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Gna and Hofvarpnir

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"Gna" redirects here. For other uses, see GNA (disambiguation) .
Gna is flanked by the horse Hofvarpnir, while standing before the enthroned Frigg in an illustration (1882) by Carl Emil Doepler

In Norse mythology , Gna ( Old Norse : [??n?ː] ) is a goddess who runs errands in other worlds for the goddess Frigg and rides the flying, sea-treading horse Hofvarpnir (O.N.: [?hoːv?w?rpnez?] , "he who throws his hoofs about", [1] "hoof-thrower" [2] or "hoof kicker" [3] ). Gna and Hofvarpnir are attested in the Prose Edda , written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson . Scholarly theories have been proposed about Gna as a "goddess of fullness" and as potentially cognate to Fama from Roman mythology . Hofvarpnir and the eight-legged steed Sleipnir have been cited examples of transcendent horses in Norse mythology.

Attestations [ edit ]

In chapter 35 of the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning , the enthroned figure of High provides brief descriptions of 16 asynjur . High lists Gna thirteenth, and says that Frigg sends her off to different worlds to run errands. High adds that Gna rides the horse Hofvarpnir, and that this horse has the ability to ride through the air and atop the sea. [3] High continues that "once some Vanir saw her path as she rode through the air" and that an unnamed one of these Vanir says, in verse:

"What flies there?
What fares there?
or moves through the air?" [4]

Gna responds in verse, in doing so providing the parentage of Hofvarpnir; the horses Hamskerpir and Garðrofa :

"I fly not
though I fare
and move through the air
on Hofvarpnir
the one whom Hamskerpir got
with Gardrofa." [4]

The source for these stanzas is not provided and they are otherwise unattested. High ends his description of Gna by saying that "from Gna's name comes the custom of saying that something gnaefir [looms] when it rises up high." [4] In the Prose Edda book Skaldskaparmal , Gna is included among a list of 27 asynjur names. [5]

Theories [ edit ]

Frigg sends Gna, riding on Hofvarpnir, on an errand in Frigg and her Maidens (1902).

Rudolf Simek says that the etymology that Snorri presents in Gylfaginning for the name Gna may not be correct, yet it is unclear what the name may otherwise mean, though Gna has also been etymologically theorized as a "goddess of fullness." [6] John Lindow calls the verse exchange between the Vanir and Gna "strange" and points out that it's unclear why it should specifically be the Vanir that witness Gna flying through the air. [7]

Ulla Loumand cites Hofvarpnir and the eight-legged horse Sleipnir as "prime examples" of horses in Norse mythology as being able to "mediate between earth and sky, between Asgarðr , Miðgarðr and Utgarðr and between the world of mortal men and the underworld." [8] In the 19th century, Jacob Grimm proposed a cognate in the personified rumor in Roman mythology ; Fama . However, Grimm notes that unlike Fama, Gna is not described as winged but rather that Hofvarpnir, like the winged-horse Pegasus , may have been. [9]

See also [ edit ]

Notes [ edit ]

  1. ^ Simek (2007:157).
  2. ^ Lindow (2001:146).
  3. ^ a b Byock (2005:43).
  4. ^ a b c Byock (2005:44).
  5. ^ Faulkes (1995:157).
  6. ^ Simek (2007:113).
  7. ^ Lindow (2001:147).
  8. ^ Loumand (2006:133).
  9. ^ Grimm (1883:896?897).

References [ edit ]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gna .
  • Byock, Jesse (Trans.) (2005). The Prose Edda . Penguin Classics . ISBN   0-14-044755-5
  • Faulkes, Anthony (Trans.) (1995). Edda . Everyman . ISBN   0-460-87616-3
  • Grimm, Jacob (James Steven Stallybrass Trans.) (1883). Teutonic Mythology: Translated from the Fourth Edition with Notes and Appendix by James Stallybrass . Volume II. London: George Bell and Sons.
  • Lindow, John (2001). Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs . Oxford University Press . ISBN   0-19-515382-0
  • Loumand, Ulla (2006). "The Horse and its Role in Icelandic Burial Practices, Mythology, and Society." in Andren, A.; Jennbert, K.; Raudvere, C. Old Norse Religion in Long Term Perspectives: Origins, Changes and Interactions, an International Conference in Lund, Sweden, June 3-7, 2004 . Nordic Academic Press. ISBN   91-89116-81-X
  • Simek, Rudolf (2007) translated by Angela Hall. Dictionary of Northern Mythology . D.S. Brewer . ISBN   0-85991-513-1

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