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Nú Mun Hon Sökkvask Lauren Hamm Kt. 290191-5219 MA in Old Nordic Religions: Thesis Autumn 2019 Nú mun hon sökkvask: The Connection between Prophetic Magic and the Feminine in Old Nordic Religion Lauren Hamm Lokaverkefni til MA–gráðu í Norrænni trú Leiðbeinandi: Terry Gunnell Útskriftarmánuður: Október 2019 Lauren Hamm Kt. 290191-5219 MA in Old Nordic Religions: Thesis Autumn 2019 Nú mun hon sökkvask The Connection between Prophetic Magic and the Feminine in Old Nordic Religion Lauren Hamm Lokaverkefni til MA–gráðu í Norrænni trú Leiðbeinandi: Terry Gunnell Félags - og mannvísindadeild Félagsvísindasvið Háskóla Íslands Október 2019 Lauren Hamm Kt. 290191-5219 MA in Old Nordic Religions: Thesis Autumn 2019 Nú mun hon sökkvask: The Connection between Prophetic Magic and the Feminine in Old Nordic Religion Ritgerð þessi er lokaverkefni til MA – gráðu í Norrænni trú og er óheimilt að afrita ritgerðina á nokkurn hátt nema með leyfi rétthafa. © Lauren Hamm, 2019 Prentun: Háskólaprent Reykjavík, Ísland, 2019 Lauren Hamm Kt. 290191-5219 MA in Old Nordic Religions: Thesis Autumn 2019 Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible if it were not for the endless kindness and patience of my thesis advisor, Dr. Terry Gunnell. I truly do not have words eloquent enough to iterate how very much he deeply cares about his work and the work of his students nor how much this meant to me personally. The year of waking up to 6:00 AM skype meetings every Tuesday with Terry provided a gentle reminder of my duties and passion for this topic as well as a sense of stability and purpose I badly needed during a tumultuous time in my life. Thank you, also, to my friends who made this journey alongside me - Caroline and Tara. Whether it was recovering after a long night in downtown Reykjavík or trying to push through to the next chapter, we have spent years now encouraging and believing in each other. To Jean-Baptiste Stowell, Jacob Borchardt, Josephine Cole, and Frank Hamm, I am endlessly thankful for your relentless encouragement and you are all so special to me. In addition, I would like to thank Dr. Matthew Melvin-Koushki, without whom I would have never recognized the völur as my long-lost mothers and sisters nor would I have seen how thin the veil between worlds truly is. Hwæt! Thank you to Dr. Scott Gwara, who was the first person to take my dream of reading Old English and Old Norse seriously, and to Dr. Christine Ames, who believed in me, listened to me, and can make even the most disinterested student intrigued by papal successions. I would not have finished this step in my own saga without any one of you. Takk fyrir. 1 Lauren Hamm Kt. 290191-5219 MA in Old Nordic Religions: Thesis Autumn 2019 Abstract Nú mun hon sökkvask: The Connection between Prophetic Magic and the Feminine in Old Nordic Religion This thesis will seek to explore the inherent connection between the feminine and foreknowledge in Old Nordic religion, synthesizing both primary and secondary source material relative to the topics of fate, gender, and prophetic magical practices in the context of the Viking Age. The focus will be on four different types of prophetic females in Old Norse literature: dream-women, the goddesses, the nornir, and the völur. Each of these iterations of prophetic women will be examined, noting among other things their relationship to darkness and the underground, their “otherness", their various methods of accessing foreknowledge, and the apparent societal repercussions of knowing the future and even bearing responsibility for it. Útdráttur Í þessari ritgerð verður leitast við að kanna eðlislæg tengsl kvenna og forspár í forn norrænum trúarbrögðum og samstilla bæði frumheimildum og öðrum heimildum sem tengjast örlögum, kyni og spádómsathöfnum í samhengi víkingaaldar. Áhersla verður lögð á fjórar mismunandi tegundir kvenna sem búa yfir spádómshæfileikum í fornnorrænum bókmenntum: gyðjur, nornir, völur og draumakonur. Farið verður yfir þessar tegundir forspárra kvenna þar sem meðal annars verður bent á tengsl þeirra við myrkur og undirheima, annarleika þeirra, aðferðir þeirra til að nálgast þekkingu sína sem og hvaða samfélagslegu afleiðingar þar ber með sér að sjá framtíðina og jafnvel hafa áhrif á hana.1 1 A very special thank you to Teresa Dröfn Freysdóttir Njarðvík for assisting with the Icelandic translation of this abstract. 2 Lauren Hamm Kt. 290191-5219 MA in Old Nordic Religions: Thesis Autumn 2019 Efnisyfirlit Útdráttur......................................................................................................................2 Abstract........................................................................................................................2 Myndaskrá....................................................................................................................6 Chapter 1: Introduction.................................................................................................7 1.1 Before the Beginning….......................................................................................7 1.2 Notes on Previous Scholarship...........................................................................8 1.3 Thesis Structure…………………………………………………………………..