34
Viewed in the light of the mythic ‘mothers’ of
Germanic tradition, Hlín seems at least likely
to have been considered an entity distinct from
Frigg and also associated with protection. This
perspective accords with the statement in the
Prose Edda quoted above, in which Hlín is
clearly distinct and ‘given the task to protect
those that Frigg wants saved from danger’.
Fulla as an Analogous Case
Beyond the numerous Germanic ‘mothers’, the
textual record offers few glimpses of the
deities of the Germanic peoples beyond North
Germanic sources. One notable exception is
the Old High German Second Merseburg Incan-
tation, a charm for healing an injured horse.
6
This charm is preserved in a 10
th
-century
addition to a 9
th
-century manuscript. Distant in
time and place, the incantation presents several
notable correlations with the North Germanic
corpus. Although Hlín
is not mentioned in this
source, it has analogical relevance to the
present discussion. This eight-line charm
provides the majority of vernacular theonyms
in Old High German: it is exceptional as a
source, which makes it interesting in what
information it can provide and how we would
view Germanic mythologies without it.
The historiola (i.e. narrative beginning) of
the Second Merseburg Incantation states that
the mysterious god Phol and Wuodan were
riding to the forest when ‘that Lord’s foal’
sprained its foot, at which point four goddesses
are named as pairs of sisters followed by
Wuodan again performing verbal magic to heal
the horse. Among these goddesses,
Frija,
cognate with Old Norse
Frigg, is mentioned
and
Volla, cognate with the Old Norse
theonym
Fulla, is named as her sister. Old
Norse
Fulla is identified as the servant rather
than sister of Frigg in
Gylfaginning and in the
prose introduction to the eddic poem
Grímnismál, both prose sources, but not
connected with Frigg (or mentioned in any
narrative context) in any other source. Like
Hlín, Fulla appears in goddess lists in
Gylfaginning and in
Skáldskaparmál, and as a
component of kennings referring to women.
Like Hlín, prose attestations indicate that Fulla
is closely associated with Frigg, yet explicitly
delineates the two goddesses as independent
but associated entities. (cf. Faulkes 2005: 29;
1998: 1,114). Like Hlín, the name
Fulla [‘full,
bountiful’] may be tempting to dismiss as a
reading error on the part of a
Prose Edda
author or as a poetic invention (cf. de Vries
1970: 349). Were it not for the preservation of
the cognate theonym
Volla in the Second
Merseburg Charm, Fulla would remain in a
similarly ambiguous position like that of Hlín,
easily overlooked, dismissed, or deconstructed.
The case of Fulla is more interesting to
consider in relation to that of Hlín because of
her association with Frigg. The exceptional
Old High German source not only supports
viewing Fulla as a distinct entity, but also that
she has a historical connection with Frigg. The
analogy certainly does not demonstrate a
historical relationship between Hlín and Frigg,
and certainly not that Hlín had a cognate in Old
High German. On the other hand, it
demonstrates that Frigg had relationships to
other goddesses and that these other goddesses
were distinct entities. Frog (2010) observes
that the difference between the relationship of
Old High German
Volla to
Frija and that of
Fulla to
Frigg entails a difference in status as
sisters of the former, implying equality on the
one hand, and that of servant and master of the
latter, implying hierarchy on the other.
However these relationships are interpreted
historically, Old Norse mythology appears to
situate Frigg in a hierarchical relationship to
other goddesses in a manner different from
what is seen in the extremely limited evidence
of Old High German. The alliteration of
Frija–
Volla and of
Frigg–Fulla supports interpreting
a historical relationship between these names,
increasing the probability of an earlier kinship
relation (Frog, p.c.). If Frigg advanced to a
hierarchical relation to Fulla in Old Norse
mythology, other goddesses like Hlín,
whatever their earlier significance, may also
have been subordinated. Had more evidence of
vernacular mythology been preserved in other
Germanic languages, interpretations of Hlín
could be more grounded. Nevertheless, the
case of Fulla/Volla suggests that the
Poetic
Edda’s description of Hlín as a servant of Frigg
would be consistent with a historically
independent goddess evolving in a subordinate
role to the wife of Odin parallel to that of Fulla.
35
Perspectives
The numerous Germanic goddesses attested in
the early record make the North Germanic
record’s
multiplicity
of
goddesses
unsurprising. The correlations between the
Prose Edda and the Second Merseburg
Incantation provide something of a cautionary
tale: namely, by dismissing information solely
found in the
Prose Edda, one risks violating
the foundational maxim
absence of evidence is
not evidence of absence.
