by William P. Reaves (writing as Asvinr)
William P. Reaves, writing under the handle Asvinr, posted this essay to alt.religion.asatru in August 2007. It is among the most substantial pieces of comparative mythological analysis produced in that forum: a sustained argument, drawing on Hymiskviða, Völundarkviða, Skáldskaparmál, and Gylfaginning, that the elf-prince Egil — brother of Völundr — served as Thor's way-station host on journeys to Jotunheim, and that Egil's son Þjálfi is the same figure as the servant-companion of that name who appears in the Gylfaginning account of Thor's visit to Útgarðaloki.
The essay proceeds by comparative triangulation: Hymiskviða names an unnamed host whose children become Thor's bond-servants; Gylfaginning names those children (Þjálfi and Röskva) but forgets the host; Völundarkviða names three elf-brothers including Egil, placed in the Thor-cycle section of the Poetic Edda; and Skáldskaparmál records Thor's rescue of Örvandill (Orion) across the Élivágar. Reaves weaves these threads together into a coherent mythological geography: the elves as the southernmost guardians of Midgard against the frost-giants, Thor's regular stopping-place before he proceeds on foot into giant-territory, and Örvandill/Egil as members of the same cosmic border-guard. The essay includes Old Norse verse quotations from Haustlöng, Hymiskviða, and the Exeter Book Earendel-hymn. It is presented here as a work of Usenet scholarship — lay comparative mythology at its best.
Haustlöng and the Thunder Chariot
In the poem Haustlöng there is a particularly vivid description of Thor's journey in his thunder chariot through space when he proceeded to the meeting agreed upon with the giant Hrungnir:
"The angry son of Jörd [Thor] drove
To the play of steel; below him
Thundered the path of the moon; rage swelled
In the heart of Meili's Brother [Thor]."All the bright gods' high mansions
Burned before Ullr's kinsman [Thor];
With hail the earth was beaten
Along his course, when the he-goats
Drew the god of the smooth wain forward
To meet the grisly giant:
The Earth, the Spouse of Odin,
Straightway reft asunder."No truce made Baldr's brother
With the bitter foe of earth-folk."Rocks shook, and crags were shivered;
The shining Upper Heaven
Burned;"
On his return from the duel with Hrungnir, Thor met and helped Örvandill across Élivágar (Skáldskaparmál 25). But across this water and through Jotunheim itself Thor never travels in his car. He wades across the Élivágar, travels on foot in the wildernesses of the giants, and encounters his foe face to face, breast to breast, instead of striking him from above with lightning. In all accounts of Thor's journeys to Jotunheim this holds. Hence south of the Élivágar and somewhere near them there must have been a place where Thor left his chariot and his goats in safety before he proceeded farther on his journey.
Örvandill the Archer
Örvandill (Aurvandill) the archer has the Élivágar and the coasts of Jotunheim as the scene of his exploits. His surname inn frækni, "the brave," is proof that the myth refers to important exploits carried out by him — and that these were performed against the powers of frost in particular, in the service of the gods and for the good of Midgard — as is plain from the narrative in Skáldskaparmál 25:
"[After his duel with the giant Hrungnir] Thor went home to Þrúðvangar, and the hone remained sticking in his head. Then came the wise woman who was called Gróa, wife of Aurvandill the brave (Örvandil inn frækni): she sang her spells over Thor until the hone was loosened. But when Thor knew that, and thought that there was hope that the hone might be removed, he desired to reward Gróa for her leech-craft and make her glad, and told her these things: that he had waded from the north over Icy Stream and had borne Aurvandill in a basket on his back from the north out of Jötunheim. And he added for a token, that one of Aurvandill's toes had stuck out of the basket, and became frozen; wherefore Thor broke it off and cast it up into the heavens, and made thereof the star called Aurvandill's Toe. Thor said that it would not be long ere Aurvandill came home: but Gróa was so rejoiced that she forgot her incantations, and the hone was not loosened, and stands yet in Thor's head. Therefore it is forbidden to cast a hone across the floor, for then the hone is stirred in Thor's head."
This shows that the god Thor and the archer Örvandill were at least for a time confidential friends, and that they had met each other on their expeditions for similar purposes in Jotunheim. When Thor, wounded in his forehead, returns from his combat with the giant Hrungnir to his home Þrúðvangar, Örvandill's wife Gróa was there and tried to help him with healing sorcery — wherein she would also have succeeded if Thor could have made himself hold his tongue for a while concerning a report he brought with him about her husband, and which he expected would please her. And Gróa did become so glad that she forgot to continue the magic song and was unable to complete the healing. The report was that, on the expedition to Jotunheim from which he had now come home, Thor had met Örvandill, carried him in his basket across the Élivágar, and thrown a toe which the intrepid adventurer had frozen up to heaven and made a star thereof.
