tales of flight in old norse and medieval english texts

On the motif of the coat of feathers, see Werber (1984, 937–42); also Jungbauer (1932,1

1709–45).

According to the sources, both Freyja and Frigg own a coat of feathers which they lend, but2

do not use themselves (as will be discussed below). This is not the only case of passive knowledge:Frigg, in fact, knows the fate of everyone, although she does not foretell; cf. Gylfaginning 19(Faulkes 1982, 21 and 1987, 21) and Lokasenna 29 (all quotations from Eddic poems are takenfrom the fourth edition by Neckel and Kuhn).

In comparative terms, the ability of giants to fly is an uncommon feature; it has no parallel3

in Classical and Celtic mythology (but see note 21, which mentions the late motif of thedaughters of a giant flying in griffin shape).

In Old Norse sources, he is known as Vo3 lundr/Velent. In the Anglo-Saxon tradition he4

appears as Weland (Waldere I, 2 and II, 9 (Dobbie 1942, 4 and 6); The Meters of Boethius 10, 33(Krapp 1931b, 166); Beowulf 455 (Dobbie 1953, 16)) and only once as Welund (in Deor 1(Krapp and Dobbie 1936, 178)). Wayland survives in English popular imagination as is shownin such current place-names as Wayland Smith’s Cave, first recorded in a thirteenth-centurycharter referring to a transaction of 955 (see Gelling 1974, 347: ‘be eastan Welandes smidðan’);and Wayland’s Copse, which does not go back to the Middle Ages (Gelling 1973, 203). The

TALES OF FLIGHT IN OLD NORSEAND MEDIEVAL ENGLISH TEXTS

Maria Elena Ruggerini

Attempts at mechanical flight by enterprising men and magicians are rarein medieval sources and doomed to failure. Similarly, among the northerngods, flight is neither an inborn ability nor commonly practised: only

Óðinn (possibly his female servants as well) and Loki are said to have taken wing— the former by changing himself into a bird, the latter by borrowing a feathergarment from a female deity. For giants, on the other hand, flying seems natural1 2

and customary. In the realm of lower mythology, Vo3 lundr, the supernatural3

smith of Germanic legend, succeeds in an aerial escape from an island; but since4

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KATERN 8

Maria Elena Ruggerini202

character also appears as Walander/Galand in medieval French epic poetry (Maillefer 1997,342–44) and in Middle High German texts as Wielant (Gillespie 1973, 141–43).

The idea for this study came to me in the course of a conversation with John McKinnell,5

whose knowledge and subtle understanding of Old Norse mythology has been a constant sourceof inspiration. It is a great pleasure to acknowledge overtly, at least on one occasion, my indebt-edness and deep gratitude.

Descriptions of angel flight, found mainly in Old English and Old Saxon accounts, present6

the particular problem that the writer must describe spiritual phenomena in physical termswithout suggesting naturalistic causation.

‘Hon á þann hest er renn lopt ok lo3g’ (Faulkes 1982, 30, lines 8–9) (She has a horse that7

runs through the air and water).

Faulkes 1982, 30, lines 11–13. All translations, unless otherwise stated, are my own.8

‘“Né ek flýg þó ek fer / ok at lopti líðk / á Hófvarfni”’ (Faulkes 1982, 30, lines 15–18) (‘I am9

not flying, though I travel / and pass through the sky / on Hófvarfnir’).

the sources are not consistent on the details, it remains unclear whether his flyingwas originally conceived as magical or mechanical.

As the first part of a larger study, this essay will consider the few and scattered5

references to the flight of gods, giants, supernatural and human beings, leavingaside the flight of angels, which has its own peculiarities and will be treated in a6

separate article. It will leave aside as well descriptions of gods moving about thesky on horses or in chariots drawn by animals. In one of these accounts, in Gylfa-ginning (ch. 35), the goddess Gná, Frigg’s messenger, is said to own a horse that‘runs’ through the air and over the water. But the lines immediately following,7

from an unknown poem, indicate that this is not ‘real flying’. An interlocutor asksGná’s identity through the formula ‘“Hvat þar flýgr? Hvat þar ferr / eða at loptilíðr?’” (‘What is it flying there? What is it travelling there / or passing through theair?’). She answers in such a way as to correct him: although she is travelling and8

passing through the sky, she says, she is not ‘flying’. Taking Gná’s understanding9

as authoritative — in that the animals, rather than the gods, are flying in theseinstances — this essay will restrict its consideration to accounts of flight by godsor other supernatural or human beings themselves.

Mythological Flight in Snorri’s Edda

I shall begin with a consideration of the flight of gods and giants as portrayed inour main source, Snorri’s Edda. This includes three myths in which the godprotagonist (along with, in two cases, an antagonist giant) either dons a feather

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The verbal phrase bregða sér í líki e-s (to turn oneself into the shape of somehing/someone)10

will be discussed below.

The simplex hamr refers to the skin of a bird, including feathers and wings, after it has been11

flayed off.

In Helgakviða Hjo3rvarðssonar (prose after st. 5, lines 9–10), Jarl Fránmarr, an expert in12

magic crafts, is able to change himself into an eagle. His transformation is expressed by the verbhamask (í arnar líki), which is not used elsewhere in connection with such a change. A brief surveyof similar episodes of transformation into bird form can be found in von See and others (2004,446–47).

Holmström, in his thorough study on the motif of the swan-maidens, considers the ‘coat13

of feathers’ to be a rationalization of the folk belief in a real change of shape (1919, 125–26).

Gylfaginning ch. 18 (Faulkes 1982, 20); Skáldskaparmál G56 and G58 (Faulkes 1998, I, 214

and 4); Vafþrúðnismál 37, 3. This compound is not used in the portrayal of the apostle John inthe form of an eagle, but rather arnar-form, arnar-líki, and arnar-mynd, which underline thesymbolic value of the image.

Compare the heiti ‘gemlir’ (the old; i.e. ‘eagle’) in Haustlo3ng 2, 3 (North 1997, 2), on which15

see note 33 below.

Skáldskaparmál chs G56, 18 and 19 (Faulkes 1998, I, 2, 24 and 30). In Hervarar saga ok16

Heiðreks ch. 10, the variant valslíki (likeness of a falcon) appears (Guðni Jónsson, Turville-Petre,and Tolkien 1956, 50).

garment that allows him to fly, turns himself into a bird, or, in a combination ofmotifs, turns into a bird through the use of a feather garment.

In Old Norse, the ability to change shape is variously expressed. There are three10

related expressions employing the word hamr (skin; shape): the verb constructions11

skipta ho3mum (to change into something else) and hamask í [. . .] líki (to changeinto the likeness of [. . .]), the compound adjective ham-ramr (able to change12

shape) (Raudvere 2003, 73–77 and 80), and the description of someone as beingí hami (in the shape of) another; for example, Vo3luspá 40 mentions the presenceof one of Fenrir’s children í trolls hami (in the shape of a giant). In the case of birdtransformations, the supernatural beings are said to hafa/eiga (have/possess) ortaka/taka sér (wear) or fljúga með (fly in) a coat of feathers. The generic term for13

this feather garment (or ‘flying apparatus made of feathers’), fjaðrhamr, is not usedin the prose Edda, and in poetry it appears only in the burlesque Þrymskviða,which Snorri does not quote as a source and is probably a very late poem, at leastin its present form. Rather, in the Eddas and in skaldic poetry, feather coats aredenoted with compounds that vary with the type of bird involved, for examplearnarhamr or gemlishamr for a coat/skin/shape of an eagle, valshamr < *val-14 15 16

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Attested in Haustlo3ng 12, 4 (North 1997, 6).17

Compare Vo3lundarkviða, introductory prose. In Hrómundarsaga Gripssonar, Lara, a18

woman expert in magic, appears on the battlefield í álftar ham (in the shape of a swan) andattempts with her cries to weaken the courage and resistance of King Óláfr’s men who are battlingagainst her beloved, Helgi fro3kni (the bold). The episode ends tragically when Helgi, lifting hissword to strike his enemies, accidentally severs her leg and she falls to the ground dead. (ValdimarÁsmundarson 1886, 332; in the revision of the saga by Guðni Jónsson and Bjarni Vilhjálmsson,the episode is at ch. 7 (1943–44, II, 281); here Lara appears í álptarlíki). This saga is a seventeenth-century reworking of Griplur, a collection of rímur which is in turn based on an earlier, lost sagaabout the hero Hrómundr. Dronke quotes the same episode from Griplur IV, sts 24, 43, 58, andobserves that this is the only instance she knows in which a valkyrie appears on the battlefield inthe shape of a bird (1997, 301–02). In the prose version, Lara’s bird form is connected with herbeing a fjo3lkyngiskona (woman expert in black magic), not to her being a valkyrie.

In the first chapter of Vo3lsunga saga (Finch 1965, 3), the word krákuhamr (coat/skin/shape19

of a crow) occurs.

It is my intention to examine the dynamics and wording of these episodes involving flight,20

without presuming to treat fully the myths in which the motifs are embedded.

haukr (a carrion-hawk) or hauks flugbjalfa (hawk’s flying-fur) for that of a hawk,17

and álptar-hamr for that of a swan. The use of the non-specific, ‘devalued’18 19

fjaðrhamr appears to reflect a development in the conception and portrayal ofmythological flight, which now requires only the wearing (and sometimes, in alater phase of the myth, the assembling) of a feather coat, rather than radical trans-formation into bird form. Indeed, as will be suggested below, the term fjaðrhamr— which, apart from its occurrence in Þrymskviða (at 5, 2; 5, 6; 9, 2), is firstattested in thirteenth-century prose writings based on Latin originals — mightitself be an innovation, modelled on similar compounds in Anglo-Saxon and/orLow-German sources. In particular, it may have become common after thediffusion of stories about the crafty Vo3 lundr.

The first depiction of divine flight in Snorri’s Edda occurs in the story of thetheft of Iðunn’s apples — Skáldskaparmál (ch. G56; Faulkes 1998, I, 1–2; Faulkes1987, 58–61). The giant Þjazi appears í árnarhami (in the shape of an eagle)20

where the gods Óðinn, Loki, and Hœnir are trying unsuccessfully to roast an ox,and promises to help them on condition that they let him have his share of themeat. When he subsequently takes the largest portion, Loki angrily hurls a poleat him, which miraculously sticks both to the bird and to his own hands. Whenthe eagle takes flight, Loki is lifted into the air, being set free only in exchange forthe promise that he will take the goddess Iðunn out of Ásgarðr with her apples ofeternal youth. Once Loki has persuaded Iðunn to follow him to a wood, the giant

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According to Rooth, the ‘Þjazi myth’ shows close parallels with the Irish Tale of the Sons of21

Turen (an eighteenth-century text probably reflecting a much earlier version), in which the pro-tagonists, in atonement for the killing of Lugh’s father, are requested to steal the apples of lifefrom the garden of Hisbe. They fly to the place in the guise of hawks, and are pursued by thedaughters of the giant warden in the guise of fire-vomiting griffins (1961, 21–22).

