Divine Names and Titles

By Hilda Ellis Davidson

One further way to discover the nature of the northern deities is to study the names by which they were known. Unfortunately, there is often considerable disagreement as to how a name should be interpreted. The important but elusive Celtic god Lug bears a name generally taken to mean ‘shining’ or ‘brilliant’, and we are told in the literature that his face shone. Many earlier scholars assumed, therefore, that he was a sun god. However, another school of thought derived his name from the word raven, since coins and medallions of the Roman period showed the youthful genius of the city of Lyon, presumed to be Lug, accompanied by ravens. A Greek writer also stated that lugus in the language of the Gaul’s meant raven, possibly because it resembled the Greek word for ‘black’; again the evidence is insufficient to be convincing.

One of the stock epithets applied to Lug, lambdada (of the Long Arm), is ambiguous, possibly referring to his famous spear or to his wide powers as a ruler. The identification of Lug with Mercury hardly fits in with the conception of a sun god, although the bringing of light and warmth could have been one of Lug’s many functions. He was also called the Many-Skilled, indicating diverse powers. Sometimes it seems as if he was regarded as a triad of deities, for there are references to his two brothers of the same name, and in inscriptions his name is sometimes in the plural form. Thus, while his name contributes something to our understanding of his character, it leaves many problems unsolved.

Another of the main Irish gods, the Dagda, has a name meaning the Good God, a title rather than a personal name. It signifies a being of many powers once again, ‘generous in giving’ rather than ‘good’ in any moral sense; he was famed for his hospitality in the tales, and other titles he bore were ‘Father of All’, and ‘Mighty One of Great Knowledge’. In view of this, it is a little surprising to find him represented as an undignified, pot-bellied individual, armed with a primitive club and clad in a short tunic and hood like a worker on the land. However, he was clearly a dynamic figure, with abundance of energy and a huge appetite. This formidable character who mates with giantess seems, like the Scandinavian Thor whom in some ways he resembles, to embody the disturbing power of the ancient gods, still remembered in tales told in Christian times.

The complications surrounding the names of divine beings are illustrated by those of Wotan. In one poem of the Poetic Edda, Grimnismal, a list of 47 names is given, and others may be found elsewhere to make a total of about 170. Some of these names are comprehensible in the light of surviving tales and legends, such as ‘God of the Hanged’, since hanging was the traditional method by which victims, human and animal, were said to be sacrificed to the god. Some of his names are related to his power on the battlefield, such as ‘Father of Victory’ and ‘Raven God’, since slaughter in war provided food for the ravens preying on corpses. Other names are in keeping with his reputation as a wanderer through the world in disguise, such as Vegtamr (Roadwise), or Grimnir (Masked One); Karl and Greybeard recall his appearance as an old man in a cloak. The name Odin is derived from the adjective odr, meaning ‘raging’ or ‘intoxicated’, and the German forms Wodan/Wutan come from wopu, meaning ‘madness’ or ‘fury’. Adam of Bremen’s comment on the god’s name was id est furor. As in the case of Ull, the name of the god is found in two forms, Odinn and Odr.

A god may be referred to by a title rather than a name, and a powerful deity is likely to have many titles, which may be used in inscriptions as well as literary sources, and are sometimes mistaken for names of separate deities. In Icelandic skaldic verse we find descriptive phrases for the deities in the form of kennings, which rely on a knowledge of myths. In his Prose Edda Snorri has much to say about the composition of skaldic verse, and when he describes gods or goddesses he often turns to kennings used in such verses for his information. In a kenning, the name of a person, place or object is not given directly, but replaced by a statement of its relationship to some person or thing. A skaldic poet would not call a spade a spade, but might refer to it as ‘sword of the soil’, or ‘ladle of earth’, or even ‘ladle of Thor’s mother’, whose name was Jord, ‘Earth’. Thus kennings might be as complex as modern crossword-puzzle clues. A king or leader could be alluded to as ‘hater of the fire-bed of the serpent’, as was Harald Hardradi in a poem by Thjodolf Arnorsson quoted in Heimskringla ‘The bed’ and ‘the fire of the serpent’ are two familiar kennings for gold, because gold shines like a fire, and, and serpent-dragons were said to lie on golden treasure in burial mounds, while ‘the hater of gold’ means a leader who does not keep wealth for himself but shares it among his followers, so that the phrase could denote a generous leader. At their best, kennings can be surprising and creative, providing rich imagery to add depth to a poem; at their worst, they are boring conceits and exercises in ingenuity. Their importance for the study of Norse mythology is that they may throw light on lost or incomplete myths or mythical beings. The kenning quoted above is based on heroic legend; the famous serpent guarding treasure was Fafnir, slain by the hero Sigurd the Volsung to gain an enormous treasure. Thus without using a dull simile, and employing very few words, the poet compares Harald in his youth to a courageous prince of the past by recalling this well-known story. There might also be a touch of humor here, since Harald was known to be greedy for gold and to show great skill in amassing it.