Earendel and the Star
Of ancient Teutonic star-names but very few have been handed down to our time, and it is natural that those now extant must be those of constellations or separate stars which attracted attention on account of their appearance, or particularly on account of the strength of their light. One of them was "Örvandill's toe." By the name Örvandill (Earendel) a star was also known among the Teutons in Great Britain. After being converted to Christianity they regarded the Earendel star as a symbol of Christ. The Exeter Book has preserved a hymn to Christ whose introductory stanzas appear to be borrowed from the memory of a heathen hymn to Örvandill, adapted to Christ with a slight change:
Eala Earendel
engla beorhtast,
ofer Middangeard
monnum sended,
and sodfasta
sunnan leoma,
tohrt ofer tunglas
þu tida gehvane
of sylfum þe
symle inlihtes.
O Örvandill,
brightest of angels,
over Midgard
sent to men,
you who are truly
the beam of the sun,
you who shine
above the heavenly bodies,
always of thyself
giving light.
Egil's Abode and the Way-Station
When Thor had carried Örvandill across the Élivágar, he had parted with him somewhere on the way — in all probability in Örvandill's own home — and that while Örvandill wandered about in Jotunheim, Gróa, the dís of growth, had a safe place of refuge in the god's own citadel.
Consequently Örvandill's abode was situated south of the Élivágar, in the direction Thor had to travel when going to and from the land of the giants, and presumably quite near or on the strand of that mythic watercourse over which Thor on this occasion carried him.
Now in Hymiskviða (7, 37, 38) we actually read that Thor, on his way to Jotunheim, had a stopping-place where his precious car and goats were housed and taken care of by the host — who accordingly had a very important task, and must have been a friend of Thor and the Aesir. The host bears the archer name Egil.
The name Egil is found again in the poems of the Elder Edda, and not surprisingly in a poem grouped among the Thor-poems of the Elder Edda. The mythological poem Völundarkviða speaks of three brothers who are elves and elf-princes. Their names are Völundr, Egil, and Slagfinnr. The Aesir and the Elves share a special relationship. They are frequently named together in the lore:
- Hávamál 159: "If in the company of men I must enumerate the gods, both Aesir and Elves. I know the distinctions of all..."
- Hávamál 160: "Strength to the Aesir, and valor to Elves."
- Lokasenna 2, 13, 30: "Of the Aesir and Elves seated herein..."
- Völuspá 48, Þrymskviða 7: "How is it with the Aesir and the Elves?"
- Grímnismál 4: "The land that I see lying near the Aesir and the Elves"
- Sigrdrífumál 18: "They are among the Aesir; they are among the Elves"
This suggests a close bond between the gods and the elves which is not clearly spelled out in the fragmentary sources that have come down to us. The placement of the poem Völundarkviða among the Thor-poems of the Poetic Edda has long puzzled scholars. The placement finds its logical explanation when we recognize that Thor and Egil, the elf-prince and brother of Völundr, are close friends and companions.
Hymiskviða — The Journey and the Ransom
From Asgard to Egil's abode, says Hymiskviða, it is about one day's journey for Thor when he rides behind his goats on his way to Jotunheim. After this day's journey he leaves the draught-animals, decorated with horns, with Egil, who takes care of them, and the god continues his journey on foot. Thor and Týr are about to visit the giant Hymir in order to fetch a great kettle. Hymir lives to the east of Élivágar:
"Hymir, the cunning giant, dwells to the east of Élivágar, at heaven's end. He, my fierce father, owns a kettle, a capacious cauldron, which is a league deep."
From Egil's abode both gods accordingly go on foot. Egil is called hraunbúi (38), an epithet the ambiguous meaning of which should not be unobserved. It is usually translated "rock-dweller," but here it means "he who lives near or at Hraunn (Hrönn)." Hraunn is one of the names of the Élivágar (cf. Skáldskaparmál 33 with Grímnismál 28).
Hymiskviða informs us of a misfortune to one of Thor's goats while in Egil's keeping:
"They had only driven a short way, when one of Hlórriði's goats fell half-dead to the ground. The draught-beast's leg was broken, and this was wicked Loki's fault."
"But you have heard — and any mythologist can report the exact details of this story — about the recompense he received from the hraunnbúi (hraunn-dweller), who gave him both his children."
Thjalfi and Röskva
Gylfaginning has preserved a parallel tradition. There too Thor takes the two children as a ransom and makes Þjálfi a hero. Gylfaginning has forgotten the name of the host in the inn; instead of giving his name, it simply calls him a búandi (peasant). But it knows and states the names of the two children reared there — Þjálfi and Röskva — and relates how one of Thor's goats became lame:
"Öku-Thor drove forth with his he-goats and chariot, and with him that Ás called Loki; they came at evening to a husbandman's, and there received a night's lodging. About evening, Thor took his he-goats and slaughtered them both... Thor laid the goat-hides farther away from the fire, and said that the husbandman and his servants should cast the bones on the goat-hides. Þjálfi, the husbandman's son, was holding a thigh-bone of the goat, and split it with his knife and broke it for the marrow."