The Old Norse sœgr (loud noise, rain) is connected to Old English swæg (sound, noise,22

voice) and Old Saxon swôgan (to rustle). In a passage of the Old Saxon Heliand (discussed below),describing the descent of an angel to the Sepulchre, it is said that he ‘swôgan quam [. . .] faran anfeðerhamon’ (came with a resounding sound [. . .] moving on his coat of feathers) (lines 5796band 5798a; Behaghel 1984, 203–04); compare also the Old English poem from Oxford, BodleianLibrary, MS Junius 11, Christ and Satan, line 401 (Krapp 1931a, 148): ‘Þa com engla sweg, dyneon dægred’ (there came the voice of angels resounding, in the dawning day). Sound is importantin the movements of gods and supernatural beings. When a male deity moves beyond the limitsof his natural realm, his coming is signalled by an impressive sound: cf. Baldrs draumar 3, 5: ‘framreið Óðinn, foldvegr dunði’ (on rode Óðinn, the road resounded [as he was approaching Hell’shall]).

The verb sitja is also used in Konungs skuggsjá to describe the personified eight winds which23

‘sit’ at the eight points of the compass (Magnús Már Lárusson 1955, 69–73; Perkins 2001, 44).

Þjazi arrives, once more in eagle form, to snatch Iðunn and fly home with her.21

To avoid the vengeance of the gods, Loki volunteers to fetch Iðunn back if Freyjalends him her valshamr (falcon coat/skin/shape). Obtaining it, he is apparentlytransformed into an actual bird, since after flying to Giantland he turns thegoddess into a nut and holds her in his claws on his return flight. When Þjazi dis-covers Iðunn’s escape, he assumes the shape of an eagle or is transformed into aneagle by wearing an eagle coat (‘tekr hann arnarhaminn’) to pursue Loki. A sub-motif concerns the giant causing an ‘eagle-draught of wind’ (i.e. a wind-storm) byhis flying (‘dró arnsúg í flugum’), in order to disturb Loki’s flight. This is remi-22

niscent of the myth of the origin of wind in Vafþrúðnismál 36–37, where a giantí arnar ham (in eagle’s shape) ‘sitr á himins enda’ (sits at the edge of the sky) andflaps his wings, from which ‘kveða vind koma / alla menn yfir’ (they say comes thewind / over all men) — although, in this case, the giant is conceived as a motorimmobilis from which winds originate and circulate throughout the atmosphere.23

In the second occurrence of divine flight in Snorri’s Edda — the story of thetheft of Suttungr’s mead (Skáldskaparmál ch. G58; Faulkes 1998, I, 4–5; Faulkes1987, 62–64) — the protagonists are Óðinn and Suttungr. Óðinn changes shapetwice, first into a snake, in order to crawl into a hole in the mountain whereGunnlo3ð, Suttungr’s daughter, guards the mead of poetry, then into an eagle, soas to fly off after obtaining the precious drink. Here the account suggests a less

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Oðinn’s behaviour is often aimed at plotting mischief or increasing his gifts and power, and24

he often resorts to magic as an indispensable tool.

Loki turns himself into a woman (‘brá sér í konu líki’) and visits Frigg in order to discover25

how to harm the god Baldr (Gylfaginning ch. 49; Faulkes 1982, 45, line 28); also, to avoid thevengeance of the gods after the killing of Baldr, he hides in a waterfall, assuming the shape of asalmon (‘brá [. . .] sér í laxlíki’; Gylfaginning ch. 50; Faulkes 1982, 48, lines 18–19). According toSnorri (but with no other source to confirm it), the Æsir seem able to change other beings intoother forms. When they at last capture Loki, they fetch his sons, Váli and Nari/Narfi, and turnthe former into a wolf (‘brugðu [. . .] Vála í vargs líki’; Gylfaginning ch. 50; Faulkes 1982, 49,line 8) who tears the latter to pieces. Using his guts, the gods then bind Loki. At the opening ofGylfaginning, Gylfi is described as a man expert in magic (fjo3lkunnigr), who once assumed theshape of an old man (‘brá á sik gamals manns líki’; Faulkes 1982, 7, line 24) in order to travel insecret to the Æsir people. Another example of the verb bregða sér occurs in Snorri’s Skáldskapar-mál (ch. 40; Faulkes 1998, I, 46, lines 18–19), where it is employed to describe Fáfnir’s changeinto an ormr in order to guard the hoard of gold which formerly belonged to his father Hreiðmarr(introduced in the narration as a farmer ‘much skilled in magic’). Ormr here may mean either‘snake’ or ‘dragon’, though in Skáldskaparmál ch. G58 it refers unequivocally to Óðinn’s trans-formation into a snake when he is after Gunnlo3ð (‘Þá brásk Bo3 lverkr í orms líki’; Faulkes 1998,I, 4, line 33). Fáfnir’s change of shape can be explained by the knowledge of magic which he hasderived from his family. It is evident that Snorri considers this kind of transformation(introduced by the verb bregða sér) as a black craft.

Faulkes translates the passage as ‘he (Suttungr) got his own eagle shape’ (1987, 64).26

legitimate, more transgressive transformation: Óðinn is not introduced by that24

name, but as Bo3 lverkr (Mischief-causer), and the verb used to describe his changesof shape is not taka (wear), but bregða sér í líki (turn oneself into the shape ofsomething/someone), which implies a resort to black magic (for example seiðr).25

The same phrase is used to describe his transformation into a hawk in Hervararsaga ok Heiðreks, a transformation which allows him to fly off quickly afterunfairly outwitting King Heiðrekr in a riddle contest. Suttungr’s change into aneagle, on the other hand — once the giant realizes that Óðinn is flying away afterthe theft — is described using the verb taka sér, which suggests that the trans-formation is in accordance with his nature and potential. Indeed, the use of the26

pronoun sér following the verb taka might carry the meaning ‘for his part’ or ‘asa counter-move’, implying that this is an action that ‘belongs to him’.

Myths of this kind may originally have reflected traditional shamanistic ritualsin which feather coats symbolically invested bird form on their wearers. But thisseems at least partially superseded in an account in the first chapter of Vo3lsungasaga (Finch 1965, 3) in which a maiden in Óðinn’s service appears to partake ofher master’s magical crafts; in this scene, Óðinn asks one of his óskmeyjar (wish-

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In Oddrúnargrátr 16, 3, the word refers to Brynhildr, and is therefore analogous to27

‘valkyrie’.

See note 18. The crow sitting on a branch which prophesies to Konr ungr in Rígsþula 4728

has been interpreted as a valkyrie in bird form, on the basis that both valkyries and crows aremessengers of the gods and possess knowledge of the future, which they may reveal to men (vonSee and others 2000, 658). Isidore bears witness to the prophetic qualities of crows in his Etymol-ogies, XII. vii. 44 (Lindsay 1911, 75).

Cf. Vo3luspá 30: ‘Sá hon valkyrior [. . .] / gorvar at ríða [. . .] gorvar at ríða grund, valkyrior’29

(She saw valkyries [. . .] / expert in riding [. . .] expert in riding on the ground, valkyries);Helgakviða Hundingsbana o3nnor, prose before st. 5: ‘Sigrún [. . .] varð valkyrja ok reið lopt ok lo3g’(Sigrún [. . .] became a valkyrie and she rode through the air and the water); HelgakviðaHjo3rvarðssonar 28: ‘reið ein [valkyrja] fyrir[. . .] marir hristuz’ (in front of them she [a valkyrie]rode [. . .] the horses shook their manes) and prose before st. 10: ‘[Sváva] var valkyrja ok reið loptok lo3g’ ([Sváva] was a valkyrie and she rode through the air and the water). Snorri consistentlyuses the verb ríða: Gylfaginning ch. 36 (Faulkes 1982, 30).

maidens/beloved maidens/adoptive daughters’, i.e. ‘valkyries’) to go on an27

errand, and she ‘brá á sik krákuham ok flygr’ (assumed the shape of a crow andflew). The sharing of master and servant in magical knowledge is signified by theunusual phrasing bregða sér í krákuham, which combines the would-be ‘regular’expression *taka (sér) krákuham — referring to a ritual/supernatural act — and*bregða sér í kráku líki, implying a magical act. This scene is probably a late addi-tion, devised on the model of Óðinn’s two raven-messengers, since the idea thata valkyrie must become a bird in order to reach earth is evidenced in only oneother late source. Indeed, the movement of valkyries is not described in the28

sources as ‘flying’: they are usually depicted riding horses to the battlefield on anerrand. Sometimes they stride across the sky like Homeric gods, as in Helgakviða29

Hundingsbana o3nnor 4, 5–6: ‘hon skævaði skýom yfir’ (she [a valkyrie] strode overthe clouds). Often when travelling elsewhere than battlefields, they are simply saidto ‘go’, as in Gylfaginning ch. 49 (Faulkes 1982, 46–47): ‘fór Frigg ok valkyriur oghrafnar hans’ ([with Óðinn] went Frigg and the valkyries and his ravens — toBaldr’s funeral, on which journey Freyr is said to drive in a chariot, Heimdallr toride a horse and Freyja her cats).

The third instance of divine flight in Snorri’s Edda occurs in the story of Þórr’sjourney to Geirrøðargarðr (Skáldskaparmál ch. 18; Faulkes 1998, I, lines 24–25;Faulkes 1987, 81–83) and the context is comedic, since Loki borrows Frigg’sfalcon coat for no other purpose than to fly at leisure for his own personal amuse-ment. That this use of Frigg’s coat is frivolous and possibly less than proper isfurther indicated by the unusual expression, not attested elsewhere, ‘hann flaug

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The same motif occurs in Kormáks saga ch. 18 (Einar Ól. Sveinsson 1939, 265–66; Colling-30

wood and Jón Stefánsson 1902, 105): while sailing to Norway, Kormákr and his men kill a walrus,but from its eyes they think they can recognize Þórveig the witch in the form of a sea-beast.

Faulkes 1998, I, 4, 38–39. The gravity and unlawful nature of the act may explain the quick31

reaction of the giant Suttungr who, upon seeing Óðinn in the shape of an eagle, immediatelychases him in flight, while Geirrøðr does not bother to chase Loki.

In the case of transformations into birds achieved by means of a coat of feathers, strict gen-32

der connections are difficult to ascertain. Hatto finds ‘nothing to contradict the notion that eaglesmay have been appropriate to male, swans and probably geese to female shamans’ (1961, 342).

North translates line 2, 3 as ‘in a vulture’s worn-out shape’ (1997, 3). I would suggest that33

the clever use of the etymological figure gemlis/go3mlum (where the name ‘eagle’ is replaced by theheiti ‘the old one’) aims at stressing the ancient quality of the mantle of feathers, which since thebeginning of the world pertains to giants, rather than the fact that the guise is worn out, as Northassumes, without explanation, in his commentary.

[. . .] með valshamr’ (he flew [. . .] in a falcon coat) and by the fact that the trans-formation is incomplete, evidenced by the giant’s ability to tell from Loki’s eyesthat he is not a bird. The giant Geirrøðr, accordingly, does not wish to get30

involved in an aerial challenge with Loki, as Suttungr does with Óðinn. Ratherthan turning himself into an eagle to capture Loki in the falcon’s guise, he has thebird caught and brought to him. Unable to tell with certainty whether the birdshape disguises a divine being, the giant resorts to imprisonment and starvationto extort a confession from Loki.

