Early Viking History: Voluspa

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Early Viking History Voluspa

• Voluspa is the first poem contained in the Codex
  Regius manuscript of the Poetic Edda, written
  down around 1270 A.D. The book was discovered in
  Iceland in the Renaissance and presented to the
  Danish king in 1643, and only returned to Iceland
  in the 1960s.
• It is the only source for most of the poems it
  contains.

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Brief Review of Dates

• 2000 BC Proto-Germans settle in southern
  Scandinavia
• 500 BC Proto-Germans displace Celts in northern
  Germany
• 120 BC Cimbri and Teutoni, Germanic tribes,
  invade Roman Empire
• 9 AD Cheruscan chieftain Arminius (Hermann)
  defeats Roman legions commanded by Quintilius
  Varus, end of Roman attempts to conquer Germanic
  territory
• 100 AD Tacitus writes Germania, describing the
  lands and tribes of Germany

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Dates of Völkerwanderung I

• 375 Migration Period begins with invasion of the
  Huns
• Old-High-German language period (500 until about
  1000 AD)
• c. 300 AD earliest runic inscriptions in Denmark,
  runic inscriptions on weapons in Germany
• 341 Bishop Ulfilas converts Visigoths to Aryan
  sect of Christianity, translates bible to Gothic
• 375 Huns appear in Europe, overrun the
  Ostrogothic King Ermenrichus. He is the basis for
  Jormunrek of the Volsungasaga. Beginning of
  dissolution of Roman Empire.

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Dates of Völkerwanderung II

• 436 Romans and their allies the Huns battle
  Burgundians in the Rheinland
• 437 Burgundian King Gundaharius dies. He is the
  basis for Gunnar of the Volsungasaga
• 449 Angles, Saxons, and Jutes migrate to Britain,
  conquer the Celts (from the Anglo-Saxon
  Chronicle)
• 453 Attila the Hun dies (possibly) at the hands
  of his new wife, the Germanic Ildico, a
  diminuitive form of Hild. Attila is the basis for
  the fictional Atli of the Volsungasaga, or Etzel
  of the Nibelungenlied

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Dates of Völkerwanderung III

• 476 Scirian chieftain Odovacar deposes last Roman
  Emperor, Romulus Augustulus end of Roman Empire
• 489 Theoderic (Dietrich von Bern) deposes
  Odovacar, establishes Ostrogothic kingdom in
  Italy. Hildebrand is one of Theoderics most
  famous retainers
• c. 550 Migration Period ends
• Beginning of medieval societies and states in
  Europe

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Migration Routes of Germanic Tribes
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Early Viking History I

• 700 Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf composed. It
  contains references to the Volsung legend
• 715 Willibrord leads first (unsuccessful)
  Christian mission to Scandinavia (Denmark)
• 750 Swedish Vikings establish Staraja Ladoga, a
  Viking colony in Russia
• 783 First Viking raid recorded in the Anglo-Saxon
  Chronicle
• 793 Vikings loot monastery on Lindisfarne, the
  Holy Island off the east coast of England.
• 795 Viking attacks on Ireland and Scotland become
  almost annual events in next century.

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Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

• A.D. 793 This year came dreadful forewarnings
  over the land of the Northumbrians, terrifying
  the people most woefully these were immense
  sheets of light rushing through the air, and
  whirlwinds, and fiery dragons flying across the
  firmament. These tremendous tokens were soon
  followed by a great famine, and not long after,
  on the sixth day before the ides of January in
  the same year, the harrowing inroads of heathen
  men made lamentable havoc in the church of God in
  Holy-island, by rapine and slaughter

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Early Viking History II

• 800 Earliest Skaldic poetry.Charlemagne crowned
  Holy Roman Emperor, controls most of European
  continent.
• 839 Swedish Vikings reach Constantinople.
• 841Viking base of Dublin established in Ireland.
• 844 First Viking raid on Spain.
• 860 Swedish Vikings, the Rus, attack
  Constantinople.
• 862 Rurik, a Swedish Viking, becomes ruler of
  Novgorod, establishes Rus dynasty (Russia).
• 862 Finns and Slavs invite Rurik and the Rus to
  rule over them, origin of Russian state.

