Hvergelmir

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The world tree with the source at its roots. Illustration by Lorenz Frølich , 1895.

Hvergelmir ( Old Norse Hvergelmir ), also Hwergelmir , is in Norse mythology the source that feeds all rivers in the world with water. It lies under the world tree Yggdrasil , which embodies creation in its entirety, and is home to many snakes and the snake-like dragon Nidhöggr .

swell

In the Song Edda , Hvergelmir is only mentioned in the song Grímnismál . The deer Eikthyrnir then gnaws on the branches of the Lärad tree , while drops fall from its antlers into the spring from which all the rivers in the world receive their water, of which about forty (depending on how they are counted ) are listed in a subsequent river catalog .

In the mythological concept of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda , the source is in the center of Niflheim . According to his account, the source already fed in prehistoric times, before the gods created the world, the Élivágar , whom he identified with eleven named rivers. Its water flowed into the Ginnungagap trench , where ice and frost met the glowing sparks and the heat of the Muspellsheim fire world , from which the first life was formed. Since the world tree Yggdrasil was fully grown, one of its three roots has protruded over Niflheim and thus also over Hvergelmir. The dragon Nidhöggr and countless snakes, including Goin and Moin, live in the spring . In the Ragnarök, this dragon torments the corpses of the deceased in the spring.

At the same time it says, as in the song Grímnismál , that drops from the antlers of the deer Eikthyrnir fall on the tree Lärad into the Hvergelmir spring. All the rivers, twenty-five of which are named, draw their water from it.

research

Old Norse Hvergelmir is made up of the Old Norse hverr "boiler, hot spring" and the second word component gelmir , which is difficult to interpret. What is special is that otherwise only the names of three ancient giants end in -gelmir. According to Jan de Vries , gelmir goes back to Old Norse galmr "sword", which originally meant "the light-toned one". That is why he translates the name of the spring as "the boiling cauldron". John Lindow, on the other hand, transfers the name with "hot spring boiler". Another interpretation is suggested by Adolfo Zavaroni, who derives gelmir from Old Norse galli "bad, vice, harm" and reproduces the name as "the bad cauldron".

However, the name of the source is not considered to be particularly old. On the other hand, its identification as the mother of all rivers and the snake den in the landscape on the World Tree is very old. Research is generally believed that Lärad is just one variant of Yggdrasil and that both trees are identical to each other. Furthermore, it is assumed that the three sources under the world tree Yggdrasil, Hvergelmir, the Urdbrunnen and Mimir's well ultimately go back to a mythical source. Kurt Schier explained that the creation account of the Völuspá could be related to a multitude of Eurasian world creations that came out of the water (water cosmogony). In this context, the world tree, at the foot of which is the source from which all rivers arise, would be identical to the widespread idea that the world tree lies in the middle of an ancient sea from which all rivers originate. In this case, Hvergelmir would be nothing more than another form of the primordial sea, which was at the beginning of all times and embodies the state of chaos .

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lieder-Edda: Grímnismál 26. (Citation of the Lieder-Edda after Arnulf Krause: Die Götter- und Heldenlieder der Älteren Edda. Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 978-3-15-050047-7 )
  2. ^ Snorri Sturluson: Prose-Edda, Gylfaginning . Chapter 4 f. (Citation of the Prose Edda after Arnulf Krause: The Edda of Snorri Sturluson. Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 978-3-15-000782-2 )
  3. ^ Snorri Sturluson: Prose-Edda, Gylfaginning. Chapter 15
  4. ^ Snorri Sturluson: Prose-Edda, Gylfaginning. Chapter 16
  5. ^ Snorri Sturluson: Prose-Edda, Gylfaginning. Chapter 52
  6. ^ Snorri Sturluson: Prosa-Edda , Gylfaginning 39
  7. ^ Gerhard Köbler: Old Norse Dictionary. 2nd Edition. 2003, p. 208 online (PDF file; 318 kB)
  8. ↑ Jan de Vries: Old Norse Etymological Dictionary. Leiden 1958, pp. 154, 271
  9. ↑ John Lindow: Handbook of Norse Mythology. Santa Barbara (USA) 2001, ISBN 978-1-57607-217-2 , page X: "hot-spring-boiler"
  10. ^ Adolfo Zavaroni: Mead and Aqua Vitae: Functions of Mímir, Oðinn, Viðofnir and Svipdagr. In: Amsterdam Contributions to Older German Studies. Volume 61. Editions Rodopi BV, 2006, ISBN 978-90-420-1859-4 , p. 82: "evil-cauldron"
  11. ^ Rudolf Simek: Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition. Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X , p. 211.
  12. ^ Rudolf Simek: Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition. Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X , p. 240.
  13. ↑ Jan de Vries: Old Germanic history of religion, Volume 2: Religion of the North Germanic . Verlag Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin and Leipzig 1937, § 327; René LM Derolez: Gods and Myths of the Teutons. Verlag Suchier & Englisch, Wiesbaden 1974 (translated by Julie von Wattenwyl, title of the original edition: De Godsdienst der Germanen. Verlag JJ Romen & Zonen, Roermond 1959), p. 271; Rudolf Simek: Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition. Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X , p. 211; critical: Francois Xaver Dillmann: Mimir. In: Heinrich Beck, Dieter Geuenich, Heiko Steuer (Hrsg.): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Volume 20. Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin - New York 2001, ISBN 978-3-11-017163-1 , p. 40 f.
  14. ↑ Kurt Schier: The creation of the earth from the primordial sea and the cosmogony of the Völospá. In: Hugo Kuhn, Kurt Schier (Ed.): Fairy tales, myths, poetry. - Festschrift for Friedrich von der Leyen's 90th birthday on August 19, 1963. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 1963, p. 332 f.