Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

the old Asgard in "Tyrkland," to find "Odin the old," Gylfaginning's King Priam -- has
nothing to do with the mythology and with Ynglingatal, but is of course important in
regard to the Euhemeristic hypothesis in regard to the descent of the Aesir from Tyrkland
(Troy), on which the author of Ynglingatal, like that of Gylfaginning, bases his work.
The variations Svegðir, Svigðir, and Sveigðir are used interchangeably in regard
to the same person (cp. Ynglingasaga 12, Ynglingatal 2; Fornaldar SögurNordurlanda ,
Hversu Noregr byggðist 4; Fornmanna Sögur, 1. 29, Saga Ólafs Konúngs Tryggvasonar
ch. 19; and Egilsson, 796, 801). 18 Svigðir seems to be the oldest of these forms. The
words means „the great drinker‟ (Egilsson, 801). 19 Sveigðir was one of the most popular
heroes of mythology (see the treatise on the "Ivaldi race" beginning at No. 95), and was
already in heathen times regarded as a race-hero 20 of the Swedes. In Ynglingatal 1
Svithiod is called geiri Svigðis, "Svigdir's domain." 21 At the same time, Svegðir is an
epithet of Odin. But it should be borne in mind that several of the names by which Odin
is designated belong to him only in a secondary and transferred sense, and he has
assumed them on occasions when he did not want to be recognized, and wanted to
represent some one else (cp. Grímnismál 49) whose name he then assumed.
When Odin visits the abode of Durinn-Sökkmimir, where the precious mead is
preserved, he calls himself, according to Grímnismál, Sviðurr, Sviðrir. Now it is the case
with this name as with Svigðir, that it was connected with Svithiod. Skáldskaparmál 81
says that Svíþjóð var kallað af nafni Sviðurs, "Svithiod was called after the name of
Svidur."
Hence (1) the name Sviðurr, like Svegðir-Sveigðir, belongs to Odin, but only in a
secondary sense, as one assumed or borrowed from another person; (2) Sviðurr, like
Svegðir-Sveigðir, was originally a mythic person, whom tradition connected as a race
hero with Svithiod.
From all this it appears that the names, facts, and the chain of events connect
partly the strophes of Grímnismál and Ynglingatal with each other, and partly both of
these with Hávamál's account of Odin's adventure to secure the mead, and this
connection furnishes indubitable evidence that they concern the same episode in the
mythological epic.
In the mythic fragments handed down to our time are found other epithets, which,
like Sveigðir, refer to some mythical person who played the part of a champion drinker,
and was connected with the myth concerning mead and brewing. These epithets are
18 Lexicon Poeticum (1860), p. 796: “Sveigðir, …(id. qu. Svigðir, cfr. formas sveigðir, sigðir, sigþær)”;
ibid. p. 811: “Aul est id. qu. Sigðir, inserto v, aul potator (Angl. Swig, magnis haustibus bibere)” All of the
literary sources named here refer to Sveigðir, the namesake of Svithiod. Egilsson identifies Svegðir as
a variant of Sveigðir, a name of Odin and a king of the Ynglings. Svigðir however is an ox heiti with
no relation to Sveigðir. [The references to Egilsson occur on pages 550 & 553 of the 1966 edition.]
19 aul potator: This was the definition in the first edition of Egilsson's Lexicon Poeticum, the version used
by Rydberg. The text was subsequently revised by Finnur Jónsson in 1931 and again in 1966. The latest
edition defines Svigdir as a heiti for ox possibly meaning "the crooked horned" ("den krumhornede"), after
svig "to bend or curve."
20 "race-hero"; Swedish stamheros. There is no good way to render this term into English. Stam- (literally
"stem") refers to the family, race, tribe, or stock of a person. Thus a stamheros is the hero of a particular
family line or tribe of people in the mythology, rather than of a particular race of beings.
21 The actual kenning here is svigðis geira vogr, meaning "the waves of the spear of the ox." The spear of
the ox is a horn, and it's waves are the mead inside a drinking horn. Thus svigðis geira vogr is the mead
itself. Rydberg repeats this mistake elsewhere in this chapter, and nos. 113 & 123.