These three myths seem to indicate that only giants have a rightful power tochange into eagles, usually by putting on a coat made of the feathers of that bird.Óðinn is able to fly, not through the use of a feather mantle, but by transforminghimself magically into anything he likes, including a bird, and in this case he maychoose to become ‘what he shouldn’t’, that is, an eagle — as in the Gunnlo3ð epi-sode in Skáldskaparmál ch. G58 (Faulkes 1998, I, 4; Faulkes 1987, 63–64). We31

see here and elsewhere (as in Þrymskviða) that the gods must ask Freyja or Friggfor permission to borrow their falcon garments. It might be that these garments(as opposed to the giants’ eagle garments) are feminine, which is why only the32

sexually ambivalent Loki is allowed to borrow them.There is also a reference to the airborne battle between Þjazi and Loki in the

myth of Iðunn’s apples in the late ninth-century skaldic poem Haustlo3ng by Þjóðólfrór Hvini (sts 2 and 12), in which the giant is described as being í gemlis ham (ineagle’s guise). Unusually, his feather garment is said to be gamall (old, or aged),33

which may suggest that the giant is entitled to fly in accordance with ancient law.By contrast, Loki is depicted as able to fly through his use of an actual hawk’s coat:

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North translates aukinn as ‘increased by (a hawk’s flying-fur)’ (1997, 7), whereas Hollander34

(1968, 46) and Finnur Jónsson (Skj, BI, 16) prefer to use the more neutral rendering ‘in a hawk’scoat’.

Compare 12, 6: leikblaðs reginn fjaðrar ‘the ruler-deity of the feather’s swinging leafblade’35

(North 1997, 7).

Chasing Loki, he directed an arnsúg ‘an eagle’s vigorous wing-draught’ at him (North36

1997).

Compare Snorri, Skáldskaparmál ch. G56 (Faulkes 1998, I, 2; Faulkes 1987, 60).37

On the number and content of these scenes, see North (1997, xxiii–xxiv).38

hauks flugbjalfi aukinn (increased [= enpowered/enhanced?] by a hawk’s flyingfur); he is also referred to by the kenning o3glis barn (offspring of the eagle)34

(Haustlo3ng 12, 7), which might carry the implication that he is inexperienced inflight. So again, in this depiction of flight in ninth-century Norwegian mytho-logical verse, a giant is shown to be adept at flight. He is even referred to as a ruleror deity (reginn) of the wing, able to produce a gale by flapping his wings, and35 36

he could clearly get the better of Loki in a fair flying competition (which this isnot, since the Æsir light fires under Þjazi’s path). Þjóðólfr hints at the aerial duel37

without mentioning the end of the story, where the giant meets his defeat, becausehe is simply describing one of the three or more scenes painted on a shield he has38

received as a gift. It is probable that the image on the shield that referred to themyth of Iðunn’s abduction depicted an eagle (Þjazi in the shape of a bird) pur-suing a smaller bird (Loki in falcon’s guise) which was carrying a nut (Iðunn) inits claws.

Þrymskviða 5, 2: ‘the coat of feathers rustled’

As mentioned previously, in Þrymskviða — a lay not used as a source by Snorri —divine flight takes on the character of burlesque. Þórr asks Freyja for her feathergarment, but does not then use it himself; rather it is Loki, again, who dons it fora flight to Þrymheimr to investigate the theft of Þórr’s hammer. This is the onlyinstance in an Old Norse mythological text in which the coat of feathers bestow-ing the power of flight is referred to by the non-specific term fjaðrham. This mayreflect a different mythological context and/or understanding of the function ofdivine flight. Here the common confrontation between gods and giants, settledthrough aerial battle, involves a preliminary stage of negotiation and cunning,followed by Þórr’s winning display of force. The coat is a tool that allows Loki to

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In the Homeric poems, this corresponds to the action of wearing the winged sandals which39

allow gods (usually Athena, Hermes, or one of their messengers, such as Iris) to reach their desti-nation quickly (cf. Iliad 24, 341; Odyssey 1, 97; 5, 45).

McKinnell (2000, 2 and 14, nn. 13 and 14). In a subsequent article, the author expands this40

theory and supports it in more detail: ‘The motif of transformation into bird form in order to flywas clearly widespread, but the idea of a flying apparatus which could be tied onto the humanbody and borrowed by one person from another seems to have had a more limited currency, inEngland and the other territories ruled by Norman/Angevin kings of England’ (McKinnell 2001,335–36).

As I shall discuss below, I would not exclude the possibility of a different route by which41

the compound ‘coat of feathers’ came to be used in Old Norse in the context of a flight attained

reach Giantland quickly, in order to obtain information regarding the stolenMjo3 llnir. The thief, Þrymr, intends to force the gods to give him Freyja for a bridein exchange for the hammer’s return. Thus he welcomes Loki’s arrival, whichsignals the start of negotiations.

In the scene in Þrymskviða in which Loki and Þórr borrow the feather coatfrom Freyja, she demonstrates refined manners and a courteous and cooperativespirit: ‘I would give it to you even if it were made of gold, / I would lend it to youeven if it were made of silver’, she says (st. 4, 1–4). This episode is expandedbeyond its usual purely functional use, which may indicate a more recent stage39

of transmission or re-creation of the myth. In any case, it serves to set up the latercomic scene when they come to ask her to become the giant’s bride. On thissecond visit, she displays an opposite demeanour, furious and violent: ‘Freyja wasthen angry and snorted in rage / all the halls of the Æsir trembled at that, / thegreat necklace of the Brisings fell from her’ (st. 13, 1–6). Needless to say, shedeclines their request.

It may be that the adoption in mythological tales of the word fjaðrhamr, whichis not attested in Old Norse before this occurrence, is an innovation influencedby foreign sources. McKinnell has noted that the concept of mechanical flightmade possible by the use of a fjaðrhamr — as opposed to mythological flight bymeans of temporary transformation into a bird — ‘can [. . .] be paralleled [. . .]only in sources derived from authors and artists associated with the British Islesor the Angevin empire’. Thus the occurrence of this term in Þrymskviða can be40

considered, according to McKinnell, an example of ‘Anglo-Scandinavian vocabu-lary’and would point, together with other linguistic features, to the possibilitythat it is based on an older Anglo-Scandinavian poem, possibly of the late tenthor eleventh century.41

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by wearing an apparatus — namely, through the diffusion in the northern countries of LowGerman stories of the smith Velent.

This is specified in the following stanza: ‘when the he-goats drew the temple-deity of the42

easy riding chariot [Þórr] forward’ (Haustlo3ng 15, 5–6; North 1997, 8).

This sort of meaning also appears when the noun is used, as in Atlakviða 32, 5: ‘dynr var43

í garði’ (there was clattering in the court).

Presumably because of the practical function of the feather coat in Þrymskviða,the sacral act of wearing it (taka/taka sér) which brings about the transformationinto a bird is not mentioned. This shamanic feature is no longer central; attentionis rather drawn to the wondrous sounds of flight. In sts 5 and 9, the sound ofLoki’s flight is conveyed through the verb dynja: ‘Fló þá Loki, fjaðrhamr dunði’(Then Loki flew off, the feather coat rustled). In the powerful description ofÞjazi’s flight in the shape of an eagle in Haustlo3ng 2, the sound produced by theclapping of gigantic wings is again distinctly noted through the adverbial pluralgenitive glamma (with a clatter) (North 1997, 17). This use of dynja is at onceformulaic and original. It is found in two other poetic passages, one Eddic and oneskaldic. In the former, Óðinn is described as riding on horseback to Hel (Baldrsdraumar 3, 5–6): ‘fram reið Óðinn, foldvegr dunði’ (on rode Óðinn, the roadresounded). In the latter (Haustlo3ng 14, 6–8), Þórr is riding in his chariot drawnby goats: ‘en dunði / [. . .] Mána vegr und hónum’ (while the Moon’s path [= the42

sky] clattered beneath him). In both instances, the verb signifies that the god isjourneying outside his realm. A peculiar, loud, and beating sound often announcesthe arrival of a mythical character in a different realm, as in Skírnismál 14, wherethe giantess Gerðr guesses the arrival of a stranger (Freyr’s messenger Skírnir)from the roar produced by the hoofs of his horse: ‘“Hvat er þat hlym hlymja, er ekhlymja heyri nú til / ossom ro3nnom í? / Io3 rð bifaz, enn allir fyrir / skjalfa garðarGymis”’ (‘What is that noise of noises which I hear now / in our dwellings? / Theearth trembles and all the courts / of Gymir shake before it’). In the anonymousEiríksmál, st. 3, the arrival of King Eiríkr blóðøx in Valho3 ll is heralded in a similarway: ‘“Hvat þrymr þar Bragi sem þúsund bifisk / eða mengi til mikit?”’ (Skj, BI,165) (‘What is this roar, Bragi, as if a thousand [men] were on the move, / or anenormous crowd?’). In the only other Eddic passage where dynja is found, it refersto the loud reverberation, in an enclosed court, of Brynhildr’s uncontrolled andsavage laughter (Brot 10, 1–2): ‘Hló þá Brynhildr — bœr allr dunði —’ (ThenBrynhildr laughed — all the hall resounded —). It would appear, then, that43

when the verb has the ground or some other hard surface as its subject, it conveys

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In prose, the verb is used of heavy rain/wind beating against a building and producing a44

characteristic sound; but when the subject is the ground/earth or the air/sky, the meaning conveysa sense of hollow, loud rumbling, and acoustic reverberation.

North, who does not take into consideration the occurrence in Brot, prefers to translate the45

verb as ‘clatter’ (1997, 62).

Matthew 28. 2: ‘Et ecce terrae motus factus est magnus; angelus enim domini descendit de46

caelo et accedens revolvit lapidem’.

The expression faran an feðerhamon is formulaic, and is also used for real birds in the47

parable of the lilies of the field (‘farad an feðarhamun’, Heliand 1669a; Behaghel 1984, 65). PeterIlkow maintains that this image of angelic flight is derived from the iconography of winged angelsthat was common in contemporary Carolingian art, which was reminiscent of the feather coatmotif of pagan legends and fairy tales (1968, 118–19).

I have left out line 5798b — ‘all diu folda an scian(n)’, possibly ‘all the earth thundered’ —48

because it is obscure; see the editorial note at line 5798 (Behaghel 1984, 204).

the meaning ‘to shake; to resound/roar’, but it can also refer to a different kind44

of sound (echo/clang/clatter) that is equally loud and reverberating, as when45

Brynhildr laughs. There is a closer parallel to the use of dynja in Þrymskviða in theanonymous Bjarkamál, composed in the style of Eddic poetry, which opens withthe image of a cock-crow at dawn (Skj BI, 170): ‘Dagr’s upp kominn, dynja hanafjaðrar’ (The day is up, the cock-crow’s wings rustle).

Extending the scope of investigation to the whole corpus of Old Germanicpoetry, other parallels arise. In the Old Saxon Christian epic Heliand, Matthew’sdescription of the angel’s descent from heaven to the Sepulchre to announceChrist’s resurrection is reformulated as follows: ‘Sô thiu frî habdun / gegangan46

te them gardon, / [. . .] / thuo thar suôgan quam / engil thes alouualdon obana fanradure, / faran an feðerhamon, that [. . .] / thiu erða dunida’ (When the three47 48

women / had come to the garden, / [. . .] / there came with a resounding noise /an angel of the Almighty from the sky above, / moving on his coat of feathers, sothat [. . .] / the earth resounded) (Heliand 5794b–99a; Behaghel 1984, 204). TheLatin source for this passage employs the verb descendere (to come down), withoutmentioning the sound produced. It does describe how the earth trembled after-ward, ‘et ecce terrae motus factus est magnum’ (which parallels the earlier passagein Matthew describing the convulsion of nature at Christ’s death, ‘et terra motaest’). The source seems to describe the earthquake as following, rather thanattending, the arrival of the angel. In contrast, the Saxon poet suggests an actualcausal connection between the angel’s flight and the earth’s resounding/tremblingby using the conjunction that (so that), and by specifying that the angel ‘suôgan

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Cathey, in his recent edition of Heliand (2002, 250), interprets ‘swôgan quam’ as ‘came49

swooshing down’, which is consistent with my rendering of dunida as ‘resounded’ rather than‘thundered’ (as suggested by Sehrt, who renders the verb dunnian as ‘dröhnen’).

