Description: Móðguðr
guarding the bridge Gjallarbrú on the
river Gjöll
on the road to Hel. This scene is from Louis Moe's Ragnarok: En Billeddigtning.
Source: Ragnarok: En Billeddigtning
Folio or Page: [18]
Medium: Not known
Date: 1929
Dimensions (mm): 120 x 110.5
Provenance:
Gift of Estate of Richard Beck to Special Collections at the
University of Victoria. This illustration from Den Ældre Eddas Gudesange was photographed by
P. A. Baer in August 2011.
Call number: NE962 N67M64
Rights:
This illustration from Ragnarok: En
Billeddigtning is in the public domain.
Research notes, early print reviews, etc.:
Some of the illustrations in Ragnarok: En
Billeddigtning have two digit numbers, along with Louis Moe's name,
within the illustration. This one has the number 29, likely indicating the year
1929.
Bibliography:
Primary Sources
Moe,
Louis Maria Niels Peder
Halling. Ragnarok: En
Billeddigtning. København, A.F.
Høst, 1929.
Secondary Sources
Cleasby, Richard
and
Vigfússon
Guðbrandur
. An Icelandic-English Dictionary.
Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1957.
Simek,
Rudolf.
Angela
Hall
. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. W
Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer,
2007.
Móðguðr (non.)
Modgud (en.)
A female being who guards the bridge Gjallarbrú that spans the river
Gjöll which separates the land of the living from that of the dead. She
allows Hermóðr to pass over the bridge on his journey to Hel to try and
persuade Hel to release Baldr.
Artifacts
Gjallarbrú (non.)
The name of the bridge over the river Gjöll which separates Hel from
the land of the living. It is guarded by female being named Módguðr who
allows Hermóðr to pass over when he goes to Hel to try and persuade Hel
to release Baldr.
Mythological Events
Ragnarök (non.)
Ragnarok (en.)
The final great battle between the gods and the giants.
Mythological Places
Gjöll (non.)
Gjoll (en.)
The river that must be crossed on the journey to Hel. It has a female
guardian named Móðguðr.
Hel (non.)
In the Prose Edda, Óðinn assigns Loki and
Angrboða's daughter Hel to rule over a domain named Hel in
Niflheim.
Source Materials:
Prose Edda (is.)
Snorri Sturluson's thirteenth-century prose work concerning Old Norse
mythology and poetics.
Ragnarok: En Billeddigtning (da.)
Louis Moe's illustrated retelling of the Battle of Ragnarok and the
events that preceded it.
Source Persons
Moe,
Louis (no.)
b. 1857
d. 1945
Nationality: Norwegian/Danish.
Occupation: illustrator
Residence: Copenhagen
Moe was an illustrator who was born in Norway but became a Danish
citizen in 1919.
