A contest of cosmic fathers
God and giant in Vafþru´ðnisma´l
A
´ rmann Jakobsson
Received: 22 February 2006 / Accepted: 15 May 2006 / Published online: 5 July 2007
Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007
Abstract
The Eddic poem Vafþru´ðnisma´l depicts a contest of wisdom between
O
´ ðinn and a wise giant. It re-enacts the conflict between gods and giants which seems
to lie at the heart of the heathen world view, as reflected in 13th century sources.
The present author suggests that paternity is a major theme in the poem. O
´ ðinn’s
quest for knowledge of the origins and the end of the world form the poem’s core.
The relationship of gods and giants is complex. The giants are the ancestors of the
gods (including O
´ ðinn himself) and of the world. Their Otherness is entwined with
proximity. The giant’s foremost attribute is his extreme old age and wisdom,
whereas his size may be secondary to his paternal role.
When O
´ ðinn has plied the giant for information about the past, he turns to the
future, the impending last battle of gods and giants and how he himself will meet his
end. He then wins the wager by asking a dishonest last question about what he
whispered in his own son’s ear. The death of the giant goes hand in hand with O
´ ðinn
being established as the new father, and his growing awareness of his own mortality.
Keywords
Vafþru´ðnisma´l
O
´ ðinn Giants Riddles Cosmology
Death
Introduction
O
´ ðinn, the wandering high god of Old Norse heathenism, informs his wife Frigg
that he wishes to engage in a battle of wits against a giant (iotvnn) called
A
´ . Jakobsson (
&)
Hverfisgo¨tu 49, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland
e-mail: armannja@hi.is
Present address
A
´ . Jakobsson
A
´ rnastofnun, Suðurgo¨tu, 101 Reykjavı´k, Iceland
123
Neophilologus (2008) 92:263–277
DOI 10.1007/s11061-007-9056-x
Vafþru´ðnir. Frigg warns that Vafþru´ðnir is the mightiest of giants. She is, however,
soon persuaded that this quest is necessary for O
´ ðinn, and the rest of the poem
Vafþru´ðnisma´l takes place in Vafþru´ðnir’s hall, where Vafþru´ðnir first has to
discover whether his disguised guest is a worthy adversary. Then god and giant
engage in a contest of wisdom where, according to stanza 19, the stake seems to be
the loser’s head (h fði veðia / við scolom h llo i, / gestr! vm getspeki) (we shall
wager our heads in the hall, guest, on our wisdom). This drama with two main
characters is relatively lucid, as Eddic poems go, but there are no descriptions of
scene; it is left to the audience to stage the duel in their own heads and, as is so often
the case with the mythological poems of the Poetic Edda, Vafþru´ðnisma´l seems to
refer to a lost mythical world. The poem is not obscure in itself, but perhaps it has
been made so by a loss of context.
Vafþru´ðnisma´l is in the Codex Regius manuscript (dated to around 1280), often
known simply as the Poetic Edda, but it is one of few Eddic poems also found
elsewhere. Eight whole stanzas and one half are in the various manuscripts of Snorri
Sturluson’s Edda, which is commonly dated to the 1220s or 1230s.
1
Both texts date
from the 13th century in their present form but Vafþru´ðnisma´l is usually regarded as
old, even originating from before the Christianization of Iceland in 1000 (but cf.
Sprenger,
). It is one of several gnomic poems in the Poetic Edda, composed in
ljo´ðaha´ttur, the metre of wisdom poetry.
2
All the verses but one are spoken by the
protagonists, making it dramatic in form, regardless of whether it was ever
performed.
3
Vafþru´ðnisma´l is particularly significant when it comes to 13th century
perceptions of giants. Only two poems in the Poetic Edda include the name of a
giant in their title; the other is Þrymskviða. Both involve a duel between a god and a
giant but of the two, Vafþru´ðnisma´l is more solemn and serious. It also has a
distinguished place in the Codex Regius MS, coming directly after the well-known
and obviously significant poems Vo˛luspa´ and Ha´vama´l. Furthermore, it was
regarded as important by no lesser authority than Snorri Sturluson (d. 1241) who
included nine of its verses in his mythological narrative, Gylfaginning.
Vafþru´ðnisma´l is thus important for an understanding the role of the giant in Old
Norse mythology, which may sometimes seem opaque.
However, first we will have to determine the significance of the giant Vafþru´ðnir,
not only to O
´ ðinn in the poem, but also to the poem’s presumed creator or creators
and its 13th century audience. Scholars have studied the large presence of giants in
Old Norse texts and noticed the variety of ways in which they are depicted, and their
debatable religious or mythological function.
4
It seems therefore prudent to start
with an investigation on a smaller scale, keeping in mind that as an old and
1
These are stanzas 18, a part of 30 (only in the Regius MS), 31, 35, 37, 41, 45, 47 and 51. See Finnur
Jo´nsson (
, p. 13, 14, 26, 44, 74–76). Most are Vafþru´ðnir’s answers to O
´ ðinn’s questions.
2
Einar O
´ lafur Sveinsson (
, p. 275) considered the poem regular, as if made by a ruler. Cf. Sigurður
Nordal (
, p. 104). On the structure of the poem, see esp. Machan (
, pp. 33–38), Ruggerini
(
), McKinnell (
, pp. 87–93).
3
For an argument that Vafþru´ðnisma´l is a dramatic text, see Gunnell (
, pp. 185–194, 232–233, 237–
238, 275–281).
4
See e.g. Motz (
), Cohen (
, pp. 1–28), Schulz (
).
264
A
´ . Jakobsson
123
significant source in which a giant is central to the plot, Vafþru´ðnisma´l is an ideal
place to begin. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to determine with certainty
whether the poem should be taken as a genuine heathen relic, or as representing 13th
century Christian views of giants, or something in-between. We have to proceed
without that certainty.
The quest
Most studies of Vafþru´ðnisma´l concentrate on two aspects: the wisdom contained in
the poem, which concerns important parts of heathen cosmology, and the duel itself
and its significance.
5
My main concern will be the figure of Vafþru´ðnir, or how the
poem re-enacts the fundamental conflict between the gods and the giants which seems
to lie at the heart of the heathen world view, as reflected in 13th century sources.
6
Jeffrey Jerome Cohen has claimed that in Vafþru´ðnisma´l ‘‘constructing an identity for
the subject and composing a history for the world are two versions of the same
process’’.
