Lævateinn - Misplaced Pages

(Redirected from Laevateinn) Sword of Loki. "Laevatein" redirects here. For the videogame, see Hero's Saga Laevatein Tactics. Not to be confused with Leviathan.

In Norse mythology, Lævateinn is a weapon crafted by Loki mentioned in the Poetic Edda poem Fjölsvinnsmál. The name Lævateinn does not appear in the original manuscript reading, but is an emendation from Hævateinn made by Sophus Bugge and others.

The weapon is needed to slay the rooster Viðofnir atop the Mímameiðr tree in order for the seeker to achieve his quest, or so replies the wise porter Fjölsviðr, the titular character of the poem.

Lævateinn has variously been asserted to be a dart (or some projectile weapon), or a sword, or a wand, by different commentators and translators. It is glossed as literally meaning a "wand" causing damage by several sources, yet some of these same sources claim simultaneously that the name is a kenning for sword. Others prefer to regard it as a magic wand (seiðr staff), can be considered the mistletoe dart that killed Baldur.

Attestation

Lævateinn is the only weapon capable of defeating the cockerel Viðofnir, as explained by Fiölsvith "the very wise" porter in the poem Fjölsvinnsmál. Lopt, the sword's maker, refers to Loki.

Name and meanings

Hævateinn, the untampered form of the weapon's name as occurs in manuscript, has been glossed as "sure-striking dart/arrow" by Árni Magnússon in 1787, and rendered "an arrow's name /That never disappoints the aim" by A. S. Cottle in 1797.

Lævateinn, the emendation made by changing the first letter from H to L, was proposed by Sophus Bugge in 1860/1861, later printed in Bugge's edition of the Poetic Edda (1867 ), and construed to mean 'Wounding Wand', or 'damage twig', or "Wand-of-Destruction".

To be fair, Lævateinn or læ-wand can have three possible senses of meaning, and the latter three English glosses exploit only one of them. The three meanings of læ (the nominative case of læva) are: "cunning", "deception", and "injury". The weapon's name is glossed as "wand of non deceit" in passing without further explanation by Einar Ólafur Sveinsson.

Fjölsvinnsmál

The weapon is mentioned briefly thus in the poem Fjölsvinnsmál:

Segþv mer þat, Fjölsviþr!
Hvart ſe vapna nockvt
þat er knegi Viþofnir for
Hníga á heljar ſjót?“

Hæva-teinn heitir hann;
Enn hann gerþi Loptr Rúinn
Fyr ná-grindor neþan,
I ſæg iárnkeri liggr han
Hia Sin-mörv;
Oc halda njarþ-láſar nío.

Tell me, Fiölsvith! etc.
whether there be any weapon,
before which Vidofnir may
fall to Hel´s abode?

Hævatein the twig is named,
and Lopt plucked it,
down by the gate of Death.
In an iron chest it lies
with Sinmoera,
and is with nine strong locks secured.

—Fjölsvinnsmál, str. 26–27. Árni Magnússon pub. (1787)

—Benjamin Thorpe translation

Bugge proposed that this poem Fjölsvinnsmál should be treated as Part II of Svipdagsmál (sequel to Part I Grógaldr), and the sword's name was emended to Lævateinn by him.

The poem underwent further modifications. The phrase "í sæg iárnkeri" ('placed in an iron vase') was modified by Hjalmar Falk to "í Lægjarns keri", where Lægjarn denoted 'Lover of Ill', a nickname of Loki.

Vindkaldr kvað:
Segðu mér þat, Fjölsviðr!
er ek þik spyrja mun
ok ek vilja vita:
hvárt sé vápna nökkut,
þat er knegi Viðofnir fyr
hníga á Heljar sjöt?

Fjölsviðr kvað:
Lævateinn hann heitir,
en hann gerði Loptr rýninn
fyr nágrindr neðan;
í seigjárnkeri
liggr hann hjá Sinmöru,
ok halda njarðlásar níu.

Svipdag spake:
"Now answer me, Fjolsvith, the question I ask,
For now the truth would I know:
What weapon can send Vithofnir to seek
The house of Hel below?"

Fjolsvith spake:
"Lævatein is there, that Lopt with runes
Once made by the doors of death;
In Lægjarn's chest by Sinmora lies it,
And nine locks fasten it firm".

