Thursday, July 28, 2016

THE TERRIBLE ONE'S HORSE: CHAPTER 27



REFLECTIONS ON VIGRID/OSKOPNIR AND IDAVOLL: THE NORSE WORLD DURING AND AFTER RAGNAROK

In the Old Norse poem “Voluspa”, which tells of the Ragnarok or Doom of the Powers that is, essentially, the end of the world, we learn that the gods reside (strophe 7) at a place called Idavoll.  Later, following the universal destruction of the last battle, gods and men reappear in a new Idavoll (strophe 57), itself situated somewhere on a new earth that rises out of the sea.

At first Idavoll – which has been subject to various etymologies – would appear to be merely a mythological construct.  However, as Rudolf Simek mentions in his Dictionary of Northern Mythology, Idavoll would appear to correspond perfectly to Idisiaviso, the name of a historical battle site located somewhere between Hameln and Minden on the Weser River in Germany.  This was the place were the famous Cheruscan chieftain Arminius suffered a major defeat when fighting the Roman army under Germanicus.  This defeat was part of Germanicus’s avenging of Arminius’s annihilation of the three Roman legions of Varus in the Teutoburg Forest (now believed to be in the vicinity of Kalkriese). 

The identification of Idavoll with Idisiaviso reminds us very much of the Christian notion that a New Jerusalem would descend from the heavens onto the mountain of Zion after this faith’s eschatological vision unfolds.  According to the Revelation of St. John, part of the Christian world destruction involves a battle at Armageddon, i.e. Har Meggido, a real city that had been the site of some major battles in the Old Testament.  Because the place was well-known to Biblical audiences as a center of strife, it was symbolically selected as the location of the final conflict between the forces of good and evil.

Is there an Armageddon in the Old Norse eschatology?  Well, as a matter of fact, yes, there is: it is called variously the plain of Vigrid or the island of Oskopnir.  But do either or both of these battlefields represent an actual real-world location, as is the case with Armageddon in the Christian tradition?  Or are they merely mythological constructs, as Idavoll was once thought to be?

Oskopnir is not a real place-name.  Instead, it would appear to be a result of learned invention or even philosophical speculation.  The -nir of this word is a fairly standard Old Icelandic suffix.  Oskop- has been related, properly I think, to Old Icelandic word meaning something like “unmade”.  Various translators of the Eddas have suggested as much, although I think they make a mistake is describing the place itself as that which is unmade, unshapen, uncreated, etc.  Instead, we should see in the word something akin to “[the place of] unmaking”.  In other words, Oskopnir is the antithesis of Creation, the place where the world is, literally, unmade during the paroxysms that attend the final battle.  Oskopnir is referred to as an island most likely because the Norse had a fondness for the holmgangr or “island-going”, a description of the sacred and legal procedure to be followed during a duel. And Surt’s presence on the island may point to an active volcanic island.   It may be that the plain Vigrid is on the island or we may be dealing with two separate strains of eschatological development.  In one, the battle was on an island and in another, it was on a plain.

Are we any better off with Vigrid in the sense of finding a real-world location for the last battle?  First, the name itself is not without its difficulties.  You will find it in Simek and Orchard, respectively, with the sense of “place on which battle surges” or “battle-surge”.  Through a private communication with Professor Doctor Doctor Simek, I’ve learned that the ‘surge’ definition is an extrapolation from ridr, ‘to sway, swing’ (see both the Cleasby-Vigfusson and Zoega Old Icelandic dictionaries).  More literally, Simek would render Vigridr as ‘a plain where the battle sways back and forth’.   Orchard took his “surge” definition from Simek.

Another problem with Vigrid is the plain’s size.  We are told the plain stretches 100 leagues (read ‘120’ for the German long-hundred) in every direction.  This is 360 miles in every direction, making for a total of 129,600 square miles or 335,662 square kilometers.  So Vigrid is a huge plain, and its scale would once again point to this place as a mythological construct.  Of course, such a detail could be a later accretion to the tradition.

So, is Vigrid, like Oskopnir, merely an abstraction or mythological construct?  Or can it be localized in the real world?

On the location of Vigrid, we really only have one vague but important clue.  “Lokasenna” 42 tells us that “Muspell’s sons ride over/above Myrkvid” on their way to the Ragnarok battle.  This is at least confirmation that the battle does NOT take place in the south or even in the more civilized Roman lands.  While the precise location of Myrkwood or the Dark Wood is itself somewhat ambiguous in the Norse sources, in all likelihood its origin should be sought in the German Schwarzwald or Black Forest.  Another option is to identify the Myrkvid with the ancient Hercynia Silva.  These great expanses of primeval forest lay north of the Roman road from the Rhineland to the Danube and as such were seen as separating Germania from the regions to the south. Surt and his sons belonged to the distant south. Thus their riding over/above Myrkvid   tells us that the Norse envisioned Vigrid as lying in the north, somewhere above this vast boundary forest.