7
It is precisely this process I am interested in. Without Vafþru´ðnisma´l the
importance of giants in the Eddic cosmos would be far less clearly defined. Their
presence in Vo˛luspa´ is less marked before the ragnaro˛k and only Vafþru´ðnisma´l
provides us with an actual contest in verse between the high god himself and a giant.
This battle is a duel of words, which concerns knowledge and the cosmos.
The first four or five verses are a prelude to the contest and yet contribute much to
the poem’s overall meaning, since they establish the contest as a quest. O
´ ðinn
begins by informing Frigg that he wants to seek out Vafþru´ðnir and claims that he is
‘‘curious’’ about the ancient knowledge this all-knowing giant may possess:
‘‘forvitni micla / qveþ ec mer a fornom st fom / við þann inn alsvinna iotvn’’ (I’ve
a great curiosity to contend in ancient matters with that all-wise giant).
8
Frigg sees
fit to dissuade him, as Vafþru´ðnir is to her mind the mightiest of giants: ‘‘engi iotvn
/ ec hvgða iafnramman / sem Vafðrvðni vera’’ (I have always thought no giant is as
powerful as Vafthrudnir is). The use of the verbs freista and reyna (try and test) in
stanzas 3 and 5 suggest that from O
´ ðinn’s point of view, the journey is a test, a
game, a rite of passage. O
´ ðinn needs to face the giant, to conquer him and to acquire
knowledge from him. It is not clear why O
´ ðinn needs to do this and wherein
Vafþru´ðnir’s significance to him lies, but the poem impresses upon us that O
´ ðinn is
interested in the contest: it is he who starts it and who needs it. O
´ ðinn is the
aggressor, whereas Vafþru´ðnir merely accepts his guest as an adversary. However,
the reason given for O
´ ðinn’s eagerness is the figure of Vafþru´ðnir. To fathom the
quest it is important to understand who he is and what he means to O
´ ðinn. The
answer is complex and indeed the giant of the Eddic world is a complex figure. I
will argue that the poem nevertheless provides us with some of the main aspects of
the giant and at the same time of O
´ ðinn himself.
5
See e.g. Ejder (
), Machan (
), Larrington (
).
6
See e.g. Clunies-Ross (
, pp. 48–79), Lindow (
, pp. 13–20).
7
Cohen (
, p. 12). Cf. Jo´n Karl Helgason (
).
8
References to Vafþru´ðnisma´l are to Bugge (
, pp. 65–74). The translation used is Larrington (
pp. 39–49).
God and giant in Vafþru´ðnisma´l
265
123
The verses which form an interlude to the actual contest provide some clues to
the framework which enables us to understand the nature of the duel and of O
´ ðinn’s
quest. The word ‘‘iotvnn’’ (giant) occurs four times (in stanzas 1, 2, 5 and 6), as if to
establish that it is important that Vafþru´ðnir is a giant. Thrice (in st. 1, 5 and 6) it is
coupled with the descriptive epithet ‘‘alsviþr’’ (all-wise or very wise), to emphasize
that wisdom is the giant’s most important quality. This may seem strange in light of
later folktales, where trolls and other relatives of giants are presented at stupid but
stupidity is rarely an attribute of Eddic giants.
9
There is also an emphasis on the
giant’s strengh, as the word ‘‘iafnrammr’’ suggests (st. 2). It is not clear whether this
is pure physical strength or the strength that lies in magical wisdom; the word
‘‘rammr’’ (powerful) is often conjoined with ‘‘galdr’’ or ‘‘galdrar’’ (sorcery or
witchcraft) in Old Norse texts.
10
It remains to be seen what kind of wisdom the giant
possesses and how it is important to our perception of him.
The giant father
When O
´ ðinn comes to Vafþru´ðnir’s hall, it is said to belong to ‘‘ı´ms faðir’’ (Im’s
father). This must refer to Vafþru´ðnir but this I´mr is otherwise unknown, although
the name resembles giant-names.
11
If we accept that I´mr is unimportant himself, the
line might serve the main purpose of establishing that Vafþru´ðnir is a father. Not,
however, the only father in the duel. In the prose of the Snorra-Edda, O
´ ðinn is
frequently titled the father of all the gods.
12
In Vafþru´ðnisma´l, stanza 4, Frigg also
calls O
´ ðinn ‘‘Aldaf þr’’ (Father of Men).
13
The contest is established as a contest
of fathers before it begins. This makes it an attractive possibility that paternity might
be a major theme of this particular poem, and perhaps lie at the heart of the giant’s
significance in Old Norse mythology. The quest is for a showdown between the
Father of Men and the Father of I´mr, a conflict which may be characterized as
oedipal (not necessarily in the Freudian sense), with O
´ ðinn as acting out the role of
the son, since in the Snorra-Edda O
´ ðinn is, on his mother’s side, the grandson of a
giant.
14
Of the two fathers, one is as a son as well, and the two represent different
worlds.
But which two worlds? Considering the giants’ close relationship to nature that
many scholars have noted,
15
our first assumption might be that the god and the giant
9
In fact, Schulz (
, p. 56 and 61) has demonstrated that wisdom is one of the most frequently
mentioned giant attributes in Eddic sources. See also Motz (
, pp. 222–230), Clunies Ross (
p. 50, pp. 60–66), Jo´n Hnefill Aðalsteinsson (
, pp. 12–13).
10
See examples in Fritzner (
, pp. 30–31). Cf. Schulz (
, p. 61).
11
See Finnur Jo´nsson (
, pp. 297–304).
12
See e.g. Finnur Jo´nsson (
, p. 10 and 27).
13
On this stanza, see La¨ffler (
).
14
Finnur Jo´nsson (
, p. 14).
15
See e.g. Motz (
). She argues that at some somewhat unspecific time, the giants were primarily
regarded as genii loci. Their names may be found in landscape and are drawn from nature and the
elements, they are depicted as rulers of mountains and valleys and with a special relationship with
animals and the elements.
266
A
´ . Jakobsson
123
represent the opposing forces of nature and civilization. O
´ ðinn’s first questions to
Vafþru´ðnir concern the elements of nature and questions about giants and natural
elements are interwoven in the poem. After O
´ ðinn has asked Vafþru´ðnir about the
origins of the sun and the moon, day and night and winter and summer, he turns
suddenly to the origins of the oldest living being, Ymir (or Aurgelmir, as the giants
call him). He asks about his origins and how he proliferated. Then he asks how
Vafþru´ðnir can know all this, and then he turns again to the wind. The answers
sometimes involve giants as well, which is best exemplified when O
´ ðinn asks about
the origins of the wind and Vafþru´ðnir reveals that its originator is a giant in the
shape of an eagle, called ‘‘Hre˛svelgr’’ (Corpse-swallower) (stanzas 36 and 37).