This occurrence is a hapax legomenon in Old Saxon.50

Cf. Andreas 739b (Krapp 1932, 23); Christ 930a (Krapp and Dobbie 1936, 29); The51

Judgement Day 1 59b (1936, 213); Solomon and Saturn 273b (Dobbie 1942, 41); Christ andSatan 402a (Dobbie 1953, 148).

Holofernes’s laughing and bawling due to heavy drinking is also described using the verb52

dynian (Judith 23; Dobbie 1953, 99).

quam’ (came with a loud noise). The use in this passage of the verb dunnian49 50

parallels the accounts of flight in Þrymskviða and Bjarkamál, both in suggestinga special sound that announces the errand of a god and in its description of thesound itself. It is notable that in other contexts where the earth is said to trembleor shake in the Old Saxon account of the gospels — for example in Christ’s de-scription of the signs announcing the Last Judgment and in the trembling of theearth after Christ’s death on the cross — the verb used is not dunnian, but themore common bibon: ‘erða biboda’ (the earth trembled) and ‘biboð thius brêdeuuerold’ (the broad earth trembled), at lines 5662b and 4314a, respectively, ofHeliand. Moving on to Old English poetry, the parallel verb dynian/dynnan isused in Christian contexts to describe the ‘voices’ of angels or the portentous51

sounds announcing the Last Judgment, but in heroic contexts in a way more com-parable to the Old Norse. Examples of the latter include the resounding of earthor floors or halls or walls produced by a hero’s loud voice or by an army’s move-ment, as in Beowulf 2558b and 1317b (Dobbie 1953, 79 and 41) or by warriors52

ready for battle or engaged in fighting, as in The Battle of Finnsburh 30b (Dobbie1942, 4) and Elene 50b (Krapp 1932, 67).

In the Christian otherwordly vision of Sólarljóð, there is a late echo of paganfascination with supernatural flight in a dead father’s description of the arrivalfrom the west of a powerful flying dragon: he flaps his wings with such force thatearth and sky shake violently and seem about to burst (st. 54; Skj, BI, 644). Theverb used here — springa (to split) — is more emphatic than the traditional dynja,and may be meant to convey and stress the horror felt by the onlooking fatherwho, immediately after death, confronts an apocalyptic landscape with amplifiedsenses. The subjectivity of his perception is underlined by the introductory for-mula at st. 54, 5: ‘svát víða þótti mér’ (so that it really seemed to me).

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The presence of the names ‘Egill’ and ‘O3 lrún’ carved on the Pforzen buckle might suggest53

that Vo3 lundr’s brother Egill and his swan-wife O3 lrún (who are mentioned in Vo3lundarkviða 4,6–7 and in the introductory prose, at line 11) were already known as a couple in Bavaria in thelater sixth century (McKinnell and Simek 2004, 57–59). On the couple Egill–O3 lrún, see Marold1996. Burson considers the two parts of Vo3lundarkviða as a ‘continuous story’ adhering to thepattern of the ‘Girl as Helper’ fairy tale (1983, 13 and 17).

Lines 7–8: ‘Þar vóro hiá þeim álptar-hamir þeira’ (there were their swan-garments beside54

them). The prose introduction says nothing about Vo3 lundr and his two brothers stealing themaidens’ garments, as usually happens in versions of this archetype. It states only that they tookthe women home with them to their hall, and the verse suggests that the women actively chosethe men. This must have seemed weird to early audiences of the poem, both because of its depar-ture from the archetype and because it was unusual for women to take the initiative in marriagerelationships. This may have led the author of the introduction to label them as ‘valkyries’, whosetask was to choose the fallen warriors who should join Óðinn’s army in Valho3 ll.

In Úlfhams saga, Úlfhamr and Atram follow two crane-maidens and discover their refuge55

under an old oak (Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir 2001, 56). In the rímur version of the sameepisode, the tree is said to be a birch (Vargstökur VI, 40; ibid., 29).

Flight Motifs in Vo3 lundarkviða

Like Þrymskviða, the Eddic poem Vo3lundarkviða is not mentioned by Snorri in hisEdda and he does not seem to have used it as a source. The motif of the coat offeathers is here exploited twice, with different subjects and distinct characteristics.In the first part of the story, which some commentators see as a late addition tothe original core of the Vo3 lundr legend, three swan-maidens arrive flying from53

the south. According to the prose introduction, once they settle on the groundthey are able to remove their feather coats and, presumably, don them again. Infact, their garments are explicitly mentioned as lying beside them. In the poem54

itself, the swan maidens are portrayed as alien, winged beings, but there is noexplicit mention of garments; and when, after nine years, they follow an irresist-ible urge and fly back to whence they came, they are simply said to ‘hasten away’(fýstuz, 3, 7). In the introductory prose, their departure is said to have taken placeafter seven years, when they ‘flugo [. . .] ok kvómo eigi aptr’ (flew away [. . .] anddid not come back) (line 8). A possible parallel to these maidens can be found inthe Eddic poem Helreið Brynhildar, st. 6. Here Brynhildr tells of an occasionwhen a wise king had her and her seven sisters’ hamir (coats/shapes/skins) (6, 1)stolen and placed under an oak. The reference is too short and obscure to allow55

full insight into the story, but the episode seems to fit the folk-tale pattern inwhich a man forces a bird-maiden to marry him by stealing her feather-robe,

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In the Old Norse tales, the number of bird-maidens varies — there are three in56

Vo3lundarkviða, eight in Helreið Brynhildar — while in all other sources there is only one.

In the Eddic poem Sigrdrífumál, Sigurðr awakens the valkyrie Sigrdrífa from an enchanted57

sleep, a punishment devised by Oðinn for assigning victory in battle against his instructions. Herenchanted sleep is also mentioned in passing in Fáfnismál 44. In all other sources of the Nibelunglegend, she is replaced by Brynhildr.

They are defined as valkyries by Gering and Sijmons (1927–31, I, 284) and Larrington58

(1996, 288).

According to the prose introduction (which in Codex Regius 2365, 4 bears the title Fráo59

Vo3lundi ‘On Vo3 lundr’), the three women are valkyries; but there is nothing in the poem itself toindicate this, apart from their active role in the choice of their partners (see note 54). As Dronkehas convincingly demonstrated (1997, 301–02), the behaviour and attributes of the swanmaidens are inconsistent with valkyries, and the identification was probably conceived by theprose redactor. In the few instances when a valkyrie is described as acting in the shape of a bird,instead of on a horse, a crow and not a swan is evoked — with a single exception in a set offourteenth-century rímur and in a saga derived from them (on which see Dronke 1997 and mynote 18) — as in the opening chapter of Vo3lsunga saga and possibly in Rígsþula 47, 1.

usually while she is bathing (Hatto 1961; Böldl 2004, 419–20). This and the56

following stanza (sts 6–7), concerning Brynhildr’s youth, are thought to derivefrom an older poem (Würth 1993, 282). Thus the common identification of theseseven maidens as valkyries — on the basis that, since Brynhildr’s story in HelreiðBrynhildar overlaps with that of the valkyrie Sigrdrífa, her sisters must be val-57

kyries as well — should not be taken for granted.58

Leaving aside the complex problem of the nature and origin of the swanmaidens, which is not directly related to the topic of this article, let it be noted59

that in the prose introduction their feather mantles are referred to as álptarhamir(swan garments). This is another example of what I take to be the ‘original’ formof the compound used in connection with mythological flight, in which the firstelement should contain the name of a specific bird. Although the poem does notexpressely mention feather coats to explain the arrival of the three maidens, thefirst stanza opens with the line ‘Meyjar flugo sunnan, myrkvið í gognom’ (Themaidens flew from the south across Myrkviðr); and the second recounts that thesecond maiden — identified by the prose as Svanhvít (Swanwhite) — ‘svanfjaðrardró’ (wore (perhaps, had worn) swan feathers; or: embraced [Slagfiðr, one ofVo3 lundr’s brothers] with her swan-wings; both interpretations are possible). Sothe use of the feather-coat motif can be silently inferred. The verb settuz ‘theysettled’ in st. 1, 6, describing the arrival of the swan maidens on the lake-shore,

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The same verb (sazun) occurs in the Old High German First Merseburg Charm (von60

Steinmeyer 1916, 25) to describe a group of idisi (supernatural maidens) settling down on thebattlefield to liberate prisoners and to hinder the opposing army. Here there is no other suggestionthat these maidens are in bird form; thus the traditional interpretation of the idisi as valkyriesarriving at the battlefield on their flying horses cannot be ruled out. It is also possible to interpretthe idisi as the spirits of female ancestors, ideally continuing the role played by the matres/matronae venerated in the lower Rhine area, Gaul, northern Italy, and pagan England (McKinnell2005, 198–200).

Bouman considers the line ambiguous, and suggests the unconvincing interpretation ‘he61

hove himself aloft (from the ground on which he had been crouching)’ (1939, 39).

The relevant passage of Vo3lundarkviða (st. 29, 1–4) is obscure and probably needs emenda-62

tion. At st. 29, 1 the manuscript reads ‘vel ek’, which is difficult to interpret. Dronke’s reading —‘“Vél [á] ek”’ (‘I have a trick’) — seems acceptable, and would refer both to the trick Vo3 lundr isabout to play on Níðuðr by escaping and to a device which the following line would connect tothe flight of birds through the expression ‘webbed feet’ (1997, 321–22).

also conveys the image of birds alighting and echoes ‘settisk o3 rn’ ‘the eagle [i.e.Þjazi] settled down (where the Æsir where dining on an ox)’ in Haustlo3ng 2, 5.60

Turning now to the second occurrence of the flight motif in Vo3lundarkviða,with Vo3 lundr as its protagonist, we find a first, enigmatic reference in st. 29, 5–6to the successful escape of the smith from his island prison, where King Niðuðrhas confined him by having the sinews in his knees cut and where he has spentcountless days in solitude forging weapons and jewels for the court: ‘HlæjandiVo3 lundr hófz at lopti’ (Laughing, Vo3 lundr lifted himself in the air). Since61

Vo3 lundr has earlier lamented his maiming and hinted at acquiring the ‘webbedfeet’ typical of some species of birds, it follows that his escape can take place only62

after he has devised a way of flying. Whether he comes by this ability throughmagic or by use of an apparatus is unclear: in the pregnant and obscure styletypical of many Eddic accounts, the practical details of flight are ignored. Oncethe success of the smith’s escape is portrayed through a ‘still’ image of himsuspended in the air, the scene shifts to the hall of Niðuðr (sts 30–31), where theKing sits grieving over his murdered sons. Outside in the garden, somebodydescribed only as ‘he’ has just ‘settled to rest’ (‘settiz at hvílaz’, st. 30, 6). Therepetition of the verbal phrase used earlier to describe the swan maidens landingby the lake-shore (st. 1, 6) suggests that ‘he’ refers to Vo3 lundr and creates a linkbetween two parallel but contrasting experiences (Dronke 1997, 257–58):whereas the maidens’ ‘settling’ brought about their golden captivity (if that iswhat it was), the smith’s ‘settling’ interrupts his escape, allowing him to performhis final act of vengeance by revealing to the King his role in the death of the

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The word ljóði does not appear elsewhere in Old Norse, and the corresponding Old English63

leod, leoda in the singular can mean ‘prince’ or just ‘man’; while vísi may here be a direct develop-ment of OE wisa, which can mean either ‘leader’ or ‘wise one’, though it most commonly signifies‘leader’ in Old Norse verse (McKinnell 1990, 3).

