Garm

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Drawing of a seated woman looking out of the picture at an angle to the left. In the foreground is a large dog that is also barking and looking to the left. Tree roots with a snake at the top of the picture.
Garm guards the entrance to the underworld. Drawing Hel by Johannes Gehrts (1889)

Garm (Old Icelandic: Garmr ) is the dog in Norse mythology who guards the entrance to the Norse underworld Hel .

Garm is associated with the end times vision in Norse mythology. Ancient influences of the hellhound Kerberos may have played a role. Garm is the dog of the goddess of the dead Hel , ruler of the underworld and guards the entrance to the underworld at the Gjöll river , where he lives in the Gnipahellir cave (German: overhanging cave). He pounces on anyone who approaches the underworld. Odin meets him on his ride to Niflheim . On the day of the end of the world ( Ragnarök ) Garm will tear himself away to a terrible howl and fight alongside the giants against the sir . They both die in a duel with Tyr . Some authors consider Garm to be synonymous with the Fenrir .

Icelandic sagas

Garm appears as a figure only a few times in old Icelandic poetry.

In the Völuspá , the first song of the gods from the Codex Regius , the date of which can be dated around 1000 AD, the island of Lyngvi, on which Loki and Fenrir are chained in the Gnipahelli cave, is guarded by Garmr, a huge dog, who howls loudly when the chains of Loki and Fenrir threaten to break before the impending end of the world:

Poem (old norse)

Geyr nú Garmr mjǫk
fyr Gnipahelli,
Festr man slitna ,
en Freki renna.

Translation (german)

Garmr barks hideously now
in front of the Gnipa Cave,
the bonds will tear ,
and free the wolf.

In the Grímnismál (German: Grimnirs Lied), an early orally transmitted song of the gods from the Icelandic Song Edda , written down in the 13th century , Garm is described in stanza 44 as the "best of all dogs". In this stanza, Odin lists the living beings and things that are the best in the mythological world, including the Yggdrasil tree , the sir Odin, the horse Sleipnir and lastly the dog Garm. In Baldrs draumar , another part of the Song Edda, Odin meets a blood-smeared dog on his way to the underworld in Niflheim , who chases him for a long bark. However, this dog is not named and its identity with Garm cannot be proven.

An old drawing of a stone arch held by two bears on the outside and supported from below by four people with their arms raised. In addition to the people, a deer and five wolves are depicted under the arch
Ragnarok, the left wolf attacks Tyr, book illustration by WG Collingwood (1905)

In the Gylfaginning, the central part of the Snorra Edda , Snorri Sturluson calls Garm “the biggest monster” and in his detailed description at the end of the world tells Ragnarök that Garm, who has released himself from his bonds in front of the Gnipahellir cave, is with the last Asen Tyr fights and they both find death. The shackles indicate an identity with Fenrir.

The name Garm appears again in Gylfaginning as Wolf Managarm , (German: moon dog), or also as Hati Hroduittnisson, the destroyer of the moon, who feeds on the flesh of the dead and is the seat of the doomsday (Ragnarök) Gods stained with blood as he devours the sun and moon with his brother Skoll . In some Old Norse seals there are other kennings that report on Garm's destructive properties, for example the Garm Kenning of wood , which stands for fire .

In the 13th century poem Fjölsvinnsmál , the beautiful Menglod Castle is guarded by dogs, also known by the term Garm . In other poems it is stated that Garm can only be comforted with a piece of bread from someone who has already given bread to a poor person.

The dog in other mythologies

Other mythologies also know the motif of the dog guarding the underworld or the realm of the dead. In Greek mythology, there are some dogs with proper names or dog-like mythical creatures. The Nordic Garm corresponds to Kerberos (also Cerberus), a two- or more-headed dog with a dragon or snake tail, who guards the gates to the underworld and only lets the souls of the dead in but never out.

In a legend of the Greenland Inuit , after an unsuccessful seal hunt, an Angakok dives to the sea goddess Sedna to ask her to release the seals. On the way to her, the realm of the dead must first be crossed, then there is an abyss guarded by a large dog, and finally another abyss over which a bridge as narrow as a knife blade leads.