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Early Viking History III

• 870 Vikings begin settlement of Iceland
• 1000 Conversion of Iceland to Christianity
• 1066 Battles of Stamford Bridge and Hastings End
  of the Viking Age.
• 1125 Icelandic Landnamabok, Book of Settlements,
  written, chronicles the Age of Settlement in
  Iceland.
• 1210 Oldest Icelandic family sagas written.
• 1220 Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson written.
• 1270 Codex Regius manuscript of the Poetic Edda
  written down.

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Gokstad ship from Museum in Oslo, Norway
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VoluspaThe Seeresss Prophesy

• Possibly a sacred text alluding in shorthand to
  the central elements of Norse cosmology a
  cosmogonic or aetiological poem.
• An ancient text, original probably dates to the
  10th century AD, when belief in the old gods was
  being supplanted by Christianity.
• Unclear if the author of the poems still believes
  in the gods.
• Two versions of this poem preserved Snorri
  quotes from the poem in his own Edda.

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Voluspa

• Written in fornyrdislag meter, typical for
  narrative poems, especially heroic poems.
• x x x x
• Her ma Hodbroddr Helga kenna
• x x x x
• Flotta traudan i flota midiom
• x x x x
• hann hefir edli ættar thinnar
• x x x x
• arf Fiorsunga und sic thrungit.
• Here Hodbrodd may recognize Helgi,
• The fighter who does not flee in the midst of
  the fleet
• The homeland of your kin,
• The inheritance of the Fiorsungs he has
  conquered.

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Voluspa

• Odin interrogates a Volva, or shamaness /
  seeress, about the doom of the gods.
• Odin is a magician himself and is able to compel
  her to speak, though she appears to do so
  reluctantly.
• She is able to see back to the beginning of time
  and forward to the end of time.
• She recounts aspects of several Norse myths known
  (at least partially) from other sources.

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The Norse Cosmos-Yggdrasil
The great ash tree and the three worlds of the
Norse cosmos.
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Themes in Voluspa

• Gullveig, a woman well versed in magic.
• War with Vanir
• Death of Baldr
• Fimbulvetr
• Ragnarok
• Death of Odin and Thor
• Rebirth after the Fire

• Creation of the Earth
• Yggdrasil
• Ymir
• The Æsir and the golden age of the gods
• List of dwarfs
• Creation of man and woman

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Norse Cosmos / Origins

• Ginnungagap, the realm between the ice of the
  north (Niflheim, land of fog) and the fire of the
  south (Muspellheim), the fusion of both fire and
  ice engendered the first life.
• Frost giant Ymir.
• Cow Audhumla.
• Buri, his son Bur, who married the daughter of a
  frost giant, Bestla, and she gave birth to the
  first gods, the brothers Odin, Vili, and Ve.
• The 9 Worlds fashioned from Ymirs body

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Images of the three Norns at the Well of Urd --
Urd, Verdandi, Skuld (Fated, Becoming, Must-be)
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I. Asgard

• Yggdrasilthe mighty ash at the center of the
  world
• Asgard is the home of the gods, world of the Æsir
• Well of Urd. Three Norns have a hall beside the
  well (Urd, Verdandi, Skuld)
• Vanaheim original home of the Vanir, now at
  peace with the Æsir.
• Alfheim home of the elves, or bright elves.
• Valhalla hall of the slain warriors
  (Einheriar), half chosen by Odin, others to Freja
  (Folkfangr).
• Vigrid a vast plain, stretching 120 leagues in
  every direction, site of Ragnarok.

