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',Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". and the name Nar(f)i may have shared the same meaning.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
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.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
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]
- Naurr, Nörr (dative Naurvi, Nörvi): "Vafþrúðnismál" 25 "Nótt var Naurvi borin", "Alvíssmál" 29 "Nótt in Naurvi kennda".
- Narvi, Narfi: Gylfaginning 10, a poem of Egill Skallagrímsson "niðerfi Narfa".
- Norvi, Nörvi: Gylfaginning 10, "Forspjallsljóð" 7 "kund Nörva".
- Njörfi, Njörvi: Gylfaginning 10, "Sonatorrek" "Njörva nipt".
- Nori: Gylfaginning 10.
- Nari: "Höfuðlausn" 10.
- Neri: "Helgakviða Hundingsbana I", 4.
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
- ↑ 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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- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ a b "Nǫrr", Rudolf Simek, tr. Angela Hall, Dictionary of Northern Mythology, Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1993, repr. 2000, Template:ISBN, p. 235.
- ↑ "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.
- ↑ a b "Nótt", Simek, p. 238.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Bugge, pp. 100–01.
- ↑ Bugge, p. 101.
- ↑ "A Great Man's Return", Metal Kingdom.net.
- ↑ "A Great Man's Return Lyrics", Lyrics Depot.com.
- ↑ J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, Boston: Mariner / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1994, repr. 2012, Template:ISBN, p. 318.
- ↑ 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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