Read the article here.
My Motive:
As someone who picked up an Astronomy minor as an undergraduate, I can’t help but find myself drawn to historical astronomical traditions (but not cosmology, at least for today). I already know that there is scant evidence for an Old Norse ‘astronomy,’ but I was nevertheless hoping to find a more comprehensive overview of the subject since I’ve only come across fragments in my own readings (i.e., star names). If nothing else, I just want some leads to potentially explore further.
Summary:
This article surveys native Old Norse sources and Old Norse interpretations of continental medieval scholarship in order to offer an overview of what Old Norse astronomical knowledge may have looked at primarily during the Saga period (12th and 13th centuries). Few sources are engaged with in detail, but in offering this wide-ranging look scholars are encouraged to pick up on specific examples and dig more deeply. In other words, this is an ideal place to start if you’re curious about Old Norse astronomy.
Quotes:
- “In calling this paper a re-evaluation of the sources of Old Norse astronomy, I am intentionally claiming three things; firstly that there is an Old Norse astronomy, secondly that there are sources for this and thirdly that I will re-evaluate these sources.” (119)
- “The poems that concern the creation of the cosmos and evidence of stellar myth are Voluspa (‘The Seeress’s Prophecy’), Vafthrudnirsmal (‘Vafthrudnir’s Sayings’) and Grimnismal (‘Grimnir’s Sayings’).” (121)
- “Some of these lights became fixed and some moved in a wandering course ordered by Odin and his two brothers. Snorri mentions that ancient sources say that this is how days were distinguished and also how years were counted. In his prologue, Snorri also describes how people in the past knew about the heavenly bodies, and that they had various courses, some being longer and some being shorter than others. In Voluspa, the Seeress proclaims that at first the Sun, stars and Moon did not know where their place might be. The gods then gained power and set the heavenly bodies in motion; they also began time by naming the parts of the day that eventually reckon up the years.” (122)
- While there could be ‘learned’ astronomical lore seeping in from Snorri’s education here, I still consider this (as I’m sure the author does, as well) to be examples of how there was indeed an Old Norse tradition of looking to the stars recorded in oral poetry. Understanding that some stars moved (i.e., planets) also indicates that they were looking closely.
- “Vafthrudnismal also adds that the gods made the new moon and the dark of the moon in order to count the years for men.” (122)
- I know a bit about Old Norse months already, but I do find it interesting that the moon takes center stage here for counting years rather than the sun.
- In the separate myth for the Sun and Moon, a man called Mundilfæri has a boy called Mani (Moon), and a girl named Sol (Sun). The gods become angry at the impudence of his naming his children after the heavenly bodies, and so the children are set to the task of drawing the chariots of the Sun and Moon.” (123)
- These bit of lore seems to imply that celestial bodies were held with great reverence if naming children after them was seen as haughty (almost heretical) behavior.
- “In reference to the chariot of the Sun, much work has been done recently on the apparent connection to the Bronze Age Trundholm Sun Chariot dating from 1400 BCE. This figure depicts a horse drawing a solar disc in a chariot. One side of the disc is gold and light and the other side is bronze and dark. Recent analysis by Klaus Randsborg and Kjeld Christensen on the ornamental units on each side has led them to the conclusion that the light side depicts a 366-day solar calendar, and the dark side depicts a 354-day lunar calendar.” (123)
- I’ve added this to the Further Reading section below because I’m not very familiar with it. A very interesting object, though! Here’s an image:
- “Rudolf Simek has pointed out that the wolves could be an explanation of the phenomenon of parhelia. This atmospheric phenomenon occurs as lights that can appear 22º to either side of the Sun if the conditions are correct, and are called sundogs in English. Simek notes that parhelia are called Solvarg in Norwegian, and Solulv in Swedish, both meaning sun-wolf. What Simek does not mention is that the same phenomena can also occur around the Moon and are known then as paraselenae, or moon dogs in English, which adds weight to his claim.” (123-4)
- “What the sources all have in common is an obsession with time, and how it is measured by the heavenly bodies. There is, first of all, a distinction made between those heavenly bodies that are fixed and those that move in a wandering course. The ones who wander are also noted as having differing courses. This would denote knowledge of the five planets that are visible to the naked eye (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn), as opposed to just the Sun and Moon, which are mentioned separately.” (124)
- “As Lindow points out, the name Mundilfæri can also be broken down, with the main part coming from Old Norse mund – ‘period of time’ – so the name can be translated as ‘he who causes periods of time to move’.” (124)
- “…as part of this compensation Odin takes the eyes of Thiazi and casts them up into the sky and creates two stars out of them. In the Eddic poem Harbardzljod (‘The Lay of Harbard’), it is Thor who claims to have cast Thiazi’s eyes into the sky and turned them into stars, thereby giving Thor a creative power similar to Odin.” (125)
- I’ll have to check to see if we have an Old Norse name for those stars? Or which ones they may equate to? The primary role of Thor in the poem is another point of interest for me, but that’s another topic for another day.