—Fjölsvinnsmál, str. 25–26. Sophus Bugge ed. (1867)

—Henry Adams Bellows translation

Theories

The Laeva- stem of the weapon's name is considered the genitive form of Lae-, as occurs in Loki's nickname Lægjarn, where lae means 'deceit, fraud; bane', and so forth.

Type of weapon

The identification of the type of weapon is not in agreement among commentators and translators.

The Hævateinn was interpreted to be a dart/arrow (spiculum) by Árni Magnússon and A. S. Cottle in the 18th century as already noted.

Whereas Finnur Jónsson glossed it as a sword, along with other editors at the beginning of early 20th century, and it was specifically claimed to be the same as the flaming sword of the giant Surtr by Henrik Schück.

Or, the Hævateinn or Lævateinn was probably a magic wand crafted by Loki according to others, e.g., Albert Morey Sturtevant, and a paper on seiðr magic staffs citing Rudolf Simek.

Henry Adams Bellows glossed Lævateinn as meaning 'wounding wand', but rejected identification with the mistilteinn or "mistletoe with which Baldr was killed". To complicate matters, the argument is also made by e.g. Lee M. Hollander that although Lævateinn is literally renderable as a "Wand-of-Destruction", it is etymologically considered to be a kenning for a sword.

In Adolfo Zavaroni and Reggio Emilia's conception of the poem, Lævateinn is a cudgel ("Evilcudgel"), while it is Viðofnir who owns a collection of rods (divining rods) whereamong he maintains his sickle. In fact, the word völr in the text literally means "rounded rods", although translators have figuratively interpreted the word to be the rooster's plumage.

Explanatory notes

Latin: spiculum in feriendo certum.
Or, if parsed as "sæ-gjarn" becomes construable as 'sea lover'.
with an emendation by Falk shown in brackets.
Leszek Gardeła notes magic staff gambanteinn which also has a -teinn stem meaning 'twig'.
It should be explained that in Zavaroni and Emilia's picture, Viðofnir is not a mere bird, but "one of the aspects or hypostases of the Hœnir".

References

Citations

^ Einar Ól. Sveinsson (1971–1973), pp. 300–301.
^ Bellows tr. (1923). "Svipdagsmol (II Fjolsvinnsmol)" str. 41–42. p. 245
^ Thorpe tr. (1907). "The Lay of Filolsvith" str. 26–27. pp. 98–99
^ Bellows tr. (1923), pp. 245–246. Notes to "Svipdagsmol (II Fjolsvinnsmol)" str. 42.
^ Magnæus (1787). "Fiöl-svinns mál" str. 26–27. 1: 294–295
^ Cottle tr. (1797). "The Fable of Fiolsuid". p. 278
Bugge, Sophus (1861). "Hr. Bugge holdt folgende Foredrag om Forbindelsenn mellem de norrøne Digte Grógaldr og Fjölsvinnsmál oplyst ved Sammenligning med den dansk-svenske Folkevise om Sveidal". Forhandlinger i videnskabs-selskabet i Christiania. Vol. 1860. p. 139.
^ Bugge (1867). "Svipdagsmál II: Fjölsvinnsmál" str. 25–26. pp. 347–348.
^ Simek (2007), p. 185.
^ Hollander tr. (2011). str. 26–27. p. 148 and note.
^ Wanner (2009).
Jan de Vries (1961), Wörterbuch. Cited by Wanner (2009).
^ Cf. "læ" s.v. Cleasby=Vigfusson's Dictionary (1874).
Pettit (2019), pp. 206–210, note 41
Magnæus (1787), p. 294 "Latin: In sino, ferreo vase".
^ Falk (1894), p. 51. "Mimetræts hane (Cockerel of the Mímameiðr--Mímir's tree)" str. 26. p. 51.
Finnur Jónsson (1905) p. 216 , and index, p. 524
Sijmons, Barend; Gering, Hugo ed. (1903–31) Edda 1:207. Cited by Wanner (2009).
Schück, Henrik (1904). Studier i nordisk litteratur- och religionshistoria. Vol. 2. Stockholm: Hugo Geber. p. 124.
Sturtevant, Albert Morey (March 1915). "A Note on the Sigrdrífumál". Publications of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study. 2 (2): 83. JSTOR 40914942.
Gardeła (2009), p. 199, citing Simek (2006), p. 185.
^ Zavaroni & Emilia (2006), p. 72.
e.g. Bellows tr. (1923). "Svipdagsmol (II Fjolsvinnsmol)" str. 46. p. 246: "sickle.. mid Vithofnir's feathers found".

