Jeffrey Taylor-Kantz

6-2-2017

HONORS 232A

Final Paper

The Animals of the Old Norse Gods

In this class we attempted to study the complex relationships between human

beings and the many other species that roam this Earth. We looked at how our

interactions evolved throughout history, and how they differed from animal to animal.

We used many tools and proxies as a way to determine the nature of those

relationships including the interpretation of cave art, historical records and religious

stories from groups such as Christians, Jews, Hindus, and others. But one culture

we did not get around to mentioning was the Old Norse and their mythology. Norse

mythology is so rich with interesting stories and characters that I decided to look at a

few animal characters and try to see how their depictions in the legends reflect the

Norse people’s opinions of the animals they represent.

The first particular animal I would like to study is a domesticated creature that

in the modern era has been relegated to a weird grey area of animal-human

interaction that is somewhere between pet status and labor animal status. The

domesticated horse is one of the most common animals to appear in Norse

mythology, which says a lot about the depth and extent of the relationship between
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horses and the Norse people. In the mythological stories, horses acted as the

steeds of the Æsir, the main pantheon of gods. The most famous of these steeds is

the magnificent, yet somewhat monstrous horse Sleipnir, the mount of Odin, the

leader of the Æsir. In the poem Grímnismál, which is contained in the Poetic Edda, a

composition of Old Norse poems and songs written and collected over hundreds of

years, there is a passage that says that Sleipnir is considered the best of all horses.

In the poem, Odin, while in disguise, says “Of all the gods | is Othin the greatest,

And Sleipnir the best of steeds” (102)2. Sleipnir was a highly respected animal in the

Norse pantheon, but not as a full deity like some animal gods in other religions.

Sleipnir is a labor animal, not anthropomorphized in any way, respected for its ability

to serve the humanoid gods. This shows that the Norse people did not revere horses

as deeply as the Hindu revere cows, but that held a great respect for their utility.

Another interesting thing about Sleipnir is that it is an abomination of a horse. The

story of Sleipnir’s origin, as told in chapter 42 of the Prose Edda, is that, in an

attempt by the Æsir to get out of paying a debt to a builder, Loki disguised himself as

a mare and mated with the builders stallion, Svaðilfari. Loki later gave birth from that
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joining to a grey colored foal that had eight legs. Now it is true that Sleipnir has no

human physical characteristics, and that Loki was not in human form when they

mated, but it is interesting to note that the joining of an animal and a traditionally

humanoid being resulted in a physically abnormal creature. Many times throughout

the lore of many religions, the progeny of an animal and a humanoid results in some

type of horrible abomination, such as the minotaur from greek mythology. But while

most of these abominations are feared for their strength, Sleipnir is heralded as the

greatest horse to have ever lived. Sleipnir was given great respect and trusted to be

the steed of the leader of the Norse pantheon, despite the fact that he had eight legs

and was the child of the least trustworthy god in the entirety of Norse mythos. This

seems to suggest an attitude by the Norse that utility and competence is more

respected than the circumstances of birth.

Now let’s look at another category of animal. The Norse often employed dogs

in hunting and fighting, and they were respected and feared for their strength. The

most famous canine in Norse mythology is not a domesticated creature, but rather a

wild and vicious wolf by the name of Fenrir. Fenrir is, like Sleipnir, a child of Loki and
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an animal. However, unlike Sleipnir, Fenrir is not given an important and respected

position in service to the Æsir. While Sleipnir is Odin’s trusted steed, Fenrir plays a

very opposite and equally important role in Odin’s life. It is written in both the poem

Völuspá from the Poetic Edda and in the Prose Edda that Fenrir will kill Odin during

Ragnarok, the Norse end of the world. Fenrir is feared as a beast of unmatched

power, one that is powerful enough to kill the greatest of the Norse deities. This

could reasonably the reflect the fear that the Norse people had for wild wolves.

While the Norse were known to have domesticated dogs, it is clear that they still

remembered times when wolves did them great harm, possibly laying waste to their

livestock or killing their hunters.

However, Fenrir is not the only canine in Norse mythology. There is also the

wolf or dog known as Garmr, or Garm. It is not known if Garmr was a domesticated

dog or a wild wolf, because while he is a powerful canine, not unlike Fenrir, he

actually serves a purpose to the Æsir: he acts as a guardian of the gate to Hel, the

Norse underworld. There are also references to Garmr in different poems that add to

the ambiguity. In the poem Grímnismál, the word used to reference Garmr is “hundr”
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meaning “dog,” while in the poem Völuspá, a reference to Garmr uses the word

