What's the deal with the Iðunn's apples? by Uruzz Tyrburr

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Iðunn's apples has got me thinking and digging into the lore quite a bit. In Eddaic lore the two obvious apple stories are those of Iðunn and Gerðr, in the heroic tales there is also the apple motif in the Volsungs. The Volsungs is tied in with the Poeric Edda and in here the apple appears again, slightly hidden.

The initial apple of the Volsungs is that given to Rerir so that he has an heir; however this is a little more complex when looking at different translations because we find a Valkyrie, Frigg and Freya and one translation that implies Iðunn, we also have a link back to Skírnismál with the Jotun Hrimnir.

Icelandic (from R.G. Fitch, 1965):

"Þat hugner þeim baðum ill, ok biðja þau goðin með miklim ahuga at þau gæti ser barm. Þat er nu sagt at Frigg heyrir boen þeira, ok segir Oðni hvers þau biðja. Hann verðr eigi orþrifraða ok tekr oskmey* sina, dottur Hrimnis jotuns, ok fær i hond henni eitt epli ok biðr hanna foera konungi."

*Icelandic for "wish maid"

Trans (Fitch):

"Neither was at all happy about this and they earnestly prayed to the Gods to let them have a child. And we are next told how Frigg hear their prayer and spoke to Odin about their request, Has was not at a loss what to do and fetch a valkyrie* of his, the daughter of Hrimnir the Giant, put an apple in her hand and told her to take it to the king."

*valkyrie = "wish maid" (victory maiden, mighty woman etc in OE poems)

The same passage in William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson, 1888:

"...ill-content they both were with that, and prayed the Gods with heart and soul that they might get them a child. And so it is said that Odin hears their prayer, and Freyia no less hearkens wherewith they prayed unto her: so she, never lacking for all good counsel, calls to her her casket-bearing may*, the daughter of Hrimnir the giant, and sets an apple in her hand, and bids her bring it to the king. She took the apple, and did on her the gear of a crow, and went flying till she came whereas the king sat on a mound, and there she let the apple fall into the lap of the king; but he took the apple and deemed he knew whereto it would avail; so he goes home from the mound to his own folk, and came to the queen, and some deal of that apple she ate."

*may = maid

A few points to be maid here about the versions above; first Frigg or Freya? Based on the assumption that the Volsungs Saga was originally continental not Scandinavian then the likelihood is that the original told of Frige (pron Freeya) as neither Frigg or Freya have an obvious continental counterpart; Frige fulfils the roles of both Freya and Frigg in mainland (and Anglo-Saxon) proto-Heathenry. It is not hard to see how over the years and a migration through Scandinavia and ultimately across the North Sea to Iceland Frige became Frigg (from spelling) and Freya (from speech). Importantly it appears that the Goddess passes on the request to Odin who agrees to aid the couple and an apple is sent to Earth. It is not clear in the first if the apple comes from Frigg or Odin, one would assume Frigg as she has a F3 fertility role. The second version with Freya is in intriguing; she has a casket bearing maid. Both versions agree on one thing, that is that a maid is called and she is the daughter of a giant and both claim this giant to be Hrimnir. The maid is obviously a valkyrie in both cases; the first explicated named as a valkyrie and the second uses "the gear of a crow", in the Old English Exodus a raven is described as "wælceasigea" a derivative adjective of "wælcyrigean" meaning "slain-choosing" and direct equivalent to the Norse "valkyrjur". The casket bearing maid with an apple, is this Iðunn? The image fits. In my previous post I showed how Iðunn is daughter of the mysterious Ivaldi, Hrimnir is no less mysterious however he is clearly a Joten.

There is an implied connection between the Goddess Iðunn and the giantess Gerðr through the apples, one guarding them for the rejuvenation of the Gods and the other refusing them as a gift until she is forced to become fertile and marry Freyr (Gerðr being the frozen field woken by the spring in the form of the phallic god). From the Volsungs Saga there is another connection between the two, if Freya's maid is indeed Iðunn and daughter of Hrimnir, Hrimnir is mentioned in the Skírnismál verse 28 when Skirnir says to Gerðr:

Fearful to see, | if thou comest forth,
Hrimnir will stand and stare,
(Men will marvel at thee;)
More famed shalt thou grow | than the watchman of the gods!
Peer forth, then, from thy prison,

This almost suggests Hrimnir is Heimdall! I am not overly convinced of this and it is yet another alley way to explore at some time.