16
We do not know to what extent it is justifiable to juxtapose O
´ ðinn and Vafþru´ðnir
as representatives of civilization and nature. In narratives such as romances and
folktales, giants dwell on the periphery, in the wilderness.
17
Whether Vafþru´ðnir
rules over a distant kingdom in a spectacular landscape is unclear, it is merely
established that the giant possesses knowledge about nature. He lives in a ‘‘sal’’
(stanza 7) in a ‘‘h ll’’ (stanza 5 and 6) (both can be translated as hall) which does
not suggest the wilderness. While O
´ ðinn has to travel to get there, it is not revealed
how lengthy his journey is, or whether Vafþru´ðnir lives in the ‘‘Vtgarðr’’ where
giants reside, according to Snorra-Edda.
18
It has to be kept in mind, though, that
Snorri Sturluson is unspecific about geography in general, and about the abode of
giants in particular: He starts by saying that the sea surrounds the land and the giants
live ‘‘með þeiri siavar str ndv’’ (at this coast), then he places giantesses with
wolves in the East and refers to something called ‘‘Iotvnheimar’’ which may be in
the East, and a place where the ‘‘hrimþvrsar’’ (frost-giants) live (which may be
anywhere), and where Mı´misbrvnnr is to be found—and all this information is given
in the very first chapters of Gylfaginning.
19
It may be precisely the status of the giant as a father that makes Vafþru´ðnir
knowledgeable about nature and the elements, as nature is often seen as preceding
civilization. In Snorra-Edda and Vafþru´ðnisma´l, giants are close to earth in the way
that they are its originators: the earth is made out of a giant, as Vafþru´ðnir tells
O
´ ðinn at the start of their wager (stanzas 20 and 21).
20
Vafþru´ðnisma´l never really
discloses how big the giant is. Size is a perpetual problem in Old Norse gigantology,
but enormity in size does not seem to have been the defining fact about giants. There
16
On Hræsvelgr, see Jo´n Hnefill Aðalsteinsson (
, pp. 15–20). On the relationship between the giants
and the wind, ice, snow, and darkness, see Ciklamini (
, p. 150).
17
See examples collected by Motz (
). On the binary of Miðgarðr and U
´ tgarðr as centre and
periphery, see Gurevich (
). Hastrup (
, pp. 145–151). Cf. Clunies Ross (
, pp. 50–56).
Stewart (
, p. 71) characterizes the relationship as us being ‘‘enveloped by the gigantic, surrounded by
it, enclosed within its shadow’’.
18
Finnur Jo´nsson (
, p. 53).
19
Finnur Jo´nsson (
, p. 15, 18, 20, 22, 50). See Jo´n Hnefill Aðalsteinsson (
, p. 11–12). I will be
reviewing Snorri’s views on the abode of the giants in another article.
20
Several Germanic sources reveal such a close relationship between giants and origins, reflected in the
words used about their traces in the landscape, enormous edifices called ‘‘enta geweorc’’ in the Old
English poems The Wanderer and The Ruin, see Krapp and Dobbie (
, p. 136 and 227). Cf. Cohen
(
, pp. 5–12).
God and giant in Vafþru´ðnisma´l
267
123
are instances, where giants seems very big as well as others where they appear
human-size.
21
That there is an ongoing conflict between the gods and the giants is asserted early
in Vafþru´ðnisma´l, when Vafþru´ðnir asks O
´ ðinn about the name of the river which
divides the earth between the two races. This river turns out to be called ‘‘Ifing’’
(which means strife), it flows freely all year round and ice never forms on it (stanzas
15 and 16).
22
To judge by its name, the river may be interpreted as a metaphor for
the perpetual gap and discord between gods and giants, a conflict evident from
Snorra-Edda and various Eddic poems.
Vafþru´ðnisma´l also reflects the fact that giants are the main antagonists of the
gods.
23
However, the relationship is complicated by the fact that they are also their
ancestors. In O
´ ðinn’s case this ancestry is direct (see above).
24
Giants are also
known as ancestors of royal families in other sources (Flateyjarbo´k is the best
example, and it also establishes the giant Dofri as a fosterfather of King Haraldr, the
legendary founding father of Norway).
25
The enemy of the gods turns out to be their
grandfather. Furthermore, the enemy of the cosmos (the Earth) is its own past self,
the giants descending from Ymir, whose body has now been transformed into the
Earth.
26
The enormity of giants is easily explained as a secondary trait which goes
with their ancestral role—in the eyes of small children, their parents are giants.
27
Which means that monstrous enormity may go hand in hand with proximity.
28
It is
important to keep in mind that no matter how large giants are, they are never as
distant as, for example, a giant spider, a modern contruction. A giant spider is a
representation of absolute Otherness in gigantic proportions, but the Giant remains
partly Us, partly the Other.
21
This has been recently reviewed by Schulz (
, pp. 72–75). In
Eddic sources, only Ymir the old giant and the illusional giant Skry´mir are extremely big. Apart from
that, size is not really an issue when it comes to giants in the Eddas. Cf. Cohen (
, pp. 1–28).
22
The meaning of the name is disputed (see Machan,
, p. 77).
23
Margaret Clunier Ross has analyzed some of the most important conflicts between the two kinds
(
). For Vafþru´ðnisma´l as mimetic of the perpetual stuggle between gods and giants, see esp.
Kragerud (
), Larrington (
). It has been suggested that Old Norse sources may reflect a time
when giants were rival cult figures or older types of gods which were pushed into the background, see
Ciklamini (
), Motz (
), Steinsland (
, pp. 48–50).
24
In addition to the family ties that are mentioned in the Prose Edda, Mundal (
, pp. 8–12) has drawn
attention to the fact that some of the names of O
´ ðinn are also giant names, reflecting his half-giant status.
Ciklamini (
, p. 152) goes even further: ‘‘Though O
´ ðinn professes to be a giant hater, his attitude
towards the defeated race is flexible and tolerant’’, she believe that his use of giant names constitutes an
acknowledgement of his mixed blood.
25
The genealogical link between gods, giants and royal families in Eddic sources and kings’ sagas has
been explored by e.g. Motz (
), Steinsland (
), and Schulz (
, pp. 256–286).
Meyer (
) argued that Ymir was orginally a Tuisto-figure, i.e. the ancestor of the human race.
26
See Cohen (
, p. 10).
27
See Warner (
, p. 1).
