Names of Oðinn

“By One Name I Have Not Been Known”: Medieval Understandings and Uses of Odinic Names Samantha Rideout 05.98.07- Heimildir um norræna goðafræði Marteinn Sigurðsson 21 May 2007 Oðinn has more recorded names than any other “áss” in the corpus of Old Norse- Icelandic literature (Simek 248). Despite their sheer bulk, Odinic names have not inspired the curiosity of very many commentators over the years. In 1924, Hjalmar Falk published Oden- sheite, a work which mainly consists of a list of Óðinn’s names along with references to where they appear in the corpus and their possible etymologies. It also emphasises a noticeable attributes of Odinic names: “De fleste Odensheite forekommer bare some navn på guden. De er laget direkte some betegnelse for ham og angir en av hans egenskaper, handlinger, attributer eller åbenbaringsformer”” (Falk 35). In Myth and Religion of the North, (1964), Turville-Petre echoes the idea that most of Óðinn’s names connote something about Óðinn: his characteristics, his ad- ventures, his shapes, and the heroes he favours. Both of these authors were primarily interested in explaining the origins of individual Odinic names. In doing so, they follow the lead of Snorri Sturluson, who writes: “Óðinn er æðstr ok elztr ásanna... flest heiti hafa verit gefin af þeim atburð, at svá margar sem eru greinir tung- nanna í veröldinni, þá þykkjast allar þjóðir þurfa at breyta nafni hans til sinnar tungu til ákalls ok bæna fyrir sjálfum sér, en sumir atburðir til þessa heita hafa gerzt í ferðum hans, ok er þar fært í frásagnir...” (Edda 37). One can hear echoes of this same hypothesis when Turville-Petre suggests that historically, Óðinn “had taken over the names and functions of other gods... his cult was extending in the Viking Age and before, and many peoples were coming to regard him as the highest of the Gods. He is called Gautr, which may originally have been the name of the epony- mous father of the Gautar... He is also called Skilfingr, and this was perhaps the name of the first ancestor of the Ynglingar...” (Turville-Petre 62). Perhaps the reason that ideas about the etymological origins of Óðinn’s names have not changed much since the thirteenth century is due to a lack of data from the Viking-Age and earlier. Unless and until archeological excavations uncover new relevant data, there is not much more to say on the subject. However, the origins of Óðinn’s names is not the only question that can be asked about them. We can ask, for instance, how they are understood in the data that we do have- that is, medieval literature- and how they may have been used by its authors and audi- ences. 2/13 Medieval Understandings of the Odinic Names Some of Óðinn’s names must have seemed to the thirteenth and fourteenth century audience to be akin to what was known as “kenningarnöfn.” “The kenningarnafn was an additional name given to its referent in celebration of his accidental qualities... [which] usually occurred in conjunction with a person’s primary given name” (Clunies Ross 60). They were used as a way of “characterizing individuals in early West Norse society... The secondary name usually described someone in terms of physical attributes like hair or skin colour, facial peculiarities, special skills, temperament, family connections, social status, famous deeds or possessions and so forth” (Clu- nies Ross 56). “Kenningarnöfn” were not believed to be linked to the essence of the individuals to which they referred; rather, they were imposed on individuals at a given time because of “ex- ternal circumstantial associations and events” (Clunies Ross 56). Examples of “kenningarnöfn” abound in sagas, both those that are supposed to reflect past times and the contemporary sagas: Ragnarr loðbrók, Guðmundr dýra, and Harald hárfagra are well-known saga characters with secondary names. A scene in Hrólfs saga kráka portrays the moment when a man is given a kenningarnafn: “Hún [Queen Ursa] fær til mann at þjóna þeim [her guests, including king Hrólr] ok gera þeim góðan beina. Ok sem þessi maðr kom fyrir Hrólf konung, þá mælti hann: “Þunnleitr er þessi maðr ok nokkur kraki í andlitinu, eða er þetta konungr yðarr?” Hrólf konungr mælti: “Nafn hefir þú gefit mér, þat sem við mik mun festast, eða hvat gefr þú mér at nafnfesti?” Vöggr svaraði “Alls ekki hefi ek til, því at ek em félauss” (Fornaldarsögur 74). This passage suggests that the imposition of a secondary name was marked by ritual gestures such as gift-giving. Snorri apparently understood Óðinn to be the primary name of the god in question and the other names to be like kenningarnöfn; this is evident when Hár insinuates that it is possible to know “hverir atburðir hafa orðit sér til hvers þessa nafns” (Edda 37). Margaret Clunies Ross suggests that a combination of Christian-Latin theory and “Icelandic views about different kinds of secondary names” was the “foundation for his [Snorri’s] conception of the kenning in skaldic poetry” (57). 