Description: Header for Mallet's Edda, ou Mythologie
Celtique, in the 1756 edition of Monuments de la mythologie et de la poésie des
Celtes. The scene suggests a sacred grove with
figures, such as Odinn riding his eight-legged horse Sleipner
and Frigg with
a sword and a bow. These figures were copied and adapted from
other sources. See Research Notes below.
Source: Monuments de la mythologie et de la poésie des
Celtes, et particulièrement des anciens Scandinaves, pour servir de
supplément et de preuves à l’“Introduction à l’histoire du
Dannemarc”
Folio or Page: 1
Medium: Not known
Date: 1756
Dimensions (mm): 120 x 70
Provenance:
This illustration from Monuments de la
mythologie et de la poésie des Celtes, et particulièrement des
anciens Scandinaves, pour servir de supplément et de preuves à
l’“Introduction à l’histoire du Dannemarc” was
photographed by P. A. Baer in Special Collections at the National
Library of Iceland.
Call number: 290 Sno
Rights:
This illustration from Monuments de la
mythologie et de la poésie des Celtes, et particulièrement des anciens
Scandinaves, pour servir de supplément et de preuves à l’“Introduction à
l’histoire du Dannemarc” is in the public domain.
Research notes, early print reviews, etc.:
P. A. Baer noted in her dissertation An
Old Norse Image Hoard that “This illustration is a collage that
features objects and figures from other illustrations such as the depiction of
Hyrrokkin riding a wolf from the Hunnestad rune stone in Worm ́s Danicorum
monumentorum libri sex (Danish Monuments in six books) (Fig. B-9); the figure of
Frigg from the Magnus brothers’ woodcut published in 1554 and 1555 (Fig. B-5);
and a rune stave or calendar that is likely from an illustrated book of
antiquities” (85). The illustrator, Odvardt Helmolde von Lode added four more
legs to the wolf to change it into Sleipner and thus to identify the figure
riding it as Oðinn.
Here is a picture that P. A. Baer took of the rune stone at the Kulturen museum
in Lund, Sweden in the summer of 2010. Click on the keyword "Hyrrokkin" to see
other renderings of the figure on the runestone.
Bibliography:
Primary Sources
Mallet,
Paul-Henri. Monuments de la mythologie et de la poésie des Celtes, et
particulièrement des anciens Scandinaves, pour servir de supplément et
de preuves à l’“Introduction à l’histoire du Dannemarc”.
Hafniae, 1756.
Secondary Sources
Baer,
Patricia
Ann. An Old
Norse Image Hoard: From the Analog Past to the Digital Present.
Diss.
U. of Victoria, 2013.
Web.
Cleasby, Richard
and
Vigfússon
Guðbrandur
. An Icelandic-English Dictionary.
Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1957.
Sleipnir (non.)
Óðinn´s eight-legged horse which Loki bore after mating with the Giant
Builder's stallion Svaðilfari.
Giants and Giantesses
Hyrrokkin (non.)
The giantess who was summoned to push Baldr's funeral ship off of the
shore because the gods were not strong enough. She arrived riding on a
wolf and using snakes for reigns.
Gods and Goddesses
Frigg (non.)
Frigg (en.)
The wife of Óðinn and the mother of Baldr.
Óðinn (non.)
Odin (en.)
The chief god of the Æsir in The Prose Edda.
However, in Heimskringla he was a mortal who
tricks the King of Sweden into believing that he was a god.
Prose Edda (is.)
Snorri Sturluson's thirteenth-century prose work concerning Old Norse
mythology and poetics.
Source Persons
Mallet,
Paul-Henri
b. 1730
d. 1807
Nationality: Swiss
Occupation: author
A Swiss scholar who was appointed to a chair at the University of
Copenhagen in 1750, published Introduction à l’histoire
du Danemarc (An Introduction to the History of Denmark) and
Monuments de la mythologie et de la poésie des Celtes
(Monuments of the Mythology and Poetry of the Celts) respectively in
1755 and 1756 in Copenhagen.
de Lode, Odvardt
Helmoldt (fr.)
b. 1726
d. 1757
Nationality: Danish
Occupation: painter and engraver
