Fulla
Fulla (
Name
The
Attestations
Poetic Edda
In the prose introduction to the Poetic Edda poem Grímnismál, Frigg makes a wager with her husband—the god Odin—over the hospitality of their human patrons. Frigg sends her servant maid Fulla to warn the king Geirröd—Frigg's patron—that a magician (actually Odin in disguise) will visit him. Fulla meets with Geirröd, gives the warning, and advises to him a means of detecting the magician:
- Henry Adams Bellows translation:
- Frigg sent her handmaiden, Fulla, to Geirröth. She bade the king beware lest a magician who was come thither to his land should bewitch him, and told this sign concerning him, that no dog was so fierce as to leap at him.[3]
- Benjamin Thorpe translation:
- Frigg sent her waiting-maid Fulla to bid Geirröd be on his guard, lest the trollmann who was coming should do him harm, and also say that a token whereby he might be known was, that no dog, however fierce, would attack him.[4]
Prose Edda
In chapter 35 of the
In chapter 49 of Gylfaginning, High details that, after the death of the deity couple
The first chapter of the Prose Edda book Skáldskaparmál, Fulla is listed among eight ásynjur who attend an evening drinking banquet held for Ægir.[7] In chapter 19 of Skáldskaparmál, poetic ways to refer to Frigg are given, one of which is by referring to her as "queen [...] of Fulla."[8] In chapter 32, poetic expressions for gold are given, one of which includes "Fulla's snood."[9] In chapter 36, a work by the skald Eyvindr skáldaspillir is cited that references Fulla's golden headgear ("the falling sun [gold] of the plain [forehead] of Fulla's eyelashes shone on [...]").[10] Fulla receives a final mention in the Prose Edda in chapter 75, where Fulla appears within a list of 27 ásynjur names.[11]
"Horse Cure" Merseburg Incantation
One of the two
- Phol and Wodan went to the forest.
- Then Balder's horse sprained its foot.
- Then Sinthgunt sang charms, and Sunna her sister;
- Then Friia sang charms, and Volla her sister;
- Then Wodan sang charms, as he well could:
- be it bone-sprain, be it blood-sprain, be it limb-sprain:
- bone to bone, blood to blood,
- limb to limb, so be they glued together.[12]
Theories
Andy Orchard comments that the seeming appearance of Baldr with Volla in the Merseburg Incantation is "intriguing" since Fulla is one of the three goddesses (the other two being Baldr's mother Frigg and his wife Nanna) the deceased Baldr expressly sends gifts to from Hel.[1] John Lindow says that since the name Fulla seems to have something to do with fullness, it may also point to an association with fertility.[13]
Rudolf Simek comments that while Snorri notes that Baldr sends Fulla a golden ring from Hel in Gylfaginning, "this does not prove that she plays any role in the Baldr myth, but merely shows that Snorri associated her with gold" because of kennings used associating Fulla with gold. Simek says that since Fulla appears in the poetry of Skalds as early as the 10th century that she was likely "not a late personification of plenty" but that she is very likely identical with Volla from the Merseburg Incantation. Simek adds that it is unclear as to who Fulla actually is, and argues that she may be an independent deity or simply identical with the goddess Freyja or with Frigg.[14]
John Knight Bostock says that theories have been proposed that the Fulla may at one time have been an aspect of Frigg. As a result, this notion has resulted in theory that a similar situation may have existed between the figures of the goddesses Sinthgunt and Sunna, in that the two may have been understood as aspects of one another rather than entirely separate figures.[15]
Hilda Ellis Davidson states that the goddesses Gefjun, Gerðr, Fulla, and Skaði "may represent important goddesses of early times in the North, but little was remembered about them by the time Snorri was collecting his material." On the other hand, Davidson notes that it is also possible that these goddesses are viewable as aspects of a single Great Goddess.[16] Davidson calls Fulla and Volla "vague, uncertain figures, emerging from odd references to goddesses which Snorri has noted in the poets, but they suggest the possibility that at one time three generations were represented among the goddesses of fertility and harvest in Scandinavia."[17]
Notes
- ^ a b Orchard 1997, p. 49.
- ^ Orel 2003, p. 118.
- ^ Bellows (1923:86).
- ^ Thorpe (1866:20).
- ^ Faulkes 1987, p. 29.
- ^ Faulkes 1987, p. 50.
- ^ Faulkes 1987, p. 59.
- ^ Faulkes 1987, p. 86.
- ^ Faulkes 1987, p. 94.
- ^ Faulkes 1987, pp. 97–98.
- ^ Faulkes 1987, p. 157.
- ^ Lindow 2001, p. 227.
- ^ Lindow 2001, p. 132.
- ^ Simek 1996, p. 96.
- ^ Bostock (1976:29).
- ^ Davidson (1998:10).
- ^ Davidson (1998:86).
References
- Bostock, John Knight. King, Charles Kenneth. McLintock, D. R. (1976). A Handbook on Old High German Literature. ISBN 0-19-815392-9
- Bellows, Henry Adams (Trans.) (1923). The Poetic Edda: Translated from the Icelandic with an introduction and notes by Henry Adams Bellows. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation.
- ISBN 0-415-13610-5
- Faulkes, Anthony, trans. (1987). Edda (1995 ed.). Everyman. ISBN 0-460-87616-3.
- ISBN 978-0-19-983969-8.
- ISBN 978-0-304-34520-5.
- ISBN 978-90-04-12875-0.
- ISBN 978-0-85991-513-7.
- Thorpe, Benjamin (Trans.) (1907). The Elder Edda of Saemund Sigfusson. Norrœna Society.