28
See Cohen (
, pp. 1–12). He speaks of the ‘‘intimate alterity’’ of the giant (p. 4). Cf. Eldevik
(
, pp. 107–110).
268
A
´ . Jakobsson
123
In Vafþru´ðnisma´l, Otherness is entwined with proximity. The giant is not just an
alien.
29
The frequent use of the word father forces us to regard the contest in
Vafþru´ðnisma´l as a generational conflict, a battle between the past and the present,
the old and the young.
30
We might characterize this conflict as oedipal or look to the
myth of Kronos/Saturn, which was known in mediaeval Iceland, and used in Snorri
Sturluson’s Heimskringla.
31
The choice of father-son conflict seems to depend on
the point of view: O
´ ðinn being akin to Oedipos in seeking out and killing a father
figure, Vafþru´ðnir a Kronos-like figure who poses a threat to his offspring.
32
In Greek mythology, Kronos was the father of Zeus who devoured his own
children, only to be at last toppled, castrated and exiled by Zeus. In Old Norse
mythology, this deposed and exiled ancestor (represented by the descendants of
Ymir) has not yet admitted defeat and is an exile only in that he seems mostly to live
on the outskirts of the known world, and continues to be a thorn in the side of the
current rulers of the world. With he emphasis on his age and wisdom, Vafþru´ðnir
acquires a Kronos-like role as a father whom O
´ ðinn (the new father) must outwit
and perhaps symbolically castrate (behead) in order to gain the full extent of
patriarchical authority.
33
O
´ ðinn plays the role of Zeus in Vafþru´ðnisma´l, although
other Old Norse sources sometimes equate him with Mercury, Þo´rr with Zeus and
the god Freyr with Kronos/Saturn.
34
The relationship with the Kronos/Oedipos-
myths is further complicated by the fact that it does at first not seem right to regard
Vafþru´ðnir as the aggressor in the struggle, he is a father figure who is sought out
and defeated.
It has often been argued that the giants represent chaos, which in the beginning
was embodied in the giant Ymir whom the gods had to kill in order to make the
present world (cosmos).
35
However, since the giants were not all drowned, they
have continued to be a destructive and chaotic force, opposing the natural order of
the gods, and waging war on them.
36
Vafþru´ðnisma´l may be seen as a re-enactment
of this struggle—between two all-wise fathers, order and chaos. At stake is the head
of one of the contestants but the death of both of them looms over the poem. And yet
29
In recent years, scholars have increasingly started to look at the ties between supernatural Otherness
and other kinds of Otherness, e.g. ethnic Otherness, see esp. Lindow (
), Hermann Pa´lsson (
Sverrir Jakobsson (
, pp. 246–276). While I focus on the personal aspect of the giant, I do not think it
rules out such an interpretation.
30
In V., the antagonists are both males, but that is not always the case in conflicts between gods and
giants, whether in the mythological sources or later texts, see Mundal (
, pp. 275–
286), McKinnell (
), Kroesen (
).
31
As Randi Eldevik (
) has argued, there is little reason to see the Germanic giants as entirely
separate from their Greco-Roman counterparts.
32
There is a further link between Oedipos and O
´ ðinn in that both are disabled, as has been recently
explored by Bragg (
, pp. 17–135).
33
On the head motif in V., see Jo´n Karl Helgason (
34
I discuss the Kronos myth in Old Norse sources in more detail in a recent article (A
´ rmann Jakobsson,
, pp. 312–314). Cf. Warner (
, pp. 48–77).
35
Cf. Clunies Ross (
, pp. 144–186).
36
The Old Norse word ‘‘bo˛nd’’ (which means fetters or bonds as well as gods) is certainly suggestive
(see e.g. Fritzner,
, p. 110). On giants as representing chaos, see e.g. Clunies Ross (
, pp. 197–
198, 262–263), Kroesen (
, p. 59).
God and giant in Vafþru´ðnisma´l
269
123
the contest is acted out as a civilized game. Wherever Vafþru´ðnir may live, he has a
great hall, and the contest between him and his guest follows set rules. In addition,
the duel is not one of brawns but of brains: the representatives of the two striving
groups are the wisest of their race. This elevates the giants above the state of
animals or wildmen. And yet the wager is barbaric in that the loser has to die.
37
But is the civilized nature of the contest a fac¸ade? How monstrous is Vafþru´ðnir?
He does not come accross as dangerous to O
´ ðinn who has aggressively sought him
out. On the whole, everything is fairly dignified apart from the nature of the wager
and the content of the stanzas, the last of which deal with the savage death of the
gods at the hand of the giants and other monsters. The monstrosity is not in the duel
itself but all around, enchancing its significance, as is also the case in the dialogue
between Sigurðr and Fa´fnir in Fa´fnisma´l.
38
The monstrous character of the giant is
not at all absent, but there is an ambivalence which makes the whole poem different
from Snorra-Edda, where it often (though not always) seems easier to regard the
giants as raw, uncivilized and primitive.
The ambivalence is further intensified by the fact that in his answers, Vafþru´ðnir
is allowed to reflect the viewpoint of the giants, rarely seen in Snorra-Edda
(although the clever Vtgarþaloki not only gets the better of Þo´rr but is allowed to
explain how and thus to give us a glimpse of the mind of the giant).
39
For example,
Vafþru´ðnir proudly recounts his own genealogy (stanza 29), which he later calls
‘‘o´rar e˛ttir’’ (our clan) (stanza 31), which he admits are aggressive. He also calls
both Aurgelmir (Ymir) and Bergelmir ‘‘inn froþi iotvnn’’ (the wise giant) (stanzas
33 and 35). The giant is himself respectful and the audience must listen in respect to
the voice of the giant.
The enormity of the giant, his extreme old age and his relationship to nature may
thus be regarded as traits of his fundamental paternal role. The dual role of the
ancestor as the enemy is less easy to understand. The fact that both gods and giants
have a strong, if ill-defined relationship with kingship
40
may be partly explained by
the social dynamics between fathers who ruled and sons who gradually became
adults without reaching the zenith of their masculinity in their father’s lifetime, and
thus sometimes end up by opposing and occasionally overthrowing their fathers.
41
Vafþru´ðnisma´l might also depict such an exchange of power. The poem certainly
concerns the relationship of extreme old age, an insight into the future and the
negative nature of our ancestors.
Genesis
The god Kronos later merged with the figure of Chronos (Time), devourer of all
things.
42
Once the contest between O
´ ðinn and Vafþru´ðnir starts, age is swiftly
37
On the wager as a dramatic element of risk, see McKinnell (
, p. 99).
