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Lokasenna
Lokasenna reading group
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Manny
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Oct 26, 2021 09:47PM
My Icelandic colleagues Ingibjörg Iða Auðunardóttir and Brynjarr Eyjólfsson have just posted their new multimedia edition of the Lokasenna, packed full, or so they tell me, with sex, violence, amazing plot twists and Old Norse. They will be leading a new reading group here, starting soon. Don't miss it!
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Old Norse friends!Brynjarr and I are glad to announce the Lokasenna reading group! Starting next Monday (13th December) we will read twelve verses per week and discuss them on Mondays. This eddic poem is hilarious, full of dark humour that will entertain us through the holidays. If you want to participate, please read the first twelve verses before the 13th.
Best regards,
Ingibjörg Iða and Brynjarr Þór
Hey, I'm looking forward to finding out more about the Lokasenna! You guys have dropped so many tantalizing hints :)For the benefit of people who took part in the previous reading groups for the Völuspá and Hávamál, I wrote a script which combines the LARA versions of all three. Clicking on a word shows you examples on the right taken from all the poems where it occurs, so if you've seen it before in one of the earlier ones you'll be reminded. I've just added a link in my review of the Lokasenna - unfortunately I can't put it here due to the new restriction on posting links in comments.
In v 4, we have the lineá þér munu þau þerra það
The concordance tells me that the word "þerra" also occurred in Hávamál v 4,
Vatns er þörf þeim er til verðar kjömr, þerru ok þjóðlaðar
Am I right in thinking that here it's a verb, and there a noun?
In this case, it's the same verb, but different conjunction in Hávamál that doesn't exist anymore. Þerra means to dry, wipe or blot in Icelandic, and in Lokasenna it used to warn that if you pour insults on the friendly gods (it's an Icelandic expression, ef þú eys á holl regin (hrópi og rógi)), then they will dry off on you. That is, their revenge is tenfold! :-)
That makes sense! But then what does "þerru" mean in Hávamál v 4? It is glossed as "towel", but should it actually be "dry"? And if it is a form of the verb "þerra", which form?Clicking on the links to online resources on the concordance page, I found that BÍN lists "þerra" as a noun, but Lexicon Poeticum lists it as a verb... you understand my confusion :)
I completely understand the confusion as I was mistaken as well! In Gísli Sigurðsson version of Eddukvæði he glossed þerru in Hávamál as þurrka. This word form is both a verb and a noun, the verb being a lot more prominent in the language. The noun signifies the one that dries. Upon taking a closer look, I think this word form is the noun þerra in the genitive case (eignarfall). You were right all along Manny! Sorry for the confusion :-)
If I was right, it was only because I looked at the information already displayed in the combined LARA version :) Thank you for tracking down a definitive answer, Ingibjörg! I am slowly starting to feel more confident in Old Norse...
It's a little weird that the búa of the first line has acquired a meaning which its Germanic cognates lack. I've never seen it used in this way!I chuckled a little at Loki mátti eigi heyra það which reminds one of the very hip idiom:
"Naw, man, I ain't tryna hear that."
Good to see a familiar term (árdaga) from Beowulf in verse 9, although I admit Bragi's reference of 'mingling blood' is entirely meaningless to me. I've also never heard of this god.
I also can't help noticing the jingle-jangle call-&-response which the Kalevala has in such abundance, when Loki says 'I want to come/into Aegir's hall...' and Eldir responds 'If you would come/into Aegir's hall...'I've always wanted to find a good book on the possible influence the Finnish tradition (or maybe better to say the 'non-Indoeuropean Balts') had on the skalds & vice versa.
Max wrote: "I admit Bragi's reference of 'mingling blood' is entirely meaningless to me. I've also never heard of this god."Hi Max, nice to see you joining the party!
