking their meat and then steals most of their dinner, while Hrungnir threatens to drink all their beer, so they won’t have it for hospitality or for Odin to seek inspiration in.

  Odin travels to Jotunheim and encounters giants who desire/compete with his possessions. (Thiazi wants his food; Hrungnir takes a bet that his horse is better than Odin's.)

  At first, both seem friendly, but that soon changes. (In Hrungnir’s case, Odin provokes him, but Thiazi is out to annoy, it seems.)

  In both cases, someone else has to get Odin out of trouble. (Loki, Thor)

  The victories are equivocal; Hrungnir's flint-stone wedges in Thor's forehead, and Skadi comes to avenge her father and is incorporated into the Aesir’s aett.

  Both of the giants are tricked; by either Thialfi or Loki.

  Finally, both giants end up dead.

  These two must have been well-known tales, since the artist who painted the shield expected viewers to recognize the pictures. They are also the first two tales of Skáldskaparmál, showing that they were both important stories. And of course Bragi is telling Aegir the stories, so perhaps the story of Idunn was foremost in his mind. The giants vs. gods theme predominate in Skld; the first four tales are their battles, followed by two on the theme of gods vs. dwarves, just for a change.

  The prominence of the Thiazi story may also owe something to politics. In Ys we're told that after Skadi left Njord she had many sons for Odin, including Saeming, the first of the earls of Hladir (rulers of east Norway from the ninth through the eleventh centuries). The skalds Kormak and Eyvind both refer to this mythical line of descent, so it was well-known.[13] Snorri could count on his audience knowing this, and that may be why Thiazi and Skadi come first in Skaldskaparmál.

  Snorri Sturluson: Skáldskaparmál, Gylfaginning, and Ynglinga Saga

  The poem Haustlöng gives us the first half of the story, Thiazi's attempt to kidnap Idunn. Snorri Sturluson's Skáldskaparmál gives us the second half, Skadi's were-gild. As usual with Snorri, he gives us an explanation of Thjodolf's poem, and fills in details that the brief and elliptical poems often leave out.

  His book, Skáldskaparmál, is a guide for would-be poets, or skalds, who in the post-Christian period might not understand the stories behind various kennings and allusions to pagan myth. Snorri himself was an Icelander of aristocratic lineage, who also wrote the story Gylfaginning, which is another guide to Norse myths, and the Hattatal, which lists various poetic terms. (You can get all three in Anthony Faulkes' translation of the Prose Edda, unlike most which only tell the stories of the Aesir and other heroic or aristocratic figures.) He also wrote the Heimskringla, which is made up of various stories, including the Ynglinga saga, based on the earlier poem the Ynglingatal, which traces the ancestry of the Yngling dynasty.

  All three sections of the Prose Edda have references to Skadi and Njord and their story, as well as various kennings for them both, such as "wrangler-with-Loki" for Skadi, and "ship-god" for Njord. But the story of Thiazi's death and Skadi's demand for compensation, and resulting unhappy marriage, is told in Skáldskaparmál. (The first section, Gylfaginning, tells the story of their marriage and its end.)

  In this version it is given as a story Bragi the deified skald is telling Aegir, a giant who had made his way to Asgard and was being made welcome there. Let's just pause for a minute and consider this. The Aesir are being hospitable to a giant, and welcoming him at their feast. Snorri's description of this is interesting, because it echoes the display put on for King Gylfi at the beginning of Gylfaginning, and suggests that the gods impressed him with both their wealth and power of illusion. Presumably this was a literary conceit of Snorri's.

  Aegir's visit also has implications for the cosmological myth that underlies all Norse mythology. We know from this myth that Aegir visited the Aesir; Lokasenna tells us that he in turn hosted them. The poem appears in the Poetic Edda after Hymiskvida, which tells how the Aesir decided to have a feast, and demanded that Aegir hosts it. (This was common royal behaviour, right up through to Elizabeth I, who sometimes bankrupted her courtiers by visiting them.) Aegir told them he needed a special cauldron to brew the ale, and Thor and Tyr are duly despatched to bring it back from Hymir, who owns it. They get the cauldron, but Hymir gets his head hammered.

