Ýdalir
In Norse mythology, Ýdalir ("yew-dales"[1] ) is a location containing a dwelling owned by the god Ullr. Ýdalir is solely attested in the Poetic Edda , compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources. Scholarly theories have been proposed about the implications of the location.
Attestations
[edit ]Ýdalir is solely attested in stanza 5 of the poem Grímnismál (collected in the Poetic Edda), where Odin (disguised as Grímnir ) tells the young Agnar that Ullr owns a dwelling in Ýdalir. The stanza reads (Ýdalir is here translated as Ydalir):
Theories
[edit ]Discussing Ýdalir, Henry Adams Bellows comments that "the wood of the yew-tree was used for bows in the North just as it was long afterwards for England."[3] Rudolf Simek says that "this connexion of the god with the yew-tree, of whose wood bows were made (cf. ON ýbogi 'yew bow'), has led to Ullr being seen as a bow-god."[4] Andy Orchard comments that Ýdalir is an "aptly named dwelling-place [for the] archer-god, Ull."[1] According to Hilda Ellis Davidson, while Valhalla "is well known because it plays so large a part in images of warfare and death," the significance of other halls in Norse mythology such as Ýdalir, and the goddess Freyja's afterlife location Fólkvangr has been lost.[5]
Udale, located in Cromarty, Scotland, is first recorded in 1578, and is thought to derive from Old Norse y-dalr. Robert Bevan-Jones proposes a connection between veneration of Ullr and Ýdalir among the settling pagan Norse in Scotland and their bestowment of the name ydalr to the location.[6]
In popular culture
[edit ]Ýdalir was probably the inspiration for the name of a bow in the 1996 Super Famicom game Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War . A legendary bow wielded by the crusader Ullr (named after the Norse God) is called Ichiibaru (Japanese: イチイバル), with "Ichii" the Japanese term for "Yew", and "baru" perhaps a loose Japanese syllabification of the English word "valley." The same term was used in the 2012 anime Symphogear . In 2013, "Ichaival" was added to an English Wikipedia list, but incorrectly presented as a Norse term for a bow of Odin, rather than a Japanese phrase translating Ýdalir's meaning of "Yew Dales". This confusion resulted in the inclusion of "Ichaival" elsewhere as a bow of Odin originating in Norse mythology, notably in the 2014 video game Smite . The erroneous term was briefly removed in 2015 but quickly restored; it was removed more finally from the English Wikipedia article in 2018.[7]
The Icelandic heavy metal band Skálmöld released an album titled Ýdalir in 2023. The album is inspired by Grímnismál and features a title track about the location.[8]
Notes
[edit ]- ^ a b Orchard (1997:185).
- ^ Thorpe (1907:21).
- ^ Bellows (2004:88).
- ^ Simek (2007:375).
- ^ Davidson (1993:67).
- ^ Bevan-Jones (2002:134).
- ^ Zawodniak (2019).
- ^ Esch (2023).
References
[edit ]- Bellows, Henry Adams (Trans.) (2004). The Poetic Edda: The Mythological Poems. Courier Dover Publicans. ISBN 0-486-43710-8
- Bevan-Jones, Robert (2002). The Ancient Yew: A History of Taxus baccata. Windgather Press. ISBN 0-9538630-4-2
- Davidson, Hilda Roderick Ellis (1993). The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe (illustrated edition). Routledge. ISBN 0-415-04937-7
- Esch, Louisa (11 August 2023). "Skálmöld - Ýdalir Review". Metal.de (in German). Retrieved 1 July 2024.
- Thorpe, Benjamin (Trans.) (1907). The Elder Edda of Saemund Sigfusson. Norrœna Society.
- Orchard, Andy (1997). Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend. Cassell. ISBN 0-304-34520-2
- Simek, Rudolf (2007) translated by Angela Hall. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. D.S. Brewer. ISBN 0-85991-513-1
- Zawodniak, Melanie (29 August 2019). "That Time Fire Emblem Accidentally Created A Fake Norse Myth". Nintendo World Report. Retrieved 12 June 2024.