The Wolf and the Norse Gods by Jon A. Hjaltalin 1871
The Wolf.—Although it is nowhere expressly mentioned in the sagas that wolves were worshipped, they were believed to be in close connection with the gods. Thus we are told in Snorra Edda that 'Odin gives the meat which is set before him to two wolves, called Geri (voracious) and Freki (greedy).' Wolves were called the dogs of Odin, and seemed to be his special pets. The skalds in describing a battle very often introduce wolves prowling about the battle-field in expectation of feasting on the slain. They were probably supposed to have special permission from Odin for this, as the killed belonged to him.
'There are two wolves,' says Snorra Edda (ch.xii.): 'the one called Skoll pursues the sun, and it is he that she fears, for he shall one day overtake her and devour her; the other, called Hati (hater), pursues the moon, that will one day devour him. A hag dwells in a wood to the eastward of Midgard, called
Jarnvior (ironwood or stonewood), which is the abode of a race of witches, called Jarnvior. This old hag is the mother of many giants, who are all of them shaped like wolves, two of whom are the wolves in question. There is one of that race who is said to be the most formidable of all, called Managarmr (moon's dog); he will be filled with the life-blood of men who draw near their end, and will swallow up the moon, and stain the heavens and earth with blood.' We say in Iceland at the present day, when parhelions are observed round the sun, that it is 'surrounded by wolves.'
The Wolf.—Although it is nowhere expressly mentioned in the sagas that wolves were worshipped, they were believed to be in close connection with the gods. Thus we are told in Snorra Edda that 'Odin gives the meat which is set before him to two wolves, called Geri (voracious) and Freki (greedy).' Wolves were called the dogs of Odin, and seemed to be his special pets. The skalds in describing a battle very often introduce wolves prowling about the battle-field in expectation of feasting on the slain. They were probably supposed to have special permission from Odin for this, as the killed belonged to him.
'There are two wolves,' says Snorra Edda (ch.xii.): 'the one called Skoll pursues the sun, and it is he that she fears, for he shall one day overtake her and devour her; the other, called Hati (hater), pursues the moon, that will one day devour him. A hag dwells in a wood to the eastward of Midgard, called
Jarnvior (ironwood or stonewood), which is the abode of a race of witches, called Jarnvior. This old hag is the mother of many giants, who are all of them shaped like wolves, two of whom are the wolves in question. There is one of that race who is said to be the most formidable of all, called Managarmr (moon's dog); he will be filled with the life-blood of men who draw near their end, and will swallow up the moon, and stain the heavens and earth with blood.' We say in Iceland at the present day, when parhelions are observed round the sun, that it is 'surrounded by wolves.'
We may presume that Loki was the father of those monsters, and the hag is probably the same as Angrboda (grief-boding), with whom he had Hel, the Midgardsormr (serpent), and Fenrisulfr (wolf); for in the strophe of Voluspa which describes Managarmr, he and his brothers are called Fenrir's kinsmen, that is, the sons of Fenrir, another of Loki's names. The third of these children, the Fenrisulfr, the wolf, the son of Fenrir, or Loki, was a formidable monster, and the gods were so afraid of him that they had to apply to the Dark Elves for a fetter that could hold him. At length they were able to bind him, but at the end of the world he will become loose, and devour Odin himself.
Loki and all his children belonged to the hereditary enemies of the gods, the giants; yet he is himself reckoned one of the gods. Frequently he is the companion of Odin, and does the gods great services: for instance, when he helped Thor to recover his hammer. More frequently, however, we see him in league with his relatives, the giants, doing the gods all the evil he is able. The giants were no contemptible foes. Often they proved more than a match for the gods, and in the end the gods had to succumb to them. All this seems to suggest that the giants were the representants of a religion superseded by the worship of Odin and the Aesir. Should this suggestion be correct, we can very well understand why the Odin-worshippers imputed every manner of evil to Loki and the giants, and heaped upon them the most opprobrious names they could invent; in fact, made them devils. Odin and the Aesir were treated in the same manner by the early Christians in Scandinavia. We meet the same thing almost in every instance where a new religion has superseded an old one. But whether the giant-worshippers were the aborigines of Scandinavia or the ancestors of the present Scandinavians, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to decide. In either case this worship was older than that of Odin; and Loki seems to have been the principal god: so we might call it Loki-worship, as the younger religion is generally called Odin-worship.
This explanation of the contending powers in Scandinavian mythology has not been proposed before, as far as I know. Hitherto both the Aesir, with Odin at their head, and the giants, with Loki at their head, have been supposed to belong to the same system of religion. The subject seems to me well worthy of investigation. I have merely hinted at it here, because in this part of the Scandinavian mythology there are unmistakable traces of ancient animal worship.
The signification of the name Loki is unknown, unless it be the same as Logi, by which Loki is also known. Logi means fire, and thus we may presume that the adherents of the Loki-worship were fire-worshippers. Loki is also known by the name Loptr (air). He was the father of the Midgardsormr (serpent), which, holding his tail in his mouth, encircles the whole earth. This seems to indicate serpent-worship. This monster was also called Jormungandr (the mighty wolf). Further, Loki was the father of the Fenrisulfr above mentioned. Here Loki is worshipped in the wolf. Wolves are frequently mentioned in connection with giantesses, that is, the goddesses of the Loki-worship; they are called their horses, for giantesses never ride except on wolves. Thus we find in the older edda that Hedinn returning home alone from the forest met a giantess riding on a wolf, with serpents for reins.' 'The giantess Hyrrokkin,' says Snorra Edda, came to Baldr's funeral 'riding on a wolf, with serpents for reins,' and her steed was so wild that it took four berserks to keep it. As the steeds of giantesses, wolves are called skygnir (gifted with second sight), and margspair (much knowing), for giantesses were almost invariably witches, gifted with mysterious wisdom in the same degree, if not in a higher degree than the gods themselves. In Hyndluljóð (Lay of Hyndla) we are told that all volur (prophesying witches) are descended from 'Vidolfr.' If the name Vidolfr means anything, it means a 'wood-wolf;' and if the wolf was the father of such wise beings, we cannot wonder that he is called 'much knowing.' On the other hand, we see the wolves in the service of these prophesying witches, as in Voluspa, where the witch is said to tame or train wolves; and in another strophe Odin is said to have made the witch a present of 'wise wolves.' There is, therefore, sufficient evidence to show that the wolves were closely connected with giantesses and witches, and this fact in itself is a proof of their supernatural powers.
In the sagas we frequently find Ulfr (a wolf) as a personal name, and there is something fierce and mysterious about persons of that name. Thus we find in Fornaldarsogur, iii. 520, three brothers called Ulfr, Ulfarr (wolfish), and Ulfketill (wolf-kettle): they were all of them courageous men, but very savage.
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