Litr
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Litr (also Lit; Old Norse: Script error: No such module "IPA"., 'colour, appearance') is the name borne by a dwarf and a jötunn in Norse mythology.
Name
The Old Norse name Litr has been translated as 'colour', 'hue', or 'appearance'.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". It stems from a Proto-Germanic form reconstructed as *ulituz (compare with Gothic wlits 'shape, appearance', or Old English wlite 'clearness, sparkle').Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Dwarf
In Snorri Sturluson's Gylfaginning (49), Litr is kicked into Baldr's funeral pyre by Thor:
- Then Thor stood by and hallowed the pyre with Mjöllnir; and before his feet ran a certain dwarf which was named Litr; Thor kicked at him with his foot and thrust him into the fire, and he burned.
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- —Gylfaginning, Brodeur's translation
Litr is also listed as a dwarf in Völuspá (12).
A dwarf named Litr also appears in Áns saga bogsveigis, where he is coerced by the protagonist Án to build him a bow.
Jötunn
In a stanza by Bragi Boddason[1] quoted in Snorri's Skáldskaparmál (42) Litr is also mentioned in a kenning for Thor: "Lit's men's fight-challenger"[2] ("Litar flotna fangboði"). Given that Thor is the enemy of Script error: No such module "Lang"., it is generally assumed that, in this kenning, Litr must refer to a giant.[3] Litr is also a Script error: No such module "Lang". in one version of the poem about Thor by Þorbjörn dísarskáld, where the skald lists Script error: No such module "Lang". and Script error: No such module "Lang". killed by the god (but Litr only appears in one manuscript, the others mentioning Lútr instead).[4]
This led John Lindow to suggest that there may have been originally only one Litr, a Script error: No such module "Lang"., for "it would not have been inappropriate for Thor to have killed a giant in some earlier version of the funeral of Baldr".[4]
References
- ↑ This stanza belongs either to Ragnarsdrápa (according to Finnur Jónsson's edition) or to an independent poem about Thor's fishing (according to Margaret Clunies Ross' edition Script error: No such module "webarchive".).
- ↑ Faulkes 1995.
- ↑ Faulkes 1995, Lindow 2002.
- ↑ a b Lindow 2002.
Bibliography
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