I do believe I have found a candidate for Vigrid – and it is not far from the Idavoll/Idisiaviso on the Weser between Minden and Hameln. A systematic search of German place-names has revealed only one which can possibly conform to Vigrid: Wickriede in Nordrhein-Westfalen, the name of a right-hand tributary of the Grose Aue, itself a tributary of the Weser. I've consulted with German place-name expert Professor Doctor Jurgen Udolph and he kindly sent along the following notes on Wickriede, which can best be etymologized as 'Elm Stream':

"Wickriede

Flussname, rechts zur Aue (Warme Aue Weser) - U. Borchers, Das Flußgebiet der Unterweser und der mittleren Weser (= Hydronymia Germaniae A, Lfg. 18), Stuttgart 2005, S. 147

1771 Wickriede

auch Ortsname Wickriede – östlich Espelkamp, nordwestl. Minden

Diskutiert bei:

F. Witt, Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Flußnamen Nordwestdeutschlands, Phil. Diss. Kiel 1912, S. 115, 187: sieht im ersten Teil wīk „Flecken, Siedlung, Ort“.

J. Udolph, Namenkundliche Studien zum Germanenproblem, Berlin - New York 1994, S. 387:

Hierher gehören auch eine im 14.Jh. als Ulenride erwähnte Siedlung bei Wallen  und 1682 Volriede, in Buchholz , weiterhin Warbsriethe, FlurN. bei Gr. Gusborn ; Waschelriede , FlurN. bei Neustadt/Rbge. ; Weiche Riehe und Wiewerrie, FlurN. bei Raddingsdorf; Wecken Riehn, FlurN. bei Selmsdorf ; Wickriede, auch Kl. Wickriede, GNN. bei Stolzenau ; Wiekriede bei Hille (Hunte) ; Winkel-Riede, Zufluß z. Lahrer B. bei Vechta .

Riede

forthcoming: J. Udolph, Where did the „English“ come from? The colonisation of England by Germanic tribes on the basis of place-names. In: International Conference on Historical Language and Literacy in the North Sea Area, Stavanger 2009.

Extract:

5.         German Riede “mud, mush, dirt, soil”

The German water-term Riede, which is relatively frequent in the area along the North Sea, has often been examined in terms of its distribution and etymology. Its Low German equivalent is ride, rîde, rien “natural watercourse, small river, rivulet in the mudflat”; the Middle Low German term is rîde, rîe, rîge (ride, rije, rige) “brook, small river, rift”. In Old Saxon it is ritha, rithe “watercourse, small river”; Frisian riede “canal, small river in the mudflat”, ryt, ryd(e) “brede greppel”, North Frisian rîde, riet; Old Frisian reed “small river” and rîth “brook”; Dutch rijt “water-loop”, Middle Dutch rijt, Old Low Franconian rîth “brook”.

Very early the word was encountered in English: it is found in Old English rīð, rīðe, rīðig “small river”, rīðe “brook, drawn-out narrow lowland, old streambed”, English rithe, ride “small river, originated by rain, small stream”, rigatt “a small channel from a stream made by rain” (cf. Udolph 1994: 377–394).

In Germany, numerous examples of place-names with this element can be found. Some of them belong to younger strata and are thus not very significant for the present investigation, which focuses on the older strata: Achelriede, Aschriehe, Bargeriede, Bassriede, Bickenriede, Bleckriede, Bollriede, Borgriede, Botterriede, Brandriehe, Bruchriede, Brunriehe, Diekriede, Eilenriede, Ellerige, Jachelriede, Janrieden, Middel Rie (Middels Rie), Exeriede, Feldriede, Feldriede, Flehmanns Rieh, Flämischen Rüe, Weeckenlands Rüe, Flissenriede, Fluthriede, Fohlenrien, Fuhlenrüe, Fuldenriede, Fuhle Riede, Die Große Riede, Grotrüh, Haferriede, Hauenriede, Holtride and many more.

Examples that belong to an older stratum are: 726 (copy about 1222) Araride (near Cologne), Brüchter near Ebeleben, 876 Borahtride, 1290 Bruchtirde, also Burichtride, Borantride; Corveyer evidence from about 826–876 Hrithem (with inorganic h-).

In the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and North France, the following examples have been detected: Bruggenrijt, Dieprijt, het Dikke Riet, Munnikenzijlster, Ekkersrijt, Houtrijt, Jutjesriet, Peelrijt, Pieperij, Riet, Rijt, Segerijd and others; some of these are, however, young formations.

