Sæhrímnir
In Norse mythology, Sæhrímnir is the creature killed and eaten every night by the Æsir and einherjar. The cook of the gods, Andhrímnir, is responsible for the slaughter of Sæhrímnir and its preparation in the cauldron Eldhrímnir. After Sæhrímnir is eaten, the beast is brought back to life again to provide sustenance for the following day. Sæhrímnir is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional material, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson.
The enthroned figure of
Etymology
The etymology of the Old Norse name Sæhrímnir is problematic; in contradiction to the Gylfaginning (and, depending upon translator, Grímnismál) description of the animal as a boar, Sæhrímnir is, in modern scholarship, commonly proposed to mean "sooty sea-beast" or "sooty sea-animal" (which may be connected to Old Norse seyðir, meaning 'cooking ditch').[1] Attempts at explaining the apparent contradiction have been made by scholars (see theories section below).
Attestations
Sæhrímnir is mentioned once in the Poetic Edda and twice in the Prose Edda. In the Poetic Edda poem Grímnismál, Grímnir (the god Odin in disguise) comments on the creature. Translations of the stanza vary:
- Benjamin Thorpe translation:
- Andhrimnir makes, in Eldhrimnir,
- Sæhrimnir to boil,
- of meats the best;
- but few know how many Einheriar it feeds.[2]
- Henry Adams Bellows translation:
- In Eldrhimnir Andrhrimnir cooks
- Sæhrimnir’s seething flesh,—
- The best of food, but few men know
- On what fare the warriors feast.[3]
- Lee M. Hollander translation:
- By Andhrímnir in Eldrímnir
- Sæhrímnir, the boar, is boiled,
- the best of bacons; though 'tis barely known
- what the einherjar eat.[4]
- Anthony Faulkes translation:
- Andrhrimnir has Sæhrimnir cooked in Eldrhrimnir,
- best of meats.
- But there are few that know
- on what the Einheriar feed.[5]
In chapter 38 of the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, Gangleri (king
A final mention of the beast appears in a list of hog names in the Nafnaþulur section of the Prose Edda book Skáldskaparmál.[7]
Theories
Scholar Rudolf Simek comments that the theme of the eternally renewing beast is also found in myths of the god Thor's goats (Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr) and may point to sacrificial rites in shamanic practices. Simek finds a difference between the Grímnismál and Gylfaginning and explains it as a result of an embellishment on Snorri's part, which he says owes more to the introduction of "characteristics of a medieval paradise".[8]
19th century scholar Jacob Grimm says that no information has survived about the worship of heroes in Germanic paganism (as opposed to the worship of the gods) but proposes a potential connection between Sæhrímnir and hero worship:
Grecian sacrifices to heroes differed from those offered to gods: a god had only the viscera and fat of the beast presented to him, and was content with the mounting odour; a deified hero must have the very flesh and blood to consume. Thus the einherjar admitted into Valhöll feast on the boiled flesh of the boar Sæhrîmnir, and drink with the Ases; it is never said that the Ases shared in the food [...]. Are we to infer from this a difference in the sacrifices offered to gods and to demigods?"[9]
See also
- Rebirth in Norse religion
Notes
References
- Bellows, Henry Adams (1923). The Poetic Edda. The American-Scandinavian Foundation.
- Faulkes, Anthony (Trans.) (1995). Edda. ISBN 0-460-87616-3
- Grimm, Jacob (James Steven Stallybrass Trans.) (1882). Teutonic Mythology: Translated from the Fourth Edition with Notes and Appendix by James Stallybrass. Volume I. London: George Bell and Sons.
- ISBN 0-292-76499-5
- ISBN 0-19-515382-0
- Orchard, Andy (1997). Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend. ISBN 0-304-34520-2
- ISBN 0-85991-513-1
- Thorpe, Benjamin (Trans) (1866). The Elder Edda of Saemund Sigfusson. Norrœna Society.