Chapters 114-123 - Germanic Mythology

which Geirröd threw at him with a pair of tongs, but which he caught with the iron gloves
and slung back with such force that the iron penetrated the post, behind which Geirröd
hid himself, and through Geirröd himself and the house wall behind him, and then
penetrated into the earth outside.
This narrative, freely composed from mythical and pseudo-mythical elements,
stands in relationship to [700] Þórsdrápa, which was composed in heathen times, in
about the same manner as Skáldskaparmál's [Bragarœdur's] account of Odin and Suttung
is related to that of Hávamál. Just as in Skáldskaparmál [Bragarœdur], the narrative's
punctum saliens 2 lies in the coarse jest about how bad poetry originated, here a crude
anecdote built on the proverb, "At its mouth, a river shall be stemmed," seems to be
motive that occasioned the composition. In Christian times, the mythology had to furnish
the theme not only for ancient history, heroic poems, and folktales, but also for comic
songs.
I turn now to Þórsdrápa. 3 This song, excellent from the standpoint of poetry and
important from a mythological point of view, has, in my opinion, previously been entirely
misunderstood, not so much on account of difficulties the text contains, since these
disappear, when one examines them without preconceived opinions regarding the
contents, but on account of the undeserved faith one attributes to Skáldskaparmál's
account of Thor's visit to Geirröd, and on the basis of the efforts one has made under the
influence of this misleading authority to rediscover the statements of the latter in the
heathen poem. 4 With these attempts, one has applied the poetics of the Christian period in
Iceland to the poem, in which all mythological terms, whose actual meaning was
forgotten in later times, have received a faded general signification, which on a more
careful examination usually proves to be incorrect. With a collection of lists of names as
an armory, in which the names of real or supposed "dwarfs," "giants," "sea-kings," etc.,
are brought together and arranged as synonyms, this system of poetics teaches that we
may take from such lists whatever dwarf name, giant name, etc., we please to designate
which ever "dwarf," "giant," etc., we choose. If, therefore, Þórsdrápa speaks of "Iði's
chalet" and "Gángur's war-vans," then, according to this system of poetics, Iði and
Gángur —although in heathen times they designated particular mythic persons who had
their own history, their own purely personal careers— have no other meaning than the
general one of "giant," because Iði and Gángur are incorporated in the [701] abovenamed
lists of giant synonyms. Such a system of poetics could not arise before nearly all
of the mythological names had become empty sounds, because the personalities that bore
them were forgotten. That one applied and still continues to apply it to the poems of the
heathen skalds, is one of the reasons why the important contributions which names and
paraphrases in the heathen poetry can provide in mythological investigations have
remained an unopened and unused treasure. 5
2 "salient point."
3 Anthony Faulkes includes a complete translation in his Edda, Snorri Sturluson 1987. A critical edition by
Eysteinn Björnsson can be found at: www3.hi.is/~eybjorn/ugm/thorsd00.html
4 While both previous and modern scholars have relied on Snorri's account of Thor's journey to Geirröd to
find meaning in this poem, the fact remains that Þórsdrápa is a difficult poem to translate, whose
interpretation is debated.
5 Here and elsewhere in the text, Rydberg advocates interpreting the referents of complex kennings as apt
comparative allusions between the subject at hand and the mythic characters invoked; Although we cannot
rule out speicfic skaldic verse intentionally employing apt allusions in their kennings at times, clearly this