Women described in kennings are usually represented as goddesses, valkyries or norns, and a study of such kennings is one way of learning more about such beings. In a tenth-century poem, Kormak, a pre-Christian poet, described the girl he loved as the Gunna of the sun of the sea. Gunna is a valkyrie name, from a word meaning ‘battle’, which may be used in personal names such as Thorgunna, although we are told nothing about Gunna herself in mythological sources. ‘The sun of the sea’ is another kenning for gold, which is also called ‘fire’, ‘gleam’ or ‘light of the sea’ or ‘of rivers’. This might be based on a memory of lost treasure ships, or of gold thrown into the water as an offering. The meaning of the kenning ‘goddess of gold’ is a woman, since women wear gold as ornaments. Kormak often uses sea-images in his love poetry, which is far from being artificial verse-making and ranks among the best examples of skaldic poetry that have survived. In this particular poem he declares that the girl he loves is worth more than all the world’s wealth, and while the image of ever-moving light on the sea is used to express his own wanderings, she is said to be held in his constant heart, and in a further kenning is described as ‘tree of riches’.

In this case we have the name of a goddess, presumably of a minor kind, and such kennings often record such names, and occasionally tell us something of the attributes of a goddess. Skadi, for instance, is said to have been the wife of the god Njord, one of the fertility deities associated with seas and lakes, who was of some importance in the Viking Age. However, she was forced to part from him because she belonged to the mountains and he to the sea-shore, and they could never dwell happily together. Skadi is called ‘divinity of skis’ in two early skaldic poems. Snorri says of her; ‘She goes about much on skis’ and with a bow and arrow and shoots wild creatures.’ The mysterious god Ull, thought to be important before the Viking Age, is also said to be a god of skis’, and said to use a bow and to hunt. On the basis of this it has been suggested that the two are a pair of deities connected with the north and with winter, and some have gone further and claimed that Skidi was originally a male deity, as her name is a possible masculine form, or even tried to identify her with Ull. She is one of the few goddesses, however, about whom we are told a fair amount in the literature, and the reference to her holy places indicates that she was of some importance. It seems possible that her cult flourished in Halogaland, since she shows characteristics of the Saami, who were renowned for skiing, shooting with the bow and hunting; her separation from Njord might point to a split between her cult contact. Her name unfortunately, gives little help; it might be related to the noun skadi, meaning ‘harm’ or to Gothic skadus/ OE sceadu, ‘shadow’. In this case, the early kennings indicate certain characteristics of this goddess which might have gone unnoticed.

The main Scandinavian deities are often described in kennings. Snorri in Skaldskaparmal 1, states that one god may be named in terms of another: ‘when we say the Tyr of victory or the Tyr of the hanged, or the Tyr of cargoes, these are terms for Wotan’. The connection of Wotan with victory in battle and with hanged victims is well attested, but the name ‘God of Cargoes’ is more surprising; however, Snorri in Ynglinga Saga 6 claims that Wotan found treasure in the earth for his followers and brought them wealth, and this is another characteristic shared with the Roman Mercury. A point worth noting in Snorri’s statement quoted above is that Tyr could have his name used as an equivalent for ‘god’ in a kenning; this seems to indicate that he had some special significance in early tradition, although by the late Viking Age he plays little part in the myths. Tyr’s name is also used for warrior in kennings: in a humorous poem said to be composed in Vinland in Eiriks Saga rauca 9, in which the poet refers to himself as a warrior, he uses the kenning: ‘the Tuyr who demands the hat of Bild’. Bild is one of Wotan’s names, and his hat is a helmet, so the poet is a fighting man ready for conflict. If Tyr were in early times associated with battle and identified with Mars this might help to explain the part he plays in kennings.

Some kennings simply state the relationship of two or more deities, as when Thor is called ‘Son of Wotan’. Since this link is found in early kennings, the idea of Wotan as his father cannot be a late invention by Snorri. Other kennings refer to Jord (earth) as Thor’s mother, indicating a link between sky god and earth goddess. When Thor is called the father of Modi and Magni, whose names mean ‘strength’ and ‘anger’, it seems that we simply have personified qualities of the god, and the same is true of his daughter Thrud (strength), while he is also said to dwell at Thrudheim. Other Thor kennings, such as ‘Possessor of Mjollnir’, his famous hammer-axe, can be understood from the recorded myths, as may also such kennings as ‘Defender of Asgard’ and ‘Defender of Midgard’, since he protected the world of the gods and the inhabited earth, as well as those that described him as the slayer of various giants.

The kennings certainly create problems, but it is essential to study them if any serious attempt to understand the myths and the nature of the various northern subject have been made available by Meissner (1921), which makes it possible to trace those used of supernatural beings, and to discover which were used by the early poets. Since many of the kennings come from the pre-Christian period, they can, like early works of art, give us a direct link with the Scandinavian world-picture before the coming of Christianity.

When we survey the different kinds of evidence that can extend our knowledge of the gods and their significance in daily life, it soon becomes apparent that we are losing our guide-lines and straying away from the neat, rational picture of deities that tends to be given in popular mythologies. This is generally based on the myths that have come down to us, but only after simplifying these and avoiding their obscurities and contradictions. It is essential to realize how tangled the web of beliefs and traditions concerning the gods must in fact have been, and this has been apparent in attempts to come to terms with the divine world pictured on the carved stones or remembered in poetic imagery. Certainly without the background of the northern myths themselves it would be hard to fit the surviving evidence into any sort of coherent pattern, and it is to these therefore that we must now turn.


From the book “The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe” via Ron McVan

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