Sjöfn

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Sjöfn is a goddess of love from Norse mythology . It is attested in the Prose Edda as well as in various other scald poems.

swell

In the 35th section of the first chapter of the Edda , the Gylfaginning , there are 16 short descriptions of Asinnen , besides Saga , Var or Hlín also Sjöfn. It says on her that "she [...] tries to turn the minds of men and women, to tenderness" . The old Norse word sjafni (German: love) is derived from their name . In the second chapter of the Edda, the Skáldskaparmál , Sjöfn is mentioned again, this time as one of 27 Asinnen. In addition, the term "Sjöfn" is used three times as a lyrical description for "woman".

Theories

Taking into account the information about Sjöfn from the Gylfaginning , John Lindow concluded that although sjafni appears in the Þulur as a word for "love", there was no other reference to it. In addition, "Sjöfn" could only be a synonym for Frigg . Rudolf Simek also suspects that Snorri derived the name "Sjöfn" from the Old Norse lexeme sefi meaning "sense" or "relative". However, there are almost no other reliable sources about Sjöfn. Sjöfn is therefore regarded, along with other goddesses around Frigg, as another goddess of love and, along with several other Germanic goddesses, is probably one of the protective matrons mentioned in the prose Edda .

Popular culture

  • Sjofn is the name of an album by the Finnish band Gjallarhorn that was released in 2000.
  • Sjöfn is one of the characters in the New Zealand television series The Almighty Johnsons and is played by Michelle Langstone . In the series, the goddess is reincarnated as a human.
  • Sjöfn is the name of a folk singer in Alaska.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Faulkes (1995: 30).
  2. ↑ Faulkes (1995: 157)
  3. ↑ a b Lindow (1995: 268).
  4. ↑ Rudolf Simek: Lexicon of Nordic Mythology, Alfred Kröner Verlag Stuttgart 1984, p. 353
  5. ^ Simek (2007: 286).

literature