The name 'Bragi' is still in use in Sweden and has a special significance for me. When my older son was 4, we were living in Stockholm and he knew a kid called Bragi. I took him over one afternoon for a play date, and when I came to pick him up Jonathan was looking pretty unhappy and Bragi's mother was acutely embarrassed. It turned out that my son had tried to play with Bragi's fire truck, and Bragi had for some reason got so mad that he'd hit Jonathan with it, drawing blood. Jonathan fixated on the incident and asked us for years why Bragi had hit him with the fire truck. We could never think of an adequate explanation.
If anyone can find a moral to this story, please let me know. Bragi is still my unfavourite Norse god.
Had your son maybe refused to give Bragi the ale he was destined to share with him?
This could ale have been a misunderstanding.
In v 9,Mantu það, Óðinn,
er við í árdaga
blendum blóði saman?
Ölvi bergja
léztu eigi myndu
nema okkr væri báðum borið.
is it Loki speaking? The context suggests he is, but there is no 'Loki kvað' before the verse.
I think Bragi continues to speak. Given our prior discovery (as in the Hávamál) of the 'mead of poetry', it makes sense that Bragi would be Odin's cup-companion as a rule, for the latter is as much a god of mystery & poetic inspiration (his name has been linked by philologists with Latin vātēs) as he is a war-god & leader of the host.
But if it's Bragi, why is he saying this? "Mantu það, Óðinn" sounds like he's reproaching the High God that things are no longer so friendly. It seemed to make more sense with Loki - he and Óðinn were once close.
In Gísli Sigurðsson version, it has the traditional „Loki kvað“ in front of verse nine. This verse refers to the fact that Loki and Óðinn are blood-brothers, and therefore Loki finds it wrong that he is not invited to the dining hall with the others to drink :-)
That certainly does make good sense.My interpretation was that Bragi tells Loki to go (in 8) and then turns to Odin to say, in essence, "You're not going to let this guy in, are you? We're blood brothers!".
But the awkwardness of my interpretation is definitely taking the lack of Loki kvað at face value.
I wonder if Milton's Satan is inspired in part by Loki? Doing a quick search, I see other people speculating about links between them.
Did something in particular prompt you to say that?
I guess his relationship with God :)
Oh, I see, so Odin is God &, whereas they used to be peers, they've had a falling-out?I know we've discussed elsewhere the likeness of the Weird (manuscript wey(w)ard) Sisters in Shakespeare to the Norns. There had to've been at least a Latin translation of the Eddas that Milton had access to, but I wonder how "current" the Norse material was in the 17th century.
Loki & Satan both have to do with the serpent; both are involved with some bit of plant-life damning/killing a man (by which I mean Baldr & the mistletoe, which Robert Graves in his The White Goddess will tell you, without bothering to give a source, is a phallic symbol which answers to the fruit of "knowledge-in-the-Biblical-sense" (i.e. carnal knowledge) of Genesis); both, I think, are metamorphs. Who knows? It's possible.
I also wonder if there's commonality between the Serpent tempting Eve and Loki's relationship with the witch. In the version of the Nordic myths that I read as a child, the editor explained that Loki became truly evil after he ate the witch's heart. I remember being disturbed by this - I liked Loki.
I am not sure about this connection. I haven't read the entirety of Paradise Lost myself, but from what I remember there doesn't seem to be any explicit references to Norse mythology in Milton -- and he is very generous with making his references clear (Bible, Virgil, etc.). I also did my own quick search and the blogs that I've found that have been comparing the two are comparing Satan with Marvel's Loki. There we could argue that there might be a comparison!
Manny wrote: "I also wonder if there's commonality between the Serpent tempting Eve and Loki's relationship with the witch. In the version of the Nordic myths that I read as a child, the editor explained that Lo..."Do you remember which book this was from, Manny? I am trying to recall if there is ever an incident of Loki eating a witch's heart in the mythological corpus. Heart-eating, serpents, and shapeshifters are a big theme in Völsunga saga, though.
I read the book when I was about eight, alas I no longer have it :) Looking around, I find references to Loki eating Gullveig's heart in Padraic Colum's The Children of Odin on sacred-texts dot com. But this legend is not referred to, as least as far as I can tell, in Völuspá 21-22.
