Aurvandill
Template:Short description Template:Redirect
Aurvandill (Old Norse) is a figure in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, the god Thor tosses Aurvandill's toe – which had frozen while the thunder god was carrying him in a basket across the Élivágar rivers – into the sky to form a star called Template:Lang ('Aurvandill's toe'). In wider medieval Germanic-speaking cultures, he was known as Template:Lang in Old English, Template:Lang in Old High German, Template:Lang in Lombardic, and possibly as Template:Lang (auzandil) in Gothic. An Old Danish Latinized version, Horwendillus (Ørvendil), is also the name given to the father of Amlethus (Amleth) in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Comparative studies of the various myths where the figure is involved have led scholars to reconstruct a Common Germanic mythical figure named Template:Lang, meaning 'light-beam' or 'ray of light'. According to the Old English and Gothic sources, and to a lesser degree the Old Norse text (where a star is mentioned without additional details), this figure seems to have personified the 'rising light' of the morning, possibly the Morning Star (Venus). However, the German and Old Danish evidence remain difficult to interpret in this model.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Name and origin
Etymology
The Old Norse name Template:Lang stems from a Proto-Germanic form reconstructed as Template:Lang,Template:Sfn Template:Lang,Template:Sfn or Template:Lang.Template:Sfn It is cognate with Old English Template:Lang, Old High German Template:Lang (≈ Template:Lang), and Lombardic Template:Lang.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn<ref name="Falluomini">Template:Harvnb</ref> The Gothic word Template:Lang, which can be read in the Gothica Bononiensia according to the interpretation of several experts, is probably another cognate.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Main interpretation
The exact meaning of the Proto-Germanic name has been the subject of sustained scholarly discussion.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Most scholars favour a connection with dawn-light imagery, making Aurvandill a figure associated with brightness, the morning star, or a celestial phenomenon.Template:Sfn
A commonly cited interpretation understands Template:Lang as a compound meaning 'light-beam' or 'ray of light', by deriving the prefix Template:Lang- from Proto-Germanic Template:Lang ('shiny [especially of liquids]'; cf. ON Template:Lang 'gold', OE Template:Lang 'wave, sea'),Template:Efn and Template:Lang from Template:Lang ('rod, cane'; cf. Goth. Template:Lang, ON Template:Lang).Template:Efn<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref> The latter probably stems from the root Template:Lang ('to turn, wind'), carrying connotations of suppleness and flexibility, that is, something that bends or moves with ease.<ref name="OED">Oxford English Dictionary Online, wand, n.</ref>
On this basis, Proto-Germanic Template:Lang may be interpreted as denoting the 'Morning Star' (Venus) or more broadly the 'rising light of the morning' (sunrise), a meaning that would be semantically parallel to Latin lūcifer ('light-bringer, morning star').Template:Sfn Among its cognates, this theory is supported by the Old English figure Ēarendel, whose name is associated with the concept of 'rising light'.<ref name="deVries">Template:Harvnb</ref><ref>Template:Harvnb</ref><ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Ēarendel has been variously translated as 'radiance, morning star',Template:Sfn<ref name="Simek" /><ref name="Falluomini" /> or as 'dawn, ray of light',<ref name="Lindow" /> and is attested as a rendering of Latin lūcifer.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Additional evidence may be provided by the Gothic word auzandil, which translates the Koine Greek word heōsphóros ('dawnbringer') from the Septuagint, itself rendered in Latin as lūcifer.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In Old Norse tradition, Aurvandill is likewise connected with a star, though its identity remains uncertain.Template:Sfn
Alternative theories
Other etymologies have been suggested. One hypothesis derives the name from a Pre-Proto-Germanic form Template:Lang ('the one wandering in the early morning'), yielding translations such as 'shining wanderer' or 'wandering light'.Template:Sfn However, this poses phonological difficulties, since Gothic sound laws would have produced **aurawandils rather than auzandil(s).Template:Sfn Stefan Schaffner has alternatively posited an original form Template:Lang ('the little one rising in the morning'), with a diminutive suffix -eló.Template:Sfn
A different line of interpretation takes the prefix Template:Lang from Proto-Germanic Template:Lang ('mud, gravel, sediment'; cf. ON Template:Lang 'wet clay, mud', OE Template:Lang 'earth'), rendering the name as 'gravel-beam' or 'swamp-wand'.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn According to philologist Christopher R. Fee, this may imply the idea a phallic figure related to fertility, since the name of Aurvandill’s spouse in myth, Gróa, literally meaning 'Growth'.Template:Sfn
Less common proposals include deriving the second element from Template:Lang ('Vandal'; i.e. 'the shining Vandal'),Template:Sfn or from a stem Template:Lang ('beard').Template:Sfn