The only other mention of Hrimnir I can find at present is in Hyndluljoth: "Heith and Hrossthjof, the children of Hrimnir.", "Heith" is "witch" and "Hrossthjof" is "horse thief", I am not sure quite how they fit into the The Song of Rig or other Heimdall stories nor am I sure that Iðunn is a witch however Freya could be called one and Volsungs suggest Iðunn to be her maid.

Just as with the idea that Iðunn is Þjazi's sister leads to his interest in the apples and the Goddess, if she is the daughter of another giant then there is a clan interest in having her back in the folk.

The conclusion of the examination of this portion of the Volsungs is that the apple is a fertility talisman passed from a fertility goddess to the warrior-king god to a giantess messenger and finally to a man to pass to his wife.

The second occurrence of the apple is obscure and masked by many translations and retellings. I stumbled upon it on that mine of misinformation, Wikipedia, however it is put forward by HRED so I went with it.

Barmstokkr is not an oak tree, it is an apple tree. Using the Fitch Volsungsa Saga again:

"Sva er sagt at Volsungr Konungr let gera holl eine agæta, ok með þeim hætti at ein eik mikil stoð i hollinni, ok limar tresins með fogrum blomum stoðu ut um ræfr hallarinnar, en leggrinn stoð niðr i hollina ok kolluðu þat barnstokk."

"The tale goes that King Volsung had a magnificent hall built, and in such a way that was a great standing inside, its branches with their colourful flowers spreading out through the roof, while its trunk stretched down into the hall, and they called it Barnstock."

The key here is the word "eik" which most people have taken to mean "oak", which it does, however it also means "tree" and "ship". A "ship" in the hall with flowering branches doesn't work, so we are left with tree and oak. The oak does flower, but these are green dangling stems and not what one would ever describe as "their colourful flowers spreading out through the roof" so this could discount oak leaving a tree in general. The apple tree has blossom that fits the imagery of the story.

Barnstokkr translates literally as "child log" and easily renders in other Germanic languages such as the Old English "bearnstoc" (is this the origin of the "bean stork" to giant land? A linguistic corruption and retelling of a lost tale). If Volsung is the son of parents made fertile by an apple then is it not likely that the tree has grown from a pip of this apple, the apple that gave a child, this way of looking at the tree's name gives the tree more obvious reasons for being in the hall. Odin enters the hall in his role of F3 fertility god and thrusts a sword, Gram, into the tree. The fertility symbolism here of an apple tree grown from a seed of Freya's penetrated by the weapon Odin cannot be overlooked.

Finally in Volsunga Saga is the Sigrdrifumal verse 5:

"Bjór færi ek þér,
brynþings apaldr,
magni blandinn
ok megintíri,
fullr er hann ljóða
ok líknstafa,
góðra galdra
ok gamanrúna"

"Beer I offer you
you warrior's appletree
filled with force
and the strongest glory
galder songs
and consoling words
good galders
and Pleasure Runes"

(I found this on the net and have no idea who translated it, sorry)

Bellows translated it as:

"Beer I bring thee, | tree of battle,
Mingled of strength | and mighty fame;
Charms it holds | and healing signs,
Spells full good, | and gladness-runes"

"Apaldr" is Old Norse for "apple tree", this is the description the Valkyrie, Brynhilde/ Sigrdrifa, chooses for Sigurðr the grandson of the "apple born" Volsung.

Fitch makes a good argument for the Volsunga to be a tale of fertility which supports an apple tree as Barnstokkr, basing his assertions on Schroder's Germanische Urmythen, Archiv fur Religions-wiseensch aft XXXV (1938) and the Flateyjarbok, he says:

"A sounder link is that postulated between the names Volsung and Volsi which latter appears in Volsa þattr as the name of a phallic fetish, and itself probably mean `phallus'."

The link between Volsung and Volsi is that Volsung is family name as in the OE –ing names, Volsi being a god connected to Odin if not actually Odin himself, so Volsung could derive from "Volsi's family". One would normally connect the penis with Freyr, however, Odin planting the sword into Barnstokkr is overtly phallic, the passing on the apple to Rerir is overtly a fertility role, and this is balanced with Odin killing what he has made when he is ready.

The more I look at this the more it appears modern Heathenry is ignoring the importance of the apple and the apple tree.