On the ring and its possible magic qualities, see von See and others (2000, 201–02) and64

Dronke (1997, 269). Beck (1980, 31) supposes two stages in the transmission and elaboration ofthe ‘Wieland Fabel’: in the first, the legendary smith escapes from the island with the help of aflying female being (possibly using her magical ring); in the second, under the influence of theDaedalus-Icarus story, a more rationalistic variant developed, in which the smith escapes using acoat of feathers made with the help of a male assistant (his brother Egill).

Of the two explanations, the first — involving Vo3 lundr’s elvish nature — is the more65

plausible, in which case the reason he has not flown away before is that he is waiting until he cancomplete his revenge. The latter explanation carries the unlikely implication that of the sevenhundred rings owned/made by Vo3 lundr (the number is specified in st. 7, 7), only this one —stolen by the king’s men — could bestow the gift of flying, and that its maker, the smith, wasincapable of forging another.

King’s sons and the rape of his daughter. Hearing this, the King bitterly admits hisimpotence, acknowledging that neither his horsemen nor his archers can reachVo3 lundr in the sky. At this Vo3 lundr, laughing again in triumph, flies from thescene, which closes on a restrained, tragic dialogue between the King and hisdaughter who, upon her father’s request, admits to having lain with Vo3 lundr, butclaims innocence and helplessness in the event.

Again, Vo3lundarkviða is rather enigmatic regarding the smith’s escape flight,forgoing mention of practical details such as wings or feather coats. Ruling out thepossibility of lost verse, this silence might suggest that Vo3 lundr is able to fly eitherthrough his inherent powers as ‘prince of the elves’ (álfa ljóði, st. 11, 3; vísi álfa, sts14, 4 and 32, 2) or through magic (possibly via the ring Bo3ðvildr brings to him63

to have it repaired, which once belonged to his swan wife). Both hypotheses64

seem to me unlikely, a better explanation being the fact that the story was widely65

known (Schneider 1934, II, 2, 74–75) combined with the aforementionedellyptical style common to Eddic poetry.

Velent: An Experiment in Flight

To investigate the instruments and methods of the flight of supernatural beingsas they are portrayed in written sources, it seems useful to turn now to the OldNorse prose version of the Vo3 lundr legend, where the protagonist’s escape is made

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The quotation is in normalized spelling and with punctuation.66

In the later Old Swedish version of the saga it is further specified that Vo3 lundr made67

himself ‘twe stora winga’ (two big wings) (Hyltén-Cavallius 1850–54, 55).

MSS AM 178 (A) and AM 177 (B) have only the name of one bird, gjóðr (a kind of falcon).68

possible by the construction of a flying apparatus whose assembling is describedin some detail.

In chs 130–33 of the composite Þiðreks saga af Bern (Bertelsen 1905–11, I,125–29; Haymes 1988, 53–54), which belong to the section known as Velents þáttr,we find a new conception of flight as well as a new word connected with it. Flightis no longer achieved by a magic ritual surrounding a feather garment and imply-ing some degree of transformation into a bird, but rather involves human art ortechne and observation of natural phenomena. There is a great chasm of under-standing between the Eddic Vo3 lundr — in his tragic isolation, fierceness, anddetermination — and the Velent-character in Þiðreks saga. The latter is the typicalþáttr-hero, who rises from low status or unfortunate youth to become a successfuland respected member of society through confidence, enterprise, and wit. Thisdramatic change in the philosopy, psychology, and behaviour of the protagonistalso has consequences for the aspects of the Vo3 lundr story relevant to this inquiry.

First, there are revealing linguistic details: the use of the non-traditional wordfjaðrhamr, indicating a generic coat of feathers, and of the term flygil (flyingapparatus). Second, the saga states that Velent asked his brother Egill to collectfeathers from a variety of birds, so that the coat of feathers is no longer specificallyan eagle-garment or falcon-garment. This obscures the traditional shamanic im-plication of a temporary transformation into a particular symbolic bird. Instead,attention is directed to the practical details of the construction and mechanismof the flying apparatus. Indeed, as it turns out, assistance is required to put it on,and the mechanics of flight presuppose careful observation of the natural flight ofbirds and practice based on imitation. Egill, who is unaware of the physical lawsgoverning flight and is inexperienced, succeeds in taking off, but fails to landsafely; Velent, who studies and experiments, flies successfully.

In order to evaluate the nature and origin of these changes in the part of the taleconcerning Velent, it may be useful to quote the beginning of ch. 130 (77) in full:66

Þat er eitt sinn, at Velent biðr Egil bróður sinn fá sér allar fjaðrar, bæði stórar ok smár, oksegir at hann vill gera sér einn flygil. Egill ferr í skóg ok veiðir alls kyns fugla ok fær Velent.Nú gerir Velent einn flygil, en þá er gerr var, þá er því líkast sem fjaðrhamr væri fleginn67

af gríp eða af gambr eða af þeim fugl, er strúz heitir. (Bertelsen 1905–10, I, 125)68

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This conclusion is in accordance with the general opinion that Þiðreks saga drew on Low69

German sources.

Jan de Vries offers other examples in support of this view (1951, 66–71).70

Of the three bird names, Old Norse gambr (more frequently spelt gammr), is the best71

attested; it is probably a loan from Middle High German gampilun/gabilun (animal resemblinga dragon) < Romance — cf. Spanish gavilan (sparrow-hawk). Grípr is from Middle Low Germangrip (< Middle Latin gryphus < Greek ‘malignant fabulous creature with bird-like shape’ <Hebrew kerub ‘winged angel on the altar’) and is only attested, elsewhere, in the learned metricallists known as þulur (Skj, BII, 677: Fugla heiti, IV, xx, 1,1), where it opens the list of birds, coupledwith gammr. The bird strúz, on the other hand, does not occur in the list or anywhere else. In thePhysiologus tradition the ostrich is equated with a vulture; in the Dycta Chrisostomi (on whichthe German Physiologi are based) the ostrich is always included; the vulture, on the other hand,is not mentioned in the Germanic Bestiaries, but only in the Latin ones, for example those writtenin England. In the anonymous Cosmographia (possibly of the late seventh century), the learnedprotagonist, Aethicus Ister, mentions a disappointing visit to Mount Caucasus, when he wasprevented from visiting the region by fierce and implacable guardians: these were dragons, snakes,ants, lizards, ostriches, and griffins (which are quoted side by side; Wuttke 1853, VI, cv, 79).

(One time Velent asked his brother Egill to collect all the feathers he could, both largeand small, telling him that he wanted to make a flying apparatus. Egill went into theforest and caught birds of all kinds and brought them to Velent. Now Velent made aflying apparatus, and when it was finished it was almost as if it were the coat of feathersflayed from a griffin or a vulture or from the bird which is called an ostrich.)

Three linguistic elements in this passage suggest to me that the Old Norseredactor was working from a Low German source, which was at least partly inverse. One is the presence of the hapax legomenon flygil (flying apparatus) —69 70

compare Middle Low German and Middle Low Dutch vlogel (wings) — whichhas evidently been inherited from the source and was probably employed to rhymewith the name of Velent’s brother and assistant, Egill. Another indication of thepoetic form of the source is the rhyme between fjaðrar and stórar ok smár, in theopening sentence of the chapter, presumably borrowed from the German model.The three bird names grípr (griffin), gambr (vulture), and strúz (ostrich) alsospeak in favour of a loan, since they are scarcely ever found in Old Norse literatureand were known mainly from their inclusion in late bestiaries and encyclopedicor geographic works.71

The final dialogue between King Niðungr and Velent, when the smith flies tothe King’s court, also offers new and interesting elements. In Vo3lundarkviða, theKing’s whole concern is for his sons’ fate: he expresses no sense of wonder orcuriosity at the sight of the smith ‘hovering against the clouds on high’ (st. 37,9–10), only impotence due to the inability to get revenge, since Vo3 lundr hovers

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The serving woman has been abducted from a castle, along with the lord of the castle’s72

daughter, by a monstrous giant. After the damsel has suffered violence at the hands of the giant,she dies of grief. Her old servant remains a prisoner and, while the giant is away from their camp,laments the loss of the child she has cared for.

out of reach. But in Þiðreks saga the King addresses the flying smith with a mixtureof perplexity and amazement at the strange sight of a flying human being in afeather coat (ch. 133 [78]):

Nú flýgr Velent á inn hæsta turn í kongungsgarði [. . .]. En þá er hann [konungr] sáVelent, þá mælti hann: ‘Ertu nú fugl, Velent? Mo3rg undr gerir þú af þér.’ Þá mælti Velent:‘Herra, nú em ek fugl, ok nú em ek maðr, ok brott ætlum ek nú, ok aldrigi skaltu fá mittvald siðan aldrigi, lifir þú svá lengi.’ (Bertelsen 1905–10, I, 128–29)

(Then Velent flew to the highest tower in the king’s castle. When he [the king] sawVelent, he said: ‘Are you now a bird, Velent? You accomplish many wonders.’ Velentspoke to him: ‘Sir, now I am a bird, and now I am a man, and I intend to go away, and youshall never again have power over me, however long you may live.’)

Niðungr’s remarks here are reminiscent of those of an elderly servant in Laya-mon’s Brut (c. 1225) who is a prisoner atop the hill known as ‘Mont Saint Michel’and, in her great distress, fails to recognize one of King Arthur’s knights, who72

has come in armour to rescue her. She addresses him with the weird question:‘“Whæt ært þu fære whit, eært þu angel eært cnih[t]. / beoð þine feðer-heomenihaneked mid golden?”’ (London, British Library, MS Cotton Caligula A. ix, lines12911–12; Brook and Leslie 1963–78, II, 676) (‘What are you, fair creature? Areyou an angel or are you a knight? / Are your wings woven with gold?’). The oldwoman doubts her own eyes and is tempted to think that St Michael himself hascome to free her, having previously prayed to the protector of the hill where sheis held captive. Also, the story has specified that the knight has a shield inlaid withgold on his back, perhaps creating a shining halo which the woman is all too keento interpret as an angelic garment. The word used here, feðer-heomen, can refer,in Middle English, either to a feather coat or to the wings of a bird, but may alsobe used, like its Old Norse equivalent fjaðrhamr, to refer to a ‘flying apparatus’made of feathers. In Layamon’s Brut it is also used in the latter sense, in the storyof King Bladud, which will be discussed in full below: ‘his feðer-home he [Bladud]dude him on & he his f[l]uht þer bigon’ (line 1438; Brook and Leslie 1963–78,I, 74) (he put on his coat of feathers and then began his flight).