Origin
Commentators since at least the time of Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie, first published in 1835, have emphasized the great age of the tradition reflected in the mythological material surrounding this name, without being able to fully reconstruct the motifs of a Common Germanic myth. The task is complicated because the mythical stories of Orendel and Horwendillus appear to be unrelated to those of Ēarendel and Aurvandill. However, some scholars, including Georges Dumézil and Stefan Schaffner, have attempted to demonstrate that Saxo's Horwendillus and Snorri's Aurvandill ultimately derive from the same archetypal myth.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
The apparent discrepancies may be partly explained by the occurrence of derivatives of Template:Lang as personal names in the Lombardic and German traditions, as attested by historical figures called Template:Lang and Template:Lang in the 8th century AD, which suggests cultural diffusion of the name beyond mythology.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In this context, the Orendel of the Middle High German epic may represent an independent figure who merely bore the same name.Template:Sfn Although some scholars have also conjectured that he may constitute a saga-figure ultimately derived from the myth, they concede that no substantive correspondences with the Old Norse tradition can be established.Template:Sfn
Nevertheless, scholars Rudolf Simek and John Lindow contend that the linguistic relation between the Old Norse and Old English names may point to a Common Germanic origin of the myth, despite the absence of Aurvandill from the Poetic Edda. They maintain that Aurvandill was probably already associated with a star in the original myth, and that Snorri, in order to explain the name Aurvandils tá ('Aurvandill's Toe'), may have reshaped the narrative on the model of the tale in which the stars are formed from Þjazi's eyes when Thor casts them into the sky.<ref name="Simek">Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name="Lindow">Template:Harvnb</ref>
Attestations
Old Norse
The Old Norse Template:Lang is mentioned once in Norse mythology, in Skáldskaparmál, a book of Snorri Sturluson's 13th-century Prose Edda, where he is described as the husband of the witch Gróa:<ref>A. G. Brodeur's translation (New York: American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1916).</ref>
Thor went home to Thrúdvangar, and the hone remained sticking in his head. Then came the wise woman who was called Gróa, wife of Aurvandill the Valiant: she sang her spells over Thor until the hone was loosened. But when Thor knew that, and thought that there was hope that the hone might be removed, he desired to reward Gróa for her leech-craft and make her glad, and told her these things: that he had waded from the north over Icy Stream and had borne Aurvandill in a basket on his back from the north out of Jötunheim. And he added for a token, that one of Aurvandill's toes had stuck out of the basket, and became frozen; wherefore Thor broke it off and cast it up into the heavens, and made thereof the star called Aurvandill's Toe. Thor said that it would not be long ere Aurvandill came home: but Gróa was so rejoiced that she forgot her incantations, and the hone was not loosened, and stands yet in Thor's head. Therefore it is forbidden to cast a hone across the floor, for then the hone is stirred in Thor's head.
This passage seems to be part of a larger story where Aurvandill is abducted by the jǫtnar; the thunder-god Thor confronts one of them (Hrungnir in Snorri's version) and eventually liberates Aurvandill, but leaves the scene with the weapon of the jǫtunn stuck in his head.Template:Sfn
At the end of the story, Aurvandill's frost-bitten toe is made into a new star by Thor. However, it is not clear what celestial object is indicated in this passage. Guesses as to the identity of this star have included Sirius or the planet Venus.Template:Sfn Aurvandilstá ('Aurvandill's Toe') has also been identified with blue-white star Rigel, which could be viewed as forming the foot of the constellation Orion (the latter equated with Aurvandill itself).Template:Sfn
Gothica Bononiensia
The oldest attestation of this name may occur in the Gothica Bononiensia, a sermon from Ostrogothic Italy written in the Gothic language not later than the first half of the 6th century, and discovered in 2009.Template:Sfn
On folio 2 recto, in the context of a quotation from Isaiah 14:12, linguist P. A. Kerkhof suggested to see the word Template:Lang (auzandil) in a difficult-to-read part of the palimpsest. This reading has been accepted by various experts such as Carla Falluomini,Template:Sfn Stefan Schaffner,Template:Sfn and Roland Schuhmann.Template:Sfn Some scholar have proposed emending the name to *auzandils in order to account for its etymological connection with other Germanic names.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn It translates the Koine Greek word Template:Lang (heōsphóros, 'dawnbringer') from the Septuagint, which in Latin is rendered lūcifer ('light-bringer, morning star').Template:Sfn In this passage, auzandil exactly corresponds to Old English ēarendel ('morning star'), which also translates Latin Template:Lang.Template:Sfn
... Template:Transliteration ...