  The myths do not see this as detrimental to the hospitable relation established between Aegir and the deities. He holds his feast, but Loki arrives to disrupt it. (Note that Hymiskvida features Thor in his giant-killing role, while in Lks he is "off east", until he turns up to threaten Loki. You can't help but feel the exclusion was a deliberate one; it would be difficult to keep Thor and Aegir in the same room.[14]) Sorensen thinks that the feast in Lks was an attempt at incorporating the giant's re
alm peacefully; Loki's mission is to spoil it.[15]

  However, the first feast, which is the frame of Skld, goes off well, although since the first four tales Bragi tells are of gods killing giants, it might not have. Aegir proves a good audience, however, and listens politely. In fact, he is as much Bragi's "feed" or straight man as Gylfi was for High, Just-as-High and Third, asking questions at the appropriate moments and inserting admiring comments.

  The first story Bragi tells him is that of Thiazi kidnapping Idunn; perhaps the theft of his wife was uppermost in his mind around giants. (Which Bragi begins without any prompting; perhaps the presence of a giant in Asgard focussed his mind.) The inclusion of the settlement reached with Skadi may be intended to emphasize the accord between gods and giants that Aegir's presence implies.

  Brage began his tale by telling how three asas, Odin, Loke and Honer, went on a journey over mountains and heaths, where they could get nothing to eat. But when they came down into a valley they saw a herd of cattle. From this herd they took an ox and went to work to boil it. When they deemed that it must be boiled enough they uncovered the broth, but it was not yet done. After a little while they lifted the cover off again, but it was not yet boiled. They talked among themselves about how this could happen. Then they heard a voice in the oak above them, and he who sat there said that he was the cause that the broth did not get boiled. They looked up and saw an eagle, and it was not a small one. Then said the eagle: If you give me my fill of the ox, then the broth will be boiled. They agreed to this. So he flew down from the tree, seated himself beside the boiling broth, and immediately snatched up first the two thighs of the ox and then both the shoulders. This made Loke wroth: he grasped a large pole, raised it with all his might and dashed it at the body of the eagle. The eagle shook himself after the blow and flew up. One end of the pole fastened itself to the body of the eagle, and the other end stuck to Loke’s hands. The eagle flew just high enough so that Loke’s feet were dragged over stones and rocks and trees, and it seemed to him that his arms would be torn from his shoulder-blades. He calls and prays the eagle most earnestly for peace, but the latter declares that Loke shall never get free unless he will pledge himself to bring Idun and her apples out of Asgard. When Loke had promised this, he was set free and went to his companions again; and no more is related of this journey, except that they returned home. But at the time agreed upon, Loke coaxed Idun out of Asgard into a forest, saying that he had found apples that she would think very nice, and he requested her to take with her her own apples in order to compare them. Then came the giant Thjasse in the guise of an eagle, seized Idun and flew away with her to his home in Thrymheim. The asas were ill at ease on account of the disappearance of Idun,—they became gray-haired and old. They met in council and asked each other who last had seen Idun. The last that had been seen of her was that she had gone out of Asgard in company with Loke. Then Loke was seized and brought into the council,157 and he was threatened with death or torture. But he became frightened, and promised to bring Idun back from Jotunheim if Freyja would lend him the falcon-guise that she had. He got the falcon-guise, flew north into Jotunheim, and came one day to the giant Thjasse. The giant had rowed out to sea, and Idun was at home alone. Loke turned her into the likeness of a nut, held her in his claws and flew with all his might. But when Thjasse returned home and missed Idun, he took on his eagle-guise, flew after Loke, gaining on the latter with his eagle wings. When the asas saw the falcon coming flying with the nut, and how the eagle flew, they went to the walls of Asgard and brought with them bundles of plane-shavings. When the falcon flew within the burg, he let himself drop down beside the burg-wall. Then the asas kindled a fire in the shavings; and the eagle, being unable to stop himself when he missed the falcon, caught fire in his feathers, so that he could not fly any farther. The asas were on hand and slew the giant Thjasse within the gates of Asgard, and that slaughter is most famous.