Bibliography

(texts and translations)

"Svipdagsmol II: Fjolsvinnsmol". The poetic Edda. Translated by Bellows, Henry Adams. New York: American-Scandinavian Foundation. 1923. pp. 239–251.
"Svipdagsmol II: Fjolsvinnsmol". The poetic Edda. Translated by ——. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications. 2004. pp. 239–251. ISBN 0-486-43710-8.
Bugge, Sophus, ed. (1867). "Fiölsvinnsmál". Sæmundar Edda hins Fóda: Norroen Fornkvaedi. Christiana: P. T. Mallings. pp. 343–351.
"The Fable of Fiolsuid". Icelandic Poetry, Or The Edda of Saemund. Translated by Cottle, A. S. Bristol: Joseph Cottle. 1797. pp. 265–286.
"The Lay of Svipdag: The Lay of Fjolsvith". The Poetic Edda. Vol. 1. Translated by Hollander, Lee M. (2nd ed.). Austin: University of Texas. 2011 . pp. 143–153. ISBN 9780292764996.
Finnur Jónsson, ed. (1905). "Fiölsvinnsmál". Sæmundar-Edda: Eddukvæði. Reykjavík: Sigurður Kristjánsson. pp. 211–221.
"The Lay of Fjolsvith". The Elder Edda of Saemund Sigfusson. Translated by Thorpe, Benjamin. London: Norrœna Society. 2004. pp. 95–101. ISBN 0-486-43710-8.
Magnæus, Legatus , ed. (1787). "Fiöl-svinns mál". Edda Sæmundar hinns Fróda. Edda rhythmica seu antiquior, vulgo Sæmundina dicta (in Latin). Vol. 1. Hafniæ: Gyldendal. pp. 275–310.

(secondary sources)

Einar Ól. Sveinsson (1971–1973), "Svipdag's Long Journey: Some Observations on Grógaldr and Fjölsvinnsmál", Béaloideas, 39/41: 298–319, doi:10.2307/20521363, JSTOR 20521363
Falk, Hjalmar (1894), "Om Svipdagsmál", Arkiv för nordisk filologi (in Danish), 10: 26–82
Gardeła, Leszek (2009), Słupecki, Leszek P.; Morawiec, Jakub (eds.), "A Biography of the Seiðr-Staffs. Towards an Archaeology of Emotions", Between Paganism and Christianity in the North, Rzeszów: Rzeszów University, pp. 190–219, ISBN 9788373384651
Pettit, Edward (2019). "8. Lævateinn and the Maelstrom-Giantess". The Waning Sword: Conversion Imagery and Celestial Myth in 'Beowulf'. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers. pp. 197–224. ISBN 978-1783748273.
Simek, Rudolf, ed. (2007) , Dictionary of Northern Mythology, translated by Angela Hall, D.S. Brewer, pp. 190–219, ISBN 0-85991-513-1
Wanner, Kevin J. (February 2009). "Cunning Intelligence in Norse Myth: Loki, Óðinn, and the Limits of Sovereignty". History of Religions. 48 (3): 216 and n18. doi:10.1086/598231. JSTOR 10.1086/598231. S2CID 161860193.
Zavaroni, Adolfo; Emilia, Reggio (2006). "Mead and 'Aqua Vitae': Functions of Mímir, Oðinn, Viðofnir and Svipdagr". In Langbroek, Erika; Quak, Arend; Roeleveld, Annelies; Vermeyden, Paula (eds.). Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik. Vol. 61. Rodopo. pp. 65–86. ISBN 9042018593.

