10 - Seducing the Giantess: Óðinn

Summary

Þat kann ec iþ sextánda, ef ec vil ins svinna mans

hafa geð alt oc gaman:

hugi ec hverfi hvítarmri kono

oc sný ec hennar ǫllom sefa.

‘I know the sixteenth, when I want the clever young girl's

complete love and sexual pleasure with her, I turn the

thoughts of the white-armed woman, and alter her mind

completely.’

Hávamál 161

The protagonist in myths of exploitation is usually Óðinn. In the quotation above, he boasts that he knows spells which enable him to win and keep a woman's love; but his own motivation is usually calculating rather than passionate. In the Gunnlǫð myth he wants to obtain the mead of poetry, but his usual aim is to beget a son who will be a defender of the gods, a just avenger, or the founder of a human dynasty.

1. Óðinn's names

ÓĐINN AS PROGENITOR

Óðinn's role as progenitor or seducer is reflected in a few of his many names, most obviously in Alfǫðr ‘All-father’. This name probably was used during the heathen period (see, for example, Grímnismál 48,3), but doubtless arose as a borrowing from Christianity. Gylfaginning ch. 9 calls Óðinn the father of all gods and men – an exaggeration even in Snorra Edda, where he is not, for example, the father of the Vanir – and ch. 3 claims that Alfǫðr is immortal and has created human beings with immortal souls. Late sources show a tendency to inflate the number of Óðinn's divine sons, but other Óðinn names ending in -fǫðr suggest that pre-Christian poets took Alfǫðr to mean simply ‘patron of everyone’.

Þrór (cf. þróask ‘to thrive, be fruitful’) probably originated as a name for Freyr. In Þjóðólfr's Ynglingatal 35,1–3 (c. 900), niðkvísl Þrós ‘the branch of Þrór's descent’ refers to the Norwegian branch of the Ynglingar, who are descended from the Vanir (see Chapter 5). Similarly, in Þula IV dd, 7 Þrór is a boar, Freyr's sacred animal.