Fimbulvetr Mermaid
- Creator: Louis Moe 1857-1945
- Description: A mermaid attacking a sea farer and his boat during Fimbulvetr, the period of war and chaos that precedes Ragnarök in Norse mythology. This scene is from Louis Moe's Ragnarok: En Billeddigtning. Moe's retelling of the events of Fimbulvetr includes mermaids.
- Source: Ragnarok: En Billeddigtning
- Folio or Page: [35]
- Medium: Not known
- Date: 1929
- Dimensions (mm): 180 x 110
- 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.
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Research notes, early print reviews, etc.:
- Louis Moe's mermaids owe more to folklore than to Norse mythology. The Old Norse compound word “mar-gýgur” (marr + gýgur) is usually translated into English simply as “mermaid.” However, although “marr” means “sea,” “gýgur” can be translated as “giantess,” “witch,” or “ogress.” In Old Norse mythology, the race of giants are shape-shifters and sometimes assume the shape of merfolk. For example, in Þriðrek’s Saga, King Vilkinus is sailing home when a giantess in the form of a mermaid comes to tell him that she is pregnant with his son. The child was conceived during an afternoon’s dalliance with her when Vilkinus was hunting in the forest.
- 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 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. - Identity Number: RagRokEnBil-1929-UVic-035-01
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