Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

concerned, from the expression að Sökkmímis, which means not only "with Sökkmimir,"
but also "at Sökkmimir's," that is to say, with that group of kinsmen and in that abode
where Sökkmimir is chief and ruler. It is with this giant-chief, and in his rocky hall, that
Miðvitnir and his son sojourns when Odin visits him, presents himself to him, and by the
name Sviður (Sviðrir) acts the part of another person, and in this connection causes the
death of Miðvitnir's son. The same quality of Sökkmimir as clan-chief and lord appears in
the Ynglingatal strophe, in the form that the hall, outside of whose door Svegdir was
deceived, is þeirra Sökkmímis, that is to say, is the abode of Sökkmimir's kinsmen and
household, "is their giant-home." Thus all the giants who dwell there take their clan-name
from Sökkmimir.
The appellation Sökkmímir is manifestly not a name in the strictest sense, but one
of the epithets by which this ancient giant-chief could be recognized in connection with
mythological circumstances. We shall point out these mythological circumstances further
on.
The Ynglingatal strophe gives us, in fact, another epithet for the same mythic
person. What the latter half of the strophe calls the hall of Sökkmimir's kinsmen and
household, the former half of the same strophe calls the hall of Durnir's descendants.
Thus Sökkmimir and Durnir are the same person.
Durnir, on the other hand, is a variation of Durinn (cp. the parallel variations
Dvalnir and Dvalinn). 17 Of Durin we already know (see No. 53) that he is one of the
ancient beings of mythology who in time's morning, together with Modsognir-Mimir and
in accordance with the resolve of the high-holy powers, created clans of artists. One of
the artists created by Durin, and whose father he in this sense became, is, according to
Völuspá 11, Mjöðvitnir. Rask and Egilsson have for philological reasons assumed that
Miðvitnir and Mjöðvitnir are variations of the same name, and designate the same person
(mjöður, in the dative miði). It here appears that the facts confirm this assumption.
Durinn and Mjöðvitnir in Völuspá correspond to Durnir and Miðvitnir in the strophes
concerning Sökkmimir.
Mjöðvitnir means the mead-wolf, he who captured the mead celebrated in
mythology. As Odin, having assumed the name of another, visits the abode of the
descendants of Durnir-Sökkmimir, he accordingly visits that rocky home, where that
giant dwells who has secured and possesses the mead desired by Odin.
Ynglingatal reports, as we have seen, that a certain Svegðir was deceived, when
he was outside of the door of the hall of the kinsmen of Durnir-Sökkmimir. He who
deceived him was the doorkeeper of the hall. The door appeared to be already open, and
the "giant-inhabited" hall "yawned" festively illuminated (bjartur) toward Svegðir. If we
may believe Ynglingatal's commentary on the strophe, the hall-ward had called to him
and said that Odin was inside. The strophe represents Svegðir as running after the hallward,
that is to say, toward the door in the rock, eager to get in. What afterwards
happened Ynglingatal does not state; but that Svegðir did not gain the point he desired,
but fell into some snare laid by the doorkeeper, follows from the expression that he was
deceived by him, and that this caused his death follows from the fact that the purpose of
the strophe is to tell how his life ended. Ynglingasaga says that he got into the rock, but
never out of it. The rest that this saga has to say of Svegðir -- that he was on a journey to
17 Compare the hart-names Dáinn and Dvalinn found in Grímnismál 33 with the hart-names Dáinn and
Dvalarr in Nafnaþular IV (Faulkes' Skáldskaparmál 75)