38
Cf. Kragerud (
).
39
Finnur Jo´nsson (
, pp. 48–61).
40
See Motz (
, pp. 260–274), Motz (
, pp. 233–235).
41
See e.g. Aird (
42
On his history, see Klibansky, Panofsky, and Saxl (
, pp. 58–59).
270
A
´ . Jakobsson
123
depicted as one of the giant’s most important attributes. In stanza 9, we learn that
the giant is not only all-wise and powerful, he is also ‘‘inn gamli þvlr’’ (the old
sage). And after Vafþru´ðnir has asked his unknown guest Gagnra´ðr four preliminary
questions, to determine if the latter is a worthy adversary, the disguised god starts
asking questions that concern the origins of things: The earth and the sky, the moon
and the day, summer and winter, the wind and the god Njo˛rðr, who may be included
since, according to Snorra-Edda, he has control over the elements (the wind, the sea
and fire).
43
In between, O
´ ðinn asks about the giants themselves: Who was the oldest
giant, how was he created, how did he himself proliferate and what are Vafþru´ðnir’s
first memories? Before turning his attention to the future and the fate of the gods and
of the world, O
´ ðinn asks how Vafþru´ðnir knows all this and to this, Vafþru´ðnir
replies in stanza 43: ‘‘Fra´ iotna rv´nom / oc allra goða / ec kann segia satt / þviat
hvern hefi ec / heim vm komit: / nio kom oc heima, / fyr niflhel neðan / hinig deyia
or helio halir’’ (Of the secrets of the giants and the gods, I can tell truly, for I have
been in every world; nine worlds I have travelled through to Mist-hell, there men die
down out of hell).
In stanza 35, Vafþru´ðnir claims that one of his earliest memories is of Bergelmir,
a giant born before the creation of the world: ‘‘Oro´fi vetra / aþr ve˛ri iorð vm
sk pvð, / þa var Bergelmir borinn: / þat ec fyrst vm man, / er sa inn froþi iotvnn / a
var lvðr vm lagiðr’’ (Uncountable winters before the world was made, then
Bergelmir was born; that I remember first when the wise giant was first laid in his
coffin). This Bergelmir also appears in Snorra-Edda, where he plays Noah: when
O
´ ðinn and his brothers kill Ymir, the giant ‘first man’, the other giants drown in the
mighty flood of blood of this first giant, except Bergelmir who survives along with
his wife, according to Snorra-Edda because he crawled upon his ‘‘lvdr’’.
44
It is not
clear what this ‘‘lvdr’’ is: in Grottaso˛ngr the word signifies a quernstone,
45
but it
may have had a wider meaning. But it remains that Vafþru´ðnir is supposed to
remember the very early days of the world, when Bergelmir lived, who had been
around since before the great flood.
Vafþru´ðnisma´l itself does not refer to any great flood and whether Snorri is
influenced by the Bible or both by an old legend about a great flood that killed the
giants, we cannot know.
46
But if we accept Snorra-Edda’s version of the creation of
the world, the presence of Vafþru´ðnir in Bergelmir’s day should perhaps not in itself
make him all that interesting to O
´ ðinn, since the god himself is supposed to be even
older, as it was he who killed Ymir and drowned the giants in his blood. However,
Vafþru´ðnisma´l does not ascertain who killed Ymir, and while the wily O
´ ðinn might
be asking the giant about Ymir whilst knowing full well who killed him and created
the world, as it was he himself, it is also possible that an earlier version did not
43
Finnur Jo´nsson (
, p. 30).
44
Finnur Jo´nsson (
, p. 14).
45
Norrœn fornkvæði, p. 70. Gering and Sijmons suggested that ‘‘lvdr’’ might possibly mean a ship
(
, p. 172). Holtsmark (
) suggested bier while Christiansen (
) gained the middle ground by
suggesting a boat transformed into a bier.
46
On the biblical giants which predate the Flood and are drowned by it, see Holtsmark (
), Ciklamini
(
, pp. 148–149), Cohen (
, pp. 13–21).
God and giant in Vafþru´ðnisma´l
271
123
subscribe to Snorra-Edda’s version of the events—since why should O
´ ðinn then be
so curious about the ancient past? Yet another possibility is that O
´ ðinn does know
the past himself but nevertheless wants to hear the side of the giants, knowing
perhaps that their version of a the events may be just as important as his.
Whether or not O
´ ðinn is supposed to be ancient himself, his age is not
emphasized in the poem. On the other hand, after Vafþru´ðnir has refererred to
himself as old in stanza 9, he goes on to answer nine questions about the origins of
the cosmos, cosmic elements and giants, as well as two where he verifies his own
age and experience.
47
Along with wisdom, age is Vafþru´ðnir’s most important
quality. That he may be regarded as a representative of the giants is equally evident:
O
´ ðinn addresses him as ‘‘iotvnn’’ in stanzas 6 and 8, the fourth and fifth occurences
of the word in the poem.
The relationship of giants and advanced age is well attested in other Eddic
sources.
48
At the very beginning of the Codex Regius manuscript of the Poetic
Edda, Vo˛luspa´ starts with the sibyl going back to her youth when she was raised by
very ancient giants, and when the world tree Yggdrasill was still not risen from the
earth. According to Snorra-Edda, O
´ ðinn has also lived with giants; before he
created heaven and earth ‘‘var hann með hrimþvsvm’’ (he was with the frost-
giants).
49
In Snorra-Edda, we also have several instances where the giants are
claimed to be originators of various cosmic things. There is Ymir whose body is
used to construct the world, there is the eagle-shaped giant who makes the wind by
flapping his wings, there is the ‘‘second ancestor’’ Bergelmir who survived the
flood, and there are the actual ancestors of O
´ ðinn himself and his brothers, who are
not only descended from the first humans Bu´ri and Borr, but whose maternal
grandfather is called ‘‘Bolþorn iotvnn’’.
50
It seems safe to assume that the link
between giants and origins is old but Vafþru´ðnisma´l is still vigorously driving the
point home, even more so than Snorra-Edda. It is not surprising that O
´ ðinn should
ask the giant about the origins of the world and that he knows all the answers.
Vafþru´ðnir tells us himself that he was there—his age makes him important.
O
´ ðinn’s quest is for origins. His verbal duel with the giant moves him closer to
his own origins and his very nature, by way of Vafþru´ðnir’s great age and
experience. The combination of extreme old age and open hostility is interesting in
itself. If the past is the time of the giants,
51
this might reflect an ambivalence
towards the past in the mind of mediaeval man, the past somehow being
characterized as monstrously huge and abhorrent.