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The story of Daedalus, who used wax to craft wings out of feathers in order to escape from73

the labyrinth in Crete, is recounted in Ovid, Metamorphoses VIII, 188–95. According to somecritics, Vo3 lundr’s character may have been influenced by the story of this renowned Greek artifex.

Simon Magus is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles 8. 5–25 and in the early ecclesias-74

tical writings, where he is described as persisting in false views and practising magical arts. He istherefore labelled as ‘the father of all heresies’.

Simon’s flight and fall are depicted in two sculptured capitals of the twelfth century in the75

cathedral of St Lazar in Autun (Saone-et-Loire). In one, he lifts himself up flapping two pairs ofwings, the idea of movement being conveyed by his bent legs and spread arms; in the other, he fallsheadlong — in a perfectly vertical posture, including the four wings — with his mouth wide openin terror (both capitals are reproduced in the Preface of Heintz 1997). This is a rare iconography,since portrayals of Simon’s flight customarily show him sustained by devils: see, for example, thesculpture on the twelfth-century main doorway of Santa Maria de Ripoll, in the province ofGirona, Catalunia, where Simon is portrayed without wings; see also an illuminated initial D fromabout the 1170s (from Hildesheim; Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum), and the scenecarved on the top of a ninth-century granite high cross at Castledermont, Kildare. Ferreiro, whohas investigated the presence of Simon Magus’s aerial flight in Irish sources and iconography, does

Mechanical Flight in Medieval English Sources

There is a third kind of flight, in addition to mythological flight and legendaryescape flight such as we find in the Vo3 lundr and Daedalus stories. Undertaken73

by human beings, it is purely mechanical and usually motivated either by a quasi-scientific, non-instrumental interest in the possibilities of human flight or by adesire for power, and always ends in disaster. Velent’s successful flight in Þiðrekssaga seems to represent a transitional stage between the ease with which super-natural beings can fly and the disastrous attempts at mechanical flight made byhuman magicians and would-be scientists.

One early account, widely known in the West, of doomed human flight madepossible by black magic — that is, through the evocation of devilish spirits — isembedded in the apocryphal Acta Petri and in the Passio Petri et Pauli (Lipsiusand Bonnet 1891–1903, 45–103 and 119–77; James 1924, 300–36). The contextis a struggle between the apostles Peter and Paul and Simon Magus in Rome.74

Simon had sought to win the favour of the Emperor Nero by boasting that hismagic arts could allow him to fly and ascend into the heavens. Attempting todemonstrate these powers to the Emperor and the Roman populace, he leapt offa rock on the Capitoline Hill and began to fly. But through the prayers of the twoapostles, the demons sustaining Simon disappeared, with the result that he fell,broke his limbs, and in time died miserably. The story was certainly circulating75

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not mention the detail of the wings, which therefore seem to be an Ælfrician peculiarity (Ferreiro2001). In Hippolytus of Rome’s Philosophoumena (VI, vii–xx), a different account of Simon’sdemise is related: having lost his followers in Rome due to Peter and Paul’s attacks, he returns tohis home at Gitta (in Samaritania), where he boasts he can remain buried in a grave for three daysand emerge alive. The promised resurrection does not take place, and he dies in the attempt.

The episode is also retold in one of the Blickling Homilies (Spel be Petrus & Paulus; Morris76

1874–80, 170–93, at 186–89) and in the Irish collection of homilies Leabhar Breac (Atkinson1887, 86–95 and 329–39). Ferreiro explains the ‘introduction, proliferation, and adaptation’ ofthe apocryphal flight of Simon Magus as the result of close contacts between the Irish and Anglo-Saxon churches and the Continental church from the fifth to the seventh centuries (2001, 112).

Godden, in his Commentary, does not mention pseudo-Abdias as a source for this passage77

of the homily (Godden 2000, 209–29).

In the Irish tradition, Simon Magus is said to have built, together with his disciple in magic78

arts Mug Ruith, a mechanical flying device (a rolling wheel). A similar flying apparatus ismentioned in Cyril of Alexandria’s Cathechesis (Ferreiro 2001, 122).

in England by c. 1000, thanks to Ælfric’s Passio Petri et Pauli (Clemoes 1997,388–99). Ælfric follows the version of Pseudo-Abdias (of the sixth–seventh76

century; ch. 18), which is the only source of this story to specify that when Simonwas abandoned by the demons, the rhythm of his mechanical wings faltered. The77

English homelist leaves out the devils’active participation, but retains the detailof artificial wings, saying that Simon ‘mid deoflicum fiþerhaman fleon wolde’(Clemoes 1997, 397) (wanted to fly on a devilish coat of feathers [or: wings]),thus concentrating the reproach on the devil-inspired technology. The Irish78

‘Mug Ruith’ legendary cycle contains another interesting link between SimonMagus and flight in bird disguise or shape. The druid Mog Ruith, who had learntthe magic arts during an apprenticeship with Simon Magus, was said to be able tofly into the air by wearing a bird’s head and the skin of a bull (Müller-Lisowski1923). Also, in the Táin bó Cúailnge (Cattle Raid of Cooley), Cú Chulainn’scharioteer is given by his master, before battle, a coat described as ‘black as raven’sfeathers’ which Simon Magus had originally made for Darius, king of the Romans(O’Rahilly 1976, 185).

Perhaps the earliest recorded attempt by a human in the West to imitate theflight of birds simply out of a sense of curiosity and experimental zeal — made‘immanem audaciam prima juventute conatus’ (with enormous bravery in theblush of youth) — was by an eleventh-century English monk called Eilmerus, the‘flying monk’, as recorded by William of Malmesbury in his De gestis regumAnglorum (c. 1135):

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In Scotland, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, an enterprising and ingenious man79

of Italian origin, called John Damian, won fame at the court of King James IV. It is said that once,in order to reach France quickly, he attempted to fly with wings made of feathers, fell to theground and broke his leg (Dunbar’s satire against this character is discussed below, at note 90).Bishop Leslie, his contemporary, comments ironically on the episode, reporting that Damian putthe blame of the failure on the fact that ‘thair was sum hen fedderis in the wingis, quhilk yarnitand covet the mydding and not the skyis’ (there were some hen feathers in the wings whichyearned for and coveted the mud, not the sky; this quotation, from Historie of Scotland, is fromMackenzie 1932, 213).

On Geoffrey of Monmouth ‘historiographer’, see Stanley (2002, 3–24).80

[. . .] nam pennas manibus et pedibus haud scio qua innexuerat arte, ut Daedali morevolaret, fabulam pro vero amplexus, collectaque e summo turris aura, spatio stadii et plusvolavit; sed venti et turbinis violentia, simul et temerarii facti conscientia, tremulus cecidit,perpetuo post haec debilis, et crura effractus. Ipse ferebat causam ruinae quod caudam inposteriori parte oblitus fuerit. (Stubbs 1887–89, I, 276–77)

([. . .] he used some skill to weave feathers into hands and feet so that he could fly likeDaedalus, thus treating the fable as if it were true. Then he took air from the top of atower and flew to the height of a stadium, but he began to tremble because of the violenceof the wind and turbulence, and also because he was aware of the rashness of his attempt.He fell, broke his legs and was permanently disabled, and he said the cause of his disasterwas that he had forgotten to put a tail at his rear end.)79

It may not be accidental that in the same period another historiographer, Geoffreyof Monmouth, also recounts the failed attempt at flying of the legendary King80

Bladud — a descendant of Brutus, the fabulous Trojan founder of Britain’s firstkingdom — in ch. 30 of his Historia regum Britanniae:

Hic admodum ingeniosus homo fuit docuitque nigromantiam per regnum Britannie. Necprestigia facere quieuit donec paratis sibi alis ire per summitatem aeris temptauitceciditque super templum Apollinis infra urbem Trinouantum in multa frusta contritus.(Griscom 1929, 262)

(Bladud was a most ingenious man who encouraged necromancy throughout the king-dom of Britain. He pressed on with his experiments and finally constructed a pair ofwings for himself and tried to fly through the upper air. He came down on top of theTemple of Apollo in the town of Trinovantum and was dashed into countless fragments.)(Thorpe 1966, 81)

Geoffrey’s popular Historia became a source for several other historiographers,including Wace, who composed his Roman de Brut (c. 1155) in Anglo-Norman.His account of King Bladud’s attempt to fly, unlike Geoffrey’s, does not explicitlycondemn the attempt as ‘necromancy’. Instead, it presents it as a consequence of

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Lines 1643–54: ‘Bladud mainte merveille ovra, / En tels choses se delita: / Co fu Bladud81

ki volt voler / Pur faire plus de sei parler / Co se vanta qu’il volereit / E a Londres sun volprendereit. / Eles fist si s’apareilla / Voler vout e voler quida. / Mais il avint a male fin, / Kar desurle temple Apolin / Prist un tel quaz que tut quassa, / Issi folement trespassa’ (Bladud created manymarvellous things / and took delight in them. / It was he who wanted to fly, / in order to be moretalked about. / He boasted he would fly, / and would begin his flight in London. / He made wingsand put them on, / wanting and intending to fly. / But he came to a bad end, / because on the topof the temple of Apollo / he had such a fall that he broke every bone in his body / and thus, in hisrashness, died) (Weiss 1999, 42–43).

Brook and Leslie (1963–78, I, 74) (MS Caligula): He makede his feðerhome; & þaruore82

he hæfde muchel scome ./ To Lunden he ferde; mid muchelen his folke. / his feðer-home he dudehim on; & he his f[1]uht þer bigon. / Mid wi3eful his fluhte. tæih him to þon lufte / he ferdeswiðe heh3e; þere weolcne he wes swiðe nih. / Þe wind him com on wiðere; weoðeleden hisfluhtes. /brecon þa strenges; þe he mid strahte. / & he feol to folde; þe king wes feie./ vppen arestouwe; þe i Lundene stod. / Appollones temple; þe wes þe/ tir-fulle Feond. (He made his coatof feathers, for which he had much shame. / He went to London with many of his men. / He puthis coat of feathers on and there he began his flight. / With his ingenious flight he drew himselfup into the air. / He went very high, he was very near to the sky. / The wind came fiercely againsthim. His flights became unsteady, / his ropes, with which he had gained his range, broke / and hefell to the ground. The king was doomed to die / [falling] upon a [hallowed] place that stood inLondon, / Apollo’s [Apollin’s?] temple, / he who was the mighty enemy). There is no explicitcondemnation here, though the general tone is of the King’s arrogance, and the fact that he fallson the temple of Apollo/Apollin, who is identified as a fiend, suggests an attitude similar to thatof Geoffrey of Monmouth. Stanley (2002, 22–23) speculates on the possible identification ofApollo/Apollin with Apollyon, the angel of the bottomless depth in Apocalypse 9. 11.

