Aurvandil
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Old Norse Aurvandil, Old English , Lombardic Auriwandalo, German Orentil (or Erentil) are cognate Germanic personal names. Auriwandalo is attested as a historical Lombardic prince. A latinized version, Horvandillus appears as the name of the father of Amleth (Shakespeare's Hamlet) in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum. German Orentil is the hero of a medieval poem of the same name. He is son of a certain Eigel of Trier and has numerous adventures in the Holy Land. The Old Norse variant appears in purely mythological context, linking the name to a star. The Old English word refers to a star exclusively.
The second element of the name is probably connected to Vendel and the Vandals. The original Germanic Aurvandil might therefore have been the mythical "Founder of the Vandals", just as Ingve with the Ynglings, Dan with the Danes, Angul with the Angles, Saxneat with the Saxons. Viktor Rydberg tried to reconstruct a common Germanic mythological figure, coming up with Orendil as the greatest archer in Norse mythology and the father of Swipdag (whom Rydberg equates with Ullr as he does Gróa with Sif). Julius Pokorny connects the word with Proto-Germanic *āusōs, Anglo-Saxon Eastre, Easter, East, and ultimately with Hausos (Ushas), the Proto-Indo-European dawn goddess.
Edda
Aurvandil is mentioned once in Norse Mythology, in the Skáldskaparmál section of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda:- Thor went home to Thrúdvangar, and the hone remained sticking in his head. Then came the wise woman who was called Gróa, wife of Aurvandill the Valiant: she sang her spells over Thor until the hone was loosened. But when Thor knew that, and thought that there was hope that the hone might be removed, he desired to reward Gróa for her leech-craft and make her glad, and told her these things: that he had waded from the north over Icy Stream and had borne Aurvandill in a basket on his back from the north out of Jötunheim. And he added for a token, that one of Aurvandill's toes had stuck out of the basket, and became frozen; wherefore Thor broke it off and cast it up into the heavens, and made thereof the star called Aurvandill's Toe. Thor said that it would not be long ere Aurvandill came home: but Gróa was so rejoiced that she forgot her incantations, and the hone was not loosened, and stands yet in Thor's head. Therefore it is forbidden to cast a hone across the floor, for then the hone is stirred in Thor's head.
Crist
Old English Earendel appears in glosses as translating iubar "radiance, morning star".In the Old English poem Crist I are the lines (104–108):
- éala éarendel engla beorhtast
- ofer middangeard monnum sended
- and sodfasta sunnan leoma,
- tohrt ofer tunglas þu tida gehvane
- of sylfum þe symle inlihtes.
- Hail Earendel, brightest of angels,
- over Midgard to men sent,
- and true radiance of the Sun
- bright above the stars, every season
- thou of thyself ever illuminest.
J. R. R. Tolkien was inspired by these lines of the Crist poem, deriving both the character Eärendil, also associated with the morning star, and his use of Middle-earth from it (see Sauron Defeated p. 236f.).
See also
External links
- http://www.ealdriht.org/earendel.html
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