Hræsvelgr
{{short description|Norse mythical character}}
Hræsvelgr (Old Norse){{IPA needed|date=November 2024}} is a jötunn in Norse mythology. He is portrayed as the eagle-shaped originator of the wind.{{Sfn|Lindow|2002|p=181}}
Name
The Old Norse name Hræsvelgr has been translated as 'corpse-swallower',{{Sfn|Orchard|1997|p=192}}{{Sfn|Lindow|2002|p=182}} or as 'shipwreck-current'.{{Sfn|Lindow|2002|p=182}}
Hræsvelgr's name is sometimes anglicised as Hraesvelgr, Hresvelgr, Hraesveglur, or Hraesvelg. The common Danish form is Hræsvælg and the common Swedish form is Räsvelg.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}}
Attestation
In Vafþrúðnismál (The Lay of Vafþrúðnir), Odin questions the wise jötunn Vafþrúðnir about the origin of the wind, and the jötunn answers:{{Sfn|Lindow|2002|p=181}}
{{Poem quote|text=He is called Hræsvelg,
who sits at heaven’s end,
a giant, in the shape of an eagle;
from his wings
they say the wind comes over all people.|char=|sign=|title=Vafþrúðnismál|source=37, trans. J. Lindow, 2002.}}
This stanza is paraphrased by Snorri Sturluson in Gylfaginning (The Beguiling of Gylfi), when Hárr answers the same question, that time asked by Gangleri (Gylfi in disguise).{{Sfn|Lindow|2002|p=182}} Snorri adds that Hræsvelgr sits at the north end of heaven, and that winds originate from under his gigantic eagle’s wings when he spreads them for flight.{{Sfn|Lindow|2002|p=182}}
References
{{Reflist}}
=Bibliography=
- {{Cite book|last=Faulkes|first=Anthony|title=Edda|publisher=Everyman|year=1987|isbn=0-460-87616-3|edition=1995|author-mask=Faulkes, Anthony, trans.}}
- {{Cite book|last=Lindow|first=John|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KlT7tv3eMSwC|title=Norse Mythology: A Guide to Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs|date=2002|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-983969-8|language=en|author-link=John Lindow}}
- {{Cite book|last=Orchard|first=Andy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uIujQgAACAAJ|title=Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend|date=1997|publisher=Cassell|isbn=978-0-304-34520-5|language=en|author-link=Andy Orchard}}
Further reading
- Jón Hnefill Aðalsteinsson (1998). "Hræsvelgr, the Wind-Giant, Reinterpreted" in A Piece of Horse Liver: Myth, Ritual and Folklore in Old Icelandic Sources. {{ISBN|978-9979-54-264-3}}.
{{Norse mythology}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hraesvelgr}}
Category:Birds in Norse mythology
Category:Mythological birds of prey
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