Manny wrote: "I read the book when I was about eight, alas I no longer have it :) Looking around, I find references to Loki eating Gullveig's heart in Padraic Colum's The Children of Odin on sacred-texts dot com..."I've found the reference! It's from Hyndluljóð, verse 41 in Larrington's edition: "Loki ate some heart, roasted on a linden-wood fire/ a woman's thought-stone, that he found half-singed." This scene is interestingly succeeded by Loki's impregnation.
Can we do Hyndluljóð next? :)
I was puzzled by Loki's attempt to slut-shame Iðunn in v. 17 when he accuses her of having slept with her brother's murderer. What brother, what murderer?!! But the Wikipedia entry for Iðunn, and some other pages I found, say no one else knows either.
Manny wrote: "In the version of the Nordic myths that I read as a child, the editor explained that Loki became truly evil after he ate the witch's heart."Wow, makes me think of Howl's Moving Castle! I wonder if Diana Jones had read the same book when she was a young'rn.
Really have to read and see Howl's Moving Castle! On my list but never manages to reach the top.I was looking around for more background on the slut-shaming. Since Loki does more or less the same thing in v. 20 with Gefjon, who I discover is noted for her virginity, are we to conclude that his accusations against both her and Iðunn are baseless?
Also, what's going on in the last two lines of v. 19?
að hann leikinn er
ok hann fjörgvall frjá.
The Wikipedia article on Gefjon says that the meaning is contested and quotes two widely differing English translations. Looking at the Swedish translations linked from heimskringla dot no slash wiki slash Loketrätan, they also look very different.
Is the problem that people don't know what "leikinn" and "fjörgvall" mean, or what?
Regarding the accusations against Gefjun, I remember my professor telling us at one point that these accusations are not found in any other text. Because of this, we have either lost the context that was once available (maybe in lost scripts perhaps) or Loki is just throwing around lies. Regarding the meaning of leikinn and fjörgvall, in Gísli Sigurðsson version leikinn is translated as kátur, e. cheerful, and with fjörgvall Gísli states that it is often read as fjörg öll, that is öll goð e. all gods. If we read the verse with this meaning in mind the verse tells us that Gefjun is trying to calm Loki down by talking nicely to him and lying to him that he is loved by all the gods.
As always, there is no certain meaning to anything in these old texts, but I feel that Gísli Sigurðsson is often on the right track. Hope this helps and sorry about the late reply!
Thank you Ingibjörg! But I am still confused here:Gefjun is trying to calm Loki down by talking nicely to him and lying to him that he is loved by all the gods.
Looking at the Lexicon Poeticum entry, I see that "frjá" is translated as "cherishing", which fits with what you say. But you and Brynjarr have glossed the word as "hate", also Bellows translates the last line as "And the dwellers in heaven he hates".
The Swedish translations at heimskringla dot no slash wiki slash Lokes_sm%C3%A4des%C3%A5ng leave me even more puzzled.
Manny wrote: "Looking at the Lexicon Poeticum entry, I see that "frjá" is translated as "cherishing", which fits with what you say. But you and Brynjarr have glossed the word as "hate", also Bellows translates the last line as "And the dwellers in heaven he hates".If you look at the manuscript transcription, it has fiá, an obsolete verb (in English) which gives us 'fiend' and 'fie', whereas the editors have inserted an 'r' in agreement with the view Ingibjörg has mentioned.
In the entry for fjargvefjask, Vigfusson-Cleasby reads:
Ls. 19 is corrupt, so that there is no evidence for the word fjörg = gods.
This in spite of the fact that they have no problem allowing fjarghús to mean 'huge houses' without the lemma fjarg(r) existing by itself. They even make reference to other (possible) cognates such as the Go fairguni for 'mountain', which is thought to be cognate with the Lithuanian thunder-god Perkūnas, associated with the oak (cf. Latin quercus and the mountain).
