Crossing the Borders: Loki and the Decline of the Nation State

Chapter 11 Crossing the Borders: Loki and the Decline of the Nation State

Katja Schulz

The Old Norse mythic world is principally inhabited by two groups of anthro- pomorphic beings: the gods on the one hand, and the giants on the other. If one takes the mythological narratives as a whole, the lion’s share deals with interactions between these two focal groups of the Old Norse mythical world. These narratives, handed down to posterity in two Icelandic texts from the thirteenth century that go under the term Edda (the Poetic Edda and the Snor- ra Edda),1 tell about numerous peaceful interactions such as Ægir’s feast, when the sea giant brews ale and feasts with the gods.2 They describe how Óðinn visits Vafþrúðnir for a contest in mythological knowledge (in Vafþrúðnismál) and can tell of intermarriages between gods and giantesses, such as the one between Niǫrðr and Skaði according to Gylfaginning, Chapter 23. In most cases, the gods are the ones that benefit from these interactions; they gain knowledge about primeval matters, genealogies and mythical facts, and they acquire intel- lectual gifts such as the mead of poetry or counsel, as when Odin drinks from the well of Mímir, or when they make a contract with a giant to build the for- tification of Ásgarðr. The giants often lose out; they are fraudulently defeated, never allowed to marry a goddess (which is a constant desire of male giants), and all in all the relationship between gods and giants is characterised by nega- tive reciprocity.3 Nevertheless, peaceful interactions between the two groups

1 References to Snorra Edda are given to the chapters following Anthony Faulkesʼ edition of Snorri Sturluson: Edda. Prologue and Gylfaginning (second edition, 2005), and Snorri Sturlu- son: Edda. Skáldskaparmál. Volume 1: Introduction, Text and Notes (1998), both London, Vi- king Society for Northern Research. The Eddic poems are mentioned as edited in Edda. Die Lieder des Codex regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern: I. Text, edited by Gustav Neckel, fourth revised edition by Hans Kuhn (Heidelberg, 1962). 2 This myth is told in Skáldskaparmál 33 and in the frame narrative of Lokasenna. In both ver- sions of the story there is no enmity between the gods and giants, but only between Loki and all others present. 3 For this kind of intergroup relationship, compare Clunies Ross (1994, pp. 103–143). See also Schulz (2004, pp. 65–84).

218 Schulz are frequently described and bear witness to a wide range of social interaction between the gods and giants. Only when it comes to Ragnarǫk, the fate of the gods, is the manifold nature of social intercourse between gods and giants finally resolved into a simple opposition; they confront each other on the battlefield and destroy one another, just as the rest of the world is submerged in the sea. Thus, at Ragnarǫk, one ends up with the following groups in opposition to each other:

Gods (Æsir and Vanir) Giants Dwarves and elves Monsters (Midgard serpent, Fenrir) Human beings (einherjar) Loki Valkyries

Thus, one finds both a complex design of mythic society with a broad variety of social interaction on the one hand and a reduced complexity as regards the whole of the mythic population on the other hand. The fluctuation between these two poles seems to characterise the rendition of Old Norse myth over the long term, both in different phases of myth and in different modes of repre- sentation. In this chapter, I analyse several modern examples to prove this hy- pothesis and to demonstrate how these myths have been applied to construct identities beyond traditional nationhood. In what follows, the term myth refers to stories about gods and heroes (cf. Jan de Vries’ definition, 1961, p. ix). I assume, following the German philoso- pher Hans Blumenberg, that myth is only accessible in the form of its various receptions and that it is futile to search for something like a proto-myth (Blu- menberg, 1979, p. 299). As a natural consequence, the myths handed down in Snorra Edda or the Poetic Edda must be considered “myth” in the same way as the reworkings of a Richard Wagner, a Grundtvig or a Villy Sørensen. The very fact that this Old Norse material is recycled confirms its mythic quality. One early example may illustrate the pendulation between a complex, multifarious conception of the mythic world and a simplifying reduction of complexity, resolving into simple oppositions. Snorra Edda, probably the most influential medieval source of Old Norse myth, was composed around 1225 by Snorri Sturluson (1178/79–1241) as a poetological handbook to enable Icelandic poets and readers to grasp the meaning behind the many kennings that were an integral element of Old Norse poetry. A kenning is a two- (or more-) part phrase that describes an object by means of circumlocutions, frequently al- luding to a mythic event or expressing a family relationship. For example, in what may be the oldest skaldic poem, the ninth-century Ragnarsdrápa (Rag- nar’s Poem) by Bragi Boddason the old (inn gamli), Þórr is called haussprengir