Old Norse religion and mythology

Mythological Norse people, items and places

Deities,
dwarfs, jötnar,
and other figures

Æsir	Almáttki áss Baldr Bragi Dellingr Forseti Heimdall Hermóðr Höðr Hœnir Ítreksjóð Lóðurr Loki Máni Meili Mímir Móði and Magni Odin Óðr Thor Týr Ullr Váli (son of Odin) Víðarr Vili and Vé
Ásynjur	Bil Eir Frigg Fulla Gefjon Gerðr Gná Hlín Iðunn Ilmr Irpa Lofn Nanna Njörun Rán Rindr Sága Sif Sigyn Sjöfn Skaði Snotra Sól Syn Þorgerðr Hölgabrúðr Þrúðr Vár Vör
Vanir	Freyja Freyr Ingunar-Freyr Yngvi Gersemi Gullveig Hnoss Kvasir Njörðr Sister-wife of Njörðr
Jötnar	Ægir Alvaldi Angrboða Aurboða Baugi Beli Bergelmir Bestla Bölþorn Býleistr Eggþér Fárbauti Fjölvar Fornjót Gangr Geirröðr Gillingr Gjálp and Greip Gríðr Gunnlöð Gymir Harðgreipr Helblindi Helreginn Hljod Hræsvelgr Hrímgerðr Hrímgrímnir Hrímnir Hroðr Hrungnir Hrymr Hymir Hyrrokkin Iði Ím Járnsaxa Laufey Leikn Litr Logi Mögþrasir Narfi (father of Nott) Sökkmímir Surtr Suttungr Þjazi Þökk Þrívaldi Þrúðgelmir Þrymr Útgarða-Loki Vafþrúðnir Víðblindi Vosud Vörnir Ymir
Dwarfs	Alvíss Andvari Austri, Vestri, Norðri and Suðri Billingr Dáinn Durinn Dúrnir Dvalinn Fáfnir Fjalar and Galar Gandalf Hreiðmarr Litr Mótsognir Ótr Regin Sons of Ivaldi Brokkr Eitri
Heroes	List of figures in Germanic heroic legend A B–C D–E F–G H–He Hi–Hy I–O P–S T–Y people, clan, and place names in Germanic heroic legend named animals and plants named weapons, armour and treasures
Others	Ask and Embla Auðr Auðumbla Aurvandill Beyla Borr Búri Byggvir Dísir Landdísir Dragons Draugs Einherjar Eldir Elves Dark elves (Dökkálfar) Light elves (Ljósálfar) Black elves (Svartálfar) Fimafeng Fjalar (rooster) Fenrir Fjörgyn and Fjörgynn Fylgja Garmr Gullinbursti Hati Hróðvitnisson Hel Hildisvíni Hjúki Horses of the Æsir Árvakr and Alsviðr Blóðughófi Falhófnir Gísl Glaðr Glær Glenr Grani Gullfaxi Gulltoppr Gyllir Hamskerpir and Garðrofa Hófvarpnir Skinfaxi and Hrímfaxi Sleipnir Svaðilfari Jörð Jörmungandr Líf and Lífthrasir Loddfáfnir Móðguðr Nine Daughters of Ægir and Rán Nine Mothers of Heimdallr Narfi (son of Loki) Níðhöggr Norns Personifications Dagr Elli Nótt Sumarr and Vetr Sæhrímnir Skírnir Sköll Shield-maiden Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr Troll Þjálfi and Röskva Vættir Landvættir Váli (son of Loki) Valkyries Völundr Vörðr

Locations

Underworld	Hel Éljúðnir Gjallarbrú Náströnd Niflhel Niðafjöll
Rivers	Élivágar Gjöll Ífingr Kerlaugar Körmt and Örmt Slidr River Vadgelmir Vimur River
Other locations	Asgard Amsvartnir Andlang Barri Bifröst Bilskirnir Brávellir Brimir Fensalir Fólkvangr Fornsigtuna Fyrisvellir Gálgviðr Gandvik Gastropnir Gimlé Ginnungagap Glaðsheimr Glæsisvellir Glitnir Gnipahellir Grove of fetters Heiðr Himinbjörg Hindarfjall Hlidskjalf Hnitbjorg Hoddmímis holt Iðavöllr Járnviðr Jötunheimr Mímameiðr Myrkviðr Munarvágr Nóatún Okolnir Sessrúmnir Sindri Singasteinn Þrúðheimr Þrúðvangr Þrymheimr Uppsala Útgarðar Valaskjálf Valhalla Vanaheimr Víðbláinn Vígríðr Vingólf Wells Hvergelmir Mímisbrunnr Urðarbrunnr Ýdalir Yggdrasil

Events

Sources

Society

Religious practice	Anthropomorphic wooden cult figurines of Central and Northern Europe Blót Hof Heitstrenging Horses Hörgr Worship Öndvegissúlur Reginnaglar Sacred trees and groves Sonargöltr Temple at Uppsala Vé Wetlands and islands
Festivals and holy periods	Álfablót Dísablót Germanic calendar Þorrablót Vetrnætr Yule
Other	Death Ergi Félag Galdr Goði Hamingja Heiti Kenning Mead hall Nīþ Norse cosmology Numbers Philosophy Rings Runes Seiðr Skald Viking Age Völva