3/13 However, if we leave Snorri and skaldic poetry aside and focus on eddic poetry, we see that- in contrast to saga characters such as Hrólfr kraki who are given secondary names by oth- ers- Óðinn has the capacity to confer names on himself. In Grímnismál, he says that “einu nafni/ hétumk aldregi/ síz ek með folkum fór,” but this doesn’t mean that the people in question are the ones who have assigned him multiple names (Eddukvæði 97). Indeed, in the poetic glimpses that we have of Óðinn’s travels, he is the one who introduces himself with various names, which are then used until it is revealed that he is Oðinn. For instance, in Vafþrúnðismál, he introduces himself with a simple “Gagnráðr ek heiti” (Eddukvæði 69). This is the only occasion on which he goes by this particular name; he is he seems to have assigned to himself on the spot. It is hard to guess what this type of incident might once have meant: is Oðinn’s ability to assign himself names linked to his command of poetry? Is it because of his divinity? Is it a reflection of a time when people could in fact assign themselves multiple names? Is he simply being deceptive? Demonic deception is the way that many medieval texts interpreted Óðinn’s use of additional names for himself. In saint’s lives and sagas, he frequently takes on the role of the devil in disguise (Lassen 94). His names are seen as false; they make up part of his deceptive disguises. For instance, in Óláfs saga in Flateyarbók, there is an episode with a narrative structure similar to that of the Odinic “wisdom contest” poems of the Poetic Edda. Óðinn visits king Óláfr and introduces himself as Gestr. In the course of their conversation, Gestr reveals information that points to his Odinic identity. “St Óláfr realises that he is facing ‘hinn illi Óðinn’... and wants to hit him on the head with his book of hours” (Lassen 96). In this episode, the name Gestr is por- trayed as a (rather transparent) way for Óðinn to mislead the saintly man by avoiding telling him who he really is. On the other end of the spectrum, Snorri seems to have seen the many names of Óðinn as a parallel to to the many names of God. In the aim of showing that the natural religion of the Scandinavians had anticipated Christian truths, he emphasises the name “Alföðr” Odinic Names and Drama Literature is created and consumed for specific purposes. Because of this fact, medieval literature can provide us with clues as to how the names of Óðinn may have been used in ritual, 4/13 magical, and pedagogical contexts. Let us begin by looking at one of our most important sources of information about Óðinn’s names: the eddic poems. These poems are recorded in manuscripts from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, which were likely to have been based on earlier written collections. The poems are generally thought to have been “in existence in the oral tradi- tion [at and] prior to the time that the original manuscripts came to be written” (Gunnell 184). In The Origins of Drama in Scandinavia, Terry Gunnell considers the contents of the poems and thinks about what an oral performance would have to be like in order for the audience to follow what is happening, especially if the prose passages in the Poetic Edda are a scribal addition: “Bearing in mind that from the point of view of the audience listening to an oral performance, immediate understanding of who is speaking and where they are situated is necessary, it must be concluded that any solo performer of Lokasenna... [other poems], Hárbarðsljóð, and probably also Vafþrúðismál would have had to employ various dramatic techniques in performance... If only for practical reasons, the greater likelyhood is that each ‘poem’ was originally performed (at the time of it’s recording and earlier) by more than one person, and that these persons wore cos- tumes and/or masks of some kind, used gesticulation, and moved between various points of the acting area as part of their performance” (Gunnell 281). In a dramatic performance, one way to create suspense is to withhold the identity of a given character. Gunnell notices, for instance, that in Hárbarðsljóð, “if the [prose] introduction was absent, the question of who exactly is speaking to whom would remain a puzzle for a further seven strophes. It is not until strophe 9 that the audience gets to know that the ragged, bare- legged character who eats oats and herring is making all the noise is in fact ‘The son of Óðinn’ [Þórr]..

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