Slavic mythology knows Zorya or Zarya, the goddesses of the twilight. The dawn of the morning ( Zorya Utrennyaya ) opens the gate for the sun for its daily wandering across the sky, that of the dusk ( Zorya Vechernyaya ) closes it again in the evening after its return. In a late version of the myth there was another Zorya, the one at midnight. These three sisters had the task of guarding a dog chained to the Little Bear constellation so that it would not tear itself away, otherwise the end of the world would be imminent.

Modern reception

  • Garm is Farmer Giles's dog in JRR Tolkien's Farmer Giles von Ham .
  • The song Helvetes Hunden Garm by the Norwegian folk metal band Trollfest is about Garm who eats people and thirsts for the blood of Christians.
  • In the book "Rumo" by Walter Moers there are, among other allusions to the Edda with an abandoned dog that the Professor Dr. Otzefan Kolibril on the trip to Nebelheim for a long time also follows an allusion to the scene in which Odin is being followed by an unspecified dog (possibly Garm) on the trip to Niflheim.
  • In the MMORPG "Guild Wars 2" Garm is Eir's animal companion, a ranger who, as a member of the Blade of Fate, plays an important role in the player's personal story.
  • In the end-of-time novel "Diary of Apocalypse 4" by JLBourne, the military robot the hero finds, who looks like a dog and follows him as well, is abbreviated GARMR (actually GARMR for "Terminus Ground Assault, Reconnaissance & Mobilization Robot", but throughout the novel as GARMR).
  • In the game "Hellblade: Senuas Sacrifice" the main character, Senua, has to solve puzzles in a large cave vault. Again and again one notices that she is being chased by a large monster named Garmr when she has to walk through shadows. Only the light can protect her from Garmr, since he cannot reach her there.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Walther Golther: Germanic mythology. 4th edition Marix Verlag, 2011, p. 564.
  2. ↑ a b Kathleen N. Daly: Norse Mythology A to Z, Third Edition. Chelsea House, New York (NY) 2010, ISBN 978-1-60413-411-7 , Lemma "Garm".
  3. ↑ a b Karl Mortensen: A Handbook of Norse Mythology. Translated from the Danish by A. Clinton Crowell. Thomas Y. Crowell, New York (NY) 1913.
  4. ^ A b John Lindow: Handbook of Norse Mythology. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara (CA) 2001, ISBN 1-57607-573-7 , Lemma "Garm".
  5. ^ A b Viktor Rydberg: Teutonic Mythology. Gods and Goddesses of the Northland. 3 volumes. Volume 2, Norrœna Society, London et al. 1907, p. 564.
  6. ↑ Christopher Abram: Representations of the Pagan Afterlife in Medieval Scandinavian Literature. Dissertation. University of Cambridge, 2003, p. 170.
  7. ↑ Viktor Rydberg: Teutonic Mythology. Gods and Goddesses of the Northland. 3 volumes. Volume 2, Norrœna Society, London et al. 1907, p. 410.
  8. ↑ Kathleen N. Daly: Norse Mythology A to Z, Third Edition. Chelsea House, New York (NY) 2010, ISBN 978-1-60413-411-7 , "Hati Hroduittnisson" and "Managarm" lemmas.
  9. ↑ John Lindow: Handbook of Norse Mythology. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara (CA) 2001, ISBN 1-57607-573-7 , lemmas "Garm" and "Mánagarm".
  10. ^ Mike Dixon-Kennedy: Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara (CA) 1998, ISBN 1-57607-094-8 .
  11. ↑ Paul Jay Steward: Caves in Myth and Legend. In: William B. White, David C. Culver (Eds.): Encyclopedia of Caves. Second edition. Academic Press, Waltham (MA) 2012, ISBN 978-0-12-383832-2 , pp. 321-323.
  12. ^ Max Fauconnet: Mythology of the Two Americas. In: Felix Guirand (Ed.): New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology. Crown Publishers, New York (NY) 1987, ISBN 0-517-00404-6 .
  13. ↑ G. Alexinsky: Slavonic Mythology. In: Felix Guirand (Ed.): New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology. Crown Publishers, New York (NY) 1987, ISBN 0-517-00404-6 .
  14. ↑ JRR Tolkien: Farmer Giles von Ham. dtv, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-423-09383-8 .
  15. ^ Trollfest: Helvetes Hunden Garm. Lyrics online , accessed August 26, 2013.

Web links

Commons : Garmr  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files