52
But why should the past be
horrible? The answer may not lie in the past but the future, as Vafþru´ðnir’s age not
only makes him an expert on the long-gone past but also on the fate of the gods.
47
Cf. Salus (
48
See Schulz (
, pp. 56, 60–61 and 65–72).
49
Finnur Jo´nsson (
, p. 11).
50
See Finnur Jo´nsson (
, p. 14).
51
See Clunies Ross (
, pp. 235–242).
52
See Cohen’s interpretation of giants as embodiments of a monstrous past (
, pp. 1–28).
272
A
´ . Jakobsson
123
Eschaton
Wealth of experience might account for the giant’s knowledge of the past and the
present. It is also gradually revealed that he also knows how the world is going to
end. In the Edda of Snorri, he seems to be a primary source of information about
what happens in the next world, where only a handful of gods remain along with Lı´f
and Leifþrasir and the daughter of the old Sun.
53
Perhaps most importantly, he also
knows the manner of O
´ ðinn’s death, which might explain the god’s eagerness to
seek him out. That turns indeed out to be O
´ ðinn’s last sincere question to the giant,
although he concludes with a trick question about what he said in Baldr’s ear on the
funeral pyre. And, as this is one thing Vafþru´ðnir cannot know, he admits defeat and
exclaims that ‘‘feigom mvnni / me˛lta ec mina forna stafi oc vm ragnar c’’ (with
doomed mouth I’ve spoken my ancient lore about the fate of the gods) (stanza 55).
The relationship between extreme old age and a certain expertise regarding the
past seems logical but why seek knowledge about the future from an ancient being?
It seems logical that curiosity about the future is one of the main reasons for O
´ ðinn’s
quest, since after he has collected information about the past, he starts asking about
the future (in stanza 44).
54
Before that, however, Vafþru´ðnir himself has asked
O
´ ðinn about the name of the battlefield where Surtr will fight the gods (stanzas 17
and 18). If Vafþru´ðnir has any suspicion that his guest is one of the gods, then the
mere name of Surtr, who is later going to destroy the whole world in fire, may be
construed as a subtle threat. On the other hand, O
´ ðinn’s first questions to Vafþru´ðnir
concern the future of the universe beyond Surtarlogi. Among the information O
´ ðinn
gets are the names of Lı´f and Leifþrasir who are to start a new human race (stanzas
44 and 45), knowledge about the new Sun who will succeed her mother when the
latter has been swallowed by ‘‘Fenrir’’ (st. 46 and 47,
55
and he learnswhich gods
will survive the Surtarlogi (stanzas 50 and 51).
56
There is a symbiosis between the future and the past in the poem, perhaps
inspired by the notion of fate, that the future of the world is predetermined and the
decicions were made long ago, so that a very ancient being is more likely to know
the future than ourselves.
57
This might seem to be confirmed by O
´ ðinn’s last
question about what he spoke into his son’s ear before the latter walked on the
funeral pyre. While is usually taken to refer to the Baldr myth, the name of the
particular son is not given,
58
and Vafþru´ðnir curiously assumes that this happened
‘‘i ardaga’’ (in bygone days; literally: in the early days), whereas Snorri Sturluson
53
Finnur Jo´nsson (
, pp. 75–76). This part of Snorri’s Edda seems, in fact, to be based primarily on
Vafþru´ðnisma´l.
54
Most scholars have believed the future verses to be the most important part of the poem, see e.g. Ejder
(
), Haugen (
).
55
Snorri assigns the blame to two other wolves but perhaps the word ‘‘fenrir’’ is used in Vafþru´ðnisma´l
as a synonym for wolf.
56
On the survival theme of the poem, see McKinnell (
, pp. 103–106).
57
Cf. Clunies Ross (
, pp. 242–247).
58
Kragerud (1981, p. 35) relates that to the fact that Baldr is possibly the ‘‘trump card’’ of the gods, as he
will survive ragnaro˛k.
God and giant in Vafþru´ðnisma´l
273
123
places the death of Baldr at just before ragnaro˛k.
59
Is Vafþru´ðnir now suddenly
acknowledging that O
´ ðinn is older than he is? Or does the god acquire the stature of
the old, of the father, by knowing something that Vafþru´ðnir doesn’t?
The last few verses of the poem indicate that O
´ ðinn has succeeded in his quest for
the father role. When he asks about his own death, Vafþru´ðnir answers by using the
term ‘‘Aldaf þr’’ (Father of Men) (st. 53) and then O
´ ðinn, having been accepted as
a father, is able to ask the insoluble question about what he, the father, spoke in his
son’s ear. It is possible that Vafþru´ðnir has somehow brought this on himself by
referring to O
´ ðinn as a father, although at first sight it seems that O´ðinn is just
cheating. The gods, being gods, are allowed to cheat, as is revealed not only in
Vafþru´ðnisma´l, but also in Alvı´ssma´l and Heiðreks saga, where O
´ ðinn and Þo´rr use
trickery to win contests.
60
Of course, O
´ ðinn is in disguise during the whole
contest—of the two, only the giant is not misrepresenting himself.
In spite of all their cheating, the Old Norse gods, somewhat uniquely for gods,
nevertheless face extinction in the end: as scholars have noted, the Old Norse end of
the world differs from the Christian in that evil triumphs over good.
61
This is logical
if the gods represent order and the giants chaos. The perfect only needs one flaw for
imperfection to win, a tiny chink in the armour of order leads to chaos. While good
must be whole, evil is allowed to be sundered, imperfect and chaotic, and in the end
that may prove to be advantageous. And yet the end is not the end—that is one thing
O
´ ðinn and the audience learn from the wise Vafþru´ðnir, who does not say much
about ragnaro˛k, but is mainly concerned with what happens after the end.
The world goes on but the individual’s end is final. When O
´ ðinn has learnt that
the world will survive its death, he asks about his own demise. When Vafþru´ðnir
finally acknowledges O
´ ðinn as a father, he also presents the god with his own death:
‘‘Vlfr gleypa mun / Aldafavþr’’ (The wolf will swallow the Father of Men) (st. 53).