…….………….…….10 Chapter 2: Stand der Forschung ……………………………………………………………….……………….11 2.1 Fate…………………………………………………………………………………………….……………… .11 2.1.1 Conclusions on Fate…………………………………………………………..……….....16 2.2 Dreams……………………………………………………………………………………………..………….17 2.2.1 Wilhelm Henzen and the Introduction of the Fylgjur…………..….…..….17 2.2.2 Dream Beings and Symbolism: Reichborn-Kjennerud, Kelchner, and Turville-Petre……………………………………………………………………………..…………..17 2.2.3 Returning to Fylgjur: Else Mundal………………………………………..………..19 2.2.4 Recent Scholarship on Nordic Dream Women: Neil Price and Adriënne Heijnen…………………………………………………………………………..…….…20 2.2.5 Conclusions on Dreams…………………………………………………………..……..21 2.3 The Discussion of the Nornir…………………………………………………………………..……22 2.3.1 Early Writing on Nornir and Comparative Beings…………………….......22 2.3.2 Bek-Pedersen’s The Norns in Old Norse Mythology……………………....25 2.3.3 Conclusions on the Nornir..……………………………………………………….…..27 2.4 Seiðr…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….27 2.4.1 Early Scholarship: The Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth- Centuries……………………………………………………………………………………………....27 2.4.2 Dag Strömbäck, Åke Ohlmarks, and the Mid-Century…………………...29 2.4.3 Neil Price, Clive Tolley, and Recent Scholarship……………………………..33 2.4.4 Conclusions on Seiðr……………………………………………………………………..38 Chapter 3: Primary Source Material…………………………………………………………………………..40 3.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………40 3.2 Eddic Poetry……………………………………………………………………………………………..….41 3.3 Snorra Edda……………………………………………………………………………………………..…..42 3.4 The Íslendingasögur…………………………………………………………………………..………...43 3.5 The Fornaldarsögur……………………………………………………………………..…………….…44 3.6 Comparative Texts………………………………………………………………………………………..45 3.6.1 Greco-Roman…………………………………………………………………………….…..45 3.6.2 Anglo-Saxon…………………………………………………………………………..…..….46 3 Lauren Hamm Kt. 290191-5219 MA in Old Nordic Religions: Thesis Autumn 2019 3.6.3 Arabic……………………………………………………………………………..……………..47 3.7 Archeological Material …………………………..…………………………………………………….48 3.8 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………….…..48 Chapter 4: Terminology of Fate and Foreknowledge…………………………………………………..50 Chapter 5: Women and Dreams………………………………………………………………………………….53 5.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………….53 5.2 Hálfdanar saga svarta ………………………………………………………………………………….53 5.3 Laxdæla saga ……………………………………………………………………………………………….54 5.4 Gísla saga Súrssonar……………………………………………………………………………………..55 Chapter 6: Fate and the Nordic Goddesses ………………………………………………………………..57 6.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………….57 6.2 Frigg……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..57 6.3 Gefjun……………………………………………………………………………………………………………58 6.4 Freyja……………………………………………………………………………………………………………59 6.5 Hyndla………………………………………………………………………………………………………….59 6.6 Óðinn……………………………………………………………………………………………………………60 Chapter 7: Nornir……………………………………………………………………………………………………....62 7.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………….62 7.2 Völuspá…………………………………………………………………………………………………………63 7.3 Helgakviða Hundingsbana I and II………………..……………………………………………….64 7.4 Reginsmál…………………………………………………………………………………………………..…66 7.5 Fáfnismál………………………………………………………………………………………………………67 7.6 Snorra Edda…………………………………………………………………………………..……………..68 7.7.1 Associated Themes……………………………………………………………………....…………..70 7.7.2 Names……………………………………………………………………………..…………....71 7.7.3 Location……………………………………………………………………………..……..…..72 7.7.4 The Underworld…………………………………………………………………………..…73 7.7.5 Types of Fate…………………………………………………………………………..…..…73 7.8 Conclusions ………………………………………………………………………………………………….75 Chapter 8: Völur……………………………………………………………………………………………………….……77 8.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….………………77 8.2.1 Early Accounts relating to Women and Prophecy ……………………………………..78 8.2.2 The Conquest of Gaul………………………………………………………………..……78 8.2.3 Tacitus …………………………………………………………………………………………..77 8.2.4 Jordanes………………………………………………………………………………………...78 8.3 Völuspá ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….79 8.4 Baldrs draumar …………………………………………………………………………………………….85 8.5 Grógaldr …………………………………………………………………………………………………..….88 8.6 Eiríks saga rauða ………………………………………………………………………………………….89 8.7 Örvar-Odds saga ……………………………………………………………………………………….…95 8.8 Vatnsdæla saga…………………………………………………………………………………………….99 8.9 Conclusions and Recurring Themes Associated with Völur …………………………103
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