Description: This illustration is from a retelling of Old Norse mythology,
Asgard Stories: Tales from
Norse Mythology (1901), by Mary H.
Foster and Mabel H.
Cummings. This plate is from a
retelling of Norse mythology by Mary H. Foster and Mabel H.
Cummings in the first edition of Asgard Stories: Tales from
Norse Mythology (1901). The illustration is for the chapter "The
Punishment of Loki," a retelling of the "Binding of Loki" myth and
depicts Loki being bound
to a rock by a dwarf. Loki´s wife Sigyn holds a bowl over his face, shielding it
from the snake venom dripping from above. See Research Notes
below for information concerning the original source and the
original illustrator.
Source: Asgard Stories: Tales from Norse
Mythology
Folio or Page: 99
Medium: not known
Date: 1901
Dimensions (mm): 90 x 140
Provenance:
This illustration is from Asgard Stories:
Tales from Norse Mythology from the collection of P. A.
Baer.
Rights:
This illustration from Asgard Stories: Tales
from Norse Mythology is in the public domain.
Research notes, early print reviews, etc.:
S. Dunn Krahn notes that this illustration is similar to "Loki's
Punishment" by F. W. Heine (after W. Engelhard) from the 1882 edition of Nordisch-germanische Götter und Helden (307).
Bibliography:
Editions
Foster,
Mary, and
Mabel
Cummings. Asgard
Stories: Tales from Norse Mythology. New
York: Silver, Burdett and Co,
1901.
Loki is counted among the gods but is a giant by birth.
Artist Not Known
Artist Not
Known
Artist not known for this illustration in Asgard
Stories
Gods and Goddesses
Sigyn (non.)
Loki's wife. According to Snorri, she was one of the Æsir. She used a
bowl to catch the drops of venom dripping from the snake that Skaði
fastened above Loki when he was bound.
Myths
The Punishment of
LokiSnorri says in Gylfaginning
that the Æsir pursued Loki after the death of Baldr. Loki tried to evade
capture by shapeshifting into a salmon and hiding in a stream. The gods
noticed the ashes of a net, that Loki had invented and then burned, so
they made a net and used it to capture him. The gods used the guts of
one of Loki's sons to him to a rock with a snake dripping venom on his
head. Loki's wife Sigyn stayed with him and held a bowl to catch the
venom but had to leave Loki occasionally to empty the
bowl.
Nouns
Edwardian (en.)The
Edwardian era began with the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910
(January 22, 1901 - 28 July, 1914). However, the era's end date is
sometimes extended to the beginning of World War 1 (28 July
1914).
Source Materials:
Asgard Stories (en.)
Children's book by Mabel Cummings and Mary Foster published in
1901.
Source Persons
Cummings,
Mabel (en.)
Nationality: English
b. 28 Mar 1872
d. 24 August 1962
Occupation: Childrens book writer.
Nationality: American
Mabel Homer Cummings lived in Brookline, Massachusetts, as well as
Boston and Cambridge. She was born on the 28th of March, 1872 in
Cambridge, and died on the 24th of August, 1962 in Brookline. She lived
with her sister, the horticulturalist and ornithologist Emma G.
Cummings. She was a school teacher and the headmistress and co-founder
of the high school Brimmer and May, where Cummings Hall is named after
her. She graduated from Smith College in 1895. She was almost certainly
a founding member of the College Club of Boston, the first women’s
college club in the United States, and bought the building at 76
Marlborough in 1893.
Foster,
Mary (en.)
Nationality: American
Occupation: Childrens book writer and schoolteacher.
b. 19 Dec 1848
d. 27 Oct 1914