Attested from the late twelfth century.83

the King’s wondrous skill and of his desire for fame. The story of Bladud’s flight81

is also retold — in a fuller form than in its source — in Layamon’s Brut (at lines1436–45). The term used here for Bladud’s ‘flying apparatus’ is feðerhome, which82

does not correspond exactly to the pennae and eles of the Latin and Frenchsources, since the Old English for ‘wing’ is fiðere, pl. fiðru/fiðera (also feðre/feðra,from feðer ‘feather’) which was to be replaced in Middle English by weng/winge,83

borrowed from Old Norse vængr (a word which occurs elsewhere in Layamon).An early fourteenth-century retelling of the story of Bladud’s unfortunate

flight appears in the Chronicle traditionally ascribed to Robert of Gloucester,which uses a new word for ‘wings’ (wengen) and introduces a third party as themaker of the ‘flying apparatus’: ‘[Bladud] let him makie wengen an hei vor to fle([Bladud] had wings made for him so that he could fly on high) (line 671; Wright1887, I, 49). In three later manuscripts of the Chronicle (MSS abg, of the fifteenth

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On the date and provenance of the manuscripts, see Wright (1887, I, xliii–xliv).84

Breta so3gur is a free translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae (of85

the mid-twelfth century); Alexanderssaga is derived from Walter of Châtillon’s Alexandreis(written c. 1180). From this point on the word fjaðrhamr is consistently used rather than the olderand varied compounds of the ‘falcon-coat’/‘eagle-coat’ kind.

century), this episode is recast again (lines 671–75), and the line referring to the84

flight reads: ‘& þer he nom his feþerhome & heng him faste aboute’ (and there[London] he took his coat of feathers and hung it tight around him; Wright 1887,II, Appendix E, lines 3–8, at 782). Here we see the persistence of the image of the‘coat of feathers’ in the context of attempts to imitate the flight of birds, eventhough the vocabulary continues to evolve — a few lines after the passage quotedwe find the word gyn, of Romance origin (Old French engine) replacing feþerhomeof Old English origin. The story evolves as well: the description of theunsuccessful flight, for instance, shows a new interest in atmospheric factors andthe dangers of real flight:

& þer hi bigan his flight & fley him swiþe an heyup bi þe lofte fer and þe wolkne was wel ney;þe wynd com mid stormes þo weþelede his feþeres;þe stringes þat helde þat gyn for þe grete wederesto bersten and þe king adoun fel opon þe rofof appolines temple so þat he alto drof. (Wright 1887, II, 782)

(And there he began his flight and flew very highup in the air, and the sky was very near;then the wind came in storms, so that his wings weakenedand the ropes that held the apparatus, on account of the great tempests,burst, and the king fell down on the roofof the temple of Apollo, and was shattered to pieces.)

Persistence of the ‘fjaðrhamr Motif’ in Old Norse Prose Writings andBeyond

There is a similar continuity in the linguistic description of flying mechanisms ascoats of feathers in two thirteenth-century Old Norse learned sagas — the anony-mous Breta so3gur and Brandr Jónsson’s Alexanderssaga — that consistently em-ploy the word fjaðrhamr to render the word pennae of their Latin sources. In the85

Bladud episode included in Breta so3gur ch. 12, we find both the term fjaðrhamr

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and a striking agreement with the Middle English Chronicle, in that Bladuð hashis coat of feathers made for him instead of making it himself:

Bladuð [. . .] var [. . .] mjo3k fjo3 lkunnigr [. . .]. En er hann hafði xx vetr konungr verit þá léthann gera sér fjaðrham ok villdi hann fljúga ok sjá yfir ríki sítt. (Eiríkur Jónsson andFinnur Jónsson 1892–96, 248)

(Bladuð [. . .] was [. . .] very expert in magic arts [. . .]. When he had reigned for twentyyears, he had a coat of feathers made for him: he wanted to fly and overlook hiskingdom.)

Given that Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wace, and Layamon all portray Bladud con-structing his own flying apparatus, it seems plausible that the version shared byRobert of Gloucester’s Chronicle and Breta so3gur, in which a famous and craftymagician has a coat of feathers of his own design made for him by another, mayresult from both having independently misunderstood the Latin ‘paratis sibi alis’as ‘after obtaining wings (from others)’. It is alternatively possible, though it seemsless likely, that they may derive this element from one of the many versions ofGeoffrey of Monmouth’s work.

In Alexanders saga, the word fjaðrhamr occurs twice, both times in the contextof a personification flying in a feather coat on a distant errand. In the first in-stance, it is Sompnus (Sleep): ‘[Sompnus] tekr nú fjaðrham er hann átti ok bindrá sik, flýgr siðan leiðar sinnar’ (Finnur Jónsson 1925, 70, lines 22–24) ([Sleep]then took the coat of feathers which he owned, tied it onto himself and then wenthis way flying). This corresponds to the following passage in the Alexandreis: ‘ille[Sompnus] [. . .] excutiens madidas libravit in aere pennas’ (he [Sleep] liftedhimself into the air by flapping his wet wings) (Alexandreis IV, line 442; Müldener1863, 94). The second occurrence of fjaðrhamr in Alexanders saga concernsProditio (Cunning): ‘Ok nú tekr Vélen sér fjaðrham ok flýgr’ (Finnur Jónsson1925, 148, line 25) (And now Vélen [Treachery] puts on her coat of feathers andflies). The corresponding passage for this is as follows: ‘Proditio [. . .] per aerapennis / vecta’ (Alexandreis X, lines 161–62; Müldener 1863, 227) (Proditio[came to her grandson’s place in Sicily] transported in the air by her wings). Itwould seem that Brandr’s phrasing in these passages, which does not follow closelythe Latin original, may have been influenced by a memory of stories aboutVo3 lundr/Velent’s flight by means of a coat of feathers and perhaps also by thetheme of treachery in the story of the smith, which might also explain hisrendering of the Latin Proditio as Vélen.

In even more recent times, the motif of the coat of feathers and the use offjaðrhamr persisted in the North within a different cultural milieu, as can be seenin a number of orally collected ballads. In particular, in the Faroese Riddarin

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This ballad was collected in the early nineteenth century by V. U. Hammershambs in86

Vágur. A summary is found in McKinnell (2005, 244).

See my discussion of this in Ruggerini (2001, 39–43).87

Frú Medallín, the king’s daughter, whose mother died giving birth to her, had many88

enemies. One night a grave opened and a dead man took her down into it and begot a son withher. Then finding herself outside the grave, on the following morning, the king’s men accused herof sorcery. With the king’s consent, they set out to burn her on a pyre, but the earth held her fast.God then told St Michael to take his feather coat, fly to Klaemint’s grave, and tell the knight thathis beloved is about to be burned. Hearing this, Sir Klaemint rode to the scene, freed FrúMedallín, and told her to return home, to pray for them both, and to bear a son. After this hereturned to his grave.

Klæmint, a feather coat is mentioned in connection with St Michael, who is thus86

equated with a mythological being who must don such a coat in order to fly toanother realm on an errand. This is probably because Michael was sometimesportrayed as a bird in the North-Sea area, as I have discussed elsewhere. In this87

ballad, the archangel plays the role of God’s messenger, sent to warn the pro-tagonist about the impending danger facing the king’s daughter:88

(27) [God] ‘Mikkjal, tak tín fjøðurham,flúgv tær yvir hav,í tann sama kirkjugarð,sum Klæmint lá í grøv.’

(28) Mikkjal tók sín fjøðurham,fleyg sær yvir hav,í tann sama kirkjugarð,sum Klæmint lá í grøv.

(29) ‘Statt upp, riddarin Klæmint,Gud meg higar sendi,Medallín liggur í bálinum,eg vænti, at hon er brend.’ (Grundtvig and others 1941–96, X, 135–36)

((27) [God] ‘Michael, take your coat of feathers,fly over the sea,to the churchyard,where Klæmint lies in his grave.’

(28) Michael took his coat of feathers,flew over the sea,to the churchyard,where Klæmint lay in his grave.

(29) ‘Stand up, sir Klæmint,God sent me here;Medallín lies on the pyre:I expect she is burned.’)

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See Grundtvig (1856, no. 33, 1–13). There are other ballads in which a human being is89

turned into a bird and must afterwards fly — for example, Jomfruen i fugleham (Grundtvig 1856,no. 56, 158–67) — but this is a fairy-tale motif which belongs to the wide category of transforma-tions of human beings into animals, which can be accomplished willingly or suffered, and isfrequently employed in the fornaldarsögur (Buchholz 1968, 57–58); for this reason, it does notconcern the present research.

The begetting of German Gladensvend is closely paralleled in William Dunbar’s satire The90

Birth of Antichrist, which he directed at John Damian, an Italian who had been appointed by KingJames IV to be Abbot of the friary at Tongland (Kirkcudbrightshire) on the strength of a promisethat he would fly. Dunbar dreams that Damian ascends in the form of a griffin and mates witha she-dragon in mid-air, and that their offspring is the Antichrist: ‘He sall ascend as ane horrebblegrephoun; / Him meit sall in the air ane scho dragoun; / Thir terrible monsteris sall togidderthrist / And in the cludis gett the Antechrist / Quhill all the air infeck of thair pusoun’ (lines26–30; Mackenzie 1932, 71). He also dreams of Damian as equipped with eagle wings (line 23)and flying like a falcon (line 25), and says he will be met by Simon Magus, Mahoun (probably thedevil), Merlin, and Janet the widow riding on a broomstick (lines 32–35; Mackenzie 1932, 71).When Damian tried to fly from the walls of Stirling Castle and broke his leg, Dunbar gleefullycelebrated his failure in another poem, The Fenyeit Freir of Tungland (Mackenzie 1932, 67–70).Both poems date from 1507 and attest by their existence to the fact that many stories of flightwere still familiar at the Scottish court of that time.

Another relevant ballad, German Gladensvænd, originates from Denmark. Its89

hero is born of a divine mother and a malignant griffin-shaped flying spirit —indeed he seems to have been conceived in mid-air — and retains some of hisparents’ aptitude for flight. Thus wishing to go to England to woo a lovely90

princess, he asks his mother (here in the role which is traditionally that of Freyja)to lend him her fjaðrhamr: (18) ‘[. . .] “Min kære moder, I låner mig edersfjederham, / me’n jeg flyver bort under ø”’ (‘My dear mother, if you would lendme your feather-coat, / I should fly away to the island [England]’). (20) ‘Han sattesig i sin fjederham, / han fløj alt så trøst’ (He put on his coat of feathers / and flewwith full confidence).

This flight is technically successful, but as he flies homewards, the doomedhero is torn to pieces by a demon vulture. Upon his departure from England, hisbeloved had also donned a coat of feathers: (30) ‘Han [German Gl.] satte sig i sinfjederham, / og så fløj han derfra:/ hun [jumfru Sølverlad] satte sig i en anden, /hun monne fast efter gå’ (He put on his feather coat / and then flew away fromthere: / she put on another one / and hastened to go after him). She goes flying offto look for him, but in the end finds only his right hand on the shore.

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Hart observes that Greek gods rarely possessed wings of their own, whereas wings were91

common among Eastern and Middle-Eastern deities (1988, 95).

Snorri describes in detail Óðinn’s ability to shift appearance and body and to perform92

shamanic transfers in spirit in Heimskringla (Ynglinga saga chs 6–7; Finnur Jónsson 1911, 7):‘Óðinn skipti ho3mum, lá þá búkrinn sem sofinn eða dauðr, en hann var þá fugl eða dýr, fiskr eðaormr, ok fór á einni svipstund á fjárlæg lo3nd at sínum erendum eða annarra manna.’ (Óthin couldshift his appearance. When he did so his body would lie there as if he were asleep or dead; but hehimself, in an instant, in the shape of a bird or animal, a fish or a serpent, went to distant countrieson his or other men’s errands.) (Hollander 1964, 10).

This seems to contradict Loki’s possession of shoes that enable him to run across sky and93

sea (paralleled in classical mythology by Hermes/Mercury), which may be a late rationalizationby Snorri.