... how Lucifer did fall from heaven, he who emerges in the morning ...
Old English
The term Template:Lang (≈ Template:Lang, Template:Lang) appears seven times in the Old English corpus, where it is used in certain contexts to interpret the Latin Template:Lang ('rising sun'), Template:Lang ('light-bringer'), Template:Lang ('dawn') or Template:Lang ('radiance').Template:Sfn According to scholar J. E. Cross, textual evidence indicate that it originally meant 'coming or rising light, beginning of light, bringer of light', and that later innovations led to an extended meaning of 'radiance, light'.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Philologist Tiffany Beechy writes that "the evidence from the early glossary tradition shows earendel to be a rare alternative for common words for the dawn/rising sun."Template:Sfn According to her, the "Anglo-Saxons appear to have known Template:Lang as a quasi-mythological figure who personified a natural phenomenon (sunrise) and an astrological/astronomical object (the morning star)."Template:Sfn
Crist I
The lines 104–108 of the Old English poem Crist I (Christ I) describe the coming of Ēarendel to the earth:
Crist I (104–108):Template:Sfn
|
B. C. Row translation (1997):<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
|
T. Beechy translation (2010):Template:Sfn
|
The impetus of the poem comes from the Latin Advent Antiphon: Template:Lang ("O Orient/Rising One, splendour of eternal light and sun of justice: come and illuminate one sitting in darkness and the shadow of death"). Scholars agree that Template:Lang was chosen in Crist I as an equivalent of the Latin Template:Lang, understood in a religious-poetic context as the 'source of true light', 'the fount of light', and the 'light (which) rises from the Orient'.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>Template:Sfn
Traditionally, Ēarendel in Crist I is taken to personify either John the Baptist or Christ himself, depicted as the rising sun, the morning star, or the dawn.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In the poem, he is described as the "true(st) light of the sun" (Template:Lang) and as the "brightest of angels [≈ messengers]" (Template:Lang). This portrayal suggests the idea of a heavenly or divine radiance sent both physically and metaphorically over the earth for the benefit of mankind. The lines 107b–8 (Template:Lang), translated as "all spans of time you, of yourself, enlighten always", or as "you constantly enlighten all seasons by your presence", may also imply that Ēarendel exists in the poem as an eternal figure existing outside of time, and as the very force that makes time and its perception possible.Template:Sfn
Beechy argues that the expression Template:Lang ('O Template:Lang') could be an Old English poetic stock formula, as it finds "phonetic-associative echoes" in the expressions Template:Lang and Template:Lang from the Durham Hymnal Gloss.Template:Sfn
Blickling Homilies
Template:Lang also appears in the Blickling Homilies (10th century AD), where he is explicitly identified with John the Baptist:
Blickling Homilies XIV (30–35):Template:Sfn
|
R. Morris translation (1880):Template:Sfn
|
The passage is based on a Latin sermon by the 5th-century Archbishop of Ravenna Petrus Chrysologus: Template:Lang ("But since he is about to appear, now let John spring forth, because the birth of Christ follows closely; let the new Lucifer arise, because now the light of the true Sun is breaking forth"). Since the Old English version is close to the original Latin, Template:Lang can be clearly identified in the Blickling Homilies with lucifer, meaning in liturgical language the 'light bearer, the planet Venus as morning star, the sign auguring the birth of Christ'.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In this context, Template:Lang is to be understood as the morning star, the light whose rising signifies Christ’s birth, and whose appearance comes in the poem before the "gleam of the true Sun, God himself".Template:Sfn
Glosses
In the Durham Hymnal Gloss (early 11th century AD), the term Template:Lang is used in specific contexts to gloss the Latin aurora ('dawn; east, orient') instead of the more commonly used equivalent dægrima ('dawn'). Hymns 15.8 and 30.1 imply that Template:Lang appears with the dawn, as the light that "quite suffuses the sky", rather than being the dawn itself ("the dawn comes up in its course, Template:Lang steps fully forth").Template:Sfn