“freki,” which translates to “wolf.” It is interesting to note how similar a role he plays

in Norse mythology that Cerberus, the guardian of the gate to Hades, plays in Greek

mythology. Now, in truth, not much is actually known about Garmr, as there aren’t

that many surviving attestations of him in primary sources. However we know that

he was extremely respected. In the poem, Grímnismál, the same poem that

referenced “Of all the gods | is Othin the greatest,

And Sleipnir the best of steeds,” it also says ”and Garm of Hounds” (103) 2. Garmr

was considered the paragon of hounds, the standard by which all other canines

were judged, just like Odin was for the gods and Sleipnir was for horses. Even

though Garmr was greatly respected for a canine, he also plays a role in the

heralding of Ragnarok, like Fenrir. There are many events that happen in a short

span of time that signify the beginning of Ragnarok, but two of them are that Fenrir

and Garmr snap their bonds and run free, with Garmr no longer guarding Hel’s gate

and Fenrir devouring Odin. In fact some interpret the very similar actions of Garmr

and Fenrir during the events of Ragnarok as a signifier that Fenrir and Garmr are in
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fact the same figure. If this were accurate, it would provide an interesting duality to

Fenrir/Garmr’s character. That the best of all hounds, guardian of the gates to the

underworld and therefore servant of the gods, is also the most ferocious wolf in all of

Norse mythology, and the one who kills and eats the most powerful of the gods.

That interpretation could have interesting implications for how the Norse people

viewed their relationship with dogs. Perhaps they never forgot that their guard dogs

were once vicious wolves, and that they might one day break free of their bonds and

attack those that thought to control them.

Fenrir was definitely not the only animal that played a large role in starting

Ragnarok. Probably one of the most famous animals in all of Norse mythology is

Jörmungandr, or the Midgard serpent. Jörmungandr is also a child of Loki, and is in

fact the brother of Fenrir. Now, Jörmungandr was said to be so large that it could

circle the entire world and grasp its own tail. Odin tossed Jörmungandr into the

ocean in an attempt to imprison it, but it is said that the day that it releases its own

tail, it signifies that Ragnarok is beginning. While it is not considered likely that the

two religions influenced each other very much, it is interesting to note that both
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Norse religion and Christianity have lore about the apocalypse in which a serpent

plays a large role in causing the end of the world. There are other examples of

serpents in Norse mythos, but none of them are good characters. For instance, the

serpent, Níðhöggr, is a beast that gnaws on the roots of the Yggdrasil, the world

tree. Even the etymology of its name implies evil. In Old Norse, the term “níð,”

implied the loss of social status and honor, and often the status of a villain. Many

cultures around the world find extreme distrust in serpentine creatures, and the

Norse don’t seem to be an exception.

A more lighthearted example from Norse mythos that is very telling about the

Norse people’s relationship with animals comes from a beast by the name of

Heiðrún. Heiðrún is a goat who lives in Valhalla, and who has a special ability that

would be very popular to the warriors that reside there. From the teats of Heiðrún

flows enough mead to fill a giant cauldron from which every person in Valhalla can

drink their fill. This almost comically whimsical creature reveals that the Norse

people saw goats as a source of sustenance first and foremost. They used goats for

food and clearly as delicious life givers, but did not respect them in the same way
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that they do horses and canines. They do not see them as much as a labor animal

as horses, or a creature of its own autonomy, merely as a luxury for consumption.

Now moving on to look at a couple of interesting characters from the avian

family that not traditionally servants, prey, or predators to humans. Belonging to

Odin were two ravens, named Huginn and Muninn, which translate to “thought” and

“memory” respectively. These two ravens would fly all over the world and bring

information back to Odin. It is because of these two that Odin has long been

associated with ravens and has been known as the raven-god. It is rather interesting

to see the raven play such a prominent role in Norse mythos because the Norse

people did not domesticate ravens, nor did the hunt them, nor did ravens hurt

people. And yet the Norse deeply respected the raven and associated it with

thought, wisdom, and cunning. Such associations are not uncommon for the raven

across many cultures, such as many Native American tribes, including the Tlingit

depiction of a raven as the creator of the world and the one who brought light to

darkness, but also another raven sly, conniving, and selfish. The morality of the
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depictions of ravens is not constant, but the respect for their intelligence is ever

present across cultures.

The Old Norse mythos is chock full of extremely colorful, but often dark

depictions of both people and animals, and as with the tales and legends from any

culture, they can be quite revealing about the mindset of the people who lived in that

culture. The Norse seemed to share opinions of certain animals with various other

cultures across the globe, such as a high respect for the horse and a steed and

labor animal, serpents as destructive and evil, and ravens as extremely intelligent.
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Citations:

 (Translation) Snorri Sturluson. 1916. The Prose Edda. Scandinavian Classics

5. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation.
 Bellows, Henry Adams. 1936. The Poetic Edda. Princeton University Press.