England shows numerous examples containing this element. Some represent very early coinages, such as Abberd; Beverley Brook, 693 (copy 11th century) beferiði; Blackrith; 972 (copy 1050) Bordriðig; Chaureth, 1086 Ceauride; Childrey; Coldrey, 973/74 (copy 12th century) (to) colriðe; Coleready; Cropredy; Cottered, 1086 Chodrei; 1228 Ealdimererithi; Eelrithe, 680 ad Aelrithe; Efferiddy; Erith; Fingrith; 693 river- and stream-names Fugelriðie; Fulready; Fulrithe; Gooserye; Hendred, 984 Henna rið; 774 Hweolriðig; Landrith; Shottery, 699–709 (map 11th century) Scottarið and many more.

The distribution on the map shows that these place-names occur especially in Northern Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and England. Thus, it may also suggest that the settlers immigrated to England via the channel.

Map 6. Riede, ride, rithe, riet, rið in geographic names (Udolph 1994: 393)

s. Attachment

cf. J. J. Udolph, Namenkundliche Studien zum Germanenproblem, Berlin - New York 1994, S. 377-394.

J. Udolph, Die Landnahme Englands durch germanische Stämme im Lichte der Ortsnamen. In: Nordwestgermanisch (Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, Ergänzungsband 13), Berlin-New York 1995, S. 223-270.

Sachsenproblem und Ortsnamenforschung, in: Studien zur Sachsenforschung 13 (1999)427-448.

Wick  

Nicht wīk „Dorf, Siedlung“ usw. (s. L. Schütte, Wik. Eine Siedlungsbezeichnung in historischen und sprachlichen Bezügen, Köln-Wien 1976), sondern altenglisch wice, niederdeutsch wiecke ‚Rüster, Ulme’ (H. Jellinghaus: Diewestfälischen Ortsnamen nach ihren Grundwörtern, Osnabrück 1923, S. 170), vgl. Wickede (M. Flöer, C. M. Korsmeier, Die Ortsnamen des Kreises Soest (= Westfälisches Ortsnamenbuch, Bd. 1), Bielefeld 2009, S. 472.

cf. A.H. Smith, English Place-Name Elements, T. 2, Cambridge 1956, S.  263"

According to Norse myth, the elm tree was made by the gods into the first woman. That is, if we go by Embla = 'Elm'.  Scholars now prefer (see Simek) to associate Embla with Latin ampelus, Greek ampelos, 'vine'.  But this does not completely solve the problem, as Ovid in his Fasti reminds us that Ampelus was a young man who died while picking grapes from a vine that had wrapped itself about an elm tree. 

The Wickriede stretches from its source at Frotheim in the south to NE of Rahden.  As such, its course passes between the region of Idavoll near Minden-Hameln to the east and southeast and Kalkriese to the west. Frotheim is Frothi's/Frodi's Home, the personal name being that of the famous legendary Danish king Snorri Sturluson identifies with the god Freyr.

While the Wickriede place-name does not match the supposed meaning of the Old Icelandic Vigrid, it does not necessarily follow that the latter could not have originated with the former.  Alternately, an original Saxon 'Battle stream' could later have been rendered by the more familiar wick.  The exciting thing to me about Wickriede is the unlikelihood that its being found in this region is merely a coincidence.  The Teutoberg Battle of Varus and Arminius was a running battle of several days' duration. Although what has been discovered archaeologically at Kalkriese would appear to represent the end of the massacre of Romans by the Germans, there were previous locations that, were they known, would doubtless also yield up more of the slain legionaries.  It is certainly conceivable that one such site of slaughter was the Wickriede, and that this name, though not preserved for us by the Classical historians, may have been remembered by the Germans themselves, who passed the tradition along to their cousins the Scandinavians.

We may even be able to account for the huge size of the Vigrid plain.  Wickriede is on the edge of the extensive North German Plain, and Adam of Bremen, in describing Saxony (in his “History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen”), said “Except for an occasional hill, the country, looked at closely, is nearly all a sloping plain.”  The stream’s location may have caused its name, during the evolution of heroic legend, to be applied to the entire plain.

A map from http://eclecticmeanderings.blogspot.com/2009/09/two-thousand-years-ago-this-m... does a very nice job of plotting the three probable camps of Varus.  Note that Camp 1 is located right at the Wickriede stream.

Two more maps (courtesy Cristiano64 via Wikipedia) show again the general direction of Varus's line of march.  Once again, the route taken by the Romans would have lead them across the Wickriede stream.

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