"Thor tarried there overnight; and in the interval before day he rose up and clothed himself, took the hammer Mjöllnir, swung it up, and hallowed the goat-hides; straightway the he-goats rose up, and then one of them was lame in a hind leg. Thor discovered this, and declared that the husbandman or his household could not have dealt wisely with the bones of the goat: he knew that the thigh-bone was broken... Thor clenched his hands on the hammer-shaft so that the knuckles whitened; and the husbandman and all his household did what was to be expected: they cried out lustily, prayed for peace, offered in recompense all that they had. But when he saw their terror, then the fury departed from him, and he became appeased, and took of them in atonement their children, Þjálfi and Röskva, who then became his bond-servants; and they follow him ever since."
In one of the sources the youth whom Thor takes as a ransom is called simply Egil's child; in the other he is called Þjálfi. Both sources agree that Thor takes two children — one a son, one a daughter — as a ransom for the goat's broken bone, that the misfortune was caused by Loki's interference, and that the event took place at the same stopping-point on the road to Jotunheim.
The Elves as Midgard's Guardians
On the north side of Élivágar dwell accordingly giants hostile to gods and men; on the south side, beings friendly to the gods and bound in their friendship by oaths. Manifestly the uttermost picket guard to the north against the frost-giants is entrusted to them.
This also gives us an explanation of the position of the star-hero Örvandill, the great archer, in the mythological epic. We can understand why he is engaged to the dís of growth Gróa, as it is his duty to defend Midgard against the destructions of frost; and why he fights on the Élivágar and in Jotunheim against the same enemies as Thor; and why the mythology has made him and the lord of thunder friends who visit each other. With the tenderness of a father, and with the devotion of a fellow-warrior, the mighty son of Odin bears on his shoulders the weary and cold star-hero over the foggy Élivágar, filled with magic terrors, to place him safe by his own hearth south of this sea — and honours him with a token which shall forever shine in the heavens as a monument of Örvandill's exploits and Thor's friendship for him.
Gróa and Svipdag
Gróa is not only a tender wife (Skáldskaparmál 17) and a loving mother (Gróugaldur), but also an excellent authority on good and luck-bringing galder songs that influence natural phenomena, cure affliction, and attune the heart to kindness and gentleness. Gróa's son Svipdag is mentioned by this name in two Old Norse songs — Gróugaldur and Fjölsvinnsmál — which are mutually connected, and describe episodes from the same chain of events.
From a comparison of details in each source, it becomes apparent that Gróa in Gróugaldur is the same as Örvandill's wife Gróa in the Prose Edda, and that Svipdag in Gróugaldur and Fjölsvinnsmál is the same as Svipdag in Saxo's story of King Gram. Saxo says that Svipdag spared and gave a kingship to Guðhorm, the son Gram (Halfdan) had with Gróa, but hated and made war on the son that Gram had with another woman. Saxo does not tell us the reason for these different behaviours; but when Gróugaldur informs us that Svipdag was Gróa's son, we understand the psychological causal connection — if Gróa is the same in both sources, then Svipdag is Guðhorm's half-brother and has an obligation to be lenient toward and to protect his sibling. Among Teutons, the bonds of brotherhood were sacred.
The German Orentel story also indicates that Örvandill (Orentel) was rescued from distress at sea by a "master" who had a fortress located on the sea, on whose opposite shore giants lived and built. The same German story associates the names Eigel (Egil), Orentel (Örvandill), and Wieland (Völundr). In the Norse story, Egil is Völundr's brother.
The lines of evidence converge. Egil the elf-prince, brother of Völundr and son of a renowned archer, is the unnamed hraunbúi of Hymiskviða — Thor's host, keeper of his goats, guardian of the southern shore of Élivágar, and standing ally of the Aesir against the frost-giants. His kinship with Örvandill, "Arrow-handler," explains both the archer lineage and the location of his home. And his children — taken by Thor as ransom and made into the god's own servants — survive in the tradition as Þjálfi and Röskva, the companions who appear in myth after myth at Thor's side.
Colophon
Written by William P. Reaves, posting as Asvinr, and posted to alt.religion.asatru on 16 August 2007. Reaves was one of the most prolific scholarly contributors to the group throughout the 2000s, applying Viktor Rydberg's comparative mythological method to questions in Eddic studies. This essay draws primarily on Hymiskviða, Völundarkviða, Skáldskaparmál, Gylfaginning, Haustlöng, Gróugaldur, and the Old English Exeter Book. It synthesises these sources into a coherent mythological geography of the road to Jotunheim and identifies the elf-prince Egil as Thor's way-station host. The identification of Earendel/Örvandill with the Orion constellation and his connection to J.R.R. Tolkien's Eärendil is a well-documented thread in subsequent scholarship.
Original Message-ID: [email protected]
Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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