Naturally, I haven't seen the manuscript & am not an expert, but if we are allowed to grant that fjörg is a hapax of the otherwise unattested fjargr 'great, mighty', then the line reads perfectly, for we know that the gods are denoted in neuter plural because of the common appellation regin (which is neuter plural), thus:
ok hann fjörg öll fjá
'and he all mighty (gods) hateth.'
As for 'leikinn', I think 'wily' is a stone's throw from 'playful'. In OE, the word lāc never means 'frolic, play' (as in ON & other Germ langs), but rather 'struggle, contention'.
**Applause!!!**This is a fantastic analysis of a much-disputed verse. You should write a paper about it before someone else steals your idea. Seriously.
If you want to see the manuscript, www dot germanicmythology dot com slash works slash CODEXREGIUS dot html.
Much obliged, although doesn't the fact that others translate it this way mean that their reasoning is the same as mine?That's a great site. The CR has:
ok hann frœgvall fria
So I have to wonder who was the first to propose the route I took, unless the Lokasenna is recorded elsewhere.
Well, the Icelanders will be better able to comment on this than I am - but if such a reputable authority as Gísli Sigurðsson interprets it the other way, then I find it hard to believe that your analysis is generally known...
The text of the Poetic Edda is so extraordinarily dense! Every verse seems to refer to some whole legend that I know nothing about.In verse 23, I have no idea what's being referred to when Óðinn reminds Loki that he spent eight years underground milking cows like a woman. Searching for more information, I find many other confused people.
With words like these I usually consult Málið or (malid dot is), which contains an Icelandic etymological dictionary.According to Málið, the lemma fjarg (singular form) doesn't exist, but fjörg (plural form) is cited as appearing in Lokasenna. That the plural form "fjörg" is more common is no surprise, as the word "regin", which also means "gods", exists only in the plural.
Additionally, according to Málið, it is difficult to conceive how words such as "fjargveður" come to get their meaning. The word means something like commotion or trouble, but can also mean terrible weather. The latter meaning they take to come to mean weather caused by the gods.
The confusion with the "love/hate" problem with the word "f(r)já" lies exactly in this spectral "r". "Frjá" carries with it the meaning "to love", while "fía" or "fjá" means "to hate. This is all very confusing indeed.
As for verse 23, it also belongs to this group of verses in Lokasenna that is in want of references. Carolyne Larrington writes that "this story is not otherwise known, though Loki gives birth to Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse of Odin, after having sex with the Giant-builder's stallion, Svadilfari [as referenced in Snorra Edda]."
Hope this helps.
Thank you Brynjarr. It is interesting that opinions seem to be equally divided between the "love" and "hate" interpretations! Maybe Freud was right :)I think though that the LARA version has to take a stand here, it's really confusing to have the translation glosses say one thing and the Lexicon Poeticum another...
Still on the slut-shaming: in v 30, when Loki saysása ok álfa,
er hér inni eru,
hverr hefir þinn hór verið.
what exactly is he accusing Freyja of? I'm guessing that 'hór' here probably means 'adulterous lover', as in the biblical Danish 'Du skal ikke drive hor' ('Thou shalt not commit adultery'), or is there more to it?
In general, I'm increasingly curious to know whether we're supposed to believe that there's substance to Loki's accusations, if he's just causing trouble by spreading malicious rumours, or if it's intentionally ambiguous. How would a contemporary audience have read it?
I think his accusation is primarily one of 'wantonness, lasciviousness', although adultery is, as you rightly guess, the meaning of the word.Manny said: In general, I'm increasingly curious to know whether we're supposed to believe that there's substance to Loki's accusations, if he's just causing trouble by spreading malicious rumours, or if it's intentionally ambiguous. How would a contemporary audience have read it?
