Gripla - 20.12.2015, Blaðsíða 34

GRIPLA34
[the sun threw16 the moon from the south with its right arm across
the doors of the celestial horses.]
In medieval Icelandic literature, namely in all medieval versions of Gylfa-
ginning, celestial horses appear in cosmological traditions about the es-
tablishment of days and nights and the reckoning of time, with echoes
from eddic poems such as Vafþrúðnismál (stanzas 22–25) and Grímnismál
(stanzas 37–39).17
It is said in Gylfaginning that Óðinn gave two horses and carriages
to Nótt (the personification of the night) and her son, dagr (the per-
sonification of the day), and put them in the sky to go around the earth.
nótt rides the horse Hrímfaxi and Dagr rides Skinfaxi. there then follows
in Gylfaginning the myth of Máni (moon) and Sól (sun) who were set in
the sky by the gods: Sól is to ride the horses which draw the chariot of the
sun and máni guides the course of the moon and controls its phases.18
that the myths as narrated in Gylfaginning overlap and perhaps are even
irreconcilable at some points shows that a variety of cosmological tradi-
tions existed and were transmitted in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century
Iceland. some of the traditions about celestial horses or horses of the sun
and the moon may have been ancient, as the famous horse-drawn Bronze
Age sun-chariot of trundholm suggests.19 One might assume that the
possibility that himinjódýr/himinjódyrr preserved ancient traditions would
encourage scholars to give special attention to these enigmatic celestial
horses, but that has not been the case.
16 the verb ‘throw’ in the first translation may be understood as the motion of the sun’s rays,
whereas in the second translation, ‘throw’ may denote a hurling, urging motion. All transla-
tions are my own, except when stated otherwise.
17 Edda, ed. Neckel and kuhn, 47–48, 63.
18 For the text of Gylfaginning in Codex Regius, see Gylfaginning: Texte, Übersetzung,
Kommentar, ed. gottfried Lorenz (Darmstad: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1984),
181, 186 and Edda: Gylfaginning, ed. Anthony faulkes (London: university College London,
1988), 13–14. In Codex Upsaliensis, see Snorre Sturlassons Edda: Uppsalahandskriften DG 11,
ed. Anders grape et al., 2 vols. (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1962–77), 2:7. In Codex
Wormianus, see Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Codex Wormianus AM 242 fol., ed. Finnur
Jónsson et al. (Copenhagen: gyldendal, 1924), 14–15.
19 Die Lieder der Edda, ed. Hugo gering and Barend Sijmons, 3 vols. (Halle: Buchhandlung
des Waisenhauses, 1888–31), 3.1 (Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda):xvii. the artefact was
found in trundholm, Denmark, in 1902; it is a bronze wheeled statue of a horse pulling a
disk which is commonly interpreted as the sun.
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