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The First Cow, Audhumla
Asgard
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Bifrost and the Norse Gods
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II. Midgard

• Midgard is the home of men (literally
  middle-earth)
• Bifrost the rainbow bridge (flaming bridge)
  connects Midgard to Asgard
• Spring of Mimir Odin sacrificed an eye to have
  a single draught from it, wisdom.
• Nidavellir land of the dwarves, underground,
  from maggots to magical goldsmiths
• Svartalfheim home of black elves, very
  different from bright elves! Dwarves?
• Jotunheim land of the Frost-Giants, probably
  located far to the east, beyond mountains.

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III. Niflheim

• Niflheim is the realm of the dead (literally home
  of fog) 9 days ride north and down
• Hel the offspring of Loki, half dead and half
  living, also her tower/realm
• Spring of Hvergelmir a source of 7 rivers, one
  of the roots of Yggdrasil.
• Nidhogg giant dragon gnawing on the roots of
  Yggdrasil, with many snakes as well
• Muspell land of fire, located to the south
• ship Naglfari, largest ever built (of dead mens
  nails), is in Muspell, will appear at Ragnarok

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Voluspa Myths

• (17) Ash and Embla, Man and Woman, made from
  driftwood.
• (20) Three girls, the three Norns or Fates
• (21) The First War Gullveig (Bright-One of the
  VanirFreya?) arrives in Odins hall
• (31) Death of Baldr foretold
• (34) Binding of Loki, punishment for Baldrs
  death. Events preceding Ragnarok.
• (43) Cock crows, signals beginning of Fimbulvetr.
• (53) Æsir advance and die, Odin and Thor.
• (59) Rebirth from the ashes, Baldr, Hænir, Hod.

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Images of Ragnarok
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List of Rig / Rigsthula

• Final Poem in the Codex Regius, but is concerned
  with the beginnings of human society.
• An aetiological myth, explaining origins.
• Heimdall calls himself Rig, a Celtic name for
  king (like Latin rex).
• Heimdall visits three families and engenders
  three classes of society, each given symbolic
  names.
• Fragmentary poem breaks off after the appearance
  of the child in the highest class, king.

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Home of Great-Grandparents

• They serve him a coarse loaf of bread and boiled
  calf-meat.
• He sleeps between the two for three nights.
• Nine months later, Great-Grandmother has a boy
  named Thrall, who grows strong but ugly and
  dirty.
• Thrall marries Slavegirl and she gives birth to
  many ill-named sons and daughters (248).
• Thrall and Slavegirl and their family work hard
  in the fields and look after animals.
• From these two come the race of slaves.

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Home of Grandparents

• Their hut has more possessions and better
  furnishings, with industrious owners who wear
  nicer clothes.
• Heimdall sleeps between the two for the next
  three nights, then leaves.
• Nine months later, Grandmother gives birth to
  Farmer, who is rosy-cheeked and grows strong
  and capable.
• He marries a pretty girl called daughter-in-law
  and has many sons and daughters with beautiful
  and happy names (249).
• From these descend the race of farmersthe vast
  majority of freemen belonged to this class.

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Home of Parents

• Wealthy owners of last home, man busy with
  weapons and woman with fine dress.
• They serve him an elegant meal, with silver
  dishes and wine, roast birds and light pork.
• Heimdall sleeps between mother and father for
  three nights.
• Nine months later, Mother gives birth to Lord,
  a dashing young boy, who learns to make and use
  weapons, hunt, and swim.

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Lord and Kin

• Rig (Heimdall) reappears to young Lord, teaches
  him runes, gives him a name, tells him that he is
  his son.
• Rig tells Lord he must reclaim his ancestral
  territory.
• Lord rides to a hall, begins a battle, reddens
  the plain with blood as he fights for his land.
• He rules over many settlements, bestows wealth to
  his followers, gains honor and prestige.
• He marries Erna, daughter of Chieftain, who gives
  birth to sons and daughters with noble names
  (251).
• Youngest son, Kin, understands runes and magic,
  speaks with birds and charms them. A raven tells
  Kin he should be leading armies instead of
  hunting.
• Final line mentions Dan, legendary king of
  Denmark.