Concluding Remarks

Clive Hart, in his book Images of Flight, describes the development in Greek artof the idea of divine flight as slow and progressive; for the longest period of time,sailing or riding remained the customary way to conceive and portray the godsmoving in the sky (1988, 89–94). Even more might this be said of flight among91

the northern gods, considering how much later their myths were recorded thanthose of the Greeks and Romans. Riding on or being pulled on wagons by animalssuch as horses, he-goats, boars, and cats were the common ways for gods andgoddesses to move, when they were not simply ‘travelling’or ‘walking’. In the rareinstances where divine flight is portrayed in northern sources, it involves cunningand a hostility towards giants. Óðinn and Loki fly mainly to enter or escape fromgiantland, though in a possibly later development Óðinn flies to escape from otherdangerous situations (for example, his unfair outwitting of King Heiðrekr).

Of the northern gods, only Óðinn and Loki are shape-shifters and thus capableof flying. Óðinn alone is able to change magically into the shape of a bird (in his92

case, either an eagle or a hawk) and therefore has no use for a ‘coat of feathers’.Loki, on the other hand — although at other times capable of changing form, suchas into a flea, a fly, and a salmon — seems unable to change magically into birdshape. His ability to fly does not derive, as Óðinn’s does, from seiðr; this mayexplain why the sources do not employ the phrase bregða sér í arnarlíki/valslíkiwith regard to him, as they do to Óðinn. Loki is able to fly only by borrowingFreyja’s or Frigg’s falcon guise. Nor is he ever described as ‘donning’ (taka [sér])93

the coat of feathers, an act which denotes some degree of transformation; afterborrowing the feather coat, he simply ‘flies’. In addition, Loki must be coerced tofly, with the one exception of the opening scene of Þórr’s journey to

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Actually, the romantic Swedish poet Tegnér portrays Freyja flying in search of her beloved94

husband Höder in The Lament of Ingeborg, in Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna: ‘Falkvingar tog / Freja engång och kring rymderna drog / sökte i norr och i söder / elskade Höder’ (Freyja once assumedthe wings of a falcon and roaming in the air she looked for her beloved Höder in the north andin the south’; quoted in Näsström 1995, 22).

Snorri calls her drottning [. . .] valshams ‘queen of the falcon form’, Skáldskaparmál ch. 1995

(Faulkes 1998, I, 30, line 11).

After reading a preliminary version of this paper at a one-day Bonn Symposium in honour96

of Hermann Pálsson (Sagnaskemmtan: Historia et Delectatio, 6 May 2005), I had the pleasure ofdiscussing some of the issues raised with an attendee, Herbert Kaiser. In a subsequent writtencommunication, he kindly shared some of his ideas on the subject of flight in Old Norse myth-ology. In particular, he suggested that Freyja’s desire to have her coat of feathers returned afterlending it — which goes contrary to the free-giving nature of vanic deities — reflects the fact thatflight had become, at a later stage of development, a taboo; that it is considered highly desirable,but dangerously connected to irregular states of mind. Temporary flight attained via a coat offeathers might thus stand for a variety of ecstatic techniques and magical knowledge alreadyforgotten or rejected by Snorri’s time and admissible — even for the gods — only under specialcircumstances and with strict limitations. My gratitude goes to Rudolf Simek, organizer of thesymposium, for inviting me and making this and other valuable exchanges possible.

See Heimskringla (Ynglinga saga ch. 4): ‘Dóttir Njarðar var Freyja; hon var blótgyðja; hon97

kendi fyrst með Ásum seið, sem Vo3num var títt.’ (Finnur Jónsson 1911, 6) (Freyja was thedaughter of Njorth. She was the priestess at the sacrifices. It was she who first taught the Æsirmagic such as was practiced among the Vanir) (Hollander 1964, 8).

Geirrøðargarðr, when Loki (having borrowed Frigg’s feather garment) flies forpure enjoyment. That this is a violation of the rules perhaps explains why thepleasant scene concludes with the usual confrontation with giants. The fact thatLoki must ‘legally’ be compelled to fly is supported by the fact that in Þrymskviða,it is Þórr, not Loki, who asks Freyja for the loan of her feather garment, and doesso only when forced into it by the exceptionally serious theft of his hammer.

Northern goddesses do not fly, although two of them, Freyja and Frigg, are94

said to own feather coats that bestow the ability to fly on others (or at least onLoki). This is less attested in the case of Frigg: Snorri is the only source to mentionher possession of such a coat; the only time she lends it out, it is for Loki’s95

frivolous enjoyment. For these reasons, I would suggest that Freyja was originallythe only female deity authentically connected with flight. That only a female deityof the Vanir family can grant the temporary gift of this ability by lending her coatof feathers supports the idea that flying is taboo among gods (as among men), asare other activities in the vanic sphere. Perhaps flying is on a level with the black96

arts, to which only those who practice seiðr have access. Óðinn has been taughtseiðr by Freyja herself, and thus can change into bird shape and fly without97

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In Celtic mythology, many shape-changers are female and, as Green points out, ‘where the98

change was voluntary the most common creatures involved were birds’ (1995, 160). Though itis beyond the scope of this essay, it should be remembered that in folklore, the ability to fly (ona broomstick) is one of the defining features of female witches.

This interpretation has been convincingly supported by McKinnell (2000, 5–6).99

It may be significant that these figures always seem to be female.100

The connection of valkyries to ravens, and to the masters of the slain in battle, Óðinn and101

Freyja, is pointed out by Näsström (1995, 137–39).

Näsström (1995, 149) considers the valkyries as originally in Freyja’s service, at the stage102

when she was a war goddess. Freyja’s role was later reduced due to Óðinn’s expanding role as awarrior god associated with the royal power.

See Green (1995, 41–44); also Ellis Davidson (1964, 65–66), and Donahue (1941, 5–6),103

which argues that the Irish war goddesses and the valkyries are ‘products of a common Celto-Germanic development’ (11–12).

Gulermovich Epstein considers the connection with crows shared by the valkyries and the104

Morrígan as due to a cross cultural link between them (1997, 121–22).

further empowerment. Loki, like Óðinn, is a shape-shifter, but is not allowedaccess to the seiðr ritual bestowing the power of flight — probably because of hisdubious attitude towards and repeated betrayals of the Æsir. That Loki is the onlygod to whom Freyja (and possibly Frigg) lends her coat may have to do with Lokibeing a sex changer. This would lend support to the idea that in Þrymskviða,98

while Þórr merely impersonates Freyja (and therefore cannot use her fjaðrhamrhimself), Loki actually becomes female in order to pose as Þórr’s maiden (and99

therefore can fly).The flight of divine servants on errands, such as that of Óðinn’s valkyrie100

‘wish-maiden’ in Vo3lsunga saga, seems of a lower order of flight — if indeed it isnot to be categorized with the riding of horses or chariots through the air thatGná dismisses in Gylfaginning as not being ‘real flight’. Certainly it is distin-guished from the latter in that the valkyries sometimes appear in bird form. In101

the specific case of Vo3lsunga saga (and also, perhaps, Rígsþula), they assume theform of crows, possibly because their master, Óðinn, is the god of ravens.102

Another likely explanation is that their function as ‘choosers of the slain’ linksthem with carrion birds. Given that Irish battle goddesses sometimes appear in theform of crows or ravens and visit battlefields, prophesying battles, a Celtic103

influence may be responsible for the rare and late portrayal of valkyries as birds.104

In contrast to gods, Old Norse giants seem to possess the gift of flight from thebeginning of time, and always to take on the specific form of eagles. They are

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A less likely possibility is that the giant’s name stems from the belief that the corpses of the105

dead are devoured — presumably in the earth — by giants (since jo3tunn ‘giant’ seems to be derivedfrom the verb eta ‘to eat’); or, relatedly, from the belief that the bodies of the sick are eaten awayby giants, as suggested by runic charms attesting the belief in giants as causers of disease; see, forexample, the eleventh-century charms from Sigtuna and Canterbury (McKinnell and Simek 2004,126–27).

described as ‘arriving in eagle shape’or ‘donning a coat of eagle feathers’ and‘assuming eagle shape’. There are three contexts in which this occurs. In the first,the giant Hræsvelgr (corpse-eater — his name may be a kenning for ‘eagle’)105

takes on eagle shape — without the requirement of an eagle coat, and perhapspermanently — in order to produce the winds. This story may be rooted in theconcept of a gigantic eagle from whose movements the winds originate. In theverse (Vafþrúðnismál 36–37), the giant Hræsvelgr sits at the end of the sky; Snorriemphasizes the movement of the wings and rationalizes the story by linking theorigin of the winds to the giant taking off in flight. The second context in whichgiants shift into eagles is when they fly in order to catch and defeat gods who haveassumed bird form. The third is when they disguise themselves in order to rob orchallenge gods while pretending to be friendly.

The generic word fjaðrhamr is never used with reference to giants — as onewould expect, given the fact that in flying form they are specifically linked toeagles. The word’s appearance in Þrymskviða and its use with reference to Velent’sflight in Velents þáttr seem to mark a departure from understanding and repre-senting divine flight as an act performed by wearing a feather coat of a specific birdtype (for example arnarhamr, valshamr, álptarhamr, krákuhamr, the last possiblya later creation modelled on the traditional compounds) — that is, a departurefrom the archaic and shamanic conception of the experience of flight. In thissense, the story of the successful flight of Velent represents a transition betweenthe stories of mythological flights of gods and giants and those of purely mechan-ical and doomed flights of men, which are relatively simple to comprehend.

Apart from its occurrence in Þrymskviða and Velents þáttr, the word fjaðrhamrappears, in literary contexts, only in translated sagas of the thirteenth century,where it has lost any connection with ancient mythological flight. In Breta so3gur,the ‘coat of feathers’ does not really belong to the flying protagonist (Bladud); noris the power of flight really his attribute. The coat is a mechanical apparatus whichmust be assembled with another’s help (for example, in the case of Velent, hisbrother Egill’s). In Alexanderssaga, the coat of feathers becomes a cliché, themeans necessary for travelling downwards, as to earth from heaven. Eventually,

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See Bailey 1980, 103–16 and plate 29. In the Yorkshire carvings a man (presumably106

Weland) wears tied-on wings, whereas the corresponding figure on the Ardre stone (on the islandof Gotland, dated c. 800) is in bird form (McKinnell 2001, 335).

Douglas Jeffrey has revised the English form of this essay, with all the desirable insight,107

patience, and cheerfulness.

the significance of the feather coat fades to the point that it loses its raison d’être.This is illustrated in Riddarin Klæmint, when the archangel Michael must don afeather coat when sent on an errand by God.

Accepting the assumption that Þrymskviða — which in its present form seemsto date from a time when Norse was no longer spoken in England — has anEnglish substratum of the late Old English period, we might reasonably surmisethat it is of English origin (or, alternatively, the product of a northern poet whohad been trained or active for some time within an Anglo-Scandinavian culture).Adding to this the fact that the idea of a fjaðrhamr as something a man could tieonto himself clearly existed in the Danelaw by the tenth century — as seen fromthe Weland figure on the Leeds Cross and other similar monuments in thatarea — we may conclude that the introduction of the word fjaðrhamr in the106

preserved flight-episodes of Þrymskviða, Velents þáttr, Breta so3gur, and Alexanders-saga is not accidental, but due to influence from England or (considering thatVelents þáttr is derived from Low German sources) from both England andNorthern Germany.107

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KATERN 9


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tales of flight in old norse and medieval english texts

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