What a perfectly splendid reply, why am I not surprised at
the extent of this reply, Gods!! I thought you would throw some light on the
matter, thank you very much indeed
Patricia
I have, since childhood, thought of these horse-riding
Girls, as Odin's progeny, something to do with the phrase "Daughters of the
Gods divinely tall and most divinely fair" where ever that comes from, as for
not telling Richard Wagner, I shall not, he would not listen,
Shhhhhhhh, don't tell Richard Wagnar
that. But good point: Brynhildr in Völsunga saga and elsewhere is
the daughter of a king called Buðli. From the Helgi lays: Sváfa is
the daughter of a king Eylimi, reborn as Sigrún daughter of Högni; oh,
and Sinfjötli mockingly calls Guðmundr, Granmarr´s son, a valkyrie!--but
I think that´s just his little joke... In Völsunga saga, Odin has
an 'óskmær' "wish girl" (meaning "adopted daughter"?, cf. óskabarn,
"a chosen, adopted child"; or Óski´s = Odin´s girl--this is listed among
Odin´s names by Snorri; or "girls who fulfill Odin´s wishes", R Simeck,
Dictionary of Northern Mythology), who is the daughter of the giant
Hrímnir. She has the unwarlike task of enchanted apple-delivery,
but the term is listed here as a *possible* kenning for
valkyrie:
So
maybe she was a valkyrie too. If Hildr the daughter of Högni was
literally a valkyrie, and identical to the Hildr listed in
Grímnismál, that would be another non-Odinically-sired chooser of
the slain. True, the Hildr of Sörla þáttr is an image of passive
suffering, but older sources imply a more active valkyrie-esque role
in instigating the conflict ("Sörla þáttr..." EA Rowe, Saga Book
XXVI, 2002). Snorri comments in Gylfaginning that Skuld, "the
youngest Norn", also rides as a valkyrie.
But, just to throw the
cat among the ravens (pidgeons, I mean-- ravens is a bad place to throw a
cat), does anyone know of anything in Norse that does describe valkyries
as Odin´s daughters? Even if they weren't originally, it's easy to
see how kennings like 'Óðins meyjar' "Odin´s girls" could have been
interpreted that way (given kennings like 'mær Högna' Hogni´s daughter =
Hildr = valkyrie), at least metaphorically.
One puzzling
expression is 'Svarðar dóttir', apparently meaning "war", mentioned by
the grumpy prophetic merman in Hálfs saga. It might be "daughter
of the scalp" (svörðr), or daughter of an otherwise unknown mythical or
legendary person called Svörðr. Various emendations have been
suggested. Seelow says probably it´s just a misunderstanding of
other kennings involving this word that has led someone at some point in
the transmission to invent a person called 'Svörðr', perhaps in place of
an earlier expression that had become illegible or incomprehensible (H
Seelow, Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka, 1981). I wrote to Eysteinn
Björnsson a while back and he offered the ingenious suggestion that
maybe the poet used 'svörðr' cryptically to stand for 'hár' "hair", a
pun on Odin´s name Hár!
With this sort of logic, it´s not such a
leap from 'mær' to 'dóttir', even if they aren´t completely
synonymous. And maybe the term 'óskmær' implied the status of
honorary daughters or foster daughters? But whether they were ever
actually seen as literally Odin´s daughters is another
matter.
Llama Nom
--- In
norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Patricia" <originalpatricia@...>
wrote: > In my Zoega, it gives the Old Norse name as Val
-kyrja and the Definition of Chooser of the Slain / valkyrie, well thats
where it all started, Odin's Daughters were they not, I found it logical
to look in Zoega under V > He also gives val-mær =
valkyrie and valr - the slain valrauf - plundering the
slain > there are several words beginning Val- and so many
seem to be to do with the Slain in Battle or else val- words are to do
with Battle. > Thank the Gods for Geir T. Zoëga we
should have a Zoëga Day > Patricia
> Who has by now formed the opinion that more of our
words in English relate to Old Norse that one could
suspect. > ----- Original Message -----
> From: joannacmacleod
> To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 1:14
PM > Subject: [norse_course] Axe time >
> > > Was a valkyrie - what is
the old Norse name for this? > > > > >
> A Norse funny farm, overrun by smart
people. > > Homepage: http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/ >
> To escape from this funny farm try rattling
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norse_course-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com > > > >
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