Durham Hymnal Gloss:Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
|
Old English version:Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
|
The Épinal Glossary, written in England in the 8th century, associates Template:Lang with the Latin Template:Lang ('brightness, radiance' [especially of heavenly bodies]) as an alternative to the more frequent equivalent Template:Lang (Old English: 'ray of light, gleam').Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Two copies of the Épinal Glossary were produced in the late 8th or early 9th century: the Épinal-Erfurt Glossary, which gives the equation Template:Lang (≈ Template:Lang), and the Corpus Glossary, which was redacted from an archetype of the Épinal-Erfurt exemplar.Template:Sfn
German
The forms Template:Lang (≈ Template:Lang, Template:Lang), dating from the 8th century, and Template:Lang (≈ Template:Lang), dating from the 9th–10th century, are attested as personal names in Old High German.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Sfn
The Middle High German epic poem Orendel, written in the late 12th century, presents a fictional story of how the Holy Mantle of Christ arrived in the city of Trier. This narrative was likely inspired by the actual transfer of the Mantle to the main altar of Trier Cathedral in 1196. The poem's style, characterized by its "paratactic organization of episodes and the repetition of poetic formulas", suggests it may be rooted in an older oral tradition.Template:Sfn
The eponymous hero of the tale, Orendel, son of King Ougel, sets sail with a formidable fleet to reach the Holy Land and seek the hand of Bride, Queen of Jerusalem. After enduring a shipwreck, Orendel is rescued by a fisherman and eventually retrieves the lost Mantle from the belly of a whale. The coat grants him protection, enabling him to win Bride's hand in marriage. Together, they rule Jerusalem for a time and embark on numerous adventures. In the end, Orendel disposes of the Holy Coat after bringing it to Trier.Template:Sfn
The appendix to the Strassburger Heldenbuch (15th c.) names King Orendel (≈ Template:Lang) of Trier as the first of the heroes that were ever born.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The name also gave way to various toponyms found in modern Germany, including Template:Lang (in Grabfeld), Template:Lang (now part of Zweiflingen), and Template:Lang (in Öhringen).Template:Sfn
Lombardic
The Lombardic form Template:Lang appears twice as a personal name in the 8th century. According to Jan de Vries, these occurrences indicate the wide diffusion of the figure across the Germanic-speaking area by the Early Middle Ages.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Danish
A Latinized version of the Old Danish name, Horwendillus (Ørvendil), appears in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum (ca. 1200) as the father of Amlethus (Amlet):Template:Sfn
Now Ørvendil, after controlling the [Jutland] province for three years, had devoted himself to piracy and reaped such superlative renown that Koller, the king of Norway, wishing to rival his eminent deeds and widespread reputation, judged it would suit him very well if he could transcend him in warfare and cast a shadow over the brilliance of this world-famed sea-rover. He cruised about, combing various parts of the seas, until he lit upon Ørvendil's fleet. Each of the pirates had gained an island in the midst of the ocean and they had moored their ships on different sides. (...)
Both gave and accepted their word of honour on this point and fell to battle. They were not deterred from assailing each other with their blades by the novelty of their meeting or the springtime charm of that spot, for they took no heed of these things. Ørvendil's emotional fervour made him more eager to set upon his foe than to defend himself; consequently he disregarded the protection of his shield and laid both hands to his sword. This daring had its results. His rain of blows deprived Koller of his shield by cutting it to pieces; finally he carved off the other’s foot and made him fall lifeless. He honoured their agreement by giving him a majestic funeral, constructing an ornate tomb, and providing a ceremony of great magnificence. After this he hounded down and slew Koller's sister Sæla, a warring amazon and accomplished pirate herself and skilled in the trade of fighting.
