Dwelling of the goddess Frigg in Norse mythology
In
Norse mythology
,
Fensalir
(
Old Norse
"
Fen
Halls"
[1]
) is a location where the goddess
Frigg
dwells. Fensalir is attested in the
Poetic Edda
, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the
Prose Edda
, written in the 13th century by
Snorri Sturluson
. Scholars have proposed theories about the implications of the location, including that the location may have some connection to
religious practices involving springs, bogs, or swamps
in
Norse paganism
, and that it may be connected to the goddess
Saga
's watery location
Sokkvabekkr
.
Attestations
[
edit
]
In the
Poetic Edda
poem
Voluspa
, Frigg is described as weeping over her son
Baldr
's death in Fensalir. This stanza is absent in the
Hauksbok
manuscript of the poem.
[2]
The portion of the stanza mentioning Fensalir foretells that vengeance will come for the death of Baldr and that:
- while Frigg wept
- in Fen Halls
- for
Valh?ll's
woe.
[3]
In chapter 35 of the
Prose Edda
book
Gylfaginning
,
High
tells
Gangleri
(described as king
Gylfi
in disguise) that Frigg is the highest among the
asynjur
or Aesir, and that "she has a dwelling called Fensalir and it is very splendid."
[4]
In chapter 49, High says that when
Loki
witnessed that Baldr had gained invincibility due to the oath all things took not to harm him, Loki went to Fensalir appearing as a woman. In his disguise, Loki there asked Frigg why Baldr was not harmed by the objects. Frigg revealed that it is due to the oath they have taken. The disguised Loki asks if nothing can hurt Baldr, and Frigg reveals that only
mistletoe
can, for it seemed to her too young to demand an oath from. After this, Loki immediately disappears, and subsequently engineers the death of Baldr with a mistletoe projectile.
[5]
In the
Prose Edda
book
Skaldskaparmal
, Fensalir receives a third and final mention. In chapter 19, ways to refer to Frigg are provided, including that Frigg may be referred to as "queen of
Æsir
and Asyniur, of
Fulla
and
falcon
form and Fensalir."
[6]
Theories
[
edit
]
In 1882, the German scholar Anton Edzardi proposed that Fensalir may point to religious practices involving
springs
.
[7]
John Lindow
comments that "I have no idea why Frigg should live in a
boggy
place, despite the old argument that there is an association with a cult situated at a spring."
[2]
Rudolf Simek
comments that Edzardi's theory "must remain unanswered."
[8]
In addition, Edzardi theorized a connection between Fensalir and a belief in folklore that particular swamps act as an entrance to the realm of
Holda
, whom he connects with Frigg.
[9]
In a 19th-century work,
Paul Henri Mallet
and Walter Scott write that the "fen" element of
Fensalir
"may also be made to sig[nify] the watery deep, or the
sea
."
[10]
This
etymology
has resulted in theories that the name
Fensalir
may mean "Sea Halls" rather than "Fen Halls." In his 19th-century translation of the
Poetic Edda
,
Henry Adams Bellows
comments that "some scholars have regarded [Frigg] as a solar myth, calling her the
sun-goddess
, and pointing out that her home in
Fensalir
("the sea-halls") symbolizes the daily setting of the sun beneath the ocean horizon."
[11]
John Lindow
says that due to similarity between the goddess
Saga
's
Sokkvabekkr
and Fensalir, the open drinking between Saga and Odin, and the potential etymological basis for Saga being a seeress "have led most scholars to understand Saga as another name for Frigg."
[12]
Stephan Grundy
states that
Saga
and
Sokkvabekkr
may be by-forms of
Frigg
and
Fensalir
used for the purpose of composing
alliterative verse
.
[13]
Britt-Mari Nasstrom theorizes that "Frigg's role as a fertility goddess is revealed in the name of her abode, Fensalir [...]", that Frigg is the same as Saga, and that both the names
Fensalir
and
Sokkvabekkr
"imply a goddes [
sic
] living in the water and recall the fertility goddess
Nerthus
."
[14]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Orchard (1997:43).
- ^
a
b
Lindow (2001:114).
- ^
Dronke (1997:16).
- ^
Faulkes (1995:29).
- ^
Faulkes (1995:48).
- ^
Faulkes (1995:86).
- ^
Edzardi (1882:330?339) referenced in Lindow (2001:115).
- ^
Simek (2007:81).
- ^
Gildersleeve (1883:105).
- ^
Mallet, Scott (1847:550).
- ^
Bellows (2004:15).
- ^
Lindow (2001:265).
- ^
Grundy (1999:62).
- ^
Nasstrom (1996:88).
References
[
edit
]
- Bellows, Henry Adams
(Trans.) (2004).
The Poetic Edda: The Mythological Poems
.
Courier Dover Publications
.
ISBN
0-486-43710-8
- (in German)
Edzardi, Anton (1882). "Fensalir und Vegtamskvida 12, 5ff." in
Germania
27, edited by Franz Pfeiffer, pp. 330?339. Wien: Verlag von Carl Gerold's Sohn.
- Faulkes, Anthony (Trans.) (1995).
Edda
.
Everyman
.
ISBN
0-460-87616-3
- Grundy, Stephan
(1999). "Freyja and Frigg" as collected in Billington, Sandra and Green, Miranda.
The Concept of the Goddess
.
Routledge
.
ISBN
0-415-19789-9
- Dronke, Ursula
(Trans.) (1997).
The Poetic Edda: Volume II: Mythological Poems
.
Oxford University Press
.
ISBN
0-19-811181-9
- Lindow, John
(2001).
Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs
.
Oxford University Press
.
ISBN
0-19-515382-0
- Gildersleeve, L. Basil
(ed.) (1883).
American Journal of Philology
. Vol. IV. New York and London: Macmillan & Co.
- Mallet, Paul Henri
. Scott, Walter (1847) translated by
Thomas Percy
.
Northern Antiquities: Or, An Historical Account of the Manners, Customs, Religion and Laws, Maritime Expeditions and Discoveries, Language and Literature of the Ancient Scandinavians
.
H. G. Bohn
.
- Nasstrom, Britt-Mari (1996). "Freyja and Frigg - two aspects of the Great Goddess" as presented in
Shamanism and Northern Ecology: Papers presented at the Regional Conference on Circumpolar and Northern Religion, Helsinki, May 1990
.
Walter de Gruyter
.
ISBN
3-11-014186-8
- Orchard, Andy (1997).
Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend
.
Cassell
.
ISBN
0-304-34520-2
- Simek, Rudolf
(2007) translated by Angela Hall.
Dictionary of Northern Mythology
.
D.S. Brewer
ISBN
0-85991-513-1
External links
[
edit
]
- Media related to
Fensalir
at Wikimedia Commons
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