After that, it seems almost a hollow victory when O
´ ðinn draws the unanswerable
question from his hat and Vafþru´ðnir acknowledges defeat and his own mortality
(using the words ‘‘feigom mvnni’’). He goes on to hail O
´ ðinn as the wisest being in
the world: ‘‘þv ert e˛ visastr vera’’ (you’ll always be the wisest of beings) (st. 55). If
we assume that Vafþru´ðnir hitherto considered himself the wisest in the world, this
may be seen as a relinguishment of the father role to O
´ ðinn. But at the same time,
the father role is not as desirable as the son has imagined. It is, after all, not only
Vafþru´ðnir the father who dies at the end of the poem, also O
´ ðinn the father. The
son’s victory over the father is double-edged, for the father role brings with it the
certainty of death. For the son, the father’s death is tantamount to facing his own
mortality.
62
With complete autonomy goes the inevitability of the passing of power.
59
See Machan (
, p. 93).
60
On this theme, see Holtsmark (
), McKinnell (
, pp. 95–98), Lindow (
, pp. 45–46). Cf.
Davidson (
).
61
Tolkien, echoing W.P. Ker (
, p. 21).
62
I cannot deny that this analysis is partly informed by the ideas of Freud (
, pp. 35–66), cf.
Dollimore (
). Freud, of course, was an avid interpreter of myths and interested in generational
conflict, though his aim was more ambitious than that of the present article.
274
A
´ . Jakobsson
123
Vafþru´ðnisma´l presents us with one side of the mythological giants: They are
father figures and as such, symbols of the past and of death. This may explain why
the giants are not just the ancestors of the gods but also their enemies. Being their
father, the giant also signifies their passing. The past is abhorrent for the same
reason: an awareness of the past brings with it an awareness of the passing of the
present and signifies an end which to men is both abhorrent, monstrous and at the
same time the biggest fact of life. The conflicting relationship of fatherhood, past
and future is the glue which hold Vafþru´ðnisma´l together: as a journey of the god
towards total supremacy as a father and an awareness of mortality which goes with
the role.
Like a giant, our death is a huge and horrific presence, intertwined with our
creation and being, but negative in that it signifies its end. This may account for the
paradoxical nature of the giant in the Old Norse mythology—it certainly informs
Vafþru´ðnisma´l. In the poem, we observe a duel of two fathers to the death but we
also learn about death, where the giant father gets a rare chance to enunciate his own
point of view. He also has the last word, triumphing over O
´ ðinn while he admits his
own defeat.
References
Aird, W. M. (1999). Frustrated maculinity: The relationship between William the Conqueror and his
eldest son. In D. M. Hadley (Ed.), Masculinity in medieval Europe (pp. 39–55). Harlow, Essex:
Longman.
Aðalsteinsson, J. H. (1990). Gods and giants in Old Norse mythology. Temenos, 26, 7–22.
Bragg, L. (2004) Oedipus borealis: The aberrant body in old Icelandic myth and saga. Madison/Teaneck:
Fairleigh Dickinson UP.
Bugge, S. (Ed.) (1965). Norrœn fornkvæði (2nd ed.) [1st ed. 1867]. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
Christiansen, H. (1952). Det norrøne ord lu´ðr. Maal og minne (pp. 101–106).
Ciklamini, M. (1962). O
´ ðinn and the giants. Neophilologus, 46, 145–158.
Clunies Ross, M. (1994). Prolonged echoes: Old Norse myths in medieval northern society. Odense:
Odense UP.
Cohen, J. J. (1999). Of giants: Sex, monsters, and the middle age. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press.
Davidson, H. R. E. (1983). Insults and riddles in the Edda Poems. In R. J. Glendinning & H. Bessason
(Eds.), Edda: A collection of essays (pp. 25–46). Winnipeg.
de Vries, J. (1934). Om Eddaens visdomsdigtningen. Arkiv fo¨r nordisk filologi, 50, 1–59.
Dollimore, J. (1997). Death and the self. In R. Porter (Ed.), Rewriting the self: Histories from the
renaissance to the present (pp. 249–261). London: Routledge.
Ejder, B. (1960). Eddadikten Vafþru´ðnisma´l. Vetenskaps Societen i Lund: A˚rsbok (pp. 5–20).
Eldevik, R. (2005). Less than kind: Giants in Germanic tradition. In T. Shippey (Ed.), The shadow-
walkers. Jacob Grimm’s mythology of the monstrous (pp. 83–110). Tempe, AZ: MRTS.
Freud, S. (1940). Jenseits der Lustprinzips. Gesammelte Werke XIII (pp. 1–69). Frankfurt am Main:
Fischer.
Fritzner, J. (1973). Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog (2nd ed.) [orginally published 1883–96]. Oslo-
Bergen-Tromsø: Universitetsforlaget.
Gering, H., & Sijmons, B. (1927). Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda I. Halle (Saale): Waisenhaus.
Gunnell, T. (1995). The origins of drama in Scandinavia. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer.
Gurevich, A. Y. (1969). Space and time in the weltmodell of the old Scandinavian peoples. Mediaeval
Scandinavia, 2, 42–53.
Hastrup, K. (1985). Culture and history in medieval Iceland: An Anthropological analysis of structure
and change. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
God and giant in Vafþru´ðnisma´l
275
123
Haugen, E. (1983). The Edda as ritual: Odin and his masks. In R. J. Glendinning & H. Bessason (Eds.),
Edda: A collection of essays (pp. 3–24). Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press.
Helgason, J. K. (1997). Himinn u´r hausi: Fa´ein heilabrot um heimsmynd Vafþru´ðnisma´la.
Ska´ldskaparma´l, 4, 69–73.
Holtsmark, A. (1946). Det norrøne ord lu´ðr. Maal og minne (pp. 49–65).
Holtsmark, A. (1964). Den uløselige ga˚ten. Maal og minne (pp. 101–105).
Jakobsson, A
´ . (2005). The specter of old age: Nasty old men in the sagas of Icelanders. Journal of English
and Germanic Philology, 104, 297–325.
Jakobsson, S. (2005). Við og vero¨ldin: Heimsmynd I´slendinga 1100–1400. Reykjavı´k: Ha´sko´lau´tga´fan.
Jo´nsson, F. (Ed.) (1931). Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Copenhagen: Kommissionen for det
Arnamagnæanske Legat.
Jo´nsson, F. (1934–1935). Þulur: Søkonge- og jættenavneremserne. Acta Philologica Scandinavica, 9,
289–308.
Klibansky, R., Panofsky, E., & Saxl, F. (1964). Saturn and Melancholy: Studies in the history of national
philosophy, religion and art. London: Nelson.
Kragerud, A. (1981). De mytologiske spørsma˚l i Fa˚vnesma˚l. Arkiv fo¨r nordisk filologi, 96, 9–48.
Krapp, G. P., & Dobbie, E. V. K. (Eds.) (1936). The Exeter book. The Anglo-Saxon poetic records III.
