Narfi

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Narfi (Old Norse: Script error: No such module "IPA".), also Nörfi (O.N.: Script error: No such module "Lang". Script error: No such module "IPA".), Nari or Nörr (O.N.: Script error: No such module "Lang". Script error: No such module "IPA".), is a jötunn in Norse mythology, and the father of Nótt, the personified night.

Name

The Old Norse name Nǫrr has been related to the Old Saxon Script error: No such module "Lang". ('night'), a name which occurs in the verse Script error: No such module "Lang". of the fragmentary Genesis poem.[n 1] In adjectival form, the Old Norse nǫrr means 'narrow',Template:Sfn and the name Nar(f)i may have shared the same meaning.Template:Sfn

Thus, the jötunn's name, as first suggested by Adolf Noreen, may be a synonym for "night" or, perhaps more likely, an adjective related to Old English Script error: No such module "Lang"., "narrow", meaning "closed-in" and thus "oppressive".[1][2][3]

Snorri Sturluson cites Narfi as an alternative form of the name of the jötunn Nörfi, and the variants Nör and Nörvi also appear in Norse poetry.Template:Sfn

Attestations

According to the Gylfaginning section of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, Nótt is the daughter of the jötunn "Nörfi or Narfi".[4][5] However, in the Poetic Edda, Nótt's father is called Nörr (not to be confused with Nór), primarily for reasons of alliteration.[4] This name is only recorded in the dative form Nǫrvi (variant spelling Naurvi).[6]

The name of Nótt's father is recorded in several forms in Old Norse sources:[7]

Theories

Various scholars have argued that Snorri based his genealogy of Nótt on classical models.[6][8] They relate Narfi to Erebus, which would make Script error: No such module "Lang"., used in "Helgakviða Hundingsbana I" for a Norn who comes in the night, an appellation derived from the Parcae, who were Erebus' daughters.[9]

Legacy

In "A Great Man's Return", a song on their album Valdr Galga, the Swedish viking metal band Thyrfing refer to "Norve's starfilled sky".[10][11]

In J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings Part One, The Fellowship of the Ring, the dwarf maker of the Doors of Durin signed them "Narvi"; in drafts, Tolkien spelt the name Narfi as in the Prose Edda.[12][13]

In a season 13 episode of Supernatural, Narfi captures and sells the archangel Gabriel to Asmodeus.

Notes

  1. See Behaghel, Otto (1933). Heliand und Genesis p. 245. Not in Old English, an error made in Script error: No such module "Footnotes"., reproduced in Script error: No such module "Footnotes"..

References

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  1. Sophus Bugge, The Home of the Eddic poems: With Especial Reference to the Helgi-Lays, tr. William Henry Schofield, Grimm library 11, London: Nutt, 1899, Template:Catalog lookup link, p. 99.
  2. Hugo Gering and Barend Symons, Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda, Germanistische Handbibliothek 7(3), Halle: Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses, 1927, Template:Catalog lookup link, p. 14.
  3. Tette Hofstra, "A note on the 'Darkness of the night' motif in alliterative poetry, and the search for the poet of the Old Saxon Heliand", in Loyal Letters: Studies on Mediaeval Alliterative Poetry & Prose, ed. L. A. J. R. Houwen and A. A. MacDonald, Mediaevalia Groningana 15, Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1994, Template:ISBN, p. 104.
  4. a b "Nǫrr", Rudolf Simek, tr. Angela Hall, Dictionary of Northern Mythology, Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1993, repr. 2000, Template:ISBN, p. 235.
  5. "Nótt (Night)", John Lindow, Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs, Oxford/New York: Oxford University, 2001, Template:ISBN, p. 246.
  6. a b "Nótt", Simek, p. 238.
  7. Viktor Rydberg, Teutonic Mythology: Gods and Goddesses of the Northland, tr. Rasmus B. Anderson, Volume 2, Norroena Anglo-Saxon Classics 4, London/New York: Norroena Society, 1907, Template:Catalog lookup link, p. 611.
  8. Bugge, pp. 100–01.
  9. Bugge, p. 101.
  10. "A Great Man's Return", Metal Kingdom.net.
  11. "A Great Man's Return Lyrics", Lyrics Depot.com.
  12. J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, Boston: Mariner / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1994, repr. 2012, Template:ISBN, p. 318.
  13. Christopher Tolkien and J. R. R. Tolkien, The treason of Isengard: The History of the Lord of the Rings, Part Two, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989, Template:ISBN, p. 188.

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Bibliography

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