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bol or nourisher of new life can also be seen in the imagery of Völuspá 57,
5–8 (n-K 14).’20 In his translation of the second half of the relevant stanza,
McKinnell adds, similarly to Dronke, the phrase nourisher of life:
…fire rages
opposite fire (‘nourisher of life’),
lofty heat plays
against heaven itself.
for McKinnell, there is an idea of opposites: eimi is ‘fire that destroys evil’
and aldrnari is ‘fire that nourishes and generates a new life’. thus, there
is an encounter between the annihilating fire (eimi) and the life-giving fire
(aldrnari), symbolizing the collision of evil and good. Such an idea had in
fact already been expressed by Sigurður nordal, explaining the role of fire
in the relevant stanza by saying that ‘hann, sem áður annaðist lífið, snýst
nú öndverður á hendur þess. – Eldur geisar við eld, jörðin er alelda’ [‘the
one who formerly nourished life now turns against it; fire blazes by fire,
the earth is entirely ablaze’].21 an informed yet critical discussion is found
in Schach.22
thus, the predominant opinion on the meaning of aldrnari as ‘fire’
seems to be well established. nevertheless, one may ask what the original
motivation for this hypothesis is. the idea seems to be based primarily
on the fact that the word occurs among the heiti for fire in the þulur; the
interpretation, then, is that aldrnari denotes a phenomenon that is very
important for the maintenance of life, fire obviously being vital in this
regard, as for example in Hávamál 3 and 68. Although these seem valid
arguments, they are not accepted by all researchers, who have attempted
to find other explanations.
20 John McKinnell, “Vǫluspá and the fest of Easter,” Essays on Eddic Poetry, ed. by Donata
Kick and John D. Shafer (toronto: university of toronto Press, 2014), 18.
21 Völuspá, ed. by Sigurður nordal (reykjavík: Helgafell, 1923), 102–3; Völuspá, ed. by
Sigurður nordal, trans. B. S. Benedikz and John McKinnell (Durham: Durham and St.
andrews Medieval texts, 1978), 110.
22 Paul Schach, “Some thoughts on Völuspá,” Edda: A Collections of Essays, ed. by R. J.
Glendinning and Haraldur Bessason (Winnipeg: university of Manitoba Press, 1983),
107.
ALDRNARI