Description: The giantess Þökk was the only being who refused to weep for
Baldr.
Consequently, Hel refused to release him from her domain. This
scene is from Louis Moe's Ragnarok: En Billeddigtning.
Source: Ragnarok: En Billeddigtning
Folio or Page: [24]
Medium: Not known
Date: 1929
Dimensions (mm): 105 x 100
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 28, likely referring to
indicating the year 1928.
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.
Hel (non.)
A monstrous female being who is one of the three offspring of Loki and
his mistress, the giantess Angrboða.
Þökk (non.)
Thokk (en.)
A giantess in Gylfaginning in the Prose Edda who refused to weep for Baldr thereby
preventing his release from Hel. According to Snorri, Þökk is Loki in
disguise.
Gods and Goddesses
Baldr (non.)
Balder (en.)
The god who was killed by his brother Höðr.
Mythological Events
Ragnarök (non.)
Ragnarok (en.)
The final great battle between the gods and the giants.
Source Materials:
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.