New York: Columbia UP.
Kroesen, R. (1996). Ambiguity in the relationship between heroes and giants. Arkiv fo¨r nordisk filologi,
111, 57–71.
La¨ffler, L. F. (1913). Om na˚gra underarter av ljo´ðaha´ttr. Studier i nordisk filologi IV. Helsingfors.
Larrington, C. (Trans.) (1996). The poetic Edda. Oxford: Oxford UP.
Larrington, C. (2001). Vafþru´ðnisma´l and Grı´mnisma´l: Cosmic history, cosmic geography. In P. Acker &
C. Larrington (Eds.), The poetic Edda: Essays on Old Norse mythology (pp. 59–77). New York:
Routledge.
Lindow, J. (1995). Supernatural others and ethnic others: A millenium of world view. Scandinavian
Studies, 67, 8–31.
Lindow, J. (1997). Murder and vengeance among the gods: Baldr in Scandinavian mythology. Helsinki:
Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia.
Machan, T. W. (Ed.) (1988). Vafþru´ðnisma´l. Durham Medieval Texts no. 6. Durham.
McKinnell, J. (1994). Both one and many: Essays on change and variety in Late Norse Heathenism.
Roma: Il Calano.
McKinnell, J. (2005). Meeting the other in Norse myth and legend. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer.
Meyer, R. M. (1907). Beitra¨ge zur altgermanischen Mythologie. Arkiv fo¨r nordisk filologi, 23, 245–256.
Motz, L. (1982). Giants in folklore and mythology: A new approach. Folklore, 93, 70–84.
Motz, L. (1984). Gods and demons of the wilderness: A study in Norse tradition. Arkiv fo¨r nordisk
filologi, 99, 175–187.
Motz, L. (1987). The families of giants. Arkiv fo¨r nordisk filologi, 102, 216–236.
Motz, L. (1996). Kingship and the giants. Arkiv fo¨r nordisk filologi, 111, 73–88.
Mundal, E. (1990). Forholdet mellom gudar og jotnar i norrøn mytologi i lys av det mytologiske
namnematerialet. Studia Anthroponymica Scandinavica, 8, 5–18.
Mundal, E. (2002). Austr sat in aldna...: Giantesses and female powers in Vo˛luspa´. In R. Simek & W.
Heizmann (Eds.), Mythological women: Studies in memory of Lotte Motz (pp. 185–195). Wien:
Fassbender.
Mundal, E. (2003). Sigurðr hrı´si eller Sigurðr risi? Nordica Bergensia, 29, 5–13.
Nordal, S. (1970–1971). Three essays on Vo˛luspa´. Saga-Book of the Viking Society, 18, 79–135.
Pa´lsson, H. (1997). U´r landnorðri: Samar og ystu rætur ı´slenskrar menningar. Reykjavı´k:
Bo´kmenntafræðistofnun Ha´sko´la I´slands.
Ruggerini, M. E. (1994). A stylistic and typological approach to Vafþru´ðnisma´l. In: J. McKinnell (Ed.),
Both one and many: Essays on change and variety in Late Norse Heathenism (pp. 139–187). Roma:
Il Calano.
Salberger, E. (1955). Ett stavrimsproblem i Vafþru´ðnisma´l 34. Maal og minne (pp. 113–120).
Salberger, E. (1974). Heill þu´ farir! Ett textproblem i Vafþru´ðnisma´l 4. Scripta Islandica, 25, 23–30.
Salus, P. H. (1964). More ‘Eastern Echoes’ in the Edda? An addendum. MLN, 79, 426–428.
Schulz, K. (2004). Riesen: Von Wissenshu¨tern und Wildnisbewohnern in Edda und Saga. Heidelberg:
Winter.
276
A
´ . Jakobsson
123
Sprenger, U. (1985). Vafðru´ðnisma´l 10.3: Der Kaltgerippte. Arbeiten zur Skandinavistik. 6. Arbeitstagung
der Skandinavisten des Deutschen Sprachgebietes: 26.9.-1.10.1983 in Bonn (pp. 185–210).
Frankfurt am Main, Bern & NY: Peter Lang.
Steinsland, G. (1986). Giants as recipients of cults in the viking age? In G. Steinsland (Ed.) Words and
objects: Towards a dialogue between archaeology and history of religion. Oslo: Norwegian UP.
Steinsland, G. (1991). Det hellige bryllup og norrøn kongeideologi: En analyse av hierogami-myten i
Skı´rnisma´l, Ynglingatal, Ha´leygjatal og Hyndluljo´ð. Oslo: Solum.
Stewart, S. (1993). On longing: Narratives of the miniature, the gigantic, the souvenir, the collection.
Durham, NC: Duke UP.
Sveinsson, E. O
´ . (1962). I´slenzkar bo´kmenntir ı´ forno¨ld. Reykjavı´k: Almenna bo´kafe´lagið.
Tolkien, J. R. R. (1977). Beowulf: The Monster and the Critics (1st ed. 1936). London: The British
Academy.
Warner, M. (1998). No go the Bogeyman: Scaring, lulling, and making mock. London: Chatto & Windus.
God and giant in Vafþru´ðnisma´l
277
123
Document Outline
Wyszukiwarka
Podobne podstrony:
BSAVA Manual of Rabbit Surgery Dentistry and Imaging
God and Mankind Comparative Religions
Functional Origins of Religious Concepts Ontological and Strategic Selection in Evolved Minds
Guide to the properties and uses of detergents in biology and biochemistry
EurRad Ultrasound of thyroid, parathyroid glands and neck lymph nodes
Marijuana is one of the most discussed and controversial topics around the world
Preliminary Analysis of the Botany, Zoology, and Mineralogy of the Voynich Manuscript
Babi Yar Analysis of Yevtushenko's Writing Style and Meani
Improved Characterization of Nitromethane, Nitromethane Mixtures, and Shaped Charge Jet
Orzeczenia, dyrektywa 200438, DIRECTIVE 2004/58/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of
[Mises org]Mises,Ludwig von The Causes of The Economic Crisis And Other Essays Before And Aft
Comparative eco toxicity of nanoscale TiO2, SiO2, and ZnO
Amon Amarth Twilight Of The Thunder God
Biocatalytic preparation of natural flavours and fragrances POL
A Tale of Two Cities Summary and Themes of the Book
Combination of a Waste Incineration Plant and CombinedCyclePowerPlant 02bm 349 1993
Theory of Varied Consumer Choice?haviour and Its Implicati
więcej podobnych podstron