There is no reason to doubt that Hlín was an
independent entity in Old Norse mythology
and no positive evidence to suggest that Hlín
was merely a by-name of Frigg. Returning to
the passage in
Vǫluspá, Hlín’s ‘second sorrow’
implies a ‘first sorrow’. The
Prose Edda
assigns two identifying traits to Hlín:
a) that
she was somehow in the service of Frigg; and
b) that she protected people, and more
particularly those whom Frigg wished
protected. Verifying Hlín’s role as a
protectress through a proverb might be a
construal of Snorri comparable to his many
uses of vernacular etymology. On the other
hand, if these two features are based in the
contemporary mythology, Hlín’s ‘first sorrow’
can be inferred to be her failure to ‘protect’
Baldr, Frigg’s son, from the danger that ended
his life, while her ‘second sorrow’ will be the
related failure in
the case of the death of Odin,
Frigg’s husband.
When there is no evidence to
support reading
Hlín as a name for Frigg in
Vǫluspá, interpreting her as a protectress
subordinate to Frigg as stated in the
Prose
Edda
produces
the
most
probable
interpretation available on the basis of our
limited evidence. If this interpretation is
accepted, it provides an additional glimpse of
the goddess Hlín and her significance in Old
Norse mythology.
There may be another factor at work in
informing interpretations of Hlín reviewed
above: a tendency among scholars to seek in a
multiplicity of goddesses forms, extensions, or
‘hypostases’ of a single goddess, sometimes a
so-called ‘Great Goddess’. A diverse range of
scholars frequently refer to Great Goddess
theory either directly or indirectly when
discussing North Germanic goddesses, and a
critical review of the evidence or its lack for
such interpretations will be explored in the
next entry in the “Goddesses Unknown” series.
Acknowledgement: I would like to thank Frog for his
input and insight during the composition of this piece.
Joseph Hopkins (hopkins.joseph.stanley[at]gmail .com)
RMN Newsletter, PL 59 (Unioninkatu 38), 00014
University of Helsinki, Finland.
Notes
1. While Orchard straightforwardly identifies
Hlín as
Frigg with a simple side note next to the stanza in
question (reading simply “
Hlín Frigg”), he also
provides an endnote discussing the matter: “‘Frigg’s
beloved’ is ambiguous: assuming that Hlín
(‘Protectress’) is an alternative name for Frigg, she
may be mourning either Odin or Frey” (Orchard
2011: 271–272). As Freyr has no particular
association with Frigg in the corpus, an
interpretation of “Frigg’s Beloved” as Freyr seems
unfounded. Orchard (1997: 86) also discusses the
topic in his handbook, in which he describes the
perceived disparity between
Vǫluspá and the
Prose
Edda as a result of “confusion”.
2. Extensions of the Proto-Germanic masculine noun
*
xluniz surface as Old Norse
hlynr, Old English
hlyn,
and Low German
löne and
läne, all meaning ‘maple
tree’ (cf. Orel 2003: 178). The Old English noun
hlyn
is itself a
hapax legomenon within the Old English
corpus
but appears in toponyms (see further e.g.
Murphy 2011: 67; Hooke 2010: 255–258).
3. Editorial insertions in this quote are Stallybrass’s.
4. Editorial insertions in this quote are also Stallybrass’s.
5.
Hovrengaellies is commonly treated as a loan of the
combined name and epithet
Þórr karl [‘old man
Þórr’]; elsewhere in this issue, Frog points out that
gaellies in the South Sámi compound reflects a pre-
syncope form cognate with Old Norse
karl but
necessarily borrowed before
Hovre-.
6. Cf. Turville-Petre 1975 [1964]: 122–123.
Works Cited
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The Younger
Edda. Chicago: Scott, Foresman & Co.
Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. n.d. “Hlín”,
Íslensk
orðsifjabók. Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum
fræðum.
Available
at:
http://malid.is/leit/hl%C3%ADn
(last
accessed:
November 7, 2017).
Bellows, Henry Adams (ed.). 1923.
The Poetic Edda.
New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation.
Bray, Olive (ed.). 1908.
The Elder or Poetic Edda. Part
I. Kendal: Titus Wilson.
Brodeur, Anthony Gilchrist. 1916 (ed.). The Prose Edda.
New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation.
Byock, Jesse (ed.). 2005.
The Prose Edda. London:
Penguin Classics.
Crawford, Jackson (ed.). 2015.
The Poetic Edda: Stories
of the Norse Gods and Heroes. Indianapolis: Hackett
Publishing Company, Inc.
Dodds, Jeramy (ed.). 2014.
The Poetic Edda. Toronto:
Coach House Books.