- “Thor broke off the toe and cast it up into the sky, making a star out of it called Aurvandilsta (‘Aurvandil’s toe’).” (125)
- I feel compelled to mention that it is yet again Thor (if we follow the poem above) who has a hand in creating celestial objects. I would also like to know, if possible, which star this is? I fear I may be asking for too much.
- “Simek believes that this tale of Aurvandil is an anecdote that Snorri invented as an explanation of the name Aurvandilsta, following on the same pattern of stellar creation that he used in the previous myth of Thiazi’s eyes.” (125)
- A reasonable possibility to at least keep in mind
- “However, this act is important, as it places Thor as another creative element in the cosmos.” (126)
- “I would suggest that unless a more satisfactory etymological connection can be made between the two, the ‘Earendel equals Aurvandil’ hypothesis should be laid aside. The closer connection of aurr- as in gravel, mud and mire with the rivers of Elivagar seems a more obvious parallel.” (126)
- “At the time that Snorri was writing his Edda there was already a tradition of astronomical observation in Iceland. […] The observations of Thorsteinn the Black, Stjornu-Oddi and Nikulas Bergsson show that there was an Icelandic form of direct astronomical observation.” (126)
- I’ll summarize more compactly: c.960 = calendar amended; c.1150 = charting sun’s altitude at noon and its bearing and sunset/sunset; also c.1150 = Nikulas Bergsson mentions the pole-star (I wrote a whole post on him with a digital map, if you’d like to learn more).
- “It is also from the mid-twelfth century that the earliest surviving Scandinavian astronomical treatises date. Indeed the very earliest Icelandic manuscript, AM 732 a VII 4to, from around 1130, is a table used to date Easter. This calculation of Easter relied on a combination of calculation and astronomical observation that is called ‘computus’ or Rim in Old Norse.” (127)
- I’ve added a link to a digitized version of that manuscript so you may look at it for yourself, if you’d like to.
- “As well as using the work of Icelandic astronomers such as Thorsteinn the Black and Stjornu Oddi, there is also an extensive use of Latin scholars from the continent.” (127)
- The article goes on to list a few ‘proper medieval’ astronomers, if you’re curious to know which works were circulating in Iceland around the time. I will say that, while interest tends to favor pagan and traditional sources, knowing what influenced the authors writing lore down is very, very insightful and important.
- “…the writer of Rim I worked with encyclopaedic manuals and focused mainly on computus – with some basic astronomy and a little detail about the constellations – but was also influenced by the observations of Icelandic astronomers.” (128)
- “Also contained within the oldest part of GKS 1812 4to are a series of astronomical glosses that give Latin, Arabic and Old Norse star names. It is this interesting glossary that gives another insight into possible indigenous Old Norse star and constellation names. There is also a description of forty-two constellations, in a later fourteenth-century part of the GKS 1812 4to manuscript.” (128)
- Again, I’ve added links to a digitized version of that manuscript so you may look at it for yourself.
- “Due to space I will only detail two constellations here: Orion, and the star cluster known as the Hyades.” (129)
- This only makes me want to dive in deeper myself! Perhaps I could offer a mini-series of some sort on this topic…
- “In the glossary Orion is written down as the Old Norse Fiskikarlar, or fishermen.” (129)
- “In the glossary the Hyades are written down as the Old Norse Ulfs Keptr or ‘wolf’s mouth’. […] In the constellation list [from the 14th century] the Hyades are called Vlfs Kiopt, so this shows a continuity of two centuries, and would suggest popularity for this name. […] As to which wolf it could have represented, it could be the Fenris wolf, but it could also be either of the two wolves who chase the Sun and the Moon. […] From our perspective from Earth it appears that the Moon and Sun move through the Zodiacal constellations away from the open Wolf’s Mouth, until they finally return, full circle, to the Wolf’s Mouth.” (129-30)
- Okay, so this is pretty interesting. I’m fascinated when lore coincides with what we humans can and have observed. Allow me a moment to imagine someone long ago gazing upward and telling a story of a wolf eating the sun for the first time.
- “By the thirteenth century astronomical works from Europe had completely superceded indigenous Scandinavian astronomical traditions.” (130)
- Completely? I can see how knowledge from abroad could eclipse, but was it not mingled together? Perhaps my issue here is more with the phrasing here since some older names seem to have persisted even alongside ‘imported’ knowledge. But, as the author later states, more research into other sources still needs to be done.
Further Reading:
- Þorsteinn Vilhjálmsson, ‘Time-Reckoning in Iceland before Literacy’, Archaeoastronomy in the 1990s, ed. C.L.N. Ruggles (Loughborough: Group D Publications, 1991)
- Þorsteinn Vilhjálmsson, ‘Time and Travel in Old Norse Society’, Disputatio 2, (1997): pp. 89–114.
- K. Randsborg and K. Christensen, ‘Bronze Age Oak-Coffin Graves’ in Acta Archaeologica, ed. Klaus Randsborg, Vol. 77, Issue 1 (2006): pp. 3-246.
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