Three years were passed in gallant military enterprises, in which he marked the richest and choicest of the plunder for Rørik, to bring himself into closer intimacy with the king. On the strength of their friendship Ørvendil wooed and obtained Rørik's daughter Gerutha for his bride, who bore him a son, Amleth.
In view of Saxo's tendency to euhemerise and reinterpret traditional Scandinavian myths, philologist Georges Dumézil has proposed that his story was based on the same archetype as Snorri's Aurvandill. In what could be a literary inversion of the original myth, Horwendillus is portrayed as a warrior who injures and vanquishes his adversary, whereas Aurvandill was taken as a hostage by the jǫtnar and wounded during his deliverance. Dumézil also notes that, although the event does not take a cosmological turn in Saxo's version, Aurvandill's toe was broken off by Thor, while Collerus' (Koller's) entire foot is slashed off by Horwendillus.Template:Sfn
According to scholar Stefan Schaffner, Koller (Collerus) may have originally meant 'the cold one', and the story could be based on an ancient myth of the battle between the seasons, in which the cold winter (Collerus) is defeated by spring or summer (Horwendillus). In this view, "Horwendillus, as the representative of summer, would fit very well with the identification of Aurvandill as Orion, the constellation that rises early in midsummer at the time of the grain harvest."Template:Sfn Template:Kings of Gesta Danorum family tree
In popular culture
Tolkien's The Silmarillion
Template:Main The English writer J. R. R. Tolkien discovered the lines 104–105 of Cynewulf's Crist in 1913.Template:Sfn According to him, the "great beauty" of the name Ēarendel, and the myth he seems to be associated with, inspired the character of Eärendil depicted in The Silmarillion.Template:Sfn In 1914, Tolkien published a poem originally entitled "The Voyage of Earendel the Evening Star" as an account of Ēarendel's celestial course as the bright Morning-star.Template:Sfn In a personal letter from 1967, Tolkien wrote:
When first studying A[nglo]-S[axon] professionally (1913) ... I was struck by the great beauty of this word (or name), entirely coherent with the normal style of A-S, but euphonic to a peculiar degree in that pleasing but not 'delectable' language ... it at least seems certain that it belonged to astronomical-myth, and was the name of a star or star-group. Before 1914, I wrote a 'poem' upon Earendel who launched his ship like a bright spark from the havens of the Sun. I adopted him into my mythology in which he became a prime figure as a mariner, and eventually as a herald star, and a sign of hope to men. Aiya Earendil Elenion Ancalima (II 329) 'hail Earendil brightest of Stars' is derived at long remove from Éala Éarendel engla beorhtast.Template:Sfn
Tolkien interpreted Ēarendel as a messenger, probably inspired by his association with the word Template:Lang ('angel, messenger') in both Crist I (104) and the Blickling Homilies (21 & 35), and his identification with John the Baptist in the latter text.Template:Sfn Tolkien's depiction of Eärendil as a herald also has echoes in the interpretation of the Old English Ēarendel as the Morning-star physically heralding the rising of the sun, which finds a figurative parallel in the Blickling Homilies, where Ēarendel heralds the coming of the "true Sun", Christ.Template:Sfn Another pervasive aspect of Tolkien's Eärendil is his depiction as a mariner. Carl F. Hostetter notes that, although "the association of Eärendil with the sea was for Tolkien a deeply personal one", the Danish Horvandillus and the German Orendel are both portrayed as mariners themselves.Template:Sfn
Others
In 2022, a group of scientists led by astronomer Brian Welch named star WHL0137-LS "Earendel" from the Old English meaning.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>
In the 2022 revenge-thriller film The Northman, written and directed by Robert Eggers, Aurvandill is portrayed by Ethan Hawke. In the film Aurvandill is mentioned as the Raven King, who is the father of Amleth, the protagonist of the film, portrayed by the Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård. The film is based primarily on the medieval Scandinavian legend of Amleth, which is the direct inspiration behind the character Hamlet from William Shakespeare's 16th century tragedy of the same name.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
See also
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
Primary sources: Template:Refbegin
Secondary sources: Template:Refbegin
- Template:Cite journal
- Template:Cite journal
- Template:Cite journal
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite journal
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite journal
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite journal
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite journal
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book