I'm inclined to think that there is substance, in all cases: that Christendom demolished (or at least redacted) a great portion of folkloric material both written & unwritten which, as a result, we lack. For example, it says on Freyja's wiki page that her husband Óðr is 'frequently absent', which makes her sad, but which, more importantly, fits her squarely into the archetypal 'buxom-girl-who-sleeps-around' routine so prevalent in medieval lit, (The prototype for this babe is usually the IE Dawn goddess, to whom the word 'mistress/lady' is applied in some traditions (G πότνια, S पत्नी patnī, and, indeed, PG *fraujǭ > Freyja, although this last one is another root)), such that Loki's accusations of looseness would have made members of the audience kind of turn to one another & say: "You know, I had heard that myself (from another source)." Almost like divine gossip.
I also had the feeling that we're suppose to think the accusations are justified, very nice to see the correlates of Freyja in other traditions! In terms of character, Aphrodite also seems similar, though it's interesting that in Greek mythology she's married to Hephaestus rather than Zeus.BTW, reading something else I noticed earlier today that the Babylonian creation myth has more points of contact with the Norse one than I had realised - killing a giant and cutting them in half to make the Heaven and the Earth, taking the blood to make the first human. I presume this has all been discussed at great length. Are there known intermediate points linking them up?
Certainly the first I've heard of it, but then Graves was convinced that mythic undercurrents ran from Egypt to Gaul and then to the Isles (and who knows where after that).The notion of slaying/overthrowing some primordial tyrant isn't uncommon in IE. One thinks of Uranus' castration at the hands of Cronus & his blood begetting the Gigantes (just as Ymir is the first of the jötuns). From Ymir's wiki page:
Citing Ymir as a prime example, scholars D.Q. Adams and J.P. Mallory comment that "the [Proto-Indo-European] cosmogonic myth is centered on the dismemberment of a divine being – either anthropomorphic or bovine – and the creation of the universe out of its various elements".... Other examples given include Ovid's 1st century bce to 1st century bce Latin Metamorphoses description of the god Atlas's beard and hair becoming forests, his bones becoming stone, his hands mountain ridges, and so forth; the 9th century AD Middle Persian Škend Gumānīg Wizār, wherein the malevolent being Kūnī's skin becomes the sky, from his flesh comes the earth, his bones the mountains, and from his hair comes plants; and the 10th century bce Old Indic Purusha sukta from the Rig Veda, which describes how the primeval man Purusha was dissected; from his eye comes the sun, from his mouth fire, from his breath wind, from his feet the earth, and so on. Among surviving sources, Adams and Mallory summarize that "the most frequent correlations, or better, derivations, are the following: Flesh = Earth, Bone = Stone, Blood = Water (the sea, etc.), Eyes = Sun, Mind = Moon, Brain = Cloud, Head = Heaven, Breath = Wind".
I was thinking of the "Enūma Eliš" which I saw summarised in Ruether's rather interesting God and Gaia. Consulting the Wikipedia article, note the end of Tablet 4:Marduk then split Tiamat's remains in two – from one half he made the sky – in it he made places for Anu, Enlil, and Ea.
and the beginning of Tablet 6:
Marduk then spoke to Ea – saying he would use his own blood to create man – and that man would serve the gods. Ea advised one of the gods be chosen as a sacrifice – the Igigi advised that Kingu be chosen – his blood was then used to create man.
As you say, many related myths, but this seems closer than usual.
Merry northern-hemisphere-bringing-back-the-light-festival!
And wouldn't it be great to have a LARA version of the Enūma Eliš :)
Isn't Tiamat a great serpent? And Marduk uses his own blood, not Tiamat's?And wouldn't it be great to have a LARA version of the Enūma Eliš :)
You've damned yourself. Your next task awaits. 😁
Merry northern-hemisphere-bringing-back-the-light-festival!
L'chaim!
My understanding is that Marduk only offers to use his own blood, but ends up using the blood of Tiamat's second consort Kingu. Ruether, who seems to know a lot about ancient Middle Eastern theology, identifies Tiamat as the deity symbolising the old matriarchal religion.I will be more than happy to assist in creating a LARA Enūma Eliš, but I'm afraid that I'm far